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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. Articles
are written about this dilemma, and people are looking for an
answer. I wish to provide that answer. THE WOMEN I watched the 8 finalists for the women, all champions, record setters or MVP's for their respective teams and leagues: Betty Lennox of LA Tech, Courtney Bangart of Dartmouth, Cal Bouchard of Boston College, Jennifer Crow of Oklahoma State, Lisa Griffith of Arizona, Jill Morton of Louisville, Stacy Frese of Iowa State and Jenny. The shooting styles were all a little different, but there was one constant: the women were shooting with all or almost all of the available leg drive. Being less strong in their upper bodies, my guess is that women realize they have to rely more on lower body strength to shoot from. Thus, they do instinctively one of the major things I coach. The Releases varied a lot, with a few having a simple, straight- in-line action of the arm in the shot and follow through, but most of them having extra arm movement left and right in the follow through, which introduces variables. Some appeared to have better concentration and a more complete follow through than others. The shooting was intense and highly competitive. Jenny, the eventual winner, won by 11 to 7 over Lisa Griffith in a pressure-filled final after Lisa had bested her 18 to 17 in the semi-finals. Some shot a little higher and quicker than others, but they were all shooting very early in the jumping motion. THE MEN For the men, the finalists were Scoonie Penn of Ohio State, Harold Arceneaux of Weber State, Pepe Sanchez of Temple, Dan Langhi of Vanderbilt, Alex Jensen of Utah, A.J. Guyton of Indiana, Eddie House of Arizona State and Richie. Scoonie, Guyton, House and Richie were the best of the lot, with House and Richie meeting in the finals. House, with his high energy and powerful scoring ability, almost beat Richie, losing by only one point. Richie has a great Release action, but Eddie has an incredible connection with the target, though his shot motion is less controlled and stable than Richie's. One of the things I coach is to shoot on the way up, not at the top of the jump. I'm aware that many coaches tell their players to shoot at the top. They also tell them to "wrist flip" the ball, another instruction I feel sabotages good shooting. The performance of these 8 men shooters, the "cream of the crop," proves again that these ineffective instructions are alive and well. One way to identify what's happening with the use of the leg power is to rate the percent of leg power utilized with each shot. If the player shoots as early as possible on the way up, I call that 100% of the "available" leg drive. If he or she waits until the top of the jump, when all the upward energy has dissipated, I call that Zero %. If one waits until half the energy is gone, that's 50%. Some players (not in this competition) even shoot on the way down, and I call that "negative" leg drive. From my experience, outside jump shots need as high a percentage as possible for most effective shooting. With the men, the highest percent I saw was with Pepe Sanchez, Dan Langhi and A.J. Guyton, who were shooting in the 80-90% range. Richie Frahm shoots in the range of only 50-60% usually. (I had the chance to observe him in person both in Indianapolis during the College All-Stars - Harlem Globetrotter game and in Phoenix at the Nike Desert Classic in April of this year, so was able to see exactly how he shoots.) Though others used more leg power, Richie had the better Release motion. His shooting hand points directly in line with the basket and his motion is basically a simple pushing action with relaxed wrist and hand. It appears relaxed, quite consistent, and effortless. The guys who used more leg drive were also driving or flipping the ball with their wrists, thus adding variables and flattening their shots. The major fault I see in Richie is that he "hesitates" in the jumping action before shooting, shooting about half way between what I advocate and what the "top of the jump" coaching is. The result is a flatter trajectory than he could have, and more reliance on the less reliable upper body muscles to control the flight of the ball. Still, his Release and connection to the target are so good that he shoots, relatively speaking, extremely well. (If he were to go up against a "great" shooter like Jeff Hornacek or Detlef Schrempf, however, I feel he would lose every time. I heard through the grapevine that Jeff wins all the shooting competitions on the Jazz team, even though they have some terrific shooters, in Stockton, Eisley, Russell, etc.) The problem with Richie's form I see is that, under pressure, his flatter and less stabilized way of shooting can lead to little mistakes here and there and missed shots, and if confidence lags or if fatigue sets in, the shot can fall apart big time. Jenny, meanwhile, relies heavily on the legs to shoot from and, though her Release was not as pretty as Richie's, her shots were a little more consistent and pressure-proof. Thus she won by 2 points, 16 to 14. My guess is that she would win 3 out of 5 times if they had multiple shootouts, all because of the extra reliance on the bigger lower body muscles. (Watch the NBA finals and see if you can
tell what percent of the leg drive these incredible athletes
