Thoughts on Shooting Instruction

These ideas are from Coach Tom Traynor, longtime and highly successful Pennsylvania High School Coach .  Coach Traynor passed away in 2011.
I received these notes from Creighton Burns. 

Just to share a few ideas we us teaching shooting. We emphasize form at the beginning of each session and game speed the rest the way.

We have shooting sessions at every work-out and practice usually 15-20 minutes a day in drill. We begin with Free Throws for form shooting. Next we practice our shooting arm with the ball on the shooting hand directly in front and beside the rim. Then we work off the dribble.  Each practice we make 50 shots (as a team) behind the arc while running our drive and kick drills.

Points of emphasis in our shooting that are reviewed daily are:

1.  Get the shooting hand behind the ball – Rotate thumb around the ball to put 3 shooting fingers in the middle of the ball. – Turn hand and shoulder in.

2. Elbow under the ball facilitates forearm and hand to the hoop. Provides shooting power and control. When the elbow is low its kinetic energy brings the Humerus Bone into the release and the ball is pushed upward from the elbow rather than up and out by the forearm and hand. (45 degrees)

3. Accuracy at the middle of the hoop

4. Overcome distance with complete extension of joints. Elbow extension is most important. – Don’t be ½ inch short.

5. Set in a position 10 toes to the basket. Read the rim for stance problems

6. Forming up your jump shot

7. Power the ball with the toes, ankles, knees, shoulder (lifts the ball) hand and elbow. This is the shooting motion – Kinetic movement – extra energy because of the motion of the object. Slow or feather the finishing action of the forearm and hand to control the kinetic motion of the shot. Do not overpower your shot by flipping the ball into the follow through. Finish must be natural motion.

8. Develop forearm extension. Forearm controls distance. Setting the ball over the elbow means the force will be applied by the forearm –creates an outward movement.  The Humerus creates an upward movement.

9. Key Measurement Terms:

Control – Promotes precision

Consistency – measured by FG Percentage 

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I have five stages in a shooting progression that I like to use in practices at every level , workouts, youth clinics, pre-game warmups, and to evaluate at which stage our players are as shooters.

1. The first stage is learning the correct fundamentals of holding the ball, and then delivering the shot with no pressure and no movement.  The main drills that we use in this stage are are shooting on the line and rim flips.
2. Stage Number 2 is repetition shots off a catch, again–no pressure and no movement. Concentrate on the fundamentals from stage one. We shoot these shots from 12-15 feet.  We work on combining proper mechanics from stage #1 with catching the ball with a shooting hands ready set. The point of emphasis we make is catching ready.  It is possible to catch ready to shoot and then turn the shot down, but I don’t believe that you can be a team that shoots the ball well if players have to adjust their hands frequently to shoot after catching a pass or picking up a dribble.  So, I want to work on catching ready to shoot and picking up the dribble ready to shoot every day without any pressure.   We work on catch and shoot in a rhythm with one shooter and one passer for 10 shots, then changing roles.  Then, repeat with players picking up off the dribble 10 times in a row going both left and right.
3. Stage #3 inovles moving at a game pace in ways that occur in a 5/5 game to get a shot without defense and without any other type of pressure.   We want to work on game cuts at game speeds for game shots.  I want 10 gamelike cuts and shots for each cut that the shooter makes in our offense.  Out cuts off flare screens, curls, fades, popup, whatever terms or cuts you use in your program, and I want them to mix up shooting off the catch and shooting off the dribble.  What I stive constantly to get a handle on and communicat to our playes is where each one is in terms of the shots he can hit in games and which shots he needs to be working on to expand his game.  In the summer we are more concerned with expanding into the shots we are going to need for next season, and in the season our focus is practicing the games he will shoot in games.
4. Stage #4 is shooting with pressure produced by time, performance goals, one defender, or a combination of two or more of those things.  I think that this stage is important to track because I want our players to know what percentage they shoot in these types of drills so that they understand which shots they can shoot in games based on their execution in practice.  For the summer, keeping statistics for workouts provides motivation and helps prevent the monotony of just going through drills.
5. Being able to apply the fundamentals and game speeds to make shots in a 5/5 scrimmage. Players must shoot with the fundamentals and the types of shots that they have been practicing in the  development stages and in workouts.  After all, stages 1 to 4 mean nothing if there is no carryover to games.

