A shot contest is getting a high hand up at the shooter's release without fouling them. It matters because a tight contest makes shots less consistent, while a foul on a jump shot gives away free throws. The analyzer looks at your contest mechanics: going straight up with a high hand, not into the shooter, and landing balanced.
Set up
Finish your closeout on balance: short, choppy last steps so your weight is no longer carrying you toward the shooter.
Stopped, feet under you.
Be close at the release. In NBA tracking data, 3-point shots with the nearest defender within 4 feet at release were less consistent in depth and fell short more often than shots with no defender within 6 feet.
Get one hand high, the hand on your forward-foot side, as in your closeout. Keep the other hand lower to dig at the ball or cover a bounce pass. Some coaches teach two hands high; follow your team's rule.
Keep your feet on the floor on a shot fake. Stay low and wait for the shooter to actually rise before you leave the floor.
Close out low, contest high late.
Contest
As the shooter rises, jump straight up from the spot you're standing on, not forward. Under the FIBA rules (Art. 33.2), a defender who leaves the floor vertically inside their own space is not penalised; a player who leaves that vertical space and makes contact is responsible for it. The NBA also treats a straight-up jump as legal. NCAA and high-school rule books have their own wording; check yours.
Up, not out.
Push the high hand straight up, as high as you can get it, toward the ball at the release. Keep the arm above your own body, not reaching out over the shooter.
Keep the arm up. Don't swing it down or across at the ball; that is how a clean contest turns into a hit on the arm.
Against a shooter who sees you coming, aim to contest, not to block. Chasing the block is what pulls you forward into them.
Land
Land where you took off. Under FIBA Art. 33.6 the shooter has the right to land back on their own spot, so drifting under them is your foul.
Same spot down.
Land softly: bend your knees and hips and keep your knees over your toes.
Soft and quiet.
Once you land, turn and box out. Don't stand and watch the shot.
Feel it
A good contest feels like you stay down through the fake, then rise straight up as the shooter does, with one arm reaching for the ceiling. You come down on the spot you left, knees bent, and turn to find a body to box out. If you feel your chest moving toward the shooter in the air, or you land on a different spot from where you took off, you went out, not up. A contest doesn't promise a miss: in one study of youth players, a contest shortened shooters' last look at the rim, but some shot worse and some shot better. Your job is a clean, high hand every time.
Fix-its
- You jump into the shooter Stop your feet before you jump and go straight up from that spot. A foul on a missed 3 gives away three free throws.
- You bite on the shot fake Keep your feet down until the shooter actually rises. Contest high and late, not early.
- Late contest or hand down Get the high hand up as you arrive, not after the ball is gone, and be close by the release.
- You drift forward and land under the shooter Land on your takeoff spot. Chasing the block is usually what pulls you forward, so contest instead.
- Stiff landing, then you watch the shot Bend your knees and hips on landing with your knees over your toes, then turn and box out.
Drill
- Solo contest jumps: from your defensive stance, jump straight up with one hand high and land softly on the same spot. Stand on a court line so you can see whether you drifted.
- Partner shoot-or-fake: a partner catches and either shoots or shot-fakes. Stay down on every fake; contest straight up on every real shot, then turn and box out.
- Close-out lines: lines on the baseline and at the extended free-throw line. Pass out, close out calling "Ball! Ball!", finish with a vertical contest, then the receiver passes and closes out on the next line.
- Close-out 1-on-1 off a skip pass: close out, contest or defend the drive, and play it live. Rotate after every possession or two.
- Close-out 2-on-2 live: each stop is a point, first to 7. Every shot you defend must be a vertical contest followed by a box out.
Sources
- FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2026, Art. 33.1, 33.2, 33.6, 34 (2026)
- NBA Video Rulebook — Legal defensive play, defender jumps vertically
- Daly-Grafstein & Bornn — Using In-Game Shot Trajectories to Better Understand Defensive Impact in the NBA, arXiv (2019)
- van Maarseveen & Oudejans — Motor and Gaze Behaviors of Youth Basketball Players Taking Contested and Uncontested Jump Shots, Front Psychol (2018)
- Coach's Clipboard — Defensive Close-Outs and Drills
- Coach's Clipboard / Lee Taft — Are We Teaching Closeouts the Best Way?
- David Thorpe, ESPN TrueHoop — Shot blocking 101 and the art of the contest (2017)
- Padua et al. — NATA Position Statement: Prevention of ACL Injury, J Athl Train (2018)
Last checked 2026-10-26.