are shooting from.) Why is it that shooting is so inconsistent? I know the usual response is that defenses are tougher and shot blockers are flying by all the time. But I see other things that are also part of the problem. I think shooting technique is at fault. I see guys throwing and flipping the ball up there, using arm, wrist and hand muscles to control distance, rather than leg power. There are exceptions, of course, but most shots are flat, line drives. These shots take tremendous concentration and confidence to make consistently, especially when pressure is high, as it is for these guys, especially in the fourth quarters of close games. There is a different way! I coach a Method that is very different from the throwing/ flipping actions you see. With my coaching, players learn to control distance and direction. They learn a simple, relatively pressure-proof way to control ball flight. There are things you can learn that make shooting more automatic and controlled and less of a guess. A throwing motion can easily be overdone, underdone, or result in a pulling or pushing off line. A wrist flip is more of the same, attempting to control distance with the smallest muscles in the chain from the legs to the fingers. Since you're reading my Newsletter, you're probably aware of some of the things I coach. And if you have my video, you have a complete game plan for learning a superior way to shoot. Here are some comments on the shooting prowess I see in the two Playoff matchups still going on. LAKERS-TRAILBLAZERS The formerly great player and shooter Sabonis doesn't have the knees anymore to get his energy going upward, so his shots have become flat. That makes for a very small target, and if there's the slightest doubt or loss of focus, it's a miss. As the Trailblazers were behind and taking more and more outside shots and 3's in games 3 and 4 trying to catch up, they couldn't buy a bucket and the lead got larger and larger for the Lakers. If Hack a Shaq had worked, they might have stayed close in game 4, but when he made his free throws, it was over. Portland isn't making use much of their best shooter, Detlef Schrempf. He should be in there more and they could work plays to give him 3's and medium-range jumpers. If he can get open, un-rushed shots, he'll make 50-70% of them all day long because his form is so good, shooting high and soft, with great consistency. Smith and Stoudamire shoot with a lot of leg drive and a relaxed wrist and hand some times, and can really drop the shots when they do. Pippen is not as consistent, though in streaks he can knock the shots down very well. He's more of a pressure scorer, but doesn't have the consistency of a Schrempf. He, like Anthony, has more of a "throwing" action in his shots, Anthony's being especially unpredictable. I haven't seen Grant and Wells shoot enough to comment on their styles, though I see them making some nice shots at times. Wallace is a great shooter, second best after Schrempf in my opinion. Watch how his shot action is upward, giving him a high, soft shot. He has a very high Set Point, and from there pushes the arm upward with a relaxed wrist and hand. With his height, leaping ability and high, soft arch, he can be unstoppable. The Lakers are dangerous because they have a lot of guys who shoot fairly well: Rice is the best shooter, though occasionally streaky. It's very hard to block his high Set Point shooting, though I feel he takes it too high and ends up wrist flipping his jumpers. Very hard to block, however. Harper, Horry, Green, Fox and Fisher are very good shooters, though occasionally streaky. Fisher has a nice, high, upward Release with relaxed wrist and hand. Kobe is more a scorer than a shooter, but at times is unstoppable. He tends to throw the ball with the arm and hand, and that flattens the shot and makes the target smaller. Shaw, though dangerous around the basket, is not much of a threat from outside. His shot is jerky and all arm and hand, very flat and unreliable. If I were coaching Portland, I'd have his man back off him and dare him to shoot all game long. He shot 31% in 3's for the season, 32% in the Playoffs. Shaq is one-dimensional with his little jump hook. Congratulations to Shaq, by the way, for his 9 for 9 free throws in game 4, one of his best ever performances! It was amazing, but still I saw that the shots were very flat. To make a good percent of flat shots takes tremendous concentration. I feel he was just in a confident groove, feeling good about his shot, relaxed, and was able to send the ball to the same general area 9 times in a row. If he had had to shoot a few more, he might have missed them all. The quote in the papers the next day said his 3 year old daughter said to him "Bend your knees, Daddy," and that helped him. I don't think so. He's always bent his knees, and then straightened then, and THEN shot. He used no leg drive in his shots before, and shot that way in this game, as well. Maybe just thinking of his daughter calmed him down. Doug Collins pointed out how "high" his free throws were. Well, maybe they were a little higher than usual, perhaps 6" higher, but they weren't really high, not even medium high. They got maybe 12-18" above the rim instead of the usual 6-12", which is still flat. (Doug also said the shot they replayed and that he analyzed was "nothing but net," whereas in reality it banged hard off the back rim. A "swish" is almost impossible at the angle they were coming in.) My prediction is that Hack a Shaq is still alive and well. If he continues to make them, then I'll eat these words and congratulate him. But at the angle his shots are coming in, it takes tremendous concentration