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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. PLEASE excuse the advertisement paragraph
you'll see at the top of this Newsletter. Because I have a "free"
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ad to help them pay for the service. Sorry for the little commercialism. 1. Welcome from the Coach Welcome to my free Monthly Basketball Shooting
Newsletter. Each month I write about the skill of shooting in
the game today and how it can be more effectively learned and
coached. If you like what I'm saying, please tell others about
it and suggest they subscribe, too. Remember: Great Shooting
CAN be taught! This newsletter is a vehicle for communicating
what I know about shooting and for a conversation on how shooting
can be improved. With your help, I intend to shift the game
and help players and coaches everywhere re-discover the Lost
Art of Shooting. Thank you for reading this and subscribing
to it and sharing it with your friends. ------------------------------------------------------------ It saddens me to see how little coverage my local paper (the San Jose Mercury News, one of the country's great newspapers) gives to the WNBA playoffs. These wonderful athletes are playing their hearts out and creating great games, and some days only the box scores get shown. I hope the coverage is better across the country. I really love watching Lindsay Whelan from the Connecticut Sun (by way of the U. of Minnesota) play. Unfortunately, the team of my favorite shooter, Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury (by way of UConn), didn't make the Playoffs. I was struck by the incredible free throw shooting in a couple games recently. Two games between the Sun and the Washington Mystics in point: On Sept. 27th, the Sun won 80-70, besting the Mystics in field goal percentage, 46% vs. 39%, both shooting well. But look at the free throw percentages: The Sun, 30 of 32 for 94%!!! And the Mystics did almost as brilliantly, 22 of 24 for 92%!!! (Combined 93%!) In the next game, on the 29th, the Sun closed out the series with an easy 76-56 win, but again the free throw percentages were very high: for the Sun, 12 of 14 (86%) and for the Mystics, 14 for 16 (88%). Congratulations, ladies! AWESOME PERFORMANCE BY LAUREN JACKSON ------------------------------------------------------------ (This is both for players and coaches to work with their own shots, and for coaches to observe their players' shots.) WHEN YOU PRACTICE SHOOTING, HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES? I thought to write about the things you can do when practicing to coach your own shot, even not knowing about my Method or anyone else's. What are the key "Distinctions" that will allow you to coach yourself? I invite the coaches who read this to take on shooting yourself, too? At least shooting free throws and simple stand-and-shoot shots from 10-15 feet. Don't just make it theory. When you can really stroke the ball, your coaching will be more authentic. As you work on elements of your own shot, you'll see better what your players are doing and what they need. And as you take on ways of shooting that you feel valuable but which are, perhaps, difficult to adapt to yourself (like making the Release less a wrist-flipping action), talk about it with your kids. They'll love to hear how the coach is working on the same stuff they are. And you'll have more empathy for them, knowing they're going through the same stuff you are. I write about these things all the time, but I feel it would be helpful to condense them into a short description. Let's see how I do: STANCE Once you know what you do, try different ways to stand. If you're square, try open, and vice versa. If you plant with both feet, try a stepping in action with the strong foot, and likewise. Stepping in opens your body position and allows you generate power. Since we all want to have a "one handed" motion (best for shots off movement), notice if your stance encourages that or if it inhibits it. By that I mean, is there tension in your shoulders and arms as you shoot the way you shoot, or is what you do comfortable and does it feel natural? SETTING THE BALL HOW ACCURACY IS
ENHANCED Notice if the center of your hand is turned facing directly in line with the basket or does it have to turn during the shot motion. Where is the elbow of your shooting arm when the ball's at the Set Point? Is it directly under the ball, or is it out to the side a little or a lot? If your hand is facing directly in line with the target and eye, the elbow, you will discover, HAS to be out a little. It won't be "flying," because then your hand cannot be aligned well. Is your Set Point (look at the bottom of the ball) below the eyes or above? (If it's off your shoulder then it could be aligned with the middle of the face.) If your S/P is above the eyes, notice if your wrist is cocked way back. Do you form the "reverse C" that a lot of coaches recommend? What direction does your hand face at the S/P? If it's pointing straight up, I've found there is a problem there because you can't do a simple pushing action with relaxed wrist from that position. If you did, the ball would roll off the back of the hand and maybe even go backward. What that hand position requires is a wrist action to get the ball traveling semi-vertically. I've discovered it works better if the hand is cocked back only to 60-70 degrees back from horizontal, rather than 90 degrees or more, because that does not encourage extra wrist motion. See what you do. Where is the hand pointing? Try it both ways and see which is simpler, more accurate, more predictable? POWERING THE BALL THE RELEASE ACTION HEIGHT, DIRECTION, DISTANCE Most people's shots are in the lower half range, from my experience, what we can call "flat" shots. Rarely do I see players' shots get above the backboard consistently (the bottom of the ball). FOLLOW THROUGH HOW GET ACCURACY AND CONSISTENCY? If your shots are inaccurate, what is causing that? Look at the hand and how it and the wrist are used. And look at the arm action. If your Set Point is NOT aligned with your shooting eye, it is probably going to be difficult to be directionally consistent. A few people shoot well from an off line position, but it's always a challenge and takes more concentration to shoot well. Is control of ball flight in small muscles, like those of the wrist, hand and fingers, or is it more in the bigger muscles of the arm and body and legs? These factors make a difference. When you know what you want and know how you do things, your incredible body will start to make adjustments and learn how better to do things. If distance is the problem and you're often long or short, where do you think you should look? Should you work on a wrist-flipping action to correct that, flipping stronger if you're short and flipping less strong if you're long? Or do you think your arm action should change to accommodate different distances? Have you ever considered varying the height of each shot to allow for different distances? Maybe you could have the Release action be consistent and just vary the arch to control distance? Have you tried that? For that to work, power has to come more from the legs and middle body, so try that, too. Jump (or do a downward-upward motion like for a free throw or set shot) strongly and then shoot early in the motion to catch all the available energy. Shoot that way and see how it feels and what happens. Then shoot with mostly upper body and see how that feels and works. Your experience here will teach you some powerful stuff. WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD? CAN YOUR MIND BE NEUTRAL? Good luck with this. I didn't want to insert my suggestions for shooting too much in this, so you'll have to read other articles or get my DVD/video for that, but the above self conversation and physical training and awareness can lead you to where you want to get. It's not difficult stuff, this shooting. ------------------------------------------------------------ A youth coach who recently ordered a Swish DVD mentioned that he could use some help coaching the Swish method to his kids. When I suggested I could help with coaching plans, he asked if it could be in "15 minute" segments, which is about all he gets to coach any one skill in his practices. That got me thinking, and I'm going to develop what I'll tentatively call the "Swish 10-Step Program." I'll take the whole sequence of how I coach the method and break it down into ten 15-minute modules. At first it will just be written information, but maybe later I'll be able to offer the Program on DVD. To get it out more quickly, I can produce a less formal, amateurish version using my own standard digital video camera and the iMovie and iDVD software on my Macintosh. Later, hopefully, it could be a more formal, professional version with broadcast quality video, etc. WHAT WOULD BE HELPFUL? ------------------------------------------------------------ We finally got our Swish DVD and Video "up" on Amazon.com. It took a long time to get a retail sleeve designed for both versions of Swish, getting what's called an "Album" to contain both the video and workbook for the video version, converting Swish to DVD in both NTSC format for the U.S. and Canada and the PAL format for all other countries. To see the webpages on Amazon: IF YOU LOVE THE SWISH VIDEO OR DVD... ------------------------------------------------------------ WORK CLOSE IN AND SLOW IT DOWN! A good practice thought to follow when working on developing your shot is to come in closer to the basket and slow things down. Going to the 3-point line and heaving up shots, hoping to make some and be a hero, is fun and a challenge, but you're probably not going to learn much (except that your stroke is effective or not from that range). Do that all the time and you won't get much better. Instead spend a good portion of your time closer in where you can see and feel what you're doing. Then you'll learn and grow. WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF YOUR
SHOT? The Release is what gives you direction and control of distance, so work on that as much as you can. Spend a lot of time at the distance where the Release, with minimal or no leg power, can put the ball into the middle of the basket with medium high arch, over and over and over, dead center, "Swish." Can it start to become automatic for you? As you know from my writings and the Swish video or DVD, if you have it, I advocate that the Release motion be a "push" rather than a throw or flip. Observe how YOUR Release works and you'll figure out more effective ways to power the shot with the shoulder, arm, wrist, hand and finger muscles. Going in close is the best way to examine these factors. WORK AGAINST A WALL By keeping it small and slowing it down, you can truly see and feel what's happening, and then the marvelous learning machine we call your body can do its thing ... learn and grow. As you come to "know" the things you do that work and don't work, the body will choose to learn and adopt those actions that work! Your body/mind/nervous system is very smart. Trust it and you'll learn amazing things. Talking to a friend about it will help, too, as will writing down your discoveries. Awareness is the key, so find ways to increase awareness and you will surely improve your shooting. Then go out to the 3-pt line and have some fun, but realize your stroke is probably going to break down, unless it's ready to handle it. Don't spend all your time there. Slowly as you put your beautiful stroke together in close and smaller, then it will work wherever you go on the court within your range. YOU HAVE TO COACH YOURSELF If you have some great discoveries, please write them down and email me. I'll put the most inspiring ones on my website. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------------ 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 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 fall: ------------------------ ------------------------ ------------------------ COULD DO MORE CLINICS IN THESE AREAS ------------------------ See the "Clinics & Camps" page on my website for further details. Refer there for the latest status, downloadable PDFs, etc. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ If you'd like to organize some shooting
clinics or camps, contact me.
I'll be doing some sessions around the country this fall and
winter. 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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