Transcription
I hear the word "footwork" tossed around so often in basketball, but sometimes I don't think we have a full understanding of what it actually is. It's truly an art. It's not just pivots and nifty moves like this; it's some of that, of course, but it really goes so much deeper. So I'm gonna dive into it all, make sure we have a full understanding of what footwork is before we move on. Make sure you wait till the end for the most important lesson you learn about footwork. Let's get it!
So let's start by dissecting shooting footwork. To me, shooting footwork is two different things: number one is finding that perfect balance base, and number two is being able to adapt when you can't get to that perfect balance base. I'll explain both now. The first one is a bit more standard—finding that balance base. Not too wide, not too narrow; you're not fading much from there; one foot isn't much in front of the other. We all kind of understand this, but a big key here is having all the options. I hear coaches talk all the time about whether a 1-2 or a hop is better, when in reality it's not either/or. We want to be comfortable with any option: inside foot one-two, outside foot one-two, a hop, a pivot into it. If we can get into super comfortable positions to shoot from with all of these footworks, we're in a pretty good spot as a shooter. But here's the thing: basketball ain't always that pretty. It's fast, it's chaotic, it's imperfect. So sometimes good footwork can actually be getting comfortable with when it's not perfect. Like on this shot, Murray clearly is in an ideal shoulder-width base, but he still makes it work and does it with ease. So your base won't always be perfect; your feet at times will end up in imperfect places. That's the nature of the game, but will you have the ability to balance yourself enough to make it a manageable shot? That's the next level of shooting footwork for me.
Next is ball-handling footwork, and the way I define this is finding a good foot positioning to move efficiently with the ball on pretty much every movement that we make. So here's what I mean: on acceleration footwork, for example, which is huge, this is about finding the perfect foot positioning for you to accelerate. So no matter what position you're in, you're able to get to these nice shin angles; you're able to get into these powerful negative steps without stepping back too far; you're able to get the perfect length on that second step to make sure you're not killing your acceleration. And a lot of that begins with foot positioning and getting the hang of doing this at high speeds from awkward positions with defense on you. Sometimes shiftiness can come down to footwork too—how we go from narrow to wide with our feet, how we really get lateral and step outside of our frame to shift our weight onto that leg. This plays a huge part in shiftiness, and of course, much of our moves come down to footwork as well. On all of these, if you can't position your feet in the perfect position to be fluid and control your body, chances are it won't be too effective. And the cool thing about ball-handling footwork, too, is how limitless the possibilities are. Like Garland kind of pivoting on this one as he rotates and then kind of shuffling his feet to find that perfect position to explode from. It's not just straight out of a textbook; everyone kind of puts their own spin on it; everyone has different ball-handling footwork styles, but the main qualities stay the same. So if you're interested in training this, I'll have a video coming on it, of course, and my ultimate ball-handling program makes this a huge focus for the entire three months.
All right, let's tackle footwork around the rim now. So starting with the one we think of most often: coming to a stop and working out of pivots. So first off, this takes actually being able to come to that stop, which at times can be pretty demanding. We have a lot of force to yield, so we gotta be strong enough to do this and develop the technique to lower our center of mass and find a good deceleration foot positioning. Then, of course, is working in that pivot—perceiving, reading where that defense is and creatively finding ways to get an advantage on them. And notice here that the foot doesn't just magically move; we gotta put force into the ground. We often see how nimble these players are, but it's not just the foot doing the work; it's a big push with that entire chain that gets that foot moving. Just something to keep in mind. We'll talk about this a little bit later, but like I referred to earlier, finishing footwork is more than this; it's also this in-stride footwork where you don't stop your momentum, but you're using different footworks to change direction, to extend out, and even change speed. And being able to jump fluidly from these foot positioning, and being able to do this both ways—for example, I'm a left-right jumper; when I try to jump right-left, it feels terrible—but if you can jump from any foot positioning, I consider this really elite footwork, and this really helps us open up so much in our game because of how many options you have around the rim.
Lastly, before we talk about the secrets behind footwork, is defensive footwork. This is huge now. Defensive slides are a good way to start looking at this, but it's so much more than that. We know this by now: it's turning into a crossover, run the transition from a sprint back into a slide, quick hops to change direction, and honestly, a lot of what defense is is just a weird mashup of footwork—a slide, then a sprint, then a change of direction, all in a matter of seconds. So it's not about just training each type of movement, but more so how fluidly you can go from one to the other in a variety of directions.
So here's the secret, or the huge piece of footwork that we often forget: footwork isn't just about the feet. It's called footwork, but it's way more than that. It starts up the chain, because think about it: what really moves the feet? It ain't the foot here that's just magically pulling itself into a nice acceleration position; it's the hip getting into extension, the knee flexing a bit, and the ankle then dorsiflexing to prepare them to put the foot here. In other words, the foot is often just a puppet for the rest of the chain. Plus, it doesn't really matter where the feet move if the rest of the body isn't moving efficiently. We all know there's players who have happy feet, but they just don't go anywhere, and we never want to be there. We never want to be the player who's great on the footwork ladder, but they're just slow. It's more so about using that footwork to shift weight, to set up an acceleration, to put ourselves in a good position to decelerate and do something with our footwork. And again, even on a pivot like this, we're shifting our weight; our feet just move as a tool to do that. So in other words, to make this super simple: footwork is a full-body thing. We gotta coordinate our entire body to move fluidly with our feet. It's about putting force into the ground. On two, the goal of having good footwork isn't just to have good footwork—to be able to move. And if you can't actually put the perfect amount of force into the ground in the right direction, you're not actually going to be able to move. And I'll talk about this in a future video on how to train footwork, but this is why we gotta train at high speeds, actually covering ground and moving our bodies, rather than just training stationary to move our feet super quickly.
So hopefully this makes sense to you guys. Like I mentioned, footwork is truly an art, and there are a lot of things that we often don't consider. So I'm excited for you to go and try to apply this. Like I mentioned, I will have a video coming on this, but if you want a full plan on how to train this, I would go check out my Virtual Academy programs, whether it's the ultimate ball-handling program, the Lockdown Defender program, in which all of these qualities are trained. Thank you guys, as always, for all the support. It means so much for you guys to tune in. Hopefully you gained something from this video; go apply it, go put it to work, and stay tuned. [Music]