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and respect your privacy. I believe I have an answer. I've developed a method based on discoveries I made as a high school star over 40 years ago and recently rediscovered and perfected. It can help every player, from young beginners up to and including the best players in the world. My Method is both simple and Universal. The principles are so easy to understand and apply that anyone and everyone can become a good to great shooter, and mastery is possible for those with high discipline and commitment. It's even possible to learn how to coach this great skill, once you "get" the principles, both intellectually and physically. Stay tuned for different views and discussions of shooting. If you are interested in learning more
about my Method, go to my Swish
Video Website. It is a "Shooting Resource" in that
there are articles on shooting, articles about my coaching of
NBA players, what to look for in your team's shooting, links
to other sites, suggestions for coaches who want to learn about
how to coach this critical skill, etc. The Knicks had Alan Houston and Latrell Sprewell doing most of the scoring and they are almost unstoppable. Alan is the better "pure" shooter, but Latrell is an amazing open court scorer and penetrator. If his outside shot were more reliable, he would be even more formidable. His 35 points in the last game was an amazing performance. At the 3 or 4 position, Larry Johnson is a streak shooter from the outside, usually unreliable with exceptions like the incredible finish he had to win a game against the Pacers. He's clever in the post, but was neutralized very well by the Spur's two giants. Childs and Ward can drop the outside shots well at times, but were usually streaky. Kurt Thomas has a nice outside jumper but didn't get a lot of shots. Camby and Dudley are not shooters so that was lacking from the Knicks' big men. It hurt them that Patrick Ewing injured his achilles' tendon could not play. Camby is an unreliable because he brings the ball high over his head (and slightly to the left) when he shoots. That creates a horizontal action and a lot of arm and hand movement. His free throw performance is hurt by that, too. Chris Dudley is not much of an offensive threat and hurt his elbow, which took away his sometimes effective jump hook. Houston and Sprewell were ~70% of the offense, and that was not a healthy balance of scoring. The Spurs had Robinson and Duncan and that was enough! Duncan's offensive ability is outstanding, with the exception of his free throws. For a big man, he has a nice soft shot and knows how to use the backboard. Robinson's shot is jerky and unreliable, though he can hit clutch shots quite well at times and is awesome with defense and on the boards. Of course, they needed some outside shooting to prevent the defense from collapsing every time, and Ellie, Elliot, Jackson, Johnson and Kerr came through enough to win the title. As far as great shooters, I feel Kerr is the Spur's best (though he was in a bit of a slump during the Playoffs). Ellie has a reliable set shot but is a little streaky if he has to move and shoot. Jaren Jackson is a good outside shooter who can get really hot at times. Elliot had some good games but he also had poor shooting nights, including the 0 for 4 in the last game. Avery Johnson is a streaky shooter at best, but he's a gutsy player and a fine floor leader. Congratulations to the Spurs!!! They are
a great team. I'm delighted that David Robinson finally got his
well-deserved Championship ring. He's a class act! My answer was, "It depends on how coachable he is, how good a `Learner' he is as he works with and experiments with this new way of shooting." How committed to it, how dedicated. No one can answer that but him. I'm sure we all have different opinions about this process called Learning. We all have mastered some amazing things in our lives: walking and talking, tying our shoelaces, riding a bicycle, driving a car. You see kids these days doing fantastic physical skills on snow boards, surf boards and on skate boards. Notice how there haven't been many skateboard instructors? There aren't thousands of books and hundreds of thousands of articles telling kids how to do these sports (as there is in golf). The kids are developing these incredible skills mostly on their own by watching others and by experimenting. When you attempt to learn something as a kid, there is probably this scenario: there is the "skill" being learned (like walking), and there is the "instruction" that adults and older siblings are giving us which may or may not help. I remember learning to ride a bicycle and my parents trying to tell me about Balance. They would tell me things to do as they tried to communicate the