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to this Newsletter has just passed the 1,200 mark! Thank you!!! Articles are written about this dilemma,
and people are looking for an answer. I feel I can provide that
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be in communication with me. Thanks. Overall, Pippen made only 3 of 13 shots. Wallace, usually a wonderful shooter, made only 4 of 19. Bryant had only 9 for 23 (39%, not too bad). The best shooter of these two teams is Michael Pemberthy, who's sitting it out. He could really light it up with his quick release and very focused, relaxed follow through. Rick Fox and Robert Horry are dangerous shooters, though sometimes streaky. Note how simple Fox's motion is. It's like a set shot, rather than a jump shot. Brian Shaw is very streaky due to the fact that he hesitates in his leg drive before shooting. The Sacramento-Phoenix game #3 was a titanic struggle the whole way, and at the end, the Suns shooting went south. Jason Kidd has been gradually improving his shooting for the last couple of years, but he's still only a streak shooter, not a great shooter. He took a couple at the end he should not have. They missed badly. And Cliff Robinson was only 2 for 8 from the line, missing some critical free throws down the stretch. Tom Gugliotta is a terrific shooter, usually, though he was just 3 for 10. I love the way he uses his body energy and gets the ball off quick and high. He's a lot like Detlef Schrempf. Both are 6'10", I think. The Kings' Tony Delk is a great shooter and can really light it up. He was 8 for 14 last night and almost turned it around. Jon Barry, a fine shooter, played only 8 minutes, but hit both of his shots. But the above failures of the Suns, plus Shawn Marion's 5 for 14 and Kidd's 8 for 22 kept them from coming back. The most "telling" stat was the Suns' 5 for 22 from the 3 Pt line! In the other series: Spurs - Timberwolves: The Spurs have the twin towers, of course, and that makes them awesome, but neither is a great shooter. Tim Duncan has that great bank shot when he's off to the side, but with his open jumpers and free throws, he's shaky. The Spurs have Danny Ferry, Terry Porter and Steve Kerr to light it up quite consistently. Watch how quickly they release the ball. The Wolves have Wally Szczerbiak, a terrific shooter. Kevin Garnett is an amazing player, but at best a streaky shooter. His shots are very flat and hot, driven by the wrist and hand. Jazz - Mavericks: The Jazz' best shooter, I feel, is Bryon Russell. I wouldn't put Malone or Stockton in that category, though John shoots extremely well at times, and Karl is usually a clutch shooter. Danny Manning can light it up, but Starks and Marshall are streaky at best. Jawan Howard is a poor shooter. Watch how high overhead he takes the ball, and from there all he can do is sling the ball horizontally. The Mav's are the most dangerous team shooting-wise. Led by Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley, supported by Steve Nash and Howard Eisley, they are a great shooting team. Watch Dirk's great Release, but I see him relying less on his leg drive than he used to. Nash is a great shooter, too. Finley is more of a scorer as his wrist and hand are not so relaxed but when he gets hot, he's unstoppable. 76'ers - Pacers: Indiana has only one great shooter, Reggie Miller. Jalen Rose is talented but a little streaky as he wrist flips it too much. Sam Perkins just slings it up there hoping it goes in. Croshere is too mechanical. Travis Best can light it up at times, but is streaky. Tabak and Foster shoot pretty well but don't play a lot of minutes. For the 76'ers, Iverson is a great scorer and sometimes great shooter. I can't figure out his stroke. It looks like he can shoot right handed, two handed, maybe even left handed, whatever works. He has obviously fantastic confidence, and he has a terrific "finish" to his shots, and I think that makes all the difference. Magic - Bucks: Orlando has Tracy McGrady, a great scorer and shooter. Watch his hand snap when he releases the ball. Mark Miller is, definitely, a great shooter. Watch the quick, high releases and his great follow through. As Mike Fratella put it, he has a "sweet shot." Pat Garrity is pretty good, as is Michael Doleac, and it's because they have relaxed wrists. Darrell Armstrong can light it up but he's a little streaky. The Magic fell behind in a stretch in the 3rd-4th quarters when they made only 1 for 11, and at the end McGrady was 0 for 7 at one point as he was trying to make up the deficit single-handedly. For the Bucks, Ray Allen is probably the best shooter, and his winning the 3 Pt championship at the All-Star Game shows that. I feel he's a little