Two Simple Tips to Improve Your Shooting
I love basketball. High school, college, pee-wee, it doesn’t really matter to me. Just give me players with passion for the game, competing their hardest against each other, and I’m good to go. However, that slightly changed this past weekend. I went to check out the local high school play-offs and was shocked by the overall poor shooting. In the four championship games I watched, all of them featuring players that will play college basketball next year, the best offense was “chuck and chase”: throw the ball in the general direction of the rim and fight like a crazed dog for the offensive rebound and put-back opportunities. I know the big arena and the reliance on the three-point shot were partly to blame for the poor shooting night, but it resulted primarily from players’ poor hand positioning on the ball when they shot it and their failure to catch the ball ready to shoot.
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 pretty simple; make the player confident and comfortable when shooting the ball. So I go with one of the three approaches that is most comfortable for the player. The only problem is when the player has his shooting hand on the side of the ball. The shooting hand has to be centered using one of the three approaches.
The other hand issue is getting the hand properly pointed towards the target. Unfortunately, most coaches and trainers focus on getting the player’s shoulders squared and elbow straight; however, most players have their elbow in, but they have to twist their wrist to the target as part of the shooting motion. When the player has his hand under the ball properly, with a “wrinkle in the wrist,” you’ll also notice a small indentation at the base of the palm.
These two elements will instantly improve a players shooting technique and consistency. But to go from being a good shooter to a great shooter, it’s vital to improve the base of a player’s shot. The base is the shot’s foundation, and determines everything thereafter; your hip, elbow, and wrist positioning are all affected by the base of your shot. A poor foundation really leads to an inconsistent shot. The first issue to look at is how the player receives the pass when they are ready to shoot. Most poor shots are taken because the player takes too long to catch and shoot. They simply aren’t ready to shoot when they receive the ball, which allows the defense to close out and successfully contest the shot. To correct this, make sure that the player is ready to shoot as soon as the ball is in his hands; his feet are wide (about should width apart), knees bent, and hands up to catch the pass.
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.
Improving these three areas will not automatically make you a great shooter, but they will instantly help a player to create a more consistent shot. Change is difficult at times, and players who have taken hundreds of thousands of shots have built and reinforced bad habits that are difficult to change. However, for a player to reach his full shooting potential, he has to learn to shoot consistently. The game is really simple; whoever puts the ball in the hole the most wins. By tweaking a player’s hand placement when he lifts the ball into his shot, concentrating on receiving the pass prepared to shoot and then using a solid leg drive, a player’s shot will become more consistent, creating a better overall offensive player.
Professional basketball trainer, Brian McCormick, is passionate about basketball shooting and better basketball shooting.
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