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and respect your privacy. 1. Welcome from the Coach ------------------------------------------------------------ The NBA Playoff games are pretty ugly. Fierce defense, grabbing and pushing and pulling. Almost constant fouling, as I remember the rules. The NBA ref's are letting the players get away with murder. Offense is an endangered species because of it. Among all the mediocre shooting, you'll sometimes see great shots. Watch carefully the re-runs in slow motion of some of the exceptional shots and you'll see most of those better shooters shoot pretty much with the Swish Method. In the last couple Detroit-Indiana games, I saw Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Jermaine O'Neal shoot in slow motion, and I could see their hands bounced or flopped in the Follow Throughs, meaning the wrists and hands were relaxed during the shots, just guiding the ball, not powering the shots. And they shoot on the way up, not at the top of the jump. Watch Rasheed with his very high Set Point. It's over a foot above his head, and from there he just straightens his arm with relaxed wrist and hand. It's a predictable move. That's why he's such a dangerous shooter. Sometimes he takes it back a bit overhead and winds up throwing or flipping it, but often his Release is just a push, an arm extension, and that's a great move. I think Rick Hamilton shoots with a relaxed wrist and hand, too, but I haven't seen any slow motion shots of him recently. Maybe we'll see some in the finals. He's probably the best shooter on the two teams remaining. You'll see, with him, a very quick Release and great focus and follow through. Prince shoots well but he has a little complication in his motion which makes him streaky. See how his elbow is out quite a bit and he has to make a little move to get the hand in line with eye and target as he goes to shoot. His obviously high level of confidence helps him pull off that complicated motion, but it could be more pure. As to the Lakers, I feel Devon George is the best shooter. He tends to have a pretty relaxed wrist and hand when he shoots. I think he'd be even better if he didn't try to square up so much. Kobe is the dangerous shooter, but he's more of a "scorer" than a pure shooter. But what a pressure player! He's one of those guys I feel would shoot less well if you backed off and left him alone and dared him to shoot. I think he needs pressure to perform at his best. Watch his wrist and hand. They're a little tight, usually, which means he's powering the shot with those little muscles. He's often shooting at the top of the jump where he HAS to use the arm and hand to power the shot. But he has tremendous focus and confidence. In terms of pure shooting, I don't feel he would win three point championships with that stroke, but I wouldn't bet against him in a pressure situation and with the more difficult shots off the dribble. I'm not fond of Derek Fisher's stroke. He takes it back too far, it's aligned with his shoulder, rather than his eye, and it's a lot of arm motion, a throwing action. He's good at it most of the time, but I wouldn't coach a stroke like that. Rush has a shot similar to Fisher's. Rush got amazingly hot in the sixth game to help them win it, six for seven 3's (86%), but before that game he was only 30% from the arc in the Playoffs. I predict he won't shoot like that again for several games, if at all. (The mind is funny: when you THINK you know something, then you can mess it up quite easily. If you expect the worst, you'll probably perform the best. If Rush isn't careful, he'll enter the next game thinking he's quite a shooter and wind up missing everything for awhile.) The Lakers have some consistently "good" shooters, like Medvedenko and Fox. From what little I've seen of Luke Walton, he is a fine shooter. I can't explain how Karl Malone makes any shots with his technique, but he does. He's usually fading back, and the stroke is often a kind of a short-arm action. I think he succeeds thanks to a huge, positive psyche job. Payton flips it up there with a lot of arm and wrist motion and is streaky at best. Shaq and Ben Wallace, as we all know, are not good shooters at all. DO THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DO? If they knew what they did that worked, if they could break down how they do what they do when they shoot well, they could coach themselves to better and better shooting. One of the best ever shooters in the NBA told me awhile back that, "yes," he shot the way I coach it but he "never figured it out" like I have. My guess is that most of today's shooters are not at that level of awareness either. It's one thing to do, it's another thing to coach. The great shooters, almost all retired now -- like Chris Mullin, Larry Bird, Jeff Hornacek, Steve Kerr, Mark Price, etc. -- would make most of the open shots we see players missing today, and their free throws would be just automatic. It's because of their strokes, not because they had more "confidence" than other players. They didn't have to "psyche" themselves up each time they shot. Their strokes gave them confidence, not the other way around. ------------------------------------------------------------ Here are some more remarkable testimonials. One, the first, reports on his tremendous breakthroughs JUST from reading the Swish Workbook that accompanies the video. "Hello Tom, I did some shooting in the side yard before reading the booklet accompanying your video (ok, I'd scanned the booklet). I shot ok, I've always shot ok, pretty well as a kid. I used to pride myself on my precise arm shooting and would wax philosophically about where my elbows were positioned. Then 2 weeks ago I read the booklet like I was preparing for finals. "At rec league ball last week I put what I'd read into motion. Keep in mind that I hadn't really played since about 1985 until this year. I started my usual game of defense and passing. Then I started to shoot, and shoot, and shoot (until guilt made me back off). It was as if there was a string running from my legs through my line of sight, up through the ball and my finger tips and through the middle of the basket. At one point I made 8 straight 3 pointers. In between games I sank 10 straight free throws, backed up a step and rang out another string. "Last night I started off half a bubble
off plumb, adjusted my leg push up, then started up again. Shooting
in between games I did an around the world from baseboard to