wristy, but he has great focus and effortless strength. Watch for that. Cassell can light it up at times, but he, too, is a little flippy with the hand. Glenn Robinson is a great scorer inside, but I feel his set point is too high overhead and he ends up throwing the ball too much. Hersey Hunter has a nice, snapping release and can light it up pretty well. Charlotte has a great shooter in Jamal Mashburn, and I like PJ Brown's shooting style. I haven't seen enough of them to comment on other shooters. Raptors - Knicks: Toronto has Vince Carter, a good to great shooter. I find he's a little streaky, but a fantastic scorer, of course. His outside shot is getting better. Charles Oakley is streaky, with his shotput kind of motion. The Knicks have a great shooter in Alan Houston. Latrell Sprewell is very streaky. Glenn Rice is usually a very dangerous shooter. I feel his Set Point is too high and makes him wrist his shots too much, but he can really light it up at times. His mental mindset (confidence) must be unshakable. Those are some of my observations. Tell me if you agree from your observations, or if you see other things than I do. The keys to look for are how they use both their lower bodies (leg drive) and their upper bodies (the Release and Follow Through). Watch the wrist and hand. Are they relaxed or tight? Watch for the height of shots and whether or not the Release is quick and angled high. Anyone can make a shot or two at times. To be a great shooter, you have consistency in what you do. You have learned ways to minimize variables and develop a repeatable stroke. WHAT TO LOOK FOR: One day later he set a record for the worst ever free throw shooting performance in NBA history (dethroning Wilt Chamberlain) at 0 for 11 against Seattle, and for the month following the announcement (about 14 games) he shot 37%. Slowly he got better, however, with ups and downs the next few months, until in the final game of the season, he shot 13 for 13. That was a miracle! Something he was learning and doing had shifted. I just read that he was at 37.3% at the lowest for the season, and then shot 66.5% over the last 17 games, culminating with that 13 for 13. Overall he ended the season at 51.3%. For the playoffs, he's now at 62%, 21 for 34, as of 5/1. If you watch his form, you'll see he is finally using some leg drive in the shot, though not a lot. And because of that he's getting a little height. He holds the ball cradled by his fingers, totally off his palm, which is an unusual grip. He slows everything down and throws it up there as gently as he can. The result is shooting performance in the range of 50-70%. Shaq and his coach are to be commended for a remarkable change in his performance! To go from ~40% to ~60% is a tremendous accomplishment, a 50% improvement. However, 62% is still poor. Anyone can throw a ball up there fairly softly and make 50-60% of the shots. It's a huge target, almost twice the diameter of the ball. The backboard is there to help. Even 70% is mediocre, in reality. Today's shooting has fallen so low that commentators remark that a shooter is "pretty good" if he's at 70%. Well, it ain't true by my standards. Maybe we can agree that 75% is pretty good, and 80-90 is great and over 90% is fantastic. But 62% is still poor. His shot is still a guess! I feel his stroke is still variable and he's guessing how many muscles to use. In Game #3 of the Lakers-Portland series, he made 7 of 10. In the game before that, he made only 4 of 9 for 45%. His last shot in game 2 was as the shooter of a technical foul, a great decision by Phil Jackson to let Shaq have that shot. (The game was in the bag, so it didn't matter, but I'm sure psychologically it was a boost for Shaq.) He made the free throw (it curled in), but prior to that shot, he had made only 3 of 8 for only 37.5%! I feel a stroke has to be "repeatable" in order for consistent, superior performance to manifest. Shaq's motion is not that. Watch him shoot in these Playoffs. Watch how he uses his body power. Watch the grip and the way he releases the ball. Can you see any repeatability in the motion? How high do the shots get? I think you'll see he's throttling way back on his power and trying to throw the ball in the basket softly. If you're relaxed and confident, you can probably do that fairly consistently. A soft landing shot to a large target with a backboard to reflect the ball will often go in, even if off center as much as 6-8 inches, and long or short by the same. But when pressure is on, the smaller muscles of the arm, wrist and hand are less reliable. If they're not on automatic, they can easily fire too quickly or too slowly, too little or too much, or jerk the ball left or right. And that's what you see