The way that the basketball crossover move is taught these days is outdated and ineffective. It’s sad that most coaches don’t even teach their players how to really break someones ankles, but in this video today we will breakdown exactly how Jamal Crawford is able to use the crossover basketball move and break ankles on a consistent basis.
1. Set Up Your Defender
Crawford does a good job at setting up his defender. Meaning that even though he knows he wants to crossover and go right, he first goes through his legs heading to the left to set up the final cross that allows him to blow by his defender. You can do many different things to set up your defender. You can use an In N Out dribble, you can point to one side as if you’re asking for a screen, or you can simply use a shoulder fake. The possibilities are endless. The important thing is that you get the defender a little off balance or get him on his heels a little bit resulting in a bad defensive stance.
2. Use Both Hands
If you can crossover well with your right hand then that’s good, but this move is twice as effective when you can do it with your left hand and it’s ten times more effective if you can use both. The reason I say that is because when you crossover with your right hand you have to cross to your weak hand. As you can see in all 3 of these clips, Jamall Crawford uses his left hand to crossover with and his right hand to finish with. If you can use both hands you will always keep your defenders guessing and your setup dribbles are twice as effective making your crossover almost unguardable.
3. Bring the Ball Out
The next part is to bring the ball out. So many coaches tell you not to bring the ball out on your crossover dribbles, but it’s needed in order to make the defender think you’re going in that direction. What coaches need to be telling their players is that they can bring the ball out but it must be low and the only way the ball is low (under your knees) is if you are low. If you look at Crawford here you can see that even though he is making a huge crossover and the ball is way out, it is not at all in a stealable position because he is so low.
4. Horizontal movement
The more you can get your defender to shift in the wrong direction before your crossover the better. If you move sideways and your defender closes that space you will have a good chance to blow by him. Watch as Crawford not only steps in the opposite direction but actually takes multiple small choppy steps away from his defender. This is to be executed at the same time as when you are bringing the ball out.
So, lets take a quick review of the four things we just learned. First you must setup your defender. Then once you can see him leaning left, right, or back simultaneously bring the ball to one side, move your body horizontally in that direction in a low position, and once the defender starts to close that space you created, cross back under your knee low and blow by the defender.
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