Side Step

Be a real threat to drive first. The side step only works if the defender has to respect your drive or your shot. Use a pump fake or a hard dribble at them so they commit forward or to one side.

Make them move first.

Read their momentum: step to the side they are not covering. If they are flying at you or leaning one way, go the other way. If they don't commit, drive instead.

Go where they aren't.

Gather as your plant foot lands. The plant foot is the foot you will push off sideways (your left foot to step right, your right foot to step left). Pick the ball up in front of your shooting-side knee, shooting hand on top and balance hand under, knees bent.

Ball and plant foot arrive together.

Push off the plant foot and step sideways with the other foot. Keep your hips and chest facing the basket; the move goes across, not around.

Shove the floor away sideways.

Bring the plant foot across to rebuild your base, about shoulder width, knees bent, toes toward the rim. This second foot is your brake: your sideways momentum has to end here, in your legs.

Step, step, stop.

Jump straight up off both feet, or slightly forward on longer shots. Players in a lab study drifted a little more toward the basket as shots got longer, so a small forward drift at range is normal. Drifting sideways in the direction you stepped is not.

Up, not across.

Shoot with exactly your Jump Shot form: ball up to your set point on the shooting side, elbow in under the ball, legs and arm rising in one motion.

Same shot, new spot.

Match your release to the distance: on outside shots let it go just before the top of your jump; on short shots release at the top. Expert players in a lab study released mid- and long-range shots on the way up.

Long shot: on the rise.

Extend fully toward the rim, arm going up at about 45 to 60 degrees, with your head and shoulders moving forward and up. Hold the follow-through until the ball reaches the basket.

Chest to the target, freeze the finish.

Land softly close to where you took off: bend your knees and hips and keep your knees over your toes. If the push-off or landing hurts, stop and get it checked.

Quiet feet.

Count steps from the gather. Under NBA and FIBA rules you get two steps after you end your dribble. The first step is the first foot (or feet) to touch the floor after you have control of the ball. So the foot already on the floor when you gather doesn't count. In the NBA you have gathered when you put two hands on the ball, let it come to rest, or put a hand under it and pause it.

Gather, one, two, up.

Gather on the plant foot, not before it. If you pick the ball up while still in the air and then land the plant foot, that landing is step one, and the sideways step plus the rebuild step make three. That's a travel.

Plant and pick up at the same time.

No extra shuffle and no same-foot hop. Once both feet are down, the next move is the jump. You may not touch the floor twice in a row with the same foot after ending your dribble, and the ball has to leave your hand before either foot comes back down. If you play high school or college, check that rulebook; this lesson uses the NBA and FIBA wording.

Two steps, then air.