|
Return to Newsletter Index page
ATTENTION: You are receiving this newsletter
because you subscribed to it. If you'd like to remove yourself
from this mailing list, please see the instructions at the end
of this newsletter. Our subscriber list is NOT made available
to other companies or individuals. We value every subscriber
and respect your privacy. 1. Welcome from the Coach "As a side note I find myself coaching
in the wrong manner - getting too excited when shots are made
with a perfect swish. We had one girl who has definitely been
practicing with five 3's in a row. It was really neat to see
her use her legs, shoot on the way up and fly the ball to the
basket. She is the smallest girl on the team and appeared to
make the shots effortlessly. I admit that I was a little too
positive after that effort but it sure was fun to see it all
come together. We'll keep working and hopefully the girls will
continue over the summer." (Editor's note: In my Coaching 101 article that's posted on my "For coaches" section (http://www.swish22.com/forcoaches.html), I wrote about how judgment affects learning, and if a coach gets too excited by "good" results (saying "nice shot," etc.) and unexcited about "bad" results (says nothing), the student starts to focus more on repeating the "good" and avoiding the "bad," rather than focusing on awareness of what's happening. The awareness of experience leads to learning and improved performance, but if you're just hoping for better performance and trying hard to get it, the whole process is interfered with. It's not "wrong" to get excited when shots are made. Just realize it tends to cloud the experience when you are judging results. The kids will naturally "try" to repeat success and avoid failure. Sometimes you just can't help but point how wonderful a player's shooting has been. And that's healthy and valuable. But don't do it after every shot. If you're always praising success and either criticizing failure or, by silence, showing an aversion it, the kids will get the message that you're really into performance more than learning. Most powerful is to keep them focused on what really happened, with the intent to learn from every shot, especially the "less than successful" ones. When you do that, results will start to soar because the kids are focused on what leads to learning and success, awareness of what actually happened relative to the target.) ------------------------------------------------------------ My focus now is on recommendations that will help shooting, not on pointing out all the failures in the game. But I wanted to make a quick comment on shooting in the recent NBA playoffs. In one game between Boston and New Jersey, the two teams together missed 138 shots (fields goals and free throws combined)!!! Boston missed 74 and New Jersey 64! The combined field goal percentage was 34%, including layups and dunks. Isn't that amazing? And three days later the Lakers missed 72 shots in losing badly to the Kings. In the final against the Lakers, the Kings, one of the better shooting teams in the NBA, shot only 16 for 30 from the line, 53%!!! What I see is that the motions are not repeatable. Most of the players don't have a motion that can go on automatic and is totally predictable. Most of them are throwing and flipping the balls up there with potential variations in the motions each time, and the shot is not stabilized by the leg power. The best that most of them can hope for are "streaks" of good shooting, which happens, followed by streaks of equally poor performance. When they're relaxed and confident shots can drop, and sometime drop very well. If they're confidence gets shaken, then they're in trouble. Only a few of these great athletes are consistently good shooters and some have no clue. Having here the best teams in the world shooting this badly reveals, again, the state of shooting in the game today. My Swish Method offers an answer for the variability and the flat, hot, unpredictable shooting. If a stroke is not repeatable, when pressure builds and fear and doubt rear their ugly heads, things can easily go from bad to worse. ------------------------------------------------------------ I assume you subscribe to my shooting newsletters because something in what I'm saying intrigues you and maybe you can see the truth in my message. I appreciate that and am grateful for the large numbers of people who have joined you and me (close to 1,700 now). MY NEXT VIDEO Many of you have ordered my Swish video, and I thank you for that. I've been told it's one of the finest shooting videos ever made. It was an "inspired" creation. It came out of nowhere during a seven year period of inspiration, research and practice. It's been over five years since it came out in February of 1997, and I feel it's time for the sequel, "Son of Swish," or "Beneath the Planet of Swish," or something like that. My intent is that it be a definitive video on how to coach shooting. I expect to get together a couple dozen kids from 10 years old and older (adults, too), and show them "before" and "after" my coaching, with shots in the transition as I coach them. I'm also going to highlight all the different ways a player can shoot and explain and demonstrate how the Swish Method is the more effective way to shoot. YOU CAN HELP As I'm in the planning stages now for the video, I thought to ask you to help me with the structure of the tape. Please write me with ideas of things you would like to see in a video that proposes to teach you how to coach this great skill. What kinds of things can you see are needed? If a video is to be a powerful tool to help train you and your fellow coaches, what needs to be there? If you were a volunteer youth coach with little time to coach the skill, what might most appeal to you? I will appreciate your ideas, as they will help me be more creative. The video is going to be filmed mostly in September, and I hope to complete it to be available by late fall. I'm starting to work on the structure and script now, so there is time for you to influence me. Please review any shooting videos you have now and/or how you've been taught to teach the skill and look for what was helpful and what was missing. What kinds of instruction have been the most powerful for you? For example, a mentor of mine, upon seeing the Swish video, could see that I might have added examples of what