Drills play
Drill: Russian Layups
- Court
- Full court
- Length
- 8 steps
About this play
A full-court long-pass and finishing drill: lines in opposite baseline corners, a player at each high post, three balls. The first player dribbles out of the corner until he is in range, throws a long two-hand overhead pass to the far high post, sprints the floor, takes the return pass, and finishes a layup at full speed; then he replaces the high post, the high post rebounds and passes to the next player in that corner line, and it runs back the other way without stopping. Why it works: a long pass has to be hard and flat or the runner catches up to his own ball, and a runner who sprints to receive learns to finish with long last steps instead of slowing down, which is the finish that gets blocked in a game. Setup: five or more players, three balls, two in the starting corner and one in the far corner. Three to five minutes with a team target of makes; older teams get no dribble before the long pass and lose a point for every ball that touches the floor. Common mistakes: lobbing the long pass, not calling for the ball, walking after the pass, and rebounding when you should be replacing. Progression: a coach at each high post for younger players, then the no-dribble rule. High school, and youth with coaches at the posts. I got this one from Basketball For Coaches' layup drills article and Coach Calls Timeout's full-court passing layups video; start there for the other four layup drills in the article.
