When and where do people learn the finger roll layup?

[TNBT]

Don't really remember how or when I learned it, but growing older and having better elevation and stronger/bigger hands were key.

That's pretty much what I was trying to say. When you're young and you have small hands and can't jump that high, you kind of have to shoot layups like a little jump shot off the glass. As you get bigger and stronger, the one handed finger-roll type of layup seems to come naturally.

[Bgil]

I learned the finger roll as a function of the angle you take towards the basket. If you're going straight at the basket you need to flare to the side a bit in order to do a layup off the glass (properly). Sometimes that's not possible or the best coarse of action.

[Albanian Damien]

-= original quote snipped =-



Not really. Both are easier, but I myself find a finger role a tad easier than a normal textbook layup. Only because you find a finger roll slightly easier it's not to say you find a regular layup hard..

Besides, these days a layup is a freakin' layup, be it a finger roll or a textbook layup. It's practically the same thing.

So I don't get your point.

My point is the same one as yours. There really is no added degree of difficulty to either shot.

[Sroek]

It's not taught because it's a situational move. You just naturally adjust your layup to become a finger roll depending on the situation. It's acquired from experience.

[tsherkin]

Are we talking about one of these kinds of finger-rolls? Or the one that happens here at about 0:11?

There's another one at about 3:03, another around 3:20, another about 3:31, another at 4:01 or so...

The finger roll is situational and can be fired off in a variety of ways; some of them are not at all about hand size or finger length but rather about the wrist snap and how you send the ball off your fingers... kind of like juggling or spinning tins when you bartend.

It's a finesse move and it is sort of a cousin to the floater in a way, since it's about getting the ball over your opponent with good touch, rather than a power move going through him. You can use arm extension through slots in the defense through which your body can't fit and that makes it a great weapon for getting a shot closer to the rim than you can get if you just stop and jump.

Plus, if you've got the hands for it, you can do the uber-move.

Start on one side, drive diagonally towards the other side, bring that ball out palmed in your hand, then turn your wrist and flick... it's unguardable, the defender can only foul if you get that first step.

Iceman was the king of the finger-roll; it's a bit of a lost art, really, because people go to the floater a lot more but you get more control with a real finger roll than with a floater.

[T-Mac for MVP]

I guess by finger roll I meant the underhand layup.