6 Ways to Get Better at Attacking the Basket
– For Basketball Players –

Great players get paint touches consistently. Average players don’t. The big question is why?

There’s a reason.

They play with contact.

Avoiding contact is a problem we see in thousands of players we work with each year.

Here’s the solution.

You need to think about this one thing when driving to the basket — get sexy.

Well not “sexy” exactly. More like SECSY.

SECSY is an acronym we use to teach athletes how to initiate and maintain contact in playmaking situations.

Let’s dive in.

S: Shoulder through the hip.

Open the door!

After making your move on a defender, get your shoulder to their hip, creating a collision that will open up their body (open the door) and allow you to go by. This one thing alone, could change a players game. But it’s a mentality. Great players love contact.

E: Explosive step.

Most people think about having an explosive first step, but you actually want your first step to be toe-to-toe with the defender to set up your shoulder through their hip.

If you explode with your first step, you’ll typically avoid contact. (which is okay sometimes). After you open the door with your first step though, that’s when you explode with your second step.

You want to throw your shoulders in front of your body, getting low to the ground like a sprinter in the blocks. At times, you may even touch the ground to maintain balance.

C: Create contact.

After you open the door and explode, your job isn’t done.

A lot of players win this battle but lose the war because they don’t maintain contact.

You want to think about severing (or cutting off) the angle at this moment, destroying the defender’s ability to recover.

S: Space with dribbles.

Along with severing the angle, this is the way you ensure the defense can’t recover to get back in front.

Extend the ball out, be purposeful, and take as few dribbles as needed to get to the paint.

Y: Why? What’s next?

You now need the ability to read the defense in order to figure out what opportunity is available.

Is it a finish for you? Is it a dump-off pass because they helped? Is it pivoting out of pressure (POOP) to find a shooter? You have to make reads!

In closing, understand this:

If you drive in loops and curves, it becomes impossible to get to <strong.dangerous areas.

Instead, drive on your line of attack. That’s the direct line from your eyes to the rim.

Stay on that line, get SECSY, and watch your ability to playmake skyrocket.

This is a concept we go deep on in our Scoring College Courses in the summer.

It’s game changing for players who apply these principles, and it can be for you too.

To see video associated with the above teaching points, check out this twitter thread!