|
Return to Testimonials Index page
"Hi Tom, I just wanted to let you know that I purchased your video last summer for my two boys who are now in 6th and 8th grade. My oldest son took the video to heart since he is one of the smaller (Late Bloomer/youngest in his class) kids on his team. He watched the video several times and practiced consistently over the summer. He really has developed a soft shot with a nice arch. He made his 8th grade A team and then was selected for his AAU team. Before he was afraid to take a shot because he thought there was a better chance of missing, however now he knows there is a good chance of success and really has become more confident. "My younger son, who has always been one of the bigger kids in his class and has always been successful, only watched the video once and was a little skeptical because he thought he already knew everything. Now that he has seen his older brother's success, I see him out practicing your video more. It was a perfect time for my older son to buy into your philosophy and have success as next year there will be about 25 kids trying out for 12 freshman spots. "Thanks again!" - - Tony P. "Hopefully one day I will be able to have enough money to order it and learn more about shooting. However, your newsletters still help a lot. I really enjoy reading your kids korner articles. Even though I am not a kid (I am currently a senior in college) I still learn something from it. This past month's issue was very helpful and reminded me that we need to be students of our bodies so that we can fix our mistakes and work towards perfection so that we can not only be better basketball players but better people. Thank you for all the encouragement I have gotten from you through your newsletters. They have been a blessing. " - - Justin H. "This rapid improvement doesn't seem likely but I think many people, perhaps even yourself (though I doubt it), do not realize the effects that this video has on a player's entire game. For me my new shot was almost instant. After a week of constant shooting using your video's principles I was dishing up high arching consistent beautiful shots. My new shot inspired me to train harder in every other part of my game. It was like "man this game isn't as hard as I thought it was, if I just train hard and try to do things the right way i'll get better." So that's what I did. My new shot made me enjoy playing the game more, it gave me confidence. My training workload has increased by 6 hours a week since I purchased your video. I most definitely blame your video for inspiring my new found work ethic and love of the game. "I am currently 3 months away from my 17 birthday, i'm 6 foot 5 the captain of my high school team and I have a hunger that drives me to improve. For me there was no doubt about your video improving my shot, what surprised me was how confidence in one's shot can increase your passion for the game. I have probably watched your video close to 20 times to date. "Anyway now a question. In a recent game my high school team was down by 3 in the dying seconds of the game and I missed the game winning shot. Now don't get me wrong I have performed in the clutch before but mainly in situations where our team has been up and the opposition has begun to surge back in the last few minutes. In the past I have extended minor leads (1,2,3,4 points) to unachievable leads for the opposition to overcome. So initially my reasoning for missing that shot was lack of exposure to situations such as having to hit a game saving shot instead of a game winning shot. After the game though my coach started hammering me for not shooting with my elbow in. "Personally I think he did this for 2 reasons, one it was the first game of the season our team lost and secondly I don;t think he knows his head from his arse. Now excuse my crudity but after witnessing my rapid improvement and viewing your video he still thinks your techniques "are fads". He is so ignorant he still thinks that it was his "brilliant" coaching that has improved my game, despite the fact I shoot nothing like the way he coaches. Now I am perfectly prepared to accept he is right but I wanted a true experts opinion. "So the first thing I did was check your video, which is by the way the first thing I always do when i'm going through a shooting slump. Now I know it doesn't say to keep your elbow in but it doesn't say to keep it out either. My coaches reasoning is if you don't keep your elbow in it is simply impossible to have your shot go straight under pressure. Now I just want to know your thoughts about this theory. "Anyway a reasoned explanation would be greatly appreciated." ( Editor's note: I told him to make the hand position matter, not the elbow! When you center the hand on the target in line with your eye, the elbow will be a little to the side, as it has to be, naturally. It won't be "flying," because then the hand would not be well aligned.) "Thanks again Tom for all your help." - - Kane H., Australia "I worked some on my jump shots, but the broken foot bone is limiting my practice on that shot. No big deal though as there is plenty to practice on from 15 feet in. I did focus some on developing an early release. But my guess is an early release will need the full power of the jump to really develop it, I think. The good news is, after spending an hour on my foot shooting yesterday, as well as working in the yard, and then playing some horse late last night with some of the high school boys team(they lost in the second round last night to Spartanburg High), my foot feels pretty good today. So I think my recovery is going along well and I can start working earnestly on jump shooting within the next two weeks. "During the session, I noticed
my awareness going up and was more focused, concentrating on
the fundamentals -- relaxed hand and fingers and shooting with
power from the arm. I am beginning to see the difference between
sloppy practice and "perfect" practice - maintaining
an awareness of my execution compared to the fundamentals, and
using that feedback to improve the execution. That was neat.