and confidence to sustain high performance. We'll see what he does. In Game 5 he shot a more usual 7 for 12, 58%, up a little from his recent performance but still poor. PACERS-KNICKS The Knicks are dangerous and keep coming back at you because of their two great offensive threats, Sprewell and Houston, and a great supporting cast. Houston's a great shooter and Sprewell is a great scorer, and if both of them are on, they can win games, just as Grant and Stackhouse could for Detroit. Johnson is a fine shooter, most of the time, and has a great heart. He shoots quickly and high. Ward and Childs are terrific at the 1 position, and can light it up at times. Ewing's catapult shot with all upper body goes in sometimes, but he's at best a streaky shooter, as is Camby. Watch how high overhead and even to the left of his head Camby takes his shots. From there, all you can do is throw the ball forward with the arm and hand and judging distance and direction is a guess. Thomas' shot, meanwhile, is pretty reliable. The Pacers have some great shooters (Miller and Mullin), and a somewhat streaky Jalen Rose. They get fine guard play from Jackson and Best, both able to drop shots very well. Smits is one of the best big men shooters (watch him shoot on the way up). Davis' jump shot is pretty effective but his free throw shooting has declined recently. He was as high as 87% for the month of December and 72% through February, but the stroke is getting a little jerky and becoming a "guessing game." He needs more of my coaching. Perkins' sling shot 3-pointer is exciting
but very streaky. I wouldn't want to have to rely on it to win
games. Croshere is a fine shooter, usually, though a little mechanical,
and McKey has a nice all around game, sort of like A.C. Green
for the Lakers. Those two are reliable, but not flashy. In summary, I don't see many truly great, always on, shooters in the NBA. Most are using too much upper body power and shooting flat shots. With little variables happening and a small target, consistent shooting is very challenging. Since these great athletes have terrific eye hand coordination, they can make some of their shots and you think the stroke is okay, that it's just "mental." But I say it's physical. The technique could be more reliable, more of a "sure" thing when they shoot. And when pressure is applied, as it is in these intense Playoffs, the variations become huge. That's why you see such disparages in the games, one time a team blowing out the other, and the next game the reverse happening. Most of these players would benefit from
a technique that gives them the fewest number of variables and
the largest room for error. The Swish Method offers that, and
I'd love the chance to coach them... I've talked about this before and I'll talk about it again. It's the master skill, Awareness. One of these days I'm going to write a Guide on how to coach oneself in shooting. A lot is written about how poor shooting is these days, and some of the problem is tied to the coaching of shooting. Mostly it just isn't coached! And when most coaches try to coach it in the little time they have with their teams, they rely on ineffective instructions like "Square Up," "Shoot at the top of the jump," and "Wrist Flip the ball." If these instructions are forced on kids, I think they interfere with the shooting technique that many kids have developed naturally. (If you haven't already, read my Article #4, written for The Basketball Highway, called "Taking the Lid Off: Challenging Conventional Shooting Wisdom.") I've heard stories of kids shooting better before coaching than after. And how some coaches come along and insist on their "method" of shooting, even though the kids have trouble with it and shooting percentages drop. For players of any age, but especially young kids learning the game, awareness of what you do is the paramount "skill" to develop. It really isn't a skill. It's a natural-born sense we all have. We're all highly aware as kids. Watch a baby with a colorful mobile. She or he is fascinated by the color and movement, the different shapes. As we grow up, this fascination and awareness lead to incredible learning. Unfortunately, after the age of 5 or 6 we start to "think" more and "be aware" less. Awareness and thinking are, as far as I can tell, two distinct worlds that cannot overlap. If you are feeling the wind on your neck, you can't be thinking of what you had for breakfast. If you're solving a math puzzle in your head, you can't be feeling the bat in your hands. Try it. See if you can think of something and discriminate something by touch or taste or smell at the same instant. I think you'll find you check in and out of awareness and thinking, but never both at the same time. We learn to do things instinctively or habitually, and thus we can think and do them at the same time, like driving a car. But to really learn something physical, you have to turn off the thinking and judging and "trying to fix it," and just be aware. With shooting there are some simple distinctions that will help you grow, and I'll just mention five of the key ones here: (1) How do you generate power -- where
does power come from? (2) How high do your shots go? (3) What kind of spin are you generating? (4) What does your shooting arm do throughout
the shot motion? ...and (5) What does your shooting hand
do and how does it finish? If you just entertained these 5 questions for a short time each day, I'll bet you'll learn a lot without any outside coaching. You thus become the Coach in this observation process. And when you see something that you don't
