Erin Hoops

5 Tips To Improve Your Shooting

SOME SIMPLE SUGGESTIONS FOR SELF LEARNING

AND SHOOTING IMPROVEMENT:

(This material is copied from Tom Nordland's Basketball Shooting Newsletter Issue 28 - Aug/01, which you can subscribe to safely (based on this web site's personal experience) by clicking this blue link and completing the form http://www.swish22.com/newsletter.html )

1)  Where does your power come from?
Is your shot mostly from the upper body (arm, wrist and hand),
or is there a lot of power coming from lower body muscles?
Simply by noticing this, you will probably find a way to shoot
with more leg power.  When you do, observe the height and
ease of your shots.

2)  How high do you shoot?
Look at the bottom of the ball relative to the rim of the basket.
At the highest point, how high above the rim does the ball get?
Note if it's one foot, or two feet, or three feet, or higher.  Once
you know that, then ask yourself how high you could shoot.
Experiment!  Shoot 10 feet over the rim, 15 feet, 6 feet, 6 inches!
Play around with height.  The top of the backboard is 3 feet
above the rim (for rectangular backboards).  Just by
experimenting, your shots will probably start to be higher
and softer and find a larger and more forgiving target.

3)  What kind of spin do you impart on the ball?
Is it backspin, sidespin, dead ball?  Watch how you release the
ball and you'll see how the particular spin is created.  What
kind of spin do you think is preferable?  Play with spin, with
more or less backspin, more or less side spin.  Can you shoot
a dead ball?  Could you shoot a shot with forward spin, like
Tim Hardaway used to do?  Which spin gives you the most
consistency?

4)  Watch your shooting arm!
Does it straighten at or above the rim and stay there?  Or does
it lift up or move to the side or down?  Does it pull back?
Which motion do you think gives you the most consistent shot?

5)  Finally, watch your wrist and hand.
What do they do in the Release and Follow Through?  Is there
tension in your wrist and hand or are they relaxed?  Do you
power the shot by a wrist flipping action?  Is it an arm-throwing
motion?  Is it a pushing action?  Observe how you shoot and
then observe what happens if you change it.

These awarenesses and experimentations will lead to some great
learning, even if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
Just watching where your shots land and giving precise feedback
without judgment (it was 8" right and a foot long that time, it
was a foot short and straight that time, it was two feet long and
banked in that time...) will lead to natural experimentation.
If you're right a foot, just report that and shoot again.  Don't try
to adjust your shot a foot to the left the next time.  You'll find
your incredible body-brain-nervous system will correct
perfectly ... if you give good feedback and don't interfere.

If you miss and judge it as "bad," you probably will not see or feel
exactly what happened, and there will be little or no learning.
You can learn a lot from missed shots, but you have to accept
them and see and feel exactly what happened.  We need to
make mistakes to learn.  If we view mistakes as "bad," then
we'll interfere with the process of learning and perpetuate our
condition.

To purchase a shooting video by Tom Nordland click this blue link

http://www.swish22.com/video.html