Shooting Fundamentals

I don’t think we have enough time in practice to develop great shooters. Players need to practice shooting in their own time, especially the key fundamental of the release.

Lie down Shooting

Players should shoot 50-100 lie down shots a day in their own time, to practice having the exact same wrist and elbow action on every shot.

The lie down shots should be shot from above the forehead, and should go to at least 6 feet.

Players should extend – almost hyper extend – the elbow on every shot, as a bent arm is one of the main reasons players miss shots late in games. When players tire, and their shooting form is with a bent elbow, they will start adjusting, and their form will change, causing them to miss more shots. Adjustment as the players tire should come from the legs, not varying elbow extension.

In lie down shooting the ball must come down in same place every time. This again trains players to have the exact same elbow and wrist action on every shot.

If done at training 90 percent of the lie down shots must be within three inches as ball comes down or players should so some form of punishment.

Beat the Pro

Beat the Pro is a great drill for form shooting, especially for younger kids. Players should start at 2 feet, shooting one-handed shots from the top position. A make is worth one point, and a miss takes away two points. To win you have to get to 10 points (5 points for younger players), and a loss (and a sprint) is minus 10.

Players go through four spots of one-hand shooting, out to between the foul line and the three point line. They then go through four spots of jump shooting, from 4 feet to three point shots.

Going through lie down shooting and Beat the Pro regularly they will develop the fundamentals to become great shooters.

Shooting drills to be used and why

Repetition is key – it’s better to get 300 shots off in a practice than to get 100 game shots off. We still want pressure shots, meaning that we’ll run drills that offers high volume shooting, but are competitive throughout as well.
Coach Walberg promotes three shooting drills as part of his “Daily 45”:

  • Olympic Shooting Drill
  • 5-spor shooting
  • Bird Drill

They are all excellent, competitive drills.

We also spend lots of time on these competitive shooting drills:

  • 7-up – a drill that everyone is in it to win until the last shot
  • 5-up – another drill that you’re never out off
  • Pressure Shooting: high rep pressure shooting

For drills that accurately measures shooting skills look at these:

  • 50 threes – simply measures how many makes of 50 shots
  • 3-in-3 – only consistent shooting earns points

The drilla are all available here: http://coachdribbledrive.com/book/