The Crossover

Who doesn’t love the NBA? They are the premier league in the basketball world and host some of the best players nationally and internationally. The skill level from the early days till now has evolved tremendously, but one part of the game that has and will always be a constant is the fundamentals. Today I am going to be breaking down one of those fundamental moves, the iconic crossover. To be clear, I will not be teaching any Stephen Curry or Allen Iverson-type moves, but more simply the basic crossover and the fundamentals behind it. In two easy steps, I will teach you how to perform the crossover, which in turn will act as the building blocks for your skill and put you on the path to greatness.

Gym or open court, basketball, defender

After an initial dribble place your dominant hand on the outer side of the ball. Follow up with the crossover dribble by bouncing the ball in front of your feet. Catch the ball with your other hand and keep dribbling. You want to keep a strong but fast dribble while maintaining a low travel distance from the ground, keeping the ball below the knee.

While performing a crossover you can use a change of direction to dodge an opponent. When changing direction, accelerate suddenly so that your defender will not have time to react. You can add a slight pause before the crossover to fake an opponent in two ways: slowing down slightly or straightening up a little. A more advanced technique would be to exaggerate the movement of the ball to the right, known as a jab, and then switching left. Try to not look at the ball while dribbling because in order to perform the crossover we need to know where our defender is at. You can practice the steps by just dribbling back and forth, baseline to baseline, while throwing a couple crossovers here and there.

I have enlisted the help of one of my classmates to help create a more realistic scenario.