want, see if you can NOT FIX IT, but just continue to observe
it. If you want the ball to be higher than it is, your body-brain-nervous
system will find a way to do that. You might naturally figure
out, for example, that shooting earlier will give you more of
an upward action. Your body is very smart. The key is to observe
without interfering with the natural learning process. A coach
can help, if she or he helps increase awareness. And you can
do a lot by yourself with the same process ... awareness without
"fixing." A. The greater the height or arch of a shot, the steeper the angle coming down and the larger the basket appears to the ball in flight. The bigger the landing area, the greater the chance of a ball going in. The largest landing area would look like an exact circle 18" inside diameter, and would be that for a ball falling straight down from above the basket. A shot taken from just under the basket and very high, would approach this 90° angle. Since shots are usually taken away from the basket, the angle is less than 90°. Flat shots come in at 10-20° above horizontal. What might be considered a high arching shot is at least 45° above horizontal. I've heard that some studies indicate that ~60° is the most effective angle. Others say 50%. Most players' shots rise only a little above the basket, with the bottom of the ball getting maybe only 12-18 inches above the rim. Few are as high as the top of the backboard. A low trajectory shot creates a flat or what's called a "hot" shot. A shot is hot because gravity has not had a chance to slow it down, and such a shot will easily bounce, rattle or spin out. To distinguish "height", look at the bottom of the ball relative to the height of the rim. Start to differentiate different heights. The top of the backboard is 3' above the rim, so that's a good reference point. Let's categorize the height or arch this way: Low ............. 6" to 2' above the
rim From my experience, most shots are in the Low category. To learn about height, experiment with it! Take shots with different heights and observe the results. If you're shooting almost entirely with a throwing or wrist flipping kind of motion, your shots will tend to be more horizontal (with low arch). If you shoot more from the upward drive of legs and body (what I call UpForce), your shots will automatically become higher. They're also harder to block because you'll have a quicker release and a higher, upward angle. Find out what height is "too" high ... 6', 8', 10'? At some point, too high is achieved because it's harder to judge distance and the ball is starting to accelerate a lot due to gravity. But way too many shots are in the "too low" category, so give it a try. Stretch your boundaries and see what's possible. Experiment with shooting earlier in your jump. You'll find the shot goes higher without trying, and you will probably feel a sense of "effortlessness." Shooting high gives you both a larger landing area and a softer, more forgiving shot. Who wouldn't want to shoot that way for best results? HOME EXERCISE: Sit on a chair about 10 feet from a cylindrical waste basket. Note the shape and size of the opening. It appears as a flat oval, doesn't it? That is what the ball sees if it's coming in at a flat angle (10-20°). Now stand up and move toward the waste basket. Note the shape and size of the oval as you approach. Do you see it get larger and larger as your eyes approach from a high angle? When you're about 8' away, standing, that might be like a 45° angle shot coming in toward the basket. When you get 5-6' away, that might be like a 50 degree angle, and closer will show you 60 degrees, 70 degrees, etc., very high shots. With your head directly over the waste basket, you can see what an angle of 90 degrees looks like. Can you see how a ball coming in from a
high angle has a larger landing area? (You can do the same thing
with a coin on a table top or the circle at center court on a
basketball floor. In the latter case, you become the ball.) I'm in the process of re-designing my Site, so look for a completely new look in the next few weeks. For a shortcut "Guide" to links
to my video, articles, etc: (http://www.clip2.com/p.jsp?i=DEBF594615CDD3118000080020B1F147) Cincinnati - July 8-9 (?) Call or Email me for dates and times. They'll also be put on my Website and in this Newsletter as they become firm. BAY AREA COACHES/PARENTS: I'm available to coach half day shooting clinics in the Bay Area of northern California. If you have 10 or more kids and a gym, contact me and we'll design a clinic. The cost is $35/player* for a 3 1/2 hour experi- ence in becoming a Great Shooter ($50 including a Swish video, a $30 value). OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY: I'd love to come to your city to put on Clinics. My rate for 2-3 days of coaching is $2,000 plus expenses. If we do 5 Clinics of about 18-20 players at a cost of $35/player*, that would pay for the visit. The Clinics would be 3 1/2 hours each, giving enough time for lots of individual coaching in addition to the powerful group exercises. Call for details and to set up such coaching. (*Price includes an administration fee for the organizer(s).) 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. TRAINING COACHES: 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. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter: If you ever want to Unsubscribe, please
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