experience, but I couldn't do what they were saying (at least not such that it made a difference). I fell this way and that way, over and over. I had to do the learning entirely on my own! The words did not seem to help. DISTINCTIONS: HOW WE LEARN Balance on a bicycle is what we call a "Distinction." The Dictionary describes a Distinction as "a quality or feature that differentiates." To know what balance is, we have to experience un-balance, or falling, until we can differentiate between the two states, balance and out-of-balance. It's a physical thing, an experience we have to "have" in order to know and "own" it. Once we get balance, we never lose it. And it seems to happen in an instant. Though it takes a lot of riding and falling to reach that point, it is on that one ride we "get" balance. I remember learning to ski parallel in 1983 at age 44. I had skied a little for 20 some years but had never learned parallel skiing. I could only do the Stem Christie, what they call the somewhat mechanical motion of making a turn by shifting weight and then forcing the unweighted ski away from the other ski (with toes together) and then shifting weight again as you turn slowly downhill in that wedge formation and then get the skis parallel again so you can glide along that way until the next turn. On a trip to Europe that summer, I went with a group of trainers and coaches from London to Zermatt, Switzerland, and we skied for 4 days on a glacier. I was intent on learning to ski parallel. Luckily I had great coaching that focused me on paying attention to my experience, in this case the weight in my boots, and on the edges of the skis. I was asked to be "aware" of the forward-backward feeling of my feet and legs in the boots, and then also to become aware of the weight of my body on the edges of the skis, and especially the weight on the lower ski. As one skis, s/he is constantly shifting weight, forward, back, left and right, weight on one leg and then the other, shifting weight uphill and down. In my Stem Christie days, it was jerky and I couldn't "get" how the turning could be smooth and effortless, a gliding kind of thing. But on the fourth day in Zermatt, something happened when I did my weight shifting in a turn. I noticed that I needed a little "patience" as I started the weight shift and turn. It was amazing. I can't tell now exactly what it was, but suddenly it worked. Suddenly I "knew" how to do it. I skied for about a half hour that way, making slow, graceful turns with my skis always parallel until it was time to get down off the glacier. I had learned the distinction we call "Parallel Skiing." Unfortunately the next day, our last, it rained and ruined the skiing for that day and we had to return to London. I never did ski again, but I had that short, incredible experience, and I'm sure if I skied again, I could recapture it through the same process of awareness. When we go to learn a new distinction, such as the "Release" in a basketball shot, it's Awareness that leads to Learning. I can show you a beautiful release motion in the video or in person, and I can tell you what I do and what you can do, but it's only through Awareness that learning happens. And how aware we are is a personal thing. Some people are very aware of their bodies and find it easy to focus on the arm or wrist or hand, for example. These are often the better, what we would call, "athletes." They naturally can feel more easily and deeply what their bodies do and thus are able to control their actions. Others may not be as aware naturally and have to work hard to concentrate and develop Awareness. Imitation or mimicking someone is not the same as Learning. Often someone can be told to do something or see it and can repeat it fairly accurately. But if the experience is not accompanied by Awareness (or feel) of what they are doing, when the instructor or model is gone, that person will probably not be able to re-create it very well or very long. On the other hand, if we just observe ourselves do things, the remarkable human body/brain/nervous system develops. We find a better way to jump a fence or kick a ball or release a basketball. Humans are "goal-striving" systems, and if we practice Awareness as we strive to achieve our goals, development is rapid and wonderful. What I'm saying is that the most important skill you can work on for Learning is Awareness of your experience. If you're a coach, help your kids to feel what they do. Ask them what's happening, what they feel. If they don't know and you tell them what happened, there is no Learning. It has to come from them. The increased Awareness will help them at all levels. It also is VERY helpful to turn off judgments
of good and bad while you're learning something new. Just Observe!!!