doesn't work to compare and contrast with what I'm teaching. I could have shown shot motions that are full of variables, under-powered, funny spins, too flat, etc. From that I realized my next video needs to show all the different ways to shoot, inter-mixed with the demonstrations of a method that really works. THANKS FOR YOUR IDEAS! I'll share your video ideas in future newsletters and give credit to those who come up with helpful, usable ideas that make it into "Swish -- the Sequel." You can email them to me at: Tom@swish22.com. Thank you! ------------------------------------------------------------ I have now placed a document in my "For Coaches" section that has additional coaching ideas in mostly a Q&A format. You can go to the web page to read the items, with links from and back to the Index to make the reading easier than in a newsletter. Here's where to go: Collection 2. You can read Collection 1 there also. ------------------------------------------------------------ BALANCE PLAY AND LEARNING THIS SUMMER As the summer comes upon us, I know a lot of you will be attending clinics and camps to develop your basketball skills. You'll be making effort to find organized workouts so you can develop your skills. I'll be putting on a number of shooting sessions around the country, so I'll see some of you. My coaching to you is to be aware of what's happening and find ways to make the "most" of your experiences. Many camps, I've heard, are devoted mostly to kids having fun. They provide an environment of large groups, lots of coaches, and lots of games. If the numbers are high, then it's not really possible to give much individual instruction. Large groups keep the cost lower, but the purpose of summer camps should be to learn things, not just play all the time. Hopefully you'll find a camp that combines the best of both. The best learning needs awareness, practice and time. It also requires feedback and communication. Just playing a lot of games and doing group things (calisthenics ,group dribbling exercises, running, etc.) can be helpful and will strengthen you, but the best learning requires a different kind of environment. My advice to you is to become an observer of yourself and the environments you're in. When it's time to play, then really go for it! Play hard and enjoy it. If there's a chance to learn something, then really go for that! If you see the opportunity to learn a new skill (how to set screens, how to fake, dribbling with your off hand, shooting, etc.), go all out for it. Don't just be there passively. If a coach is there, ask her or him to help you personally. He or she might have just the instruction you need to move to the next level. If you can't get a coach to work with you in person, then at least be the best "observer" you can, observing yourself and others. Watch how your fellow campers do things. If someone sets picks better than you or shoots better than you, for example, see if you can tell how it's being done. What's different about that player's movement and shot? You can learn a lot just by observation. And when you do things, become a "super observer" of what you do and how you do it and what the results are. By seeing and feeling what is happening, you will grow. And if you can figure out the ways that really work (even through someone else), then you will be on your way to learning them for yourself. I've heard it put this way: "When you can see how something works in another person, then the capability to do it yourself is already there ... you 'own' it. It's then just a matter of letting it out, discovering it from within." Remember the choice is yours to either play or learn. Both are happening at the same time, too. A lot of play is connected to learning, and learning can be a form of play. If you want to "goof off," then go for it and enjoy it. But don't goof off all the time. Keep returning to play-for-learning and learning-as-play. Too much mindless (awareness-less) activity will limit your possibilities for growth. And you want to grow in basketball to prepare yourself for the next challenges. What I'm trying to say is be "responsible" for your own learning this summer. No one else can do it for you. Most of your experiences will be self-generated and unorganized, not led by a skillful coach. How you approach each of your basketball experiences will affect the quality of your learning and development. With this attitude, everything you do this summer can help you grow, while having a ton of fun, too. ------------------------------------------------------------ I invite you to bookmark my Website (http://www.swish22.com) so you can go there easily to catch my latest comments on shooting. You can read about my video there (including endorsements, testimonials, reviews and an Overview of the video), my coaching, and the many articles on shooting I've written. You can see video clips and archived back issues of this Newsletter and, of course, subscribe, if you're not already getting this on a regular basis. Please tell others about my site and my
video. Send them the URL (http://www.swish22.com) and let them
know there's a proven method for better shooting. Note I'll be in Georgia June 6-13 for a bunch of clinics and several Coaches' Trainings and then in Indiana from June 21st through June 25th. Check the clinic schedule for the latest details. If you'd like to organize some shooting
clinics or camps, please call or email me. I'll be scheduling
Coaches' Trainings at each stop as much as possible, too. Stay
in touch for them. ***Important: Please note that when you "subscribe," Topica, the company that manages the free list for me, will send you a "confirmation" email and offer you two ways to "confirm." I SUGGEST YOU USE THE SECOND OPT ION! The first option is to click on a link to Topica where they will ask you open a free account with them. This is okay to do, as they have good free mailings lists, discussion groups, etc., but I think most of you just want to subscribe to the newsletter. You do that most easily by the second option, just REPLYING to the email. That's all you need to do, no need to key anything. Click on this email -- it will start the subscription process: Subscribe me. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter, just send a blank email to the following: Unsubscribe me ------------------------------------------------------------ |