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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 book is a marvelous story of a marvelous man and basketball coach. It was hard to put it down. It tells of Pete's life in coaching from the University of San Francisco to Michigan State and finally to the University of California where his team won the National Championship in 1959. It tells of his coaching of the gold-medal-winning Olympic Team in 1960, when our team, made up mostly of college players, beat the world's best professional teams. I actually played (a reserve role) against Pete's teams in 1959-61 when I played at Stanford, and I remember how tough they were. He won the championship in 1959 without any big name players, upsetting the likes of Cincinnati with Oscar Robertson and West Virginia with Jerry West. His teams won by executing basic fundamental plays and by playing incredibly strong team defense. He's a "coaches' coach!" Pete quit coaching at age 44 in 1960 because of health challenges. He got so into the games he would not eat for a couple of days leading up to game time, choosing rather to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee. He would be extremely nervous before and during games. (We'd call it being "stressed out" today.) He had to quit for his health, but he never quit giving coaching advice to young players, becoming a world ambassador for the sport. After coaching, he became Athletic Director at Cal, thinking it would give him the closeness to sports and basketball at Cal without the pressures of coaching. However, it happened to be the chaotic 60's in Berkeley, and after struggling with the new consciousness of those times for a bunch of years, he finally resigned in 1968. The book talks about many things, including his love for his wife, Florence, his lifelong companion and a great basketball mind in her own right. The author talks about "Mr. Newell and Mr. Wooden." There is a lot of mention of Bobby Knight, to whom Pete was like a father, certainly a mentor. Bobby's teams reflect the strict coaching style of Pete, even today. Pete also gives his opinions on the state of the game of basketball today, including his slant on the shortcomings of the NBA game and commissioner David Stern. He has many very enlightened recommendations for the game. We can only hope some of them are taken seriously. And finally the history of the famous "Big Man Camp" is written, showing Pete's tremendous dedication to the game in giving his wisdom to younger players for no fee. It's a fascinating book. Long live Pete
Newell! When I was in Dallas I got to coach an upcoming Big Man star from Evant, Texas, by the name of John D. Flippen. He's 7'4" tall, a sophomore at Baylor University, and, as his mother, Johnafaye says, "...still growing." He weighs 280 pounds now, and is one of these polite kids that says "Yes, sir" all the time. It's funny to call a young man his size a "kid," but that's what he is, probably 19 years old. He was in a clinic with kids as young as 11 and about 4' 4" high. I told the clinic that we can all learn from observing each other, even John and the youngest child there. John made a lot of progress with my method and I'll be able to coach him again at the Big Man Camp in Hawaii later this month. Indiana Girls' Champs: While in Indianapolis, I attended a practice session of the Martinsville High School girls' team. Allison, the daughter of my host, Coach Rex Harris, plays for the team, and the coach, Jan Conner, is the winningest active girls' coach in Indiana history (2nd all time). Her overall high school record is an awesome 425-66, and Martinsville has won the State Championship two of the last three years. Jan and I talked about shooting while her team was scrimmaging, and she mentioned how they need to shoot better. I offered to coach them a little that night and Jan quickly called over a girl named Cassie. After working with her for a brief time, a second showed up, then a third, and finally all seven were there. It was a delight to work with these bright, athletic and pretty young women. They "got" what I coach very quickly and were shooting quicker, higher and truer in a very short time. We only had about 30-40 minutes together, but their progress was very evident. Jan had seen and liked my video a few months ago, and bought an additional six videos for the team after the coaching. I will be tracking their progress this
year and Jan said she'll send me some game videos. It was a great
honor to meet her and coach these tremendous basketball players.