So sloppy practice is the opposite - little awareness and little
knowledge of the fundamentals. Does this make sense?" "My awareness on alignment
went up. I think one of the focus areas of my next session will
be getting to the set point with good alignment until it becomes
automatic. When talking about alignment and release, you refer
to aiming with the center of the palm. I have used the index
finger as the point of reference on the hand that lines up with
the eye and the basket. Do I need to change my "hand point
of reference" for best alignment?" "Not sure what you were
saying about "End of Rope" in relation to the arm extension
on the release." "On page 5 of the workbook, you emphasize developing a constant release. I found that as I extended my range (without yet developing a good U/F connection with my release) I had a tendency to accelerate my release to get more power. But what I understand you to say - and if I understand it right, this is VERY important for repeatability - I must learn to develop and maintain a single, constant release force, regardless of whether I am shooting from 6 feet or 25 feet." "If that is key, then ALL
the additional power needed to shoot from 25 feet must come from
the U/F. Is that correct?" "I had my first session with my daughter yesterday. It went extremely well. Last night went we were playing horse, she was swishing many of her shots. She is very teachable, so we should see significant progress with her. "Thanks Tom." "Mikey, 6th grade, will start playing on his school team soon and has shown great improvement. Thanks again Tom! "The boys are getting to be 'automatic!'" - - Don V. "i used to associate perfect shooting with almost impossible. Well i hope you're glad to hear that you changed all that for me. "i really used to suffer from what i like to call it "young basketball player"syndrome and i guess everyone had it ... it's like they want to have the "looks" first ( = the easy task) and after that learn the basics of basketball ( = the hardest part); they want to have "cool" basketball shoes and wear 5 pounds of wristbands headbands and other accessories! "Me, i used to be an Allen
Iverson fan but after 5 months i realized that i was going nowhere
... i just wasn't progressing with my game. I stopped and i
decided to take my own way, my own path and i realized that i
progressed in a month like no other. [Editor's note: AU CONTRAIRE,
MY YOUNG FRIEND. WE LOVE TO HEAR IT FROM A 17 YEAR OLD!!!] "Tom - Ryan is too modest to let you know, but he had 22 points in Cathedral's opener Saturday night - hitting five of eight threes and a couple of nice step in jumpers. He has worked very hard at trying to be true to your teachings, and really looked solid. Two of the three he missed looked great, but rattled out. Twenty two is a nice chunk of points for a sophomore, but neither Julie nor I really thought he did anything out of the ordinary. "He worked for a while yesterday, and I rebounded. He's changed his routine for practicing threes to allow for catching from the wing or top of the key while he shoots from the five spots they use in the three point shooting contests. Those are the places from which he is likely to receive passes. (In the past, I had rebounded and passed from underneath, but I noticed that his feet and shoulders were not consistently aligned when catching from the side.) During his last set, he hit 27 of 30. The arc was uniformly high, and everything was well-aligned for each shot. It's borderline silly to get excited about a 16-year-old shooting a basketball. He works so hard at it, I can't help but brag a little. I know you only worked with him once, but I hope you take some pride in a kid who was definitely helped by your instruction. "There is no doubt that
the Swish method has been responsible for a significant part
of Ryan's success as a shooter. " "Thank you." "I asked him continue to drive full speed to the hoop, but to rate his shots from 1 (very soft) to 10 (very hard) after completing the layup. It only took him about 5 minutes to learn the difference and adopt a method that allowed for a soft consistent lay up." - - G. L., San Jose, CA "Finally, on Christmas day I had enough and broke down and ordered the DVD. I had attempted to impart the "wisdom" I had gained from reading your articles earlier -- with little success. My son would not buy into the concept that his shot was way too flat and that his set and release points were not consistent and repeatable. Perhaps after having me as his coach for almost seven years he had begun to 'tune me out' on some points. "After we (separately) watched the video and did the drills ... it sank in! The video proves your methods work to nonbelievers. With a couple of hours of extra work over the weekend, he started practicing, focusing on sustaining a smooth, repeatable, release with a higher arc. Four day's later the line for his next game: In a little over 2 1/2 quarters, 23 points on 10 of 12 from the field, primarily from long range -- including 1 for 1 from 3 point distance and 2 for 2 from the free throw line. 'Another Convert!'" - - Robert S., Tuscarawas County,
Ohio "Hi Tom: Thanks for the
DVD. I have watched it three times, including once with my 12
year old son. Before I ordered the DVD, I read your webpages
and tried applying your ideas and gained some personal improvement
-- e.g. I had never hit more than 4 free throws consecutively,
and after trying to use your approach, I got to 5 in a row. - - Tom G., Sheffield Junior
Sharks, England "I took the time to view the DVD several times, worked with my younger son Oliver, and printed off and condensed down the lesson plans 1 and 2. The gym we practice in is pretty good -- it is at a school and has a single court with two main baskets and eight wall-mounted side baskets. That plus plenty of basketballs. "Firstly let me say I was astounded by the session! I had every faith that the Swish method would work -- it makes great sense to me, it is consistent with the way I have tried to coach shooting in the past, and I could see that the simple approach would be readily understood. But the outcome was frankly amazing! As the session developed and we went through the progression, pretty much as your lesson plan advised, the improvement in the boys shooting was astonishing. I couldn't help smiling -- at first just inwardly, but then just a broad grin -- and everywhere on the court I could see players doing the same. "I have to give credit to the boys -- over a sustained four hour period without anything more than several