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and respect your privacy. 1. Welcome from the Coach I gave some shooting camps in New England recently and was struck by something I want to pass on. What I realized (not for the first time) was that my students/players are not as aware as I think they are. Sometimes they can be extremely aware and what you teach them sticks very well. But more normally, especially with the short attention spans of today's kids, they drop in and out of awareness of what they're doing . What triggered this was a class of about 15 where, in the middle of Day One of a two-day, 8-hour camp, I had the feeling it was the one of the best learning in a group I had ever seen. I even told them that after one particularly effective session. They weren't the most athletic group I've worked with, but after a few exercises they all seemed to really "get" what I was coaching. I could see it in their stances and Set Points as they were shooting back and forth with a partner, and with how the balls were flying up high with consistency and beautiful spin. What surprised me was how the next day most of them had lost what they had learned and had to re-learn it. It was like it was totally gone. I had to re-focus them several times to get back to where they were earlier in Day One and it continued to be tenuous throughout the session for some of them. NOT AS AWARE AS I THOUGHT What I realized afterward is that they were not as aware as I thought. Though they were "doing" what I had asked and lead them to do, but it apparently wasn't deep learning. For a time they understood it and could do it over and over, but it wasn't deeply ingrained yet. Now I know to expect that kids are scattered these days and it's easy for them to lose feel and confidence pretty quickly. I was just taken off guard in this case because so many of them had been doing so well. DON'T ASSUME THEY "HAVE" IT The lesson I learned was not to assume that your students really have "gotten" a new motion or action, even if it looks like they do. The learning may be shallow. They may be able for a short time to repeat a certain action, but unless the learning is taken deeper, it may be lost very easily. Their own self-conversation, which you cannot hear, may also be impeding things, statements like "What's wrong with me?", "Why can't I get this?", etc. (How to address that is a piece for whole 'nother newsletter.) HOW CAN WE MAKE IT DEEPER? I was thinking afterward what I could have done to help them take the new stroke to a deeper level, and I have some suggestions. I'll be experimenting with this in my next few clinics and camps and will discuss it in the next couple of months. 1) COMPARE AND CONTRAST The first thought I had was, after they started to learn the new motion and have some consistency with it, to have them compare it to the "old" way they shot. (Note: In the beginning of my clinics, as a prelude to learning something new, I have them experience how they currently shoot with focus on seven different areas of their shots -- stance, set point, power, arch, spin, etc. I explain to them that this way their bodies and minds have reference points for learning. If they don't experience how they "used to" shoot, if it's just a big blind spot, then it's much too easy to slip back into old habits without even knowing it.) At the point where they seemed to really "get" the new stroke, if they could be lead to experience the old and new, back to back, to be able to compare and contrast, that would have lead to greater feel and, thereby, greater and deeper learning. 2) TAKE IT TO EXTREMES Another way to deepen learning is to have the players exaggerate the new motion, the new steps, the new way of blocking out, whatever skill they're working on. Let's use the example of bringing the ball to a different Set Point. Some players have it too far to the right (let me assume it's for right handers) to where the center of the ball is aligned with the right ear or right shoulder rather than the eye. Others may be bringing it overhead too far, which I feel creates wrist-flipping and/or throwing rather than the upward pushing action I recommend. If brought above the head, I advocate that the back of the ball to be around the front of the head. This encourages, even demands, that the motion be an upward pushing action. Strong players may be shooting with a Set Point too low, and younger, weaker players may have it too high for their strength. I coach each of them to an appropriate height and all of them to have the ball aligned with the eye for greatest accuracy. Let's say, then, that they all start to shoot with such an individualized Set Point for them. After a period of shooting back and forth with a partner or against a wall or to the basket to develop and learn the new Set Points, it would be powerful to ask them to stretch their experience to demonstrate how well they are really feeling it. Here's how you might do it: Have them all bring it way overhead, on purpose, a little (like half way back) and then all the way to the back of the head, and even further, if they can. Then ask them to shoot with the ball aligned with the right shoulder on purpose, and then in line with the ear, and even in line with the nose and the left eye. Then suggest a Set Point that's below where they are learning to have it, and then higher. Anything to stretch their experience. When they can do all those different motions, on purpose and with accuracy and repetition, they HAVE to be feeling more stuff. If they weren't, they couldn't do it. After testing the motion in every which way, then ask them to set the ball at the new place they wish to learn. I'll bet they "get" it a lot better. 3) DO IT WITH EYES CLOSED Another great way to enhance learning is to do it with your eyes closed. Feel increases dramatically when the eyes are shut. I heard a long time ago that the eyes require about 85% of our conscious energy to process all the visual stimuli we get. When you close your eyes, suddenly you have a lot more consciousness for the other senses. That's why blind people develop such wonderful feel and hearing, etc. Ask the players to shoot back and forth with their eyes closed. Doing all of the above -- old vs. new, opposites and extremes, etc. -- with eyes closed is also highly recommended. You can't help but feel more "stuff" that way, and feel (awareness) leads to learning. TRY IT YOURSELF Try it yourself the next time you teach
a new skill (or work to learn one yourself). Don't just assume
your players "own" the new behavior just because they
can do it a couple of times correctly. Find ways to alter and
shift their experiences to enhance the feel and see if learning
isn't deeper. I want to ask my Newsletter subscribers and visitors to my website who chance upon this Newsletter a question. When did some of the common shooting instructions that almost everyone is giving and getting get their start? For those who follow my coaching, you know I'm challenging much of the "conventional wisdom" that exists in how to coach shooting. It's my contention, and I believe it's proven in the way the few great shooters in the game shoot or have shot -- and you can prove it yourself with your own practice -- that the following six instructions are not helpful and may even retard shooting progress: 1. SQUARE UP (The first four are the most universal.