We basically run through stages 1-4 for each individual workout whether it is in the off-season or in the individual development stage of practice.  Stage #5 takes place in our summer scrimmages or in the 5/5 stage of practice.  I do want our players to understand how this progression goes, what its purpose is and which stages they are where they should be and which ones they must improve on.

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THE 10 RULES OF BEING A GOOD SHOOTER

This article was written by Coach Randy Brown.

www.coachrb.com

www.winningplays.net

Are you a GOOD SHOOTER?

1.  Good Shooters spend time each day on proper shooting technique. Good Shooters use a chair to “form shoot” for 10 minutes before taking their first shot at the basket.

Poor Shooters spend time on their shooting technique when they “have time.”  Poor Shooters grab a ball and go to the three point line to begin launching shots.

2.  Good Shooters work on moving without the ball and “prepare” to shoot the ball before ever catching it.

Poor Shooters wait for their turn to shoot then think about getting a shot off.

3.  Good Shooters start close to the basket and make 5 straight before moving back.

Poor shooters shoot from all areas of the floor “hoping to make it.”

4. Good Shooters study other good shooters and follow their habits.

Poor Shooters shoot the ball the same way without any help from others.

5.  Good Shooters study the path of the ball and where the ball hits the rim. They make adjustments based on where the ball hits the rim; long or short? right or left?

Poor Shooters judge their shooting accuracy solely on whether the ball goes in or not.

6. Good Shooters square up to the basket before shooting, called “Ten Toes.”

Poor Shooters are not concerned with alignment they just want to quickly get their shot off.

7. Good Shooters shoot from an athletic position known as Triple Threat position. One quick movement from triple threat produces a solid shot.

Poor Shooters catch the ball in an upright position then take time to bend their knees before shooting. Poor shooters do not play in triple threat.

8. Good Shooters use their whole body to shoot the shot. They know that their LEGS make shots with good form.

Poor shooters shoot the ball with their upper body only and throw the ball at the basket instead of shooting it.

9. Good Shooters follow through consistently by “throwing their hand into the basket.”

Poor Shooters are inconsistent in their follow through resulting in inconsistent results.

10. Good Shooters understand the importance of BALANCE before, during and after the shot! The feet are alway sunder their head.

Poor Shooters shoot off balance from all different kinds of angles. Their feet are rarely under their head.

How many of these describe YOU as a shooter?

Your goal is to accomplish all 10 of the “Good Shooter” characteristics as you grow and develop as a basketball player.

What is your score out of 10 and how badly do you want to be a Good Shooter?

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

Whether you are a player interested in improving at shooting a basketball, or a coach looking to improve your collection of basketball shooting drills, The Coaching Toolbox has a great resource for you. The third interview in our teleseminar series is with Jay Wolf, the inventor of the Star Shooter Strap.

The interview is about 30 minutes long and Jay gives some basketball shooting tips such as holding your follow through, how to line up your entire body to get the ball straight, what you can do to correct a shot that misses left or right, and several other ideas that will help anyone to improve their shooting.

One of the areas that Coach Wolf stresses during the interview is the concept of practicing at a game pace. The Coaching Toolbox has a series of basketball workouts that force you to go at a game pace.

In our teleseminar archives, we have 10 minute interviews with Eddie Enriquez, a strength and agility trainer, and Ed Schilling, a former NBA assistant coach whose topic is basketball workouts for point guards.

Our next interview will be posted this coming Friday, May 19 and is with Steve Siebold, a best selling author and mental toughness coach for many world class athletes and several fortune 500 executives.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.