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As I read more and more about how coaches teach shooting, I keep coming back to the same thought — keep my teaching as simple and understandable as possible. Shooting is such a difficult fundamental to master that many coaches are so technical in their teaching that it actually confuses the player.

First and foremost, the player must understand that mastering a shot takes a tremendous amount of repetition. Repetition alone is not enough, though; it has to be “perfect form repetition”. It has to be a daily process of taking hundreds and hundreds of shots. Ray Allen is one of the best shooters in the game today and he comes out every day and takes hundreds of shots either before or after practice — sometimes both. Kevin Garnett is fanatical about his daily routine and will not miss a day!

It’s no secret that the best shooters in the NBA are also the ones who work on their shots the most. Reggie Miller was always out there two or three hours before every game, perfecting his shot. Ray Allen is on the floor three hours before every game we play working on his shot. He actually works at such a game-like speed that he sweats nearly as much in his pre-game routine as many players do in a game!

Some of the key teaching points I use with our players:

• take “game shots from game spots at game speed”
• be “ready on the catch” – knees bent; feet ready; hands ready
• have “10 toes to the rim” – if you have 10 toes to the rim you will be squared up
• keep “feet under shoulders” – gives us balance
• remember that “the quality of your feet determines the quality of your shot” – footwork is so important to balance, and balance is so important to a quality shot
• have “perfect follow through”—we feel there are three ways to follow through (the first two are wrong and often lead to a missed shot): (1) straight up to the ceiling – forces shot to be short (2) straight at the rim – forces a short “no arc” shot (3) a follow through half way between both – up and over the front rim so that the shooting elbow ends up above eye level
• have “perfect feet – perfect follow through” – I am constantly repeating this to our players; we feel that the beginning of the shot (the feet) and the end of the shot (the follow through) are the most important parts of the shot; I will discuss the elbow in future blog posts as I know that many feel this is also important