In my clinics when I ask kids if they were coached to do those
four things, as many as 75-90% say they have.) But Jeff Hornacek didn't square up. Steve Kerr and Diana Taurasi don't square up. Larry Bird didn't square up. Detlef Schrempf likewise, and Mark Price and on and on. George "Iceman" Gervin didn't. (I saw the Iceman at a Legends 3-pt Shootout at the 2000 All Star Game in Oakland and could tell he was going to win easily over players like Jo Jo White and Nate Archibald, who were wrist-flipping. George's shots were on the way up, body open, wrist and hand relaxed, great arch and spin.) All of these great shooters shoot (or shot) on the way up, not at the top of the jump. Their elbows are not directly under the ball. They shoot upward, not with a reaching-down kind of action with the hand. Their wrists and hands are relaxed when they shoot, not tense or doing some kind of forced up and down, like a wave. A REVIEW Here is a quick review of why I feel these instructions are not helpful. You can read more of my comments on this in my articles on the Articles page and, more specifically, in the article "The Things that Matter in Shooting and How to Test Them". · SQUARE UP: Today's game has evolved into a one-handed shot for everything, not a two-handed shot. The body wants to reach out and rotate naturally for a one-handed motion. Why force a squared stance? When you rotate or "open" the stance, there is less tension in the arm and hand when you bring the ball in line with the shooting eye. Shooting off the shoulder would solve the tension thing for squaring up, but then you're not in line with your eye and consistent accuracy is difficult. · SHOOT AT THE TOP OF THE JUMP: Elevating before shooting is required only for the close-in and turn-around type shots for the bigger players, the leapers. It's a very difficult shot, as the body momentum so helpful for shooting is lost if you wait until the very top of the jump. Being only 5-10 feet away for these shots makes it easier and doable, but they're still prone to error. Shooting on the way up is much more stable and gives a quicker Release and higher arch. For most players' shots, if you have to jump over someone to get the shot off you should probably pass off to a teammate rather than shoot. · WRIST FLIP: Shooting with a wrist-flipping action is necessary if you shoot at the top of the jump. They go hand-in-hand. But to rely on your smallest muscles from the legs up to power and control the ball is ineffective. It is also a horizontal motion that flattens the shots and makes them "hot." An upward "pushing" action with relaxed wrist and hand driven by the big muscles of the lower/middle body is much more predictable and repeatable and also produces a higher trajectory, giving a bigger target and softer landing. · ELBOW UNDER THE BALL: This works only if you shoot off your shoulder. If you want the hand/ball to be aligned with the shooting eye, the elbow must be to the right a little (~4-6 inches, depending on the length of your arm); otherwise the hand cannot be aligned directly facing the intended target. Make the hand position matter, not the elbow. · REACH YOUR HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR (Goose Neck): This is a very curious instruction. Isn't it odd that players are asked to reach "down" while they're intending to launch the ball "upward" toward the basket? The idea of the arm and hand looking like a goose neck produces a lot of tension (and a downward action again). The hand can flop forward naturally when being relaxed and look sort of like a goose's neck and head, but to try to create that vision is most unproductive. · WAVE AT THE BASKET: This instruction is less universal than the others but equally curious. When great shooters shoot, their wrists and hands are relaxed and the hand flops and bounces in the follow through. You might say that's a kind of "wave," but if you actually try to wave, you introduce tension and a ridiculous post-shot motion that is of no value in the shot. WHEN DID THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST START? Does anyone know when you first heard these instructions? Were you instructed by some major figure in the game that this was the way to have people shoot? It might have started at a national convention of coaches. Do any of you remember when these ideas were first presented? Let me know and I'll do a little informal study of it if I get some concrete notions. I think most of you will agree with me that shooting has been declining for a long time, at least 20 years or more. It's so bad now that I feel it can't get much worse, so maybe we're ready for a turnaround. I'm offering to help lead and inspire a "Renaissance" in shooting, a rebirth, a revival, with my insights into shooting learned as a kid over 45 years ago and relearned the last 14 years. The game needs it desperately. The good news is that great shooting is not that difficult. The actual Release motion can be the essence of simplicity. Once we stop interfering with natural instincts and laws of physics (reaching down will not produce an upward flight), I feel shooting can quickly begin to rebound. Instructions like forming a reverse C with the arm, wrist and hand are complicated and don't even work that well in my opinion. I find that if you cock the wrist and hand back that far (like a waiter holding a tray), it actually encourages a wrist-flipping kind of action to get the ball moving more horizontally toward the basket. And where the elbow points is irrelevant. It's where the center of the hand points and faces that matters because that's where the ball is. The hand cradles the ball and its function is to deliver the ball in the line intended by the arm motion. If we hit the ball with the elbow, then where it points and how it behaves would be critical. But we don't. Thanks for any reports you can come up
with as to when some of these instructions started. If I've
startled you with these opinions, please hang in there with them
and me and see if maybe they aren't true. My writings will continue