happening. He'll miss badly and then make one or two. It's going to be interesting to see this develop. Give me your comments. Good luck, Shaq! SHOULD THE SHOOTING ARM BE FULLY STRAIGHT? Q: "When shooting a jump shot, should the arm be fully straight?" A: Yes. When you extend the arm fully at the same speed and force (with relaxed wrist and hand), you develop what can be called a "repeatable" motion. That's what you want. If you short-arm the shot, stopping short of fully straight, then you're adding variables. It's hard to do that exactly the same every time. You want to minimize variables. The straight arm and the flopping or bouncing hand are, to me, the signs of a good shooter. And if the hand stays pointed directly in line with target in the Follow Through, that's a sign that the shot's going to be pretty accurate.
PUTTING SPIN ON THE BALL Q: "Should my son be putting spin on the ball when shooting?" A: Yes, spin is important to stabilize the flight of the ball aerodynamically. But "trying" to get spin is not the answer. First, have your son observe how he shoots now (without trying to put more or less or different spin on the ball). Is he flipping his wrist or somehow using wrist, hand or fingers to power or guide the shot? He probably is, and that's why there's little or no spin. That action interferes with any natural backspin that's possible. My way of shooting is to power the shot with the whole body and make the Release a simple, upward "straightening of the arm" rather than any wrist or hand action. If the wrist and hand are relaxed when you straighten the arm, the hand will bounce. That bouncing is one of the hallmarks of great shooters. Work with him and see if he can develop a Release that is just that ... a straightening of the arm with relaxed wrist and hand. The direction is very high, high above and directly in line with the basket. Start in close where, with no legs, he can swish the ball effortlessly with this motion. At age 13, he should have enough strength to shoot a high arching swish shot with just the Release muscles from 3-4 feet. His Set Point is best if in line with the shooting eye and above the eye, if he's strong enough. If he's not, then have the ball below the eyes, but still approximately in line with the strong eye. Make sure he's shooting "up" in order to come "down" softly into the basket. This upward, pushing action is done at about 75% of max. speed and force, a motion that will not hurt his arm but provides a quick Release. When he just pushes the ball with the arm like that, with a relaxed wrist, he should get perfect, medium backspin. (The ball is held with a little bit of pressure in the finger pads, which helps in the Release to give the backspin as the ball rolls off the fingers.) Once that's learned, then as he moves further away from the basket he needs to add more and more body/leg action to power the shot and allow high arching, effortless shooting, keeping the Release always the same. CAUSES OF STREAKY SHOOTING Q: "What causes streaks?" A: As to your question about streaks, I feel they are caused by a flaw in the technique, usually the "wrist flipping" thing, where the shot is powered by the smaller muscles of the wrist, hand and fingers. If you drive or guide the ball this way, it flattens the shot for one thing, but more importantly, the muscle action is harder to control (relatively) and can also vary with the slightest thought or fear. The result is little variations in distance and direction, a little long, a little left, etc. Once you start to miss, then the fears and doubts make it more difficult. I know this is true because I shoot well all the time, I'm always "on." My motion is so stable and controlled, coming from large muscles, that it's extremely reliable. Once in awhile my mind can interfere with the simple, connected and automatic action, but it's easy to get back on track. You could put it this way: Streaks are caused by physical inconsistency (flaws in technique) and then sustained by the thoughts you have about yourself. If you believe you're in a "Streak," then you probably are. Once you are in one, it tends to continue, thus the name. However, if you can catch yourself thinking that, then there is some freedom. Then you can say, "Well maybe it's a streak, maybe not!" and approach the next shot as if it could be made, not expecting failure. That way a new possibility opens up. But if your mind pattern is that streaks are difficult to break, then you're in big trouble. Isn't it curious that your mind will think you're in a "bad" streak if you miss a couple, but won't think you're in a "good" streak if you make a few in a row? THE GRIP Q: What about the Grip? Should the ball be held on the