water breaks, they concentrated throughout and showed great self-discipline. But they could see for themselves that the method works and they just kept working with it -- so it gave instant positive feedback. "'It works - it's amazing!' was the response from the boys. "Your advice in terms of encouraging them to be self-aware and to watch others and give honest feedback worked so well. I was very impressed -- as young teenagers they will chat to each other about so much (TV, school, NBA etc) and often at the "wrong" time (when the coach is talking), but trying to get them to communicate on court on D, etc -- they all clam up! But today they talked far more to each other about their shooting as the session progressed, particularly "yes/no" on the release. "On introducing the release, I used your "sitting down" approach from the DVD instead of standing in circles, but then moved onto that. It allowed me and a couple of assistant coaches to look at grip, set point, hand/wrist, etc. more easily. "But the real take off came with the Pure Release Distance. Once they started swishing it at the PRD (particularly with eyes closed), they were sold! Interestingly, one player took the instruction to find the PRD by trial and error to mean once he could hit swishes with no leg drive from a spot close to the basket, he next decided to increase the distance and try to repeat but going for the basket. Once I spotted what he was doing, I brought the group back together and emphasised that this exercise is the key one to the method, and that it's not a test of strength, but of repeatability. Once this particular understood this, he went back and used it well and was one of the first to really express his astonishment - 'It works!'. "Once we had put it all together with jump shots from a variety of spots -- short, mid, long range -- each player choosing their own, I then went to shooting from their weak hand/arm. I reckoned that this would a) make them think and b) help them realize that the method is so simple. We went through the progression very quickly and I had players swishing 'wrong' hand shots -- again everyone was impressed. "Because they had concentrated so well, we had enough time to look at free throws too. Again, they understood quickly, took the 'down-up' advice and applied it with the rest of the method. We used your micro-mini-full progression with very good results. "The last section of the session I split them into four teams on a shooting competition we run usually in more relaxed sessions than our normal practices. Each team had to hit five shots from four spots round the key. Not unexpectedly, the added pressure/excitement/competitiveness had an immediate impact on their performance. Only four or five out of the 19 clearly tried to use their new shooting technique -- the rest reverted more or less! After one run through we repeated it twice more with reminders in between about how they should be shooting. Performance improved noticeably. But it showed just how fragile it can be. "I have had great feedback from my assistant coaches and from parents - one mum came in about three quarters the way through and said the atmosphere was buzzing and that her son has not been able to stop talking about it since (he was one who really took to the method - shooting 16/20 free throws!). "So, if it's not already abundantly clear, thanks Tom for this method! Now I have got to make sure we follow it through and reinforce constantly. I am sure we will see an improvement in our jump shots and free throws in matches. We are in our national age-group playoffs and we know we are going to come up against better and bigger teams. Most of our points come off layups from steals/turnovers generated by high pressure D. But we won't be able to rely on that to the same extent -- we will need to be able to hit open jump shots and free throws to win -- the Swish method may yet prove to be the crucial ingredient in our season - I'll let you know. "Thanks again." - - Tony G., Victoria, Australia "Tom, I just wanted to e-mail you and let know that I read your newsletter every month. I really enjoy it and learning something new from it. I have wanted to order your Swish video for sometime now but have never had the money to buy it since I am paying for college. Hopefully one day I will be able to have enough money to order it and learn more about shooting. However, your newsletters still help a lot. "I really enjoy reading your Kids Korner articles. Even though I am not a kid (I am currently a Senior in College) I still learn something from it. This past month's issue was very helpful and reminded me that we need to be students of our bodies so that we can fix our mistakes and work towards perfection so we can not only be better basketball players but better people. Thank you for all the encouragement I have gotten from you through your newsletters. They have been a blessing." Sincerely, J. Hall Editor's note: I like that "students
of our bodies" line. Well said! "It wasn't until a month ago when my oldest child, 13 yr old (Camron) who plays on a 7th grade team and is still developing physically and skill wise, made me pull it out of the dusty video closet, unwrap it and stick it in the VCR, thinking that it might motivate him to work on his shooting and give me some new ideas. I also have a 9 year old (Drew) that I coach in recreational league to help as well. "I consider myself a good fundamental coach and have coached every age from Kindergarten to 12th grade in school, AAU and recreational competition. I played 4 years of college basketball and was a teacher/Coach for 13 years before leaving and joining the business world. I keep my hands in coaching with my own and others in the community in my spare time, keeping my hand still in it. I consider myself a decent shooter but have always struggle teaching kids effectively. I have used a lot of the same old and same old when it comes to shooting drills and shooting talk, use your legs, follow thru, rotation, arch, hand positioning, etc... And of course when you are coaching your own kids .... patience isn't always at the top of you list. We have been hooked by the video and in just a short time both of my boys have been turned around in both motivation and working on the drills we have watched on the video. I can also tell a big difference in their shooting just after a few short weeks. We are on vacation down in Florida this week and they have been shooting on a neighbors court 2-3 hours daily while using the Swish method." -- Andy B., Kentucky |