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and respect your privacy. I believe I have an answer. I've developed a method based on discoveries I made as a high school star over 40 years ago and recently rediscovered and perfected. It can help every player, from young beginners up to and including the best players in the world. My Method is both simple and Universal.
The principles are so easy to understand and apply that anyone
and everyone can become a good to great shooter, and mastery
is possible for those with high discipline and commitment. It's
even possible to learn how to coach this great skill, once you
"get" the principles, both intellectually and physically.
Stay tuned for different views and discussions of shooting. In the college scene, I saw stats about 1/3 way into the Pac-10 season in California where teams were shooting less than 60% as a team. Basketball broadcasters call players who shoot 70% from the foul line "good" shooters these days. Before the decline in shooting, 70% was a mediocre performance, and now it's being lauded as being quite good. Shooting in NBA, the premier showcase for the game, is experiencing the same decline. In an April 23, 1999 article in the San Jose Mercury News by Jesse Barkin, these stats are revealed: --The league average of 91.3 points per
game, heading into Thursday's games (April 22nd), is the lowest
since the shot clock was introduced in 1954-55. Included in my Swish video package is a 35 page Swish Workbook. In there I've published statistics on shooting that I got from the Federation of State High School Associations in Kansas City, MO and from the NCAA in Overland Park, Kansas. These statistics show the gradual decline in shooting percentages from the 1980-81 season through the 1995-96 season. In the categories of free throws, field goals and 3 Pt. shots, there was a consistent decline in every category except free throws for girls and women. For high school boys, the decline in 3 Pt. shooting was especially dramatic, 9%, from 37% in 1987-88 (the first year stats were kept) to 28% in the 1995-96 season. In the collegiate ranks, men's field goals dropped 4.1% from 48.0% in 1980-81 to 43.9% in 1995-96. Three Pt. shots dropped for the men from 38.4% in 1986-87 to 34.2% in 1995-96, and for collegiate women from 33.6% in 1986-87 to 30.8% in 1995-96. An interesting statistic is that while the high school boys were dropping from 37% to 28% in 3 Pt shots as shown above, high school girls dropped only 5% from 34% to 29% in the same period and ended up shooting 3's better than the boys in the 1995-96 season. A Note: girls and women realize they don't have the upper body strength to get a basketball easily up to 10' from medium to long-range, so they naturally use more lower body action in their shots. In the 1999 NCAA 3 Pt championship, the women's champ, Amy Geren from Clemson, dueled the men's champ, Jason Terry from Arizona, at the end. Amy won! I mention this because a large part of my coaching is to shoot more from lower body action and less from the upper body. From what I see, that's why Amy won! Both were great athletes, but Amy had more control because, in my opinion, she used more of the large, stabilizing, lower body muscles. Girls and women at all levels need to learn
to go more upward with this strength, and when they do, they'll
get all the power they need to shoot from all distances. One
of my coaching suggestions is to "Never under jump!"
If you feel too much power, you can always aim higher, but if
you're under-powered, you'll have to throw or flip the ball with
arms and hands, and this flattens the arch, introduces more variables,
and reduces control and accuracy considerably. Here are my comments on the better shooters still playing: INDIANA has one of the best all-time clutch shooters in Reggie Miller. His Release is unique in the way his hands finish - not the kind of thing you can coach - but it works for him. He uses his lower body power beautifully and has a quick-snapping, repeatable Release. Obviously his mental powers are considerable, too. And Chris Mullin is another great shooter. You might notice how focused on the basket Reggie and Chris are for those 2-3 seconds as they shoot. Rik Smits shoots very well for someone 7'4". Watch and you'll see he shoots very early in his jump and his wrist and hand are quite relaxed. For the KNICKS, Sprewell and Houston are their main offensive threats. Houston is the better shooter form-wise as I see it, and Sprewell is a fantastic "scorer." When they are both hot, the Knicks are very dangerous. For PORTLAND I like the shooting forms of Jimmy Jackson, Rasheed Wallace, Walt Williams and Arvydas Sabonis. Isaiah Rider can light it up, but he shoots late in his jumping motion. That creates a more horizontal motion and a very flat shot, which is less reliable than a high arching shot. For the SPURS, Steve Kerr has the best form I see (though he's in a mental funk right now, I think), and Sean Elliott has nice touch and form. Mario Ellie has a nice stroke on his set shot, and Tim Duncan shoots quite well for a big man. The things to look for are the way these shooters' hands finish, and whether or not they are shooting from powerful body/leg action. Better shooters have relaxed wrists and hands and shoot early in the jump, giving a more vertical shot trajectory. A few shooters I'm going to miss: I feel
Detlef Schrempf of the Seattle Supersonics is the best big-man
shooter in the league. Watch him carefully next season. If you
remember, he was second to Larry Bird many years ago in the NBA
3-Pt Championships and has been a great shooter all his career.
