Shooting is a hugely important part of basketball and for many players, young and old, improving their shot is one way to work on improving their overall game.
While shooting is certainly not the only thing you should be doing to get better at basketball, here are some tips on how to get better at it.
Work on the Fundamentals
Before you start practicing shots, you must have all the fundamentals right, especially if you're going to develop muscle memory for taking shots.
Picking up bad habits can hold you back and take even longer to undo, especially if you've been playing basketball the same way for many years. When getting your kids into basketball, you should definitely focus on the fundamentals.
There are many different types of shots in basketball, but to get started, you can practice just throwing the ball from standing as you would for a free throw. As you advance, you'll be able to complicate your shooting drills with movement, but for the time being, you'll want to focus on the action of throwing the ball for a shot.
There are four main areas to focus on here: stance, grip, elbow alignment, and follow-through.
Stance
Your stance when taking basketball shots is really important. Generally, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your shooting foot slightly ahead.
Your stance is an important part of shooting because it'll provide you with balance, give you a recognizable foundation every time you shoot, and help give the ball the upward looping angle you need for it to go in.
Before you start practicing shots while moving, practice shots while standing still with the correct stance.
Grip
Your shooting hand should be under the ball with your non-shooting hand supporting the side of the ball.
Your grip helps you control the ball when shooting. The right grip will help you to affect the spin and rotation of the ball. When you shoot a basketball, backspin is preferred as this deadens the bounce and increases the chances of the ball going into the net. The backspin also directs the ball toward the net if it hits the backboard.
Your grip lets you better control when you release the ball during your shot. You don't want the ball to slip out of your hands at the wrong time and releasing the ball sooner or later than planned will almost always result in a miss.
Elbow Alignment
Your elbow needs to be directly under the ball as this will help provide both power and accuracy.
Much like with your grip, your elbow alignment will help you control the release of the ball better as the ball won't drift to either side during release, making your shot more controlled and consistent.
Elbow alignment is really important as it helps to provide the perfect shooting arc. High shots with a good arc are more likely to go in the basket since they'll approach the hoop from above.
You'll also reduce stress on your shoulder and shooting arm