Learn the basketball Shammgod: prerequisites, progression from the crossover and why your hand must not go under the ball. With rules check, no hype.
The Shammgod is a dribbling move in which you push the ball far forward with one hand and pull it back in a flash with the other. The defender sees the ball rolling away to the wrong side and reaches out for it.
The honest answer to “Is the Shammgod a beginner trick?”: no. It is risky because you give the ball a little way out of your hand, and it is delicate under the rules. The FIBA rule says: during a dribble you may not place any part of the hand under the ball and carry it from one point to another, or bring it to a pause and then continue dribbling [1]. A Shammgod with the hand under the ball and a pause is called as a dribbling violation.
The principle behind it is deception: the defender believes you are losing the ball or going in the wrong direction. In science this is called “deceit”, a deliberately false intention [2]. You do not learn the move as a show, but as an extra option once your crossover is already secure.
The Shammgod does not win through the ball going forward, but through the defender going with it.
Dribble with the right hand. The ball bounces about a metre in front of you without you pulling it back, and you follow it. The aim is to feel the distance. Milestone: five dribbles in one go without losing the ball, then you bring it back with the same hand.
Now comes the second hand. You let the ball bounce in front of you, your other hand takes it from above as the next dribble and pulls it diagonally back to your body. Important: the hand stays on top of the ball without carrying it [1]. Milestone: ten clean pull-backs left and right without the hand slipping under the ball (phone video!).
The defender does not follow the ball but your body. Lean your shoulder in the direction in which the ball is pushed forward, and then pull it back shortly before it extends. The move is a deception when your body lies too [2]. Milestone: a partner reacts to the shoulder fake in seven out of ten attempts by taking a step towards the ball.
The Shammgod lives from rhythm. Start slowly, push the ball forward, pull it back without a pause and then go explosively into the gap. Milestone: with a defender who only goes along passively, you get past him in six out of ten attempts without losing the ball.
Only now do you go against pressure. This is no formality: in one game analysis, a dribble was 7.45 times more likely to be ineffective under high defensive pressure than under minimal pressure [5]. Milestone: against active defence the move works in three out of ten attempts without losing the ball; only then do you use it in games.
The risk lies less in the move than in braking afterwards. Whoever stops after the ball often brakes abruptly, and in the stop phase of a sidestep the knees of ten female basketball players tended towards more valgus (they collapse inwards) [6]. Of 31 ACL tears in the NBA, 29 happened without direct contact to the leg [7]. Also: the ball in the pull-back is within reach of the fingers, so do not practise with cold hands. Stop if something hurts. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training or a coach.
Practise the pull-back alone first, without the push forward. Once your hand reliably stays on top, the rest becomes rhythm. This is coaching experience, not a study.
A dribbling move: you push the ball far forward with one hand and pull it back with the other. It makes the defender believe that you are losing the ball forward or going in a different direction.
Only if your hand is not under the ball and you do not carry or pause the ball. Under the FIBA rules it is a dribbling violation if you place a hand under the ball and carry it, or bring it to a standstill and then continue dribbling [1].
Hard, because you deliberately give the ball out of your hand and then have to control it. As a rule of thumb: first the crossover with both hands, then the short distance, then the pull-back. There are no figures for how long it takes to learn.
No. What you need is ball control with both hands and a good feel for distance. I found no evidence that height or sprint speed decide the move.
In small steps, on both sides and filmed. A school study with 52 children found that starting with the non-dominant hand worked better for a complex dribbling task [8].
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