Shoulder Fake: Basketball technique, drills and fixes

The shoulder fake (coaches often call it a head-and-shoulder fake) sells a move one way with your head, eyes and shoulders while your feet stay planted. When the defender leans toward the fake, you go the other way. The analyzer reads your shoulder dip and how sharply you change direction from a low base.

Set up

Catch and face the defender in triple threat: knees bent, hands on the ball in your shooting position.

Ready to shoot, pass or drive.

Set your pivot foot and keep it planted. If you caught the ball standing still, either foot can be the pivot.

Pivot foot glued.

Check the defender's feet. The foot they have forward is the side you can attack, so plan to fake away from it and drive past it.

Find the forward foot.

Move

Turn your head and eyes toward the fake side, as if you have seen the lane.

Look where you fake.

Dip and turn your shoulders the same way, with the ball moving with them and staying in both hands.

Shoulders sell it.

Keep both feet planted and your hips over them. The fake is your upper body, not a lunge.

Quiet hips.

Watch the defender. Don't rush: wait until they lean or shift toward the fake.

Let them bite.

If they don't move, fake again. One fake or several in the same direction can get them leaning.

No bite, fake again.

When they lean, step to the other side with your non-pivot foot. Going to your pivot-foot side, cross that foot straight over (don't bring it back first) and swing the ball low across your body.

Cross low, don't reset.

Push the ball out for the dribble before your pivot foot leaves the floor.

Ball first, then the foot.

Drive in a straight line past the defender's shoulder, not wide around them.

Tight to the hip.

In the low post, use the same fake: head and shoulders toward the lane, feet planted, then make your move the other way, such as a drop step to the baseline.

Fake middle, go baseline.

Feel it

Your head, eyes and shoulders do the selling, and it should look like the start of a real drive. Your feet and hips stay quiet and loaded under you, so you can push off either way the moment the defender commits. If you feel your weight tip onto one foot during the fake, you've sold it with your hips and you'll be slow going back.

Fix-its

Whole-body lean: your hips and weight go with the fake, so you're slow to go the other way Keep your feet planted and your hips over them. Sell with your head, eyes and shoulders only. Good fakers move the upper body a lot and the hips very little.
Arms-only fake: just the ball moves, so the defender doesn't react Sell with your whole upper body and look where you are faking. Make it look like the real thing.
Traveling: the pivot foot slides or lifts as you fake or start the drive Keep the pivot foot planted through the fake, and get the ball out of your hand before that foot comes up.
Going too early: you drive before the defender has reacted Hold the fake long enough to see the lean. If there is no reaction, fake again rather than driving into them.
Slow or wide crossover: you bring the foot back before crossing, or swing the ball high across the defender Cross the foot straight over, swing the ball low, and drive straight past the defender's shoulder.

Drill

No defender: from triple threat, head-eyes-shoulders fake one way with your feet planted, then go the other way. Both directions, both pivot feet. Check in a mirror or on video that your hips stay over your feet.
Fake-and-cross: fake toward your non-pivot side, then cross over with a low ball swing and one dribble in a straight line.
Passive defender: a partner either leans on the fake or stays put. Go opposite when they lean; fake again when they don't.
Post drill: jump stop on the block, head-shoulder fake toward the lane, then drop step to the baseline and finish. Go block to block for 1 to 2 minutes, then rotate.
Live 1-on-1 from triple threat, using the shoulder fake to set up the drive.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-26.