Let’s get #52WeekCoaching back for the upcoming season. And if you’d be interested in contributing with a post of your own, please feel free to reach out! The season is fast approaching and our program has been taking advantage of a recent NCAA Division 3 calendar change where we are allowed 8 days on the floor prior to the official October 15th start date. During one of our small group workouts I was talking with some players about shooting mechanics, and thought this topic could be as good as any to tip off some pre-season coaching content.
What is your coaching philosophy when it comes to shooting the basketball?
At the high school level, I’d be torn with the decision to tweak a player’s mechanics or leave it alone hoping the reps over time might lead to eventual recalibration. Back at the college level, coaches are more aware of player mechanics prior to stepping foot on campus from either having seen them during the recruiting process or from film.
When it comes to coaching up shooters, my philosophy revolves around developing strong habits of “doing their work early” and generating a rhythmic shot over any re-invention.
That being said, I have a few form guidelines that I will use as mechanical talking points:
- Hand/Index finger under the middle of the ball (Dave Love)
- Hip to the rim
- One motion (Mike Dunn says 2-motion)
Upon the catch, the first thing I’ll reference is getting the shooting hand under the middle of the ball as an effort to autocorrect any elbow/shoulder alignment issues. Hip to the rim is a comparative instruction for “square your body.” One motion refers to the path of the ball takes from catch to release, so tying it all together: hands-hips-balance-release.
Mike Dunn, a great resource for any coaches or players seeking shooting tips, offers his reasoning for why the best shooters have 2-motions: up and out. While his reasoning makes a ton of sense, my purpose for communicating one-motion is to help my players tap into the rhythm of the shot. At the end of the day, rhythm is the most important concept I aim to coach, which is really about getting the shot to the point of subconscious repetition. Same shot every time without having to think about it.
Now from an evaluation standpoint, I’ll use a similar list while recruiting:
- How is their footwork prior to the catch?
- Where are their hands on the basketball?
- Is it repeatable?
- And do they shoot with confidence?
So, I’m looking at any prospective players’ ability to go from different speeds and find balance as a shooter starting from the ground up. You’d think form correlates to confidence as a shooter, but it can be interesting to see really fundamental shooters show reluctance when open versus inefficient scorers demonstrate the ultimate greenlight. One of the biggest differences that seems to separate decent high school shooters to ready for college is motion shooting. It’s one thing for kids to be in a game and play H-O-R-S-E with playmakers feeding spot shooters; another thing is being a consistent threat re-locating or reading screens with marksmanship.
At the end of the day every shot is unique, and I can accept that as a coach. While I have my opinions to fundamentally improve mechanics; my focus tends to lean more on developing a sustainable 1-motion rhythm with balanced footwork and a consistent path at the point of release.
Coach's Climb 