How to do a behind the back crossover properly?

Question

I have been playing basketball for years (I am in my late 20s now) but I have not done any serious training. Occasionally I find that I should take it seriously and start working from the basics regardless of being older. One of the aspects I focus on now is ball handling.

I have seen lots of tutorials, videos of handling drills, which consist of using two balls, using a tennis ball, doing reps of basic moves like crossover, in and out, between the legs, behind the back etc. I try to follow these drills and practice from time to time, then I found that I have a even more fundamental problem: how to do a behind the back crossover properly?

When I try to do these "basic drills", I find that I lose the ball often when I do the behind the back crossover, the ball will hit my butt or my ankle. Does that mean I should bend my shoulder to the back even more? Or should I bend my knee more? Or does it just mean that I need more practicing to get the "feel" of the move?

Answer 1

You should bend your shoulder to the back more and hips forward more, creating an arch so that there's more space behind you for a cleaner wrap around dribble.

When doing a Moving Behind the Back Move, you don't want to take up a lot of space with the ball doing it (like a wide circular windup) - the move needs to be quick, tight, and close to your body. A trick you can try is to slap your lower back of the opposite side. This will make the move quick and less likely to be vulnerable to steals. When a lot of players try this move, they usually are trying to do it more like a wide windup around their back, when it should be a pretty straight and quick wrap.

A Standing Behind the Back Move you can practice (see YouTube clips of Steph Curry) pretty easy, just bouncing the ball behind your back side to side repetitively. Like many things in basketball, it just takes a lot of practice and repetition.

Answer 2

A good way to start off with the behind the back crossover is to simplify the move as much as possible, and eventually add more complexity to it as you improve.

For most players, it will be easier to crossover behind the back when your hands and shoulders are closer to the ground. This involves bending your knees, which also creates more space so that the ball does not hit the back of your legs as you perform the move.

Bend your knees and lean forward with your hands behind your back and low to the ground. Now tap the ball back and forth between your hands from a short distance until this becomes easy. You can then expand how far your hands are apart from each other, as well as how far your hands are off the ground. And then you can begin lifting your knees as well as implementing more difficult tricks such as lateral movement.

For starting off, trying to make the move as simple as possible and then continually adding more and more complexity and diversity will help you get very good at this.