In my first post on kinetic energy and its impact on shooting, I provided a conceptual, 50,000 foot summary of what kinetic energy is, and why it is applicable to shooting a basketball.

Today – we’re going straight down for a 200 foot, tree top, fly-by of the details.  This post will cover where energy originates for great shooters, and what all great shooters do to maximize energy into their shot.

When we encounter shooters who struggle with generating efficient or sufficient power for their shot, we immediately look at a player’s legs.  Why?  Legs are the jet engines for a shooter.    Our favorite riddle for these players is to ask them if they think they could make a basketball move at 450 miles an hour.  The answer is always NO – although most look at us knowing that there is another hidden answer hidden somewhere – and there is.  The fact is that anyone can make a ball travel that fast, just take one up on the plane during your next vacation and give someone a pass up the aisle.  If the plane is traveling at 445 miles an hour, and you pass the ball at 5 miles an hour towards the front of the plane, the ball now travels at 450 miles an hour.  The energy from the plane has already been transferred into the ball – you just gave it an extra shot of energy.

Why is this relevant?  Because that same principle applies with the power generated from a shooter’s legs and into the ball – by far the largest source of power for any shooter.  Efficient shooters understand that they can make a shot release seem effortless by generating power from the legs first and transferring that power through the core and into the wrists.   But we commonly see shooters who have never learned to use their legs.  Many poor shooters don’t enter their shot with enough bend in the knees to create this power.  In fact – too many shooters start their shot standing straight up and down and then try to bend their knees after they have caught the ball.   All of this creates inefficient power that is very difficult to harness into accuracy and range without using a less efficient or accurate source.

So what are the keys to efficient power generation? (I just realized this is sounding a bit like an infomercial for air conditioning units) Here are three points that we teach and measure:

1)      Practice a deeper knee bend into the shot with the player’s weight on the balls of the feet.  It’s amazing how many shooters just don’t bend their knees or bend them way too late into the shot.  This habit almost guarantees that the shooter will look to other less efficient power sources like the shoulders or off hand to get the ball to the rim.     It’s also important that as younger players become more advanced they learn to step into the shot before they catch the ball to increase momentum even more efficiently.  Too many players wait until they catch the ball before they begin this motion, which again causes a loss of power.  As a secondary habit, many players put their weight into their heels rather than the balls of the feet, taking away their ability to get efficiently off the ground.

2)      Jump slightly towards the rim without turning. This one is important.  Many shooters rely too heavily on their strong leg when they jump, creating an uneven power distribution into the shot.  The symptom?  You can see these shooters by the way they turn their hips on the jump.  Coaches need to focus these players on getting their feet set towards the rim as they approach their shot, and to come in low.  Mark a clear landing area during practice so that players can visualize how much they turn their hips from their original shooting position.

Learning to set up a shot with a deeper knee bend will help players that step into the shot too vertical.  These players lose energy by having to “bounce” their legs down then up again to create force.  Doing so also adds time to the shot, which is a secondary effect to the loss of range that will also occur with this habit.

3)      Avoid drift on the jump. Look more closely and you will see what we call “drift”,  which means they drift slightly left or right because one leg is generating more power than the other.   We correct these symptoms by teaching players how to jump evenly with both legs, off the ground, and slightly towards the rim.  Many great shooters will land slightly ahead of their starting point, which indicates they have learned to use their legs as “jet engines” for the ball.

Now that you have a grasp of the how to harness and practice using the most abundant source of power, Shooting Kinetics part III will zero in on the transfer of energy through the core muscles.    Part IV will then finish with shot release, including how to generate spin and arc for deadly accuracy.  Until then, focus on the source of power and you will begin to see immediate results in both accuracy and range.

Happy Holidays from 94Fifty!   Shovel that snow and keep practicing.