fingertips? A: With the fingers and thumb spread wide apart without strain, the ball is held on the finger pads of the shooting hand, not the finger "tips." It also touches the pads of the palm at the base of the fingers and thumb (but not touching the base of the palm next to the wrist). The ball is thus held slightly off the lower part of the palm. (One major great shooter said it's okay to have the ball touching the palm entirely, but I feel that gives me too much backspin when I shoot that way.) This tiny bit of pressure in your finger pads gives more control of the ball. To show you how much pressure to give it, hold the ball with the palm facing up. Now, with no finger pad pressure, slowly move the hand in a horizontal circle. As you move it faster, the ball will simply fall off one side of the hand. Now position it again on the hand and add a little pressure with the finger pads. Do it just enough so that, when you move the hand in the horizontal circle, the ball doesn't fall off. Can you feel how this gives you more control of the ball? Now if you bring the hand around and up to the Set Point (the starting point for the Release), you will see that there is a little gap between the ball and the base of the palm. This is the way the ball is held when a little finger pad pressure is applied. This gives you control of the ball, without strain. To me, if I don't have the finger pad pressure that brings the ball off the center and base of the palm, I get excessive backspin when I shoot. It just seems a little out of control. When I exert the little finger pad pressure, ball rotation seems more consistent every time. I hope that helps. Let me know what you discover. HOW COACH SHOOTING ON THE WAY UP? Q: I have a couple of kids (high school) that I am having trouble with. They all release at the top or just after which makes their shots more of a throw than a push. I have tried to get them to release on the way up to get the push motion, but they find it difficult to break old habits. Any suggestions on drills I can run them through to break old habits? A: First, do they "know" they release at the top or even on the way down? I realize you and others are telling them they do that, but do they actually feel it? If yes, then half the problem is solved. If not, then they must learn to feel it. To help them feel it, ask them to tell you each time they shoot what "percent" of the available leg drive (what I call UpForce) they used in each shot. 0% means it's at the top. 100% means they shot early enough to use every ounce of the energy. (Tell them it's like catching a wave in surfing.) If they shoot on the way down, it will be a negative number, -10%, -25%, etc. Once they can feel, things should start to shift. Suggest to them a goal of 90-100% for outside shots* (on the way up, very early), and see what they do with each shot. They will probably start to report 25%, 40%, 50%, etc., gradually approaching 100%. If you can demonstrate it, all the better. As one of them starts to get it, point it out to the others. (* For inside, turnaround type jumpers, 100% is not required. It can be much less, 50%, 25% or less, just so some of the UpForce is utilized to increase stability. Raising the Set Point for these close-in shots allows the player to shoot quicker and go "full out" with the Release. The shots become easy this way. It's how Rasheed Wallace shoots.) Awareness and feedback is the way to do this, not by just telling them, insisting, yelling, etc. Telling them what they "didn't" do is of no value. And even telling them what they "did" do is no help if they can't feel it, too. Set up the coaching so they do most of the talking, telling you what happened. You can give feedback occasionally, to confirm what they say or to challenge it. If, for example, a player (I'll assume they're boys) says 75% but you can see it's only 25%, gently say that it didn't look like that to you. You don't even have to say what you see all the time. Suggest he looks more carefully, feels more precisely. Once he's reported a percent, then it's fine to tell him what you saw, but make sure he's doing honest reporting, not just trying to please you. They may say they can't feel it. Don't buy that. Touch an arm and ask the player if he felt that. Of course, he'll say yes. It's easy to cop out and say you can't feel. It isn't true. Once they really feel what they do and
really feel the changes that happen (the easier, quicker, higher
shooting with greater consistency), they will choose shooting
earlier. It will take some time and commitment for the change
to become the habitual response, so coach them on how change
