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and respect your privacy. This Newsletter is a vehicle for communicating what I know about shooting. I see the game in deep trouble because there are very few great shooters any more, and few people know how to coach great shooting. Coaches and players everywhere lament the decline in this master skill. Wonderfully designed plays are run to perfection, a player is opened up for a 10-15' shot or a 3, and then the shot is missed. It even happens so often that coaches and players aren't surprised when the shot is botched. Failure is kind of expected, but it's still disappointing. 70% Free Throw shooting is now considered "pretty good." Articles are written about this dilemma, and people are looking for an answer. Legendary Coach Pete Newell recently looked at my video and liked it. He told me he feels every NBA player should have it. He said his NBA friends (he's a scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers) felt there were only two pure shooters in the NBA draft this year: Wally Szerbiak from Miami (Ohio) and Trajan Langdon from Duke. That's out of maybe 100 college players. Pete said he's deeply saddened by the state of shooting in the game today. I believe I have an answer to this dilemma, a method based on discoveries I made as a high school star over 40 years ago. It can help every player, from young beginners up to and including the best players in the world. I'm convinced that pure shooting can be learned, that it's not something your either born with or not. 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. Intention is weakened by doubt or fear. When I go to shoot, I have a different level of Intention than someone who feels s/he is a poor shooter. I'm determined to make the shot and will be surprised if I don't. The poor shooter may "want" to make the shot, but is expect- ing a lesser level of performance than I am. The determination is weakened by this view of the past. This is normal and natural. We will tend to doubt ourselves when we've failed to do it in the past. I was a fast starter. Somehow in my upbringing I had so much success, I expected success, and that "expectation" carried me to continued success. It's a kind of upward spiral. I'm sure there are many more people who have a conversely "downward" spiral, doubting themselves and then mis-performing because of the doubt, and then expecting more failure, etc. etc. Intention is not the same as wanting something. It's much stronger than that. It's more who you are "being" as you go to shoot. If your Intention is strong, then you are being someone who is clear and focused. You're not distracted by emotion or doubt. You intend for the ball to fly through the air to "dead center" in the basket. If we want too much or "try" to make something happen, we usually interfere with the performance. It becomes emotional, maybe our self image is riding on it. Remember Yoda says, "Do Not Try, ... Do!" Intention asks the body to do its best to accomplish what it is you intend. It calls forth maximum effort because it is something you CHOOSE to happen. The next time you go to practice shooting, notice how strong your Intention is to put the ball in the basket. You can rate it from 1 to 10. A "10" is maximum Intention without fear, doubt. You SIMPLY intend for the ball to go into the basket. All your physical resources are focused on that end result. If your Intention is less than a 10, notice what else is intended that is interfering. Maybe you don't want to "look bad" while you shoot. Maybe you don't really want to succeed because then people will have a different expectation of you next time, and you don't want that pressure. Maybe you think you're not very athletic so you could never really be good at something like this. Whatever is interfering, you can see that your Intention to make the shot is watered down somehow. Another way to say it is, "What are you committed to?" By this awareness of What IS regarding
your level of Intention, you will learn something about it. You'll
see what interferes with it first. Then you will start to see
how it can be increased. You'll discover that you can just Intend
for something to happen and then get out of your own way and
you just naturally move toward that goal. You'll start to see
how incredible your body/brain/nervous system is. I don't mean to "dis" Shaq. He's doing the best he can with the coaching he has had, the pressure he's under, the constant media attention, etc. For him to learn to shoot better will take tremendous focus and commit- ment, along with inspired coaching that he comes to trust and learn to apply. I hope I will have the chance to coach him. Why can players shoot well in practice and then fail in games? If a player can make 70-80% in practice sometimes, people think the player can do that well in pressure situations, and the only difference is mental. In a way, they're right. It IS mental, but the cause is not mental. I believe shooting a basketball through a metal hoop is a physical act. There's one's body, the floor, the ball and the basket. It takes physical muscles contracted and relaxed in certain sequences to launch the ball through the air toward the target. I'm not aware of any "mental" process that can make that happen. However, it "becomes" mental. We make it mental when we add thoughts about how to do it, who we are as shooters, what others see in us, what others may be thinking about us, etc. etc. ad infinitum. When we see ourselves perform poorly, we begin to doubt ourselves. Animals don't seem to do that. An animal might fall off a limb when making a rushed jump, but we don't see it pause and seem to be criticizing itself for being "a bad jumper." Cats don't miss birds and then hit themselves in the head and appear to be saying, "You dummy! Why can't you get the bird leap right?" No, it's a human condition. So can we accept that it's a physical act that we make mental? The problem I see is that the physical motion for a less effective shooter has a lot of variables in it. Which of the variables is going to "vary" is not known by this kind of shooter. In practice, when she or he is most relaxed, the technique works. The variations are minimal, and the players gets away with slightly left or right, short or long actions that still manage to find the basket and go in. However, when there's pressure, then anything can go wrong. The (somewhat) complicated motion can easily mis-fire because it is not grooved and automatic. The wrist, hand or fingers can get a little excited and send the ball a little too long, or a little left or right. If it's a "throwing" motion, the throw can become jerky very easily. When lots of muscles are involved and there's no discipline as to which to fire when and how much, then a sort of "chaos" can set in. I call it a "guessing" game. The Free Throw motion for a large number of players at all levels is just that, a Guessing Game. That's why percentages in the 40's and 50's are not that rare. Some of our greatest athletes can't make more than one out of two Free Throws. Anybody can throw it up there and make one out of two. The basket is large, and the back- board, being directly behind it, rebounds the ball back toward the basket. My coaching is to make it a "sure"
thing rather than a"guessing game!" Find a motion you
can do over and over with little variation. My video tells how
to do that. My articles talk about it, too. If you just observe
yourself or your team shoot, you'll see how you/they add variation.
Find a way to minimize variables and you'll shoot better. I just did 13 shooting clinics in Minnesota, from July 23rd to August 2nd. They went very well, though the heat and humidity were record-breaking and very uncomfortable. The kids, from ages 9 to 17, were very attentive. Shooting is a fascinating skill to everyone in the game, especially the young players. What I noticed and learned (again), is that my words do not mean much. And my demonstrations, though they can be impressive, don't make much of a difference either. My guess is that a demonstration by a peer has more value than something I do because the students can relate to someone their own age better. I've been told that young children at a playground focus most strongly on the kids who are just a little older. In regard to learning, the only thing that really makes a HUGE difference is the direct experience of each student. When they pay attention to what they do and learn how to distinguish different things -- too much of this, too little of that, how this feels, how that feels -- then learning takes place. Experience is really the ONLY TEACHER. If I were to rate the value of different modalities of learning, it might look something like this: Method of Communication........Learning
Effect.....Value In learning to shoot a basketball, only when the students truly make the distinctions themselves (shooting from the legs, Set Point, Release, Arch, Follow Through, etc.) do they start to make the major shifts that lead to great shooting. So, kids, trust your experiences. Words
and demonstrations can only help lead you to the personal, physical
discoveries that will teach you to shoot. Coaches of kids: Talk
less and get the kids doing things more. Guide them to the exploration
and (self) discoveries that will really help them learn things. OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY: I'm available to come to your city to do clinics. The rate will depend on the number of clinics and students and the travel time involved. Call for details and to set up such a clinic or a series of clinics. Keep checking my Website at http://www.swish22.com or call or Email me if you'd like more details. I'll update the schedule on my Website when it changes. PRIVATE COACHING: VIDEO ANALYSIS: 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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