Improve Your Basketball Shooting in Two Simple Steps
I watched the local high school play-offs this season and was appalled by the poor shooting. In four championship games featuring college-bound players, the best offense was “chuck and chase:” throw the ball at the rim and fight for the offensive rebound and put-back opportunities. The big arenas and the over-reliance on the three-point shot contributed to the poor shooting, but it resulted primarily from players’ hand positioning on the ball and their failure to prepare to shoot before receiving the pass.
The majority of coaches concentrate on the elbow and shoulders when correcting a player’s shot. But that’s usually the wrong place to start. In the majority of the cases, the player’s shooting struggles originate from their shooting hand position negatively impacting their shot. This has nothing to do with the shoulders or elbow. So the first thing you should do is to make sure that the player correctly positions his hand on the ball. The easiest way to do this is to have the player center the ball directly under their shooting hand. Now when the player shoots, the middle and index fingers should be the last two fingers to leave the ball. That’s why it makes sense to have these two fingers centered.
There are three preferred ways to achieve this: first, split the player’s index and middle fingers with the ball’s nozzle (the ball’s center; where you place the needle to pump the ball up); or, align the player’s middle finger with the ball’s center; or, just put the index finger in the middle. All three work and make sense: if the goal is to shoot with the last two fingers (your index and middle finger), then both should be centered equally. There’s just one minor detail, centering the player’s middle finger spreads the hand equally over the ball; but when the player extends his hand towards the rim in a shooting motion, the index finger, not the middle finger, points straight to the rim. The player’s body physiology points the middle finger slightly to the right for a right handed players (or left for a left-handed player).
My shooting philosophy is to make the player comfortable and confident, so of these three approaches, the player’s comfort is most important. The problem, however, is when the player has his hand on the side. The shooting hand must be centered using one of these three approaches.
The next hand placement issue is pointing your hand at the target. Again, most coaches and trainers focus on getting the elbow straight or the shoulders squared to the basket first; but, many players already have their elbow in naturally, but must twist their wrist to the target as part of the shot. When the player’s hand is properly under the ball, with a “wrinkle in the wrist,” you’ll notice a small indentation at the base of the palm when you’re getting ready to shoot. As the player lifts the ball to shoot, the indentation should be directed toward the target. This ensures that the ball is shot straight towards the target. If the player twists their hand and wrist as they shoot, they add another variable, and decreases your shooting consistency.
These two elements will improve a shooter’s technique and opportunity to be a consistent shooter. However, to be a great shooter, the player also must improve the base of the shot. The base is the shot’s foundation, and determines everything thereafter. A poor foundation leads to an inconsistent shot.The first issue is receiving a pass ready to shoot. Many poor shots are taken because the player takes too long to catch and shoot and then fires the shot under duress; when receiving the pass, a player should have his feet wide (shoulder width) and knees bent.
Also, players must use their legs to power their shot. A lot of players tend to shoot the ball on the way down of their jump shot, which eliminates the power generated by the leg drive when jumping. By shooting the ball on the way up, earlier in the jump, they player is able use the power generated by the leg drive and increase his power. Effectively using the increase in force created by using the leg drive will also help increase the arc on the ball when it’s shot. Many streaky and inconsistent shooters shoot a very flat shot due to not using their leg drive properly. This allows little room for error, since your shooting a line drive directly at the rim instead of arcing into the hoop.
While the hand position, preparation to catch the pass and leg drive will not automatically create a shooter, improving these three areas will improve a player’s ability to shoot consistently. Change is difficult, and players who have taken hundreds of thousands of shots have built bad habits that are difficult to change, especially if the player has had some measure of success. But, for a player to reach his potential, he must learn to shoot consistently, as the game boils down to the ability to put the ball in the hoop. By tweaking the hand placement on the ball as the player lifts the ball into the shot, while concentrating on receiving the pass prepared to shoot and then utilizing a solid leg drive, a player’s consistency will increase, creating a better overall offensive player.
Author Brian McCormick knows a lot about basketball shooting and basketball shooting tips.
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