works and to be patient. From my experience, most people, including kids, of course, think they'll be happy when they perform well at something. I can see it's the "human condition" (one of the ways we are and always will be), always needing approval. We all have it and we'll always have it. I feel it, too. From my coaching of golf, every golfer thinks he or she will be happy when the handicap is down to single digits (the handicap is a measure of how well you play, the lower the number the better, and someone who's handicap is below 10 is a good to very good player). The problem is that if they practice hard, take lessons, play a lot and improve and get down to 8 or 9, then they want it to be even lower, at 3 or 4, perhaps, and when it's 3 or 4, they want it to be even lower. It's sort of a never ending chase. When you start to play better, you just get more challenging playing partners, same frustrations, just a higher level of play. Unless you're a professional, that's about all it means. In shooting, we all want to "look good." Our fragile egos need that. We feel badly if we miss and we feel good if we make it, on almost all shots. In my clinics, I can feel that same "pull." If I miss some shots, I might say to myself, "Uh oh, I'd better start making some. I'm the shooting coach! I should be making all my shots!" The more I think that, the more the pressure I put on myself and the harder it gets, though I know ways to get back on track quickly. FROM LOOKING GOOD TO LEARNING (A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY)! When you practice, see if you can change the game from "Looking Good" to "Learning." Change it from "Did I make it?" to "What did I notice or feel?" From a "performance" issue to an "awareness" (or learning) exercise. Examples of questions in the latter category
would be: LEARNINGANDENJOYMENT What will happen for you is both Learning AND Enjoyment. I say that because whenever we learn, there is always a measure of joy. We love learning new things! A coach of mine often says he thinks it's really one word, "learningandenjoyment!" Your Performance will improve if you learn, so you don't have to worry about that. But if you always strive for performance (How did I do?... Did I make it? Did we win?) and judge yourself as "bad" if you don't do well, your performance will actually decrease in the long run. That's why, to me, too many games contributes to the problem in the game, deteriorating individual skills, including shooting. If it's always "performance," which games are mostly about, you don't have time to practice things and make mistakes, and mistakes are less valued. You can't run plays over and over just for the learning. Games are about how well you do individually and as a team. JUST PLAY AROUND Find time to just practice, experiment, and not mind making mistakes, in fact, expect mistakes, because that's how you learn! You might even miss on purpose to feel what it's like. There's a slogan that goes around and around, "It's not practice that makes perfect, it's 'perfect' practice that makes perfect!" Well, I don't believe in that one. I think it's saying you have to do things right in order to get better (at least that's one interpretation). But you can't do things right in the beginning. You have to make mistakes to figure things out. And the word "perfect" is a very special word, reserved for only the best of the best. Kids can't be expected to practice perfectly. LOVE THE PRACTICE So, my dear young player, keep practicing. Love practice, if you can. It's how you develop. In a wonderful book I've recommended before, "Mastery" by George Leonard, he talks about how mastery involves loving the practice. And loving the inevitable plateaus. If all you care about is getting to the top of the mountain (high performance), then you'll never hang around long enough to learn how to climb. Mastery practice is about the long haul, it's about being in the present, being real, being honest with yourself. And that involves periods of seemingly no development, where the shot just doesn't want to drop. It's like blaming the small shoot of a plant for being immature and not flowering and pulling it up to see what's wrong. It'll never grow that way. If you're impatient for the perfect shot, you might give up at that point. But if you can stay with it, suddenly there will be a leap to a new level, where you start a new plateau. Mastery is like that, a continuing striving for more and more excellent performance, but mostly long periods of no apparent growth. If you judge it as bad or too slow or that "something's wrong" with you, you'll probably switch to some other sport or activity. Hang in there, my dear young friends.
These lessons are Life Lessons. They apply to the bigger picture
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