I'll also miss Jeff Hornacek's simple jump shot motion and beautiful,
high arching shots. I enjoyed watching Rex Chapman make those
long, high shots, and I appreciated Vlade Divac's nice shooting
touch. When a good shooting team comes along, like Gonzaga this year, they can beat superior teams (that is, bigger, stronger, more experienced teams) with their team shooting skill. The best thing you could encourage your team to do during the summer is to work on their shooting. It's the master skill. Of course, physical conditioning, dribbling, passing, picks and screens, rebounding and all the other skills are important and need to be mastered. But if you can't shoot, you're at a real disadvantage. TOO MANY GAMES, LITTLE TIME FOR PRACTICE! Too many games can be a problem. I remember when I played, back in the Stone Age (the 50's), it was illegal to play in any organized games during the off season. Today I hear some kids play 30-50 games during the summer. It might be an example of too much of a good thing. Kids need time to practice and just hang out, play 3 on 3, work on their shots. If it's games, games and games, always under the micro- scope of Performance, growth gets stunted. It becomes always "How did you play?" rather than "What did you learn?" If performance is overly stressed, growth and development will lag. Try to keep a balance for your kids and teams, a balance of Learning, Enjoyment and Performance. In the golf work I do, we call it the L-E-P Triangle (something we learned from Tim Gallwey). If you focus too much of just one of these legs of the triangle, you get out of balance and the whole thing collapses. It's okay to stress one or the other for periods of time, but keep a balance overall or the triangle will collapse. An example from golf is the golfer who is so addicted to performance that it's all s/he sees and plays for. If this goes on too long, all the fun disappears and learning stops and you hear of him or her wanting to "quit" the game. And the person who spends all his/her time on the practice range and rarely, if ever, tests him- or herself on the course loses the growth and development that happen when in competition. And the laid back person who never keeps score and talks only about how much "fun" the game is, probably has not developed the finely tuned game that is possible through measuring progress thru score. If there is balance, there is true development.
Devote a lot of your practice time to learning and enjoyment.
The Performance probably doesn't have to be "practiced."
It's the default commitment, it's the air we breathe and don't
even notice anymore because it's everywhere. Keep your eyes and
ears out for ways to balance the triangle. Mark Montieth's May 8th article: Shot doctor helps Dale Davis at the foul line Bill Benner's May 20th article: This playoff win likely was born in Dale Davis' summer and fall Scan through my Website to see all the things I've written. Besides the three major articles I've written on "The Trouble With Shooting," there is a Q/A section, and a page called "Danger Signs - How to tell if your team needs work on shooting," among other items. I'll be adding information and links from
time to time, so please bookmark my Site and return to it occasionally.
And please pass this Newsletter and my URL (www.swish22.com)
to others. Thanks. I am now developing a schedule for half-day Clinics in these cities: Minneapolis/St. Paul: 14 clinics planned, July 23rd - August 2nd Atlanta: We're considering clinics here for week of Aug. 16th. If you can help or have ideas of gyms, basketball organizations or coaches, please call! Bay Area, California: I'm available to do half day clinics in northern Calif. If you have a group of at least 10 players and can provide a gym, I will come to you. Cost $35/person, $50 including my Swish video ($30 value). Other locations: I can come to your city. Call for information. Cost will depend on travel requirements and numbers of participants. Call or Email me for more details. PRIVATE COACHING: I'm also available for private coaching in the Bay Area of California. I live near Santa Cruz, which is near San Jose in northern California. Call or Email for more information. VIDEO ANALYSIS: I am also developing a business in Video
Analysis. If you send me a video of your team or specific players,
I will return it with a new tape showing each player and specific
comments and coaching for him or her. Action shots will show
in stop action, slow motion and regular speed exactly what I
see and ways for development. Voice over will be used to assist
the coaching. Approx. cost $150. Call or Email if this is something
you want to consider. Go to the Swish Website, find the section about the "Shooting Newsletter," key in your Email address and click on the "JoinList"graphic. An Email will be sent automatically back to you asking that you confirm that you want to be on the List. Reply in the affirmative and you will be added to the list and receive a password. There is no need to save or record the password because ListBot will always quickly Email it back to you when asked. It's needed only to change your Email address or to Unsubscribe. You can also just Email me back that you want to Subscribe and I'll take care of it. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter: If you ever want to Unsubscribe, please
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