In the last post we left off with a description of Up and Outs, which is a simple drill you can do to get the timing of the lift of your core muscles in sync with the upward lift of the ball and its rotation into a shooting position.   If you do the drill correctly, your hands are always placed correctly on the ball, the shooting elbow is always in, and you are low, knees bent, before you receive the ball for the next shot.

But what about the part when you shoot?   How do you release the energy into the ball so that it does what you want it to do – which is go in the basket?   Great question.

A player can do everything we have discussed to this point correctly, and so much to a shot’s mechanics can go right just about to when the ball is released, then the wheels can fly off the truck if this last part is missing.    Here is what you MUST know.

1)       The ball must be in the power point of your shooting hand when you shoot

2)      Your shooting elbow should NOT flare out, but don’t tuck it in too far to the body.

3)      We strongly recommend shooting from the eyebrow, going up and out at about 50 degrees

4)      You Must generate power from your ONE wrist to provide touch and backspin to the ball

5)      You MUST follow through to the rim – pointing to your target after the ball is released

If you can execute these last five steps, then the Up (ball rotating up to the eyebrow with the hands cocked back, ready to release) and Out (the release angle and follow through) will be complete and correct.    Let’s discuss.

Remember – the final release ultimately should be a ONE handed shot . The off-hand, or balance hand, should be used for just that – to balance the ball in the shooting hand.  DO NOT use the off-hand thumb to add power to the ball.   “Thumbers” as we call them, generate power from the off-hand and this can many times (not all the time) cause misses to the left or right, low backspin, or sidespin.   But as Reggie Miller (a famous thumber) would quickly point out, thumbing the ball does not always mean that you will miss.   He had an ridiculous use of both hands on his shot, but the results spoke for themselves.) Still, so that you learn to effectively bring all that leg power to the right spot and to maximize accuracy, we recommend you learn to release the shot without thumbing.

When you can maintain the ball in the power point of your shooting hand (see previous post titled Part IV.a) then the power you generated from your legs and transferred through the core will be waiting for you to release it through the wrist.  So it’s very important when you practice to get used to how that feels, because if you are not used to it, it will feel very weird at first.

But now that you have the ball at your eyebrow with your elbow in line with the basket, and the off-hand balancing the ball but not thumbing it, the release towards the rim can begin.   With the ball in the power point, you have maximum control and power ready and waiting at your disposal.  Now – all that work to get the ball to the rim is worth it because you have harnessed it to this one point in time.

As your wrist starts to move out towards your target, the goal is to snap the wrist towards the target at an approximately 50 degree angle.  We say approximate because that release arc can change depending on your height or distance to the rim, but generally a 50 degree release will give the ball a chance to enter the basket at 45 degrees, its optimal entry arc.   When you snap the wrist, the off-hand should have left the ball at this point, and the very last finger to touch the ball is the index finger, and it should be pointing straight at the target.  (The front of the rim.)   Pointing anywhere else indicates a shooter with weak wrists.   We know that excellent shooters can generate about 135 spins per minute onto the ball, so if your wrists are too weak to do this, spend time doing some Flicker work against the backboard.   Stand straight up, isolate your wrists high, and just flick the ball up with your wrists, emphasizing the release point to the target.   After awhile you will feel your wrist muscles start to hurt and this should tell you that you are doing the drill correctly.   I credit my college scholarship to this drill, so it is a very good one to do every day.

Ok – that’s it.  Pretty simple right?   Just take a ball, chuck it up there, and in it goes.    What the kinetic shooting series should highlight, if nothing else, is that shooting is an EXTREMELY complex series of movements that require as much timing, coordination, and repetition to become proficient.   Anyone can be a great shooter, but to do so you must be prepared to commit to many repetitions of the correct way to shoot.

In the coming weeks and months we will be leveraging the use of video more on some of our posts so that you will be able to see some of these concepts.   In the meantime, do your best to stay disciplined and focused during your shooting workouts.  Remember, the three point line is not your friend if you don’t have your mechanics right, and the risk that you will learn to shoot incorrectly is very high.   Stay close, stay focused, create little games that keep your attention on the right mechanics, and happy shooting!