The One Key to Great Fakes
by Bill Winfrey
Most buckets are determined by a split second or a single step. Little things matter. Great Fakes are invaluable in creating the small difference needed to beat better athletes.
But fake technique is precision work... like a golf or bat swing… and amazingly very few players put in the time and detail work to master fakes.
It’s so common to see quick players that have poor fake technique. They’ve never really needed it… then they step up a level where their quickness is better matched and they’re stuck. What worked before is not nearly so effective.
Mastering fakes makes you so much harder to guard. It can turn your defender’s quickness and eagerness into their liability.
You only need a few good fakes… but they need to be excellent.
In our 3D Offensive Skills camp we work hard on a few simple technique points to the 3 Great Fakes. But they all hinge on one major principle. If you take this principle and work on it you’ll figure out for yourself how to improve your fakes.
That one key simple principle is… ‘fake INTO explosive position’.
Explosive Position is just a natural athletic position where any athlete is their quickest. Picture a shortstop at the crack of a bat… or a tennis player about to return a serve… or a linebacker at the snap of a football. They are in ‘Explosive Position’.
That means in short… feet wide, butt low, head up.
If immediately after a fake, a player’s legs are straight, or they’re leaning off balance, or the ball is over their head… then he or she is not able to explode past the defender. That needed split second or step is lost.
Fakes are seldom practiced and rarely mastered, yet are an essential skill for beating better athletes. Work on them every shooting workout. Contact us for help on details.
the pictures are of 2 players i had the pleasure of working with
top : Lindsey Johnson of Western Wyoming then Saginaw Valley State
bottom: Tab Hamilton, of Fishburne Academy then Appalachian State
