Tom's Background
(And his unique and powerful understandings of shooting)

"I was a high school star in Minnesota in the mid-50's*, one of those Midwestern kids who spent every free moment shooting baskets in his backyard and playing at local parks. With all that shooting, I figured out how to put a basketball into a basket consistently, even under great pressure. It's not something I could coach at the time; it was simply something I could do! My high school team, Roosevelt High in Minneapolis, won two straight State Championships in those years, and when I was a senior, the offense was built around my shooting from the outside. We went 28-0 that year and I averaged 27 pts a game. A highlight was my making 19 of 20 free throws in the Championship game, a record that still stands 48 years later, having been. After high school I attended Stanford University on a basketball scholarship and played recreational ball in Minneapolis for 15 more years until I had toretire due to knee strain in the mid-70's."

High School Shot Rediscovered!
"In 1989 at age 50, I was working at a computer company in California, and during lunch one day I decided to shoot baskets for the first time in many years. I had not played or even touched a basketball in six years. After about 5-10 minutes of warmup, I started to swish everything from everywhere within my range! A light bulb came on and I asked myself how it was po ssible that, 32 years after high school and after y ears of not playing or even shooting, I could re-capture such span>great shooting touch.

The answers then started to come to me and developed as I practiced and researched shooting. I started volunteering to coach at local high schools, and I even started to write a book, which later became the "Swish" video eight years later in early 1997. (After another eight years of research, coaching and insights, I created "Swish 2" in late 2005.)

"Since that remarkable discovery in 1989, I've perfected more and more both my understandings of shooting and this approach AND how it can be taught. I've now coached at the jr. high school (middle school), high school, college and professional levels. The Method is so simple, anyone can learn it and start to shoot more effectively. Mastery is possible to those who are really committed and apply themselves.

"What age is appropriate to learn this Method? I feel that the age of ~10-11 is the best time to start learning this way of controlling the flight of a ball, though it can be taught to very young kids if they have a size of ball and basket height that are appropriate to their strength. Kids who are younger than 9-10 may not be not strong enough or mature enough to think about such concepts as "minimizing variables" and "varying arch to control distance" at a 10 foot basket. But the principles are very simple. I coached a five year old named Clay in Pennsylvania a few years ago who was using a mini-ball and a five foot plastic basket by their pool. He was able to drain shots from 10-15 feet away consistently. In fact he beat me at H-O-R-S-E every time, as I had a hard time adapting to the tiny ball.

"An ex ception to this age thing is in "basketball states" like Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, etc., where many 9 year olds are as mature in basketball as 11 and 12 year olds in other states. I have a photo of an 8th grade team from Greenwood, Indiana. It looks like a high school team. The coach said, yeah, but some teams have players 6'6" or taller .. .[in 8th grade?])"

-- Tom Nordland

* Tom is considered one of Minnesota's all-time great high school shooters.