to offer explanations and examples as we go forth. [A Re-print with some revisions from July of 1999, one of my early Newsletters. Intention is very powerful and much different from "wanting" or "trying."] When you go to shoot, a big part of your success is your level of Intention. Intention is described in the Dictionary as "Determination to act in a specified way." It's a measure of how specific your goal is, how strongly you are determined to get it. 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 expecting 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 that 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. NOT THE SAME AS WANTING 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 and your actions are less hindered by doubt and fear. Intention is also not so "attached" to the result. Yes, you intend for the result to happen for you, but if you don't get it you're not so bothered by the failure. You will just intend more powerfully the next time. Wanting and trying seem to also include a lot of attachment, hoping for a result, disappointment if you don't get it, etc. The attachment and the emotions it carries with it often interfere with the performance. But if you're strongly intent on something without worrying about the result, then actions can be more relaxed and spontaneous. WE INTERFERE IF WE "WANT" IT TOO MUCH 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 in Star Wars said something like, "Do or do not do, there is no Try!" Intention calmly, strongly 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 or create and you let your body perform with minimal interference. HOW STRONG IS YOUR INTENTION? 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 or wanted 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. SLOW IT DOWN TO LEARN IT As you go into the last few weeks or month of Summer before school starts, it's time to get your final preschool practice in. As I've said in many previous KIDS' KORNERS, observe yourself shoot and you will improve. If you know the principles I recommend, then you know what to work on. But just observing with awareness how you propel the ball (any way) to the basket will lead to experimentation and learning. Note how you power the shot, and how you release the ball, the height, the spin, where it tends to land. An important way to practice when you want to change a behavior is to SLOW IT DOWN. That means also keeping it close in so the shot is not so intimidating. As I tell all my clinic and camp participants, if you can't make your shots consistently from 5 to 10 feet, it AIN'T going to get any easier as you move back. Learn the shots in close and slow before you start to add distance and speed. Let's say you want to learn to dribble to the right and left to shoot off movement. I see so many kids lose it when they add that kind of extra motion. Especially when you're young and first encountering things like shooting off the dribble, receiving a pass to shoot, pivoting on a certain foot, faking and then dribbling to shoot, etc., it's easy to get overwhelmed and develop bad habits. A powerful way to approach a new move like the above is to slow it down and do things almost in slow motion for awhile so the body has time to set things up and feel what's going on as you execute the shot. Be very aware of what's happening as you move this way and that way, paying close attention so learning is greater. If you feel rushed, slow down. Call this slower speed the "feel speed." Can you do a motion such that you feel every aspect of it? If yes, then your body and mind have a much greater chance to know and learn it. Do it over and over and over at that speed and the learning will go deeper. Once you can do it well slowly and close in, then "up" the speed and distance a little at a time. If you lose it, then slow it down again and go back in closer. This will take some time but the reward is in the learning you'll get. It's worth it!!! If you rush and lose it and develop bad habits, they could negatively affect your shooting for a long time. I know human beings are geniuses at learning,
but I also know you need to have a high level of awareness for
the genius to do its thing. Good luck with this final practice
and I wish you a wonderful season of basketball. It's a fabulous
game, a terrific team sport. It's teaching you a lot of things.
Enjoy the life you have and make the most of it. Appreciate
yourselves and others. It's not the winning that matters most,
it's playing the game and doing your best and learning and growing
as a person. If you'd like to start on the process of learning how to coach shooting with my Method, please join my Coaches' Mailing List. The list is a quick and easy way for me to communicate to all the coaches at once. As I develop new things and post new articles, coaching ideas, etc., I use this vehicle to let you know. Also, visit and bookmark my "For Coaches" page, as it will have more and more coaching ideas, lesson plans, articles, etc. There's a "Homework" document that can get you started on this path very quickly. To join the List, go to this webpage on my site ("For Coaches" page), scroll down to the "Sign up" section and click "Join List." You'll be prompted as to what to do. Your email address will not be sold or given to anyone else, and you can easily un-subscribe yourself on that same page. If you're having some wonderful results either from working with the Swish video or just from reading my coaching suggestions, lesson plans, etc., please write them up for me to post on the coaches' page for others to see. We can all learn from each other's experiences and insights. ------------------------------------------------------------ For the latest news about Clinics, Camps and Coaches' Trainings across the country, go to this page: Clinics and Camps Clinics and camps being planned for this summer and fall (some will have Coaches' Trainings, too): · Sept. 25-28, Washington D.C./Virginia/Maryland
areas Other possibilities for the fall: 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. I invite you to bookmark my Website (http://www.swish22.com) so you can go there easily to catch my latest news and 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 this newsletter,
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