5 Separation Moves You NEED To Have

One of the main areas that a lot of players struggle with is the ability to create space. It doesn't matter how great a shooter you are, if you aren't able to get your shot off against tough defense, it's going to be hard for you to be a consistently great scorer. In order to be a great scorer, you have to be a consistent scorer. And the guys in the NBA who are the best, who are great, who are consistent, are the guys who are the best at creating their own shot. In this video, I'm going to break down five separation moves you need to have in your game if you want to become great and at creating your own shot. All five of these moves are simple but very, very effective. And if you commit to mastering these moves, you're going to become very versatile on the court as a scorer. Let's get into it. The first move we're going to look at is the punch drag. The number one advantage you have as the offensive player is that you know what you're going to do. The defense doesn't. They have to react to you. And the reason that the punch drag is so effective is because it will almost always create space. You and your defender. Let's take a look at a few keys to this move. The first key to this move is that you want to get your defender moving downhill. Essentially, you want to sell the drive. Your first look is to try and drive all the way to the basket. If you're not able to do that, that's when you go to that punch step. You stop with that same hand, same leg, with that punch dribble. And then as your defender keeps on going, you can go into your jump shot. A key to this move is flipping the defender tips. As you're going to see Chris Paul do right here now, you'll see him go attack to the left side. And as his defender tries to move to cut him off, his hips flip and are now facing towards the baseline. This means that if you come to a quick stop with that punch dribble, the defender's momentum is going to carry them forward, creating that space for you to get that shot off or to be able to attack the other direction. That's why this move is so difficult to stop, because when you're able to get the defender going, you're going to be able to create a separation and get your shot off or get into a crossover. Any move to get yourself an opportunity to score, this is something that you'll see a lot of times the best scorers in the NBA go To very often between Chris Paul, Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Trae Young, these guys understand the importance of selling that drive downhill, stopping on a dime, having your defender flip their hips and being able to create that space so you can get that shot off. This is a shot you guys should be practicing very, very often because once you have it down, you have it mastered, you're going to be very, very hard to stop and you're able to get your shot off almost whenever you want. And as you can see, you won't always go into a jump shot off this punch drag. Sometimes you might go into a crossover or between the legs to get downhill to the basket. Other times you might have to add another move in there to be able to get to space to get that shot off. So when you're practicing this, work on not just going into the jump shot, but going into a between the legs to get downhill. After that, working on different counters so that no matter how the defense plays it, you're going to have a way you can. The next move we're going to look at is the float dribble or the hang hesitation dribble. The float dribble is one of the most versatile go to moves you can have, and it allows you to put pressure on your defender while also making a read on what the best way to exploit them is. There are a lot of options that you can have out of a flow dribble. We're going to go over a few of them right now. The first and most obvious read is to shoot the jump shot. A lot of times when you go into the flow dribble, the defender is going to naturally back up to make sure that you don't blow by them. When they do this, it'll typically give you a wide open look to shoot. In today's game of basketball, this is a shot that every perimeter player needs to be able to hit consistently. If the defender respects your ability to make that shot, typically they won't be able to back up very far. And that's when the driving lane opens. You can go into that flow dribble and then you can attack them and get downhill again. We talked about how your biggest advantage on offense is the fact that you know what you want to do and the defense doesn't. It's the same thing here. If you're able to hit that shot, the defender is either gonna have to back up and give you the shot or they're gonna have to play up on you and that's gonna open up the driving lanes and if they overplay to try and cut off to that float side. Your read is a quick crossover to the other direction, right into a pull up. And more often than not, you're gonna be able to get an open shot just by doing that. The step back is one of the most popular moves in the game of basketball. It's one of the best ways to create separation and be able to get your shot off. There are also different kind we can go to in different situations in which the type of step back you do should be different. We're going to break that down right now. The first kind of step back that you see pretty often is the step back off a downhill drive. This works very similar to the punch drag. We want to make sure that we sell this downhill drive to get our defender to move towards the basket. More than likely they're going to flip their hips and like we've already been over at this point, if you change directions or if you stop, they're going to keep going and that's where the space is created. But you don't always have to be going downhill to go to a step back. There are times where you can just go into a step back just to create a little bit of space for you to get your shot off. That can come out of a float dribble, out of a crossover, really out of anything. All that it takes is a little bit of space so you can get your shot off. We can take a look at Brad Beal right here going to this step back out of an isolation situation where he's not necessarily putting pressure on the defender to get downhill, but he's setting up the defender with the crossover. And then he uses that step back to create a little bit of space so he can get his shot off. Luka Doncic is a player who is absolutely phenomenal. Using both of these step backs, he's able to sell that downhill drive on one move, and the next move he's able to use that little step back just to create a little bit of space for himself to get that shot off. The next move we're going to look at that's going to help you to create separation and give yourself an opportunity to get a good look is the pick up shot fake. Now, this is one of those moves that nobody really teaches and that nobody really talks about. But if you watch the best scorers in the NBA, they intuitively know this and they're able to score points by using the defender's aggression to their advantage. Part of being a great scorer is doing your Best to disrupt the flow of the defender. Defenders come to expect certain movements from players. When they see you pick the ball up and go into a shooting motion, they expect that you're going to release the ball. So a lot of times they're going to jump to try and contest it. If you understand this, you might not be in the best position to shoot the ball, but if you pick it up and you show the ball like you're going to shoot it, they're going to jump and get out of your way. And a lot of times you're going to be able to get a great shot off because of that. If we take a look at Devin Booker right here, he does a really great job of selling that jump shot by getting downhill, stepping 1, 2 into the shot and really going up as if he was going to release the ball. His defender goes for it, jumps by him, and now he's got a wide open shot. Whereas before it would have been very, very contested. And it's not necessarily just about getting the defender to fly by or get out of your way. If we can get them to contest the shot early, they're not going to be able to have a second jump. You can time up when to release the ball. They won't be able to block or really contest your shot. As you can see Gordon Haber doing right here, if he had just gone straight up into the jump sh out that pick up shot fake, the defender would have had a much easier time contesting and maybe even altering that shot. But because he first sells that shot fake after the pickup, he gets the defender to extend fully. Then Gordon Hayward can decide when to go up for that shot so that it's not contested and so that it's an easy look. And the final move we're going to talk about is the speed stop. This is another great way for us to create separation and, and be able to get a little bit of space to get a shot up. One of the best things about the speed stop is that because you're going to be able to plant 1, 2 and then snatch the ball behind your back or between your legs, you're going to be able to go the fastest into the move. With the punch dribble, you're stopping on one foot. With the step back, you're also stopping on one foot. That's going to limit how much force you can absorb and it's also going to limit the speed that you can go at. But with the speed stop, you're planting on two feet. When you make that move, it's going to allow you to decelerate quicker and because of the speed you're going to be able to take into this move, you're really going to get your defender going downhill. They're going to flip their hips almost every time and you're really going to be able to create space with this move very effectively. The biggest key to this move is your downhill drive. You to make sure that you really are trying to get past your defender. That most likely means getting low and really making sure that you're going at 100% towards the basket. If they start to turn their hips to try and cut you off, you can go right to that speed. Stop. They're going to continue going. You're going to have a wide open jump shot. Drop a comment below and let me know which one of these moves is your favorite. If you guys enjoyed this video, I want you to go to the top link in the description right now. Click it. I'm going to send you guys my free elite Perimeter Score workout where you're going to work on the skills you're going to need to become an elite score in the perimeter. So if you guys want that workout, click the top link in my description. I'll send it to you completely for free. If you enjoyed this video, hit that like and subscribe as well and let me know what you want to see next. That's it guys. Peace.