baseboard from behind "I got to tell you Tom, this is all before I've watched the video. This is based [just] on the book. I'll be watching the video real soon. I'm already a believer and can't wait to start coaching my 4th/5th grade girls team next fall. I'll be teaching your shooting technique with absolute confidence. "And, I can't believe I'm writing such a fan mail type email. A pretty fawning letter to a Minnesotan from a born-and-bred Iowan, I'd say!" Best, P. Wingate, Hadley, MA -------------------------------- "Two exercises from your tape have been very helpful in helping the players develop their shots -- the first being where the players shoot to a partner about 10 or 12 feet away. We incorporate this into a passing drill so that one player passes, the other catches and shoots. It's great to see the shots get gradually higher and the backspin get better as the drill progresses. The players naturally involve their legs and the UpForce more in this drill as they try to get the ball to come down directly on their partner's head. "The other exercise is where players shoot a foul shot (or a closer shot) and call out where the ball is going to end up, so as to increase their awareness and feel. Usually it only takes four or five attempts before players become very good at feeling where the shot is going -- left, right, short, long or in. Short and long are the tough ones for my players -- that seems to be a more sophisticated feel that is tougher to master than right or left. "Recently, after some poor free throw shooting in games, my high school team started working on foul shots more in practice. We did the feel-call-your-shot drill, then I had them do it with their eyes closed. At first they didn't believe I wanted them to shoot with eyes closed, but when they did it they loved it. I believe that if a coach can get his players to do this exercise he will help their shooting immensely. The players were amazed that they (1) made foul shots with their eyes closed, and (2) could so accurately tell where the shot was going to land. And once they started doing it, they couldn't get enough of it. "Thanks very much for all your work" -- M. Gillis, Salt Lake City" -------------------------------- -- K. Leas, D.C. area -------------------------------- -- E. Michaels ------------------------------------------------------------ As I am describing and video taping stuff for my next video, I thought to write a section called "What's Needed in a Coaching Method?" My question is, "What's needed to help change the downward trend in shooting?" What can be done? What is there about shooting that needs to be learned and developed for effective shooting to appear? What should you look for in a method? As a coach, I feel you'll want to use a method that has these characteristics: o OVERALL SIMPLE AND UNDERSTANDABLE o GRIP o STANCE o SET POINT o HAND POSITION o RELEASE o VERSATILITY The point I wish to make is that the Swish Method satisfies these requirements!!! It's simple, powerful AND easily understandable. It brings great shooting within the reach of anyone with reasonable coordination and athletic ability. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please Send Me Testimonials! As you use my Swish Method from the video, or even just from reading my articles and newsletters, and go out on a court by yourself or with some kids and have some success, please write it up. You might talk about how you've tried other methods and they were confusing or they just didn't work, and then you find this way of approaching the skill and it DOES work. You and/or your players are suddenly getting better with practice! That's the kind of story others will love to read. I'll put it up on my website. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------ I'm only about three weeks from completing the conversion of "Swish" the video to "Swish" the DVD. By June 28th it will be done. As a bonus for the DVD, I've added at the end six minutes of clips of shooters I've coached who beautifully demonstrate the Swish Method. There are about 20 different players taking shots, players from Indiana, Chicago and California. DVD's are great because they allow you to bounce around quickly from Chapter to Chapter, not just a sequential viewing. The price will be the same as the video, $29.95 plus Shipping & Handling, and tax in California. If you already have the video, we'll give you a good discount. The video has a printed Swish Workbook and Shooting Guide. For the DVD, the workbook is included as a .PDF file on the DVD, and the Guide is included as a printed insert. We're also in the process of installing eCommerce for product ordering on our Website, which should be ready by mid-June. That will make it easier to order videos, DVD's and Swish T-shirts. By the end of summer I expect to have my second DVD/video ready on "Coaching the Swish Method." Our website is: http://www.swish22.com. When the site is ready, you'll see a link in the upper right to the "Products" page. ------------------------------------------------------------ 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. 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 "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. Effective learning requires good instruction, of course, and then practice, high levels of awareness, 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. YOU MAKE IT A LEARNING EXPERIENCE! BECOME AN OBSERVER OF YOURSELF 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. Also, realize too many games can inhibit your growth. In games it's all about "Performance," who can perform the best. There isn't time for play and enjoyment. Mistakes aren't welcome. It's points on the board, and the better players get most of the shots. Play games often, but don't play games all the time. Save a lot of time for learning and experimenting.) BE PRO-ACTIVE FOR YOUR LEARNING I invite you to bookmark my Website 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 this newsletter, my site, and my video. Forward the newsletter to them and suggest they read it and the many archived issues. Send them the URL (http://www.swish22.com) and let them know there's a proven method for powerful shooting. ------------------------------------------------------------ Clinics planned for this spring: ------------------------------ Three 4-hour shooting Clinics are planned
for the Ballard Community Center in Seattle. For the details, prices, how to enroll and a PDF you can download, go to the Clinics page: ------------------------------ If you'd like to help organize the above
or other shooting clinics or camps, contact
me. I'll also be scheduling Coaches' Trainings at each stop
as much as possible, too. Stay in touch for them. To SUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter, click
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