No more, no less. And you will learn. For the younger players out there reading this Newsletter, summer is a wonderful time. You can just "hang out" at the beach or the lake or the river, you can just be with friends, doing stuff, or just loafing around or goofing off. BUT... it can also be a remarkable opportunity to set some goals and develop yourselves!!! If you love basketball and want to play better, this is a key time for you. Don't waste it! Go to gyms or parks and play the game as much as you can. Hook up with teams and join organized play, if possible. Spend lots of time practicing, learning how to do things: like dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, blocking out, running plays, working off picks and screens. Develop your muscles, lift weights, learn to jump high, develop speed and quickness. If you have older, more experienced players around when you practice, ask them to help you. Everyone loves to be asked to help. If they seem, at first, to not want to help, be persistent. When they know you're serious, maybe they'll take some time to teach you what they know. Adults will especially love to help. Please please please DO NOT BE EMBARRASSED that you don't know how to do something! You're not expected to know a lot of stuff at a young age. You can constantly ask for help and clarification. Then observe yourself as you attempt to learn the new things. This is a key Life Principle! I've learned over my lifetime that just observing something leads to change until it's both comfortable and effective, at which time the change slows down and stops. Then it's time to move your observation to the next thing needing attention. With shooting, watch how you shoot. How to you use your lower and upper body muscles? Where does your power come from mostly? How high do you shoot? What kind of spin do your shots have? How do you control distance and direction? Where does the ball typically land? ...short? ...long? ...left? ...right? By simply observing what happens when you shoot and then just doing it again -- WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT WHAT YOU'RE DOING -- you'll see your body do something different. It will automatically start to correct itself. You don't have to force change. Change is automatic! This is an important step to "get." That your body is incredible!!! Give it a task or a goal, then do the task or move toward the goal, and your body will figure it out. This is GREAT news!!! You don't have to "try" so hard. Just learn to observe what really happened. For example, your shots are always long and to the right. Just put that information into your computer (brain) and shoot again. Resist the temptation to shoot shorter and more to the left. That correction will happen automatically. If you try to "fix it," you'll actually have a double correction and go way too far left and short. Then you'll have to correct the correction. Good coaching can help you shortcut the natural learning process, permitting you to get right to the key learning points. If you don't have good coaching, then you can still learn a lot of neat stuff, but it may take more time. When someone coaches you or tells you what
you can do, take it as an invitation to "experience"
what the person is getting at. Thank him or her for the suggestion,
and then, if it's something that interests you, OBSERVE yourself
perform. It might be great coaching or it might not, but your
observation of your experience doing it will teach you all you
need to know about it. Q. What is the biggest problem in shooting today and why aren't there more great shooters? ...O.Phillips, Minneapolis, MN A. Flat shooting WINDSHIELD OR SUNROOF? HOME EXERCISE: To give you an idea of how most players shoot and a new possibility, imagine you're sitting in a car or truck with a high windshield. Most players bring the ball overhead and then shoot as if they're throwing the ball through the upper part of the windshield. Notice that this shot motion is forward and has a fairly low arch. Now imagine your vehicle has a sunroof.
Better shooters shoot with an upward and pushing action like
they're shooting up through the sunroof. The shooting arm extends
upward, almost straight up. The eyes are kept looking forward
at the target, but the action of the arm is upward, out of sight.
This creates a flight like a mortar shell, rather than a tracer
bullet. The ball goes "UP" in order to come "DOWN."
And this allows gravity to slow the ball's motion down, creating
a softer shot. When you go to a gym, start to notice how you
shoot - windshield or sunroof? - and see what you can do to shoot
more upward. Shooting earlier in the jumping motion gives you
the upward flight of the ball you want. Then relax wrist and
hand, letting the power come from the legs and body, and you've
got a new way to shoot! I am now developing a schedule for half-day Clinics in these cities: Minneapolis/St. Paul: 14 clinics planned, July 23rd - August 2nd Atlanta: We're considering clinics here for week of Aug. 16th. If you can help or have ideas of gyms, basketball organizations or coaches, please call! Bay Area, California: I'm available to do half day clinics in northern Calif. If you have a group of at least 10 players and can provide a gym, I will come to you. Cost $35/person, $50 including my Swish video ($30 value). Other locations: I can come to your city. Call for information. Cost will depend on travel requirements and numbers of participants. Call or Email me for more details. PRIVATE COACHING: I'm also available for private coaching in the Bay Area of California. I live near Santa Cruz, which is near San Jose in northern California. Call or Email for more information. VIDEO ANALYSIS: I am also developing a business in Video
Analysis. If you send me a video of your team or specific players,
I will return it with a new tape showing each player and specific
comments and coaching for him or her. Action shots will show
in stop action, slow motion and regular speed exactly what I
see and ways for development. Voice over will be used to assist
the coaching. Approx. cost $150. Call or Email if this is something
you want to consider. Go to the Swish Website, find the section about the "Shooting Newsletter," key in your Email address and click on the "JoinList"graphic. An Email will be sent automatically back to you asking that you confirm that you want to be on the List. Reply in the affirmative and you will be added to the list and receive a password. There is no need to save or record the password because ListBot will always quickly Email it back to you when asked. It's needed only to change your Email address or to Unsubscribe. You can also just Email me back that you want to Subscribe and I'll take care of it. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this Newsletter: If you ever want to Unsubscribe, please
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