Basketball - Layups

A good layup happens when the player does not take a shot, but uses the speed of his body to put him near the net. He just has to drop the ball in! (O.K., maybe slam it in.) The point is that it would be very difficult to shoot while you are also moving forward. Good players can make passes this way ... throwing while they are in the air, moving forward, and twisting around. But shooting at the basket, which is a much smaller target and at a different distance each time you do it, would be a hard shot to make while you're moving towards the net. (The ball's velocity would be the sum of your speed and the ball's) .Players always stop to shoot, to allow 'muscle memory' to do the shooting for them. Rather than practice this difficult skill, throwing from farther away while moving towards the net, players master the skill of the layup. They move their whole body through the air, protecting the ball as long as possible, and put it in the net when they're so close they can't miss.