Shooting a basketball, like any other skill can be learned basketball improved with practice. No one is born as a great shooter, all of the great shooters have put in hours and hours of correct practice. It does not do very much good to practice the wrong way. Additionally, mental toughness is essential to being a great shooter. Developing mental toughness is discussed in another section of our site. I believe that there are five stages to becoming a great shooter.
1. The first phase is learning the correct fundamentals of holding the ball, and then delivering the shot. Your shooting hand basketball be set across the seams of the basketball. The index finger of your shooting hand should be placed in the middle of the ball--you should use the air valve as a guide. Your guide hand should be placed on the side of the ball. Point all ten of your toes to the rim-with your shooting foot pointed at the center of the basket and your other foot slightly off center. When you jump, push toward the basket. You should land six inches closer to the basket with your toes still pointing to the rim and your feet in the same position and the same distance apart as when you started. When you release the ball, the ball should spin or rotate backwards off your fingers and that backspin rotation should continue as the ball is in the air toward the goals. The guide hand does not move on its own and only opens up slightly as the ball is pushed to the basket by the shooting hand. After you release the ball, hold a high goose neck follow through as if you were putting your hand in basket with ball. Your eyes should be focused on the nearest eyelet on the basket and your eyes should stay on that eyelet target. You should not watch the flight of the ball! The best drills to practice these fundamentals are shooting on a line and rim flips.
In shooting on a line, you line yourself up on one of the lines on the basketball court. Shoot the ball as if you were shooting at the basket and allow it to land. If the ball lands on the line, mission accomplished! Now do it again and again until you know that you are shooting the ball straight. When doing the rim flips drill, Stand an arms length directly in front of the rim. Set the ball for the normal shot and then take the balance hand away. The entire focus of the drill is on correct shooting fundamentals. Shooting with one hand helps to work on shooting the ball straight and concentrating on the backspin rotation of the ball. This drill is to work on technique, foot position, and body alignment and not to simulate anything close to game speed. Rim flips are solely for refining and maintaining technique and form. Go, SLOW. SLOW. SLOW!! The initial stage of the drill does not involve jumping. Think of it as a short free throw--with one hand. After making 10 in a row without hitting the rim, the shooter moves back two steps. After moving back two steps, place the guide hand on the ball, but use the exact same technique as before with the shooting hand. Once you can make 10 in a row, move back another two steps and work to make another 10 in a row.
Eventually, you will jump toward the basket and land six inches closer just like you were taking a shot in a game. Work on the landing in all three phases of the rim flips drill.
2. Stage Number 2 is repetition shots with no pressure and no movement. Concentrate on the fundamentals from stage one. Clap and ready hands to catch the ball. These shots should be 12-15 feet or whatever distance is a comfortable distance for you. In this stage you will combine proper mechanics from stage #1 above with getting the ball straight. Your aim if you do miss is to never miss to the right, to the left, or short. Get the ball straight and up over the front of the rim and if you have to miss, miss on the back of the rim. The shooting on a line drill helps you to work on getting the ball straight. In this drill, you find a line on the court, line yourself up with your shooting foot in the center of the line as if you were shooting at a basket. Shoot the ball with your normal 10 foot arc and let the ball land on the floor--remember you are not shooting at a basket. If the ball hits the line, then you are shooting it straight. If it goes to the left or to the right, then you know you need to adjust. After working on the line, go to a basket and shoot the 12-15 foot shots.
3. The third part in the progression is moving at a game pace in ways that occur in a 5/5 game to get a shot. The most effective way to master stage #3 is by having an organized individual development workout plan that is designed for the areas you want to improve--and then you must have the dedication to stick to your plan. The most important time to be dedicated is when you don't want to be. Stand under the basket, Toss the ball out so that it bounces once 15-20 feet distance from under the basket, run to get it as if making a cut in a game, grab the ball and imagine that you are catching a pass, square up and shoot. Retrieve your rebound and repeat the process.
4. Stage #4 Shooting with pressure produced by time, performance goals, or one defender. Set up games where you shoot a specified number of shots in a given time, or with someone guarding you. The idea of this stage is to find or create drills that put a type of pressure on you. Keep a record of your performances and compare to determine if and how much improvement you are making.
5. Stage #5 Being able to make shots in a 5/5 scrimmage. You must shoot the shots that you have been practicing in your individual development workouts and plan your workouts so that you are practicing the shots that you get in games. Evaluate yourself as to how and what you can do better.
No matter how long you have been playing, you need to continue to go through all five phases of the shooting progression each day to stay sound on fundamentals and to give yourself a lot of shots. If you are playing a 5 on 5 game, you probably will get somewhere between 3 and 10 shots in one game. That is not enough practice to improve. But, all you need for stages 1-4 are a basket, a ball, some creativity to find ways to make your workouts competitive, and a desire to improve.
The Coaching Toolbox http://www.coachingtoolbox.net is a resource site for basketball coaches and players of all levels. Brian Williams is a former high school coach with over 20 years of experience at various levels. The site is just getting our site off the ground, so we hope that you will visit us and continue to stay and grow with us as well!
