Mikan Drill: Left hand and Right Hand Layups
Talk about your classic drill. The Mikan drill is nearly as old as basketball as it is named after George Mikan who was the first great true big man in the sport. George claimed this drill helped in several areas of the game including coordination, concentration and the ability to finish around the hoop with either hand.
Here’s how it is done:
Player starts under the basket with the ball above his head. Player steps left foot over right foot and shoots a right handed layup. Player rebounds the ball and immediately crosses the right foot over the left foot and shoots the ball left handed for a layup. Pretty simple but a few things to focus on.
1. Keep the ball above your shoulders. When you lower the ball people tend to steal it so keep it up and protected with your elbows.
2. Focus more on the correct form instead of speeding through the drill.
3. Establish a rhythm when going side to side to increase confidence and performance.
Once these things are done you are ready to go quicker and see how many you can do in 30 seconds. If you do the drill for a minute your head will be spinning and you’ll be seeing stars. 30 seconds is plenty and make sure that you are using both hands to do the drill.