We took a photo and it will be on my Website soon. Go Artesians!!! I can't emphasize enough how important it is to see and feel what you do with the basketball!!! It really is the ONLY way we can truly learn something. I coach golf and my mentor puts it this way: "People are trying to change swings they can't feel!" Can you see the absurdity of that? The only way out is to stop and feel the roses. Feel (or awareness) is how we learn. But so many of us (including me in other areas of my life) are too busy to spend the time learning to feel. We just keep shooting (or swinging a golf club or tennis racket), hoping for different results. Take your focus off making the basket! Stop being so concerned with whether a shot went in or not and focus instead of feeling what you do. In my clinics, I first ask participants to discover (through feel and vision) five things about their shooting: (1) Where does your power come from? These simple "awarenesses," or what might be called "distinctions," will coach you in how to shoot a basketball. My coaching provides a specific answer (or method) for learning each of these distinctions, and I get very quick development. But even if you don't have the "answers" as to how it might best be, the body is very intelligent and will learn from the awareness of experience. For example, if you discover that you are shooting "On the way down" from the jump, you will probably stop doing that because it is very inefficient to do that. Yet there are some players, even in the NBA, who shoot that way. I'll bet they don't really "know" that they do it. If you shoot "At the top of the jump," as a lot of coaches say to do, and then experience shooting quicker, more "On the way up," as I coach, you will certainly choose shooting the latter way because it feels better, gives you more arch on your shots, gives a quicker, higher release, softer shots, better success, etc. Do you really see where the ball lands? If you see that you're consistently left, the body will automatically correct and send the ball more to the right. The key is NOT to try to "fix" it. With feedback, the body will know what to do. If you don't know exactly where the ball lands, how can the body correct itself? The point is that you can learn a ton on your own if you just learn to feel and see what you are doing. If, then, you can find a good coach who knows what's important in shooting and how to coach it (less telling and more "discovery"), you can make tremendous strides. Even on your own, you can make major improvement once you're aware of what's real about your shot, what's really happening. Good luck. Make "feel" more important
when you practice than making shots. I'll bet you improve your
shooting quite a bit in a short time. My video and coaching can
take you to a high level quite quickly, but then I learned it
on my own. No one coached me in the things I did, so you can
learn a lot yourself, maybe more than I know. "I saw a very high level of learning in those kids who were interested and came to learn. This is not for the `half-stepper.' Come to learn and improve and you will! "Once the players got the `automatic'
(constant Release) technique, they really took off. If they maintained
that form as they moved back, it was neat to watch their improved
percentages. My son attended a 3 day camp previously and felt
the Swish Method to be far superior." My 10 year old son, a right hander, has gotten into a habit of pushing the ball with his left hand while he is shooting. What can I do to change his shot to a one-handed motion? A: Dear "petros kids", My answer to your question is simple: Awareness, Awareness, Awareness!!! And also realize you can't "change" him. He has to do it for himself. The first question I have is... If he can't feel it, there will be no real learning. He must spend the time becoming aware and more aware of it until he can absolutely feel it ... when it happens, how it happens, etc. Only then does he have a chance to change it. Once he feels it, then do this: Agree with him on a "goal" of no pushing the ball with the left hand. Explain that it is more effective to have just one arm and hand shooting, not too. There are "fewer variables" that way. Then ask him to shoot and notice what is happening. Ask him to report to you what he feels. As he feels it more and more (with a goal in mind, now), he will slowly and naturally start to choose NOT to push with the hand. It may be frustrating for him at first because he doesn't feel it and just wants the new behavior, he wants it "fixed." Once he feel what he does, the learning can be fairly quick. Learning is usually incremental. It comes through awareness of what's really happening. Your telling him does not help. He MUST feel it. Sometimes there are spectacular and permanent "breakthroughs" that happen in a moment, but usually learning happens in small doses. Don't make it a big deal that he does push with the left hand. In fact, make it a joyful exploration of what he does. Tell him we all have habits we wish to break, and this can be a good experience for him in how to learn something new. It's absolutely "Okay" that he uses the left hand, but it's not what he and you want. Once he understands that he can just feel the left hand and "discover" what it does and watch it change, then lots of repetition with plenty of awareness should get him what he wants ... a more reliable way of shooting. You could buy a device to force him NOT
to use the left hand, but if he doesn't feel it, it will probably
return once the device is taken off. ...Johnson City, Tennessee - August 25-27
(OPEN) Being planned: Being considered for the fall: Call or Email me for more information. 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 ($20 add'l to include a Swish video, a $37 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 a minimum of $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. Also, a school or basketball association could engage me to coach their team or a couple teams for an extended period for the flat rate. Call for details and to set up such a visit. (*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: AUDIO TAPE ANALYSIS OF VIDEO: VIDEO ANALYSIS: Voice over will be used to assist the coaching.
Approx. cost $200 for up to 6 players. As I have to drive a long
way to do this and use a friend's digital video system, it is
not cheap or easy to do. When I have my own equipment and software,
then this will become more reasonable. Call or Email for further
information. 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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