Reverse Lay Up : Basketball Tips And Skills

Reverse lay-up, or simply the reverse, is a lay-up using the backboard and done with your back facing the basketball hoop and often your defender after you blow by him.

To be able to use the reverse lay-up, you should have decent dribbling skills that enables you to dribble pass your opponents.  Thus, ball-handling skills are very important in doing a successful reverse lay-up.  Also, the reverse typically applies a spin to the basketball so that it bounces off the backboard at an angle into the basketball hoop.  In this case, you will need flexible wrists that are accustomed to rotational movements.  Strong arms will also help because chances are your defenders will bump into your arm while striving to defend against your reverse.  The most critical attribute that a basketball player must have in order to do a reverse is a keen sense of his position in relation to the basketball hoop because when you are going up in a reverse lay-up, you will be unable to look at the rim with your back facing it

When to use a reverse lay-up?

First of all, you will need some decent basketball dribbling skills and nifty ball-handling moves that will get past your defender and  you close to the baseline.  When you are close to the baseline and you see a clear lane from your spot towards the immediate other side of the rim, that is when you should use the reverse lay-up.  Hence, you should always keep an eye out for opportunities to perform a basketball reverse lay-up when you are speedier than your defender. 

On a larger scale, the reverse should be used when the frontal defences is too intense for direct penetration into the paint.

It is also very effective to do a head fake on your side to fake a normal lay up while you proceed to your reverse side for a reverse lay-up.  If your defender buys your head fake, then you should definitely go for a reverse.  If he doesn't buy the head fake, that is fine too.  Just leap on the reverse side, take the impact from the defender's challenge and lays it in afterwards.

Pros-and-cons about doing a reverse lay-up

Pros	Cons
Using your back to separate your defender and the ball Your back can be used to take any impact from the defender The rim and net of the basketball hoop somewhat protects you from a block shot You are way safer from stripping when you carry the ball on the side of the baseline The reverse spin offsets the forward momentum your driving motion carries	Applicability is not high in that you must be close to the baseline If anticipated by defenders, it can be easily blocked due to the obvious shooting angle The shooting angle of a reverse is very limited You sacrificed the vision on the side of your back you can get trapped under the basketball hoop by help-defenc

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How To Do A Reverse Layup In Basketball?

General step-by-step guide to doing a reverse lay-up

·         Dribble past your defender with dribbling skills and moves.

·         Drive towards the baseline with speed

·         pick up the dribble when you are 2 steps from the other side of the rim

·         Take the first step, head fake on the normal side, take another half step

·         elevate towards the reverse side of the rim

·         Fully extend your arm towards the reverse side of the backboard

·         Take any impact from your opponent and recover

·         Flick your wrist upward and add a spin to the ball so that it spins off the backboard into the hoop

Watch Video Tutorial About the Reverse Layup