Last week’s entry was the first in a series to describe how the parts of the game of basketball, when developed properly,  can be assembled into a very formidable set of skills.   With a strong foundation of parts, the game never really comes together, either for individuals or for teams.

While last week’s edition covered the elements of ballhandling, this week we will talk shooting.    Ah yes, shooting.  The canary in the coalmine for us.  It is just soooo tempting for a young player, (and many times their parents and coaches) to want to extend that range, with a regulation ball, on a 10 foot hoop.   What happens is both predictable and unfortunate.  Bad muscle memory and bad habits that can be exceptionally difficult to correct.  Unlike ballhandling, shooting mechanics are very much connected with a mental confidence, and when the mind “thinks” that it has found a sufficient formula, it locks onto that formula, even if its a bad one, like a snapping turtle onto your arm.    So what canaries do we see floating around the gyms across the U.S. you ask?    Poor follow through, weird side spin shooting, feet pointing in places other than the basket, twisted torsos, off hand thumbing of the ball.   ALL of these symptoms are born from trying to shoot without the proper technical foundation or strength.  The result is very sub par shooting at best, and it is an epidemic in this country.

Fixing the problems can be done. It can be done relatively quickly, but the discipline to fix it must be absolute.   What we measure for, and what we teach, are simple steps that require the player agree to NO shooting outside of the lane for about 8 weeks.  A very tough request.   But in doing so we teach the parts of shooting that we can measure for and build upon.  They include:

Follow Through and Release.  This is clearly one of the more troubling issues for many players.  To get proper follow through and release of the ball requires coordination, wrist strength, and muscle memory.  In addition, you have that other hand (only for balance, not power) that always wants to sneak in a thumb during the shot.   When we break down mechanics, we begin here by having players literally stand under a basket and shoot it (swish only) up over the rim for a couple of weeks.   Without this component, consistency is very hard to achieve.   We measure this for spin rate and spin type with our technology.  We like to see the index finger pointing to the target after a release, but this requires strength.

Off Hand Placement: As mentioned above, the off hand placement can be a real nasty habit.  We see “thumbers” all the time, which is usually a holdover from trying to shoot too early from distance without the proper technique.  The off-hand quickly becomes a way to gain power in the shot, but it adds enormous complexity to the shot as well.  Adding the thumb causes a player to have to worry not only about the shooting hand getting the proper force and follow through, but also to add another thumb to the process.   Thumbers have a tendency to get weird spin (not always), but rarely do you see them as the best shooters in the game.

Balance and Footwork: This one is the most easily overlooked because the follow through is the hardest to get right, so the attention by many players is to correct follow through without understanding the connection between footwork and release.   Balance and footwork give power and consistency, and once you get those, the follow through is quite natural.   We teach feet facing the basket before and after the shot, with a smooth jump towards the rim.  Many times players don’t square the feet, leading to a cascade of slight corrections through the rest of the shot that create inconsistency and inaccuracy. 

Balance and Jumping: While this may sound like the previous, its a bit different.  Balance and jumping certainly begin with foot placement, but getting a balanced jump, from both legs, without turning the body, is the goal.  Many players like to gain power by twisting their torso so that they are actually more sideways to the basket.   While the technique gains some power, it loses enormous accuracy as the player now forces the mind to make all kinds of calibration changes during the shot.  We force players to learn to jump consisently, and never allow a shooter to extend their range until they prove to us they can sustain a consistent jump at the current range.

As you can see, shooting has many, many parts.  This post is rediculously long.   But as we have discussed, the parts must be made to work independently before they are put together.  One thing we can say with great certainty:  there is no more beautiful part of the game than a “pure” shooter – someone who has put all the parts together with great precision.  When you see it, you see beauty.  And the next time you see it, understand how many hours and how much discipline that player had to have to build the parts to work in unison.
Thats it for now on Part II.  My next post will cover the ongoing skill testing in New England and California.