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-- P. Karouzos, Canberra, Australia ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tom, my son, Hunter, age 14, and I received your video package Friday, March 6, and we both watched and discussed the video Friday night. We took it to the gym Saturday to try it out. Hunter's a good athlete and has a pretty good jump shot. We had long recognized the importance of a high arc, but we had not fully appreciated the power source, the thing that you call Upforce. Hunter had tried changes to his shot before, but they usually ended with frustration. Your program is different. After he experienced the idea of letting the effort come from his jump, while keeping his release effortless and "pure", I had trouble getting him to leave the gym. Hunter plans to work on the Swish method all summer, and it's early yet, but half the battle is having the student believe in the method. After Hunter sank 15 free throws in a row (his previous streak was about 10), he not only believes, he's excited. We'll spread the word about the Swish method here in Mississippi!" -- J. Ferguson, Mississippi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I want to thank you so much for your video and emails. My nephew, Dave, is a sophomore point guard on his high school team in the St. Louis area. He is among the conference leaders in assists, but has struggled with his shooting...( 5 ppg/.30 fg percentage).....Dave has viewed your video repeatedly and worked on several of your drills the past 3 weeks. In his last 3 games he is a combined 17 of 25 from the floor (68%) including 4 of 8 from 3 point range....he has averaged 13.3 ppg for the last 3 games. More importantly, his new found confidence has enabled to him to relax and have a lot more fun!! He is looking forward to the off season and being able to further implement your ideas.....thanks again!!!!!" -- D. Weaver A second one from D. Weaver: "Thanks for your interest....sure...feel free to include Dave in any future postings......I am forwarding your message on to Dave....I am sure he will be greatly interested......one thing I have always noticed about Dave is that when he is shooting well, it seems to impact his entire game.....i.e....his last game he was 7 of 10 shooting...but also had 10 assists and 5 steals.....when his shot is falling he plays with so much more confidence and aggressiveness.......what seems so encouraging about your method is that for the first time, he had an understanding of the mechanics of a shot....before when he missed a few shots in a row, he would start experimenting and before you know it he couldn't put the ball in the ocean....now....it seems...that even his misses "look good"...if you know what I mean....now if he misses a couple of shots.....he doesn't seem to press....just tries to get back to the principles taught in the video.....thanks again....." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "My 5th grader has been very open to trying the methods. Jury is still out and patience is the key. He has better arc, better distance, faster release. Results take time. Faster release is the concern that he might be rushing. The distance is a concern as well. I encourage him to shoot if he has a good look and can get somewhat square. His 5th grade coach has restrictions and only certain areas of the court that they are allowed to shoot from. (inside 15 feet all around) They get benched or even threats of game suspensions if they violate the rule. Not FUN! You should consider adding something in your video for youth coaches that encourages shooting from everyone on the floor, encourages taking the risk at shooting, encourages failure as a learning tool, understands that taking an ill-advised shot is a learning tool as well. "The video seems to add confidence to his shooting. It was always something he believed he could do well. This has helped even more. Unfortunately, the restrictions on shooting prevent him from learning where and when to shoot as the game moves. Too much thinking as to where I am on the floor and am I allowed to shoot from here. Over the spring and summer we will be spending more time with him and my Freshman daughter on shooting. I will let you know how it goes." -- G. Zynar ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tom: A quick update from a proud Dad.......David hit 4 shots in a row last Saturday night (3 were 3 -pointers) to erase a 10 point deficit, and give his high school team their second straight Conference championship. If you like, I'll fax you the news article. We're believers in SWOOSH!" -- M. Gasvoda, West Lafayette, IN ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "After my 16 year old daughter, Brittany watched the video and began using your method, her free throw and shooting accuracy and confidence has increased drastically. She is a sophomore who made the Varsity team at her school. The beginning of the season found her sitting on the bench. She kept asking the coach to put her on the JV team so she would get some playing time. He finally did. She played several games on the JV team. However, the coach decided to bump her back up to the Varsity team and let her play. In that game, she was the high scorer of 12 points over the Juniors and Senior that play on the varsity team. Thank you. The methods are easily understood. We know that next year will be great." -- Rhonda ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Dear Tom, Our season has come to a close, and I wanted to express my thanks to you for helping us have a successful season. After purchasing your video at the start of the season, it has been an inspiration to our team to watch our progress throughout the season. Since Dale Davis plays for our local NBA team, it helped to watch his tremendous progress after your coaching and apply it to what we do on the middle school level. "This team last year started out 0-6 and struggled to shoot 30% of their shots. At the beginning of the season I started using your methods to evaluate the kids each day. We would divide the squad in two lines and have each kid shoot a jump shot from the free throw or 3 point line. Every shot would be evaluated for its UpForce, arch to the basket, etc. Our shooting percentage continued to increase until the team percentage was 44.8% from two point range and 41.5 % from three point. Keep in mind that most of these two point shots were not layups and it is a high percentage for middle school. One athlete set the school scoring record and shot 51% from 3 point range. We won our conference tournament for the first time in school history and were 11-4 at this writing. Keep up the good work!" -- R. Harris, Greenwood, Indiana ---------------------------------------- "Sure, you can use my testimonial. I have been very pleased with the video and the teaching methods in it. I have seen improvement in the kids. I tried it out with the neighborhood kids first. I had to be sneaky about it though. I couldn't push it on them so I worked with just one of the kids. They saw how he improved and soon I had a whole bunch in my family room watching the video. Just yesterday, one of them asked to borrow the video. I told him he could but I suggested he buy it. He is trying out for the local traveling team on Monday. "Now I have implemented it with my team and I can see that we are going to have high percentage shooters this year because of it. They all seem to like what I am doing with it as does my assistant. "I am going to put you on my web page if that is ok (http://www.eteamz.com/stanne). It was good to hear from you." [Note from Tom: He did put it there. Go look at it. It's terrific how he identified it.] -- Coach D. Berndt (ZoneCoach@aol.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tom, I can't thank you enough for the job you did with Joe this summer. I remember after the first practice you said to Joe "You will be the best shooter on your team next year and your coach will be amazed at how good your shot looks." Lets look back to last year. Joe was a freshman, he made his school's team as a third string player which meant a lot of time riding the pine. He may have got 2-3 minutes per game. "It was real doubtful he would make his JV team the following year knowing they carry fewer players. After three private lessons with Tom over the summer and practicing what Tom had taught him 2 days a week, by the time tryouts began Joe's shot was looking incredibly good to me. There was still doubt in Joe's mind he would make the team. After final cuts today, he made the team. The coach noticed the first day of practice that he had changed his shot. "With the confidence in his shooting ability, his whole game has improved; in fact not only did he make the team but he has been rotating in and out of the starting 2 guard position. His coach told him he might not get to play at one of the schools because he has "too much arch" on the ball and it might hit the ceiling, it is so low. Looking forward to this season and will let you know the outcome. "Once again thank you very much, and if any of your readers want a reference, don't hesitate to give them my e-mail or home phone number. I wish there were more coaches with the gift you have." -- Jim Dumas, Modesto, Calif. (Master5d@aol.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tom, Thank you very much for your newsletter. I appreciate it. I have been meaning to write to you of my improvement in shooting last season. I wanted to improve my 3 point shooting mainly because in 1998 I shot at 29% which I was very disappointed with, mainly because of the long hours I put in practicing my jump shot. Over the summer I practiced the theories from your video and had some great improvements. In 1999 in the second biggest basketball competition in Australia, the Australian Basketball Association, I shot at 39% from the 3 point line. Towards the end of the season I was at about 46% but I was too conscious of my achievement and began to think too much. On about four occasions I had 7 threes for the game. On two occasions I hit them in all without a miss. Nine was my best for a game and I had 5 regularly. I averaged about 15 points per game which was up by 8 points per game. I will continue to work on your theory over the summer, but because I believe I have now found my jump shot, I can spend a lot more time on other areas of my game like defense and fitness. So thank you very much Tom your video was a blessing to me. I hope I can continue improving like I did last year with your help." -- N. Page, Australia ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Hi. Well, today the way I shoot is completely different from the way I had before I bought your SWISH video. I learned to give force with just one hand, while the other just helps to balance it. Anyway, about my confidence it has made a huge impact because now I WANT to go to the line. I score about 20 points per game in our league and a lot of them come out of free throws. We just had a game earlier, on the road, we had a 5 points lead with about 2 minutes to go. They kept fouling us so I just took the ball, got fouled and buried the shots. I finished with 9 out of 10 free throws, and I think it was just the first or second miss I had on the line this season. It's really a big change because last season I used to try and avoid getting fouled so I won't go to the line, I preferred taking more difficult shots, because their chance of going in was higher than the chance of me making two free throws." -- A. Matan, Israel ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Tom, my son, Hunter, age 14, and I received your video package Friday, March 6, and we both watched and discussed the video Friday night. We took it to the gym Saturday to try it out. Hunter's a good athlete and has a pretty good jump shot. We had long recognized the importance of a high arc, but we had not fully appreciated the power source, the thing that you call UpForce. Hunter had tried changes to his shot before, but they usually ended with frustration. Your program is different. After he experienced the idea of letting the effort come from his jump, while keeping his release effortless and "pure", I had trouble getting him to leave the gym. Hunter plans to work on the Swish method all summer, and it's early yet, but half the battle is having the student believe in the method. After Hunter sank 15 free throws in a row (his previous streak was about 10), he not only believes, he's excited. We'll spread the word about the Swish method here in Mississippi! "Again, thanks for the video. I will keep you advised of Hunter's progress." -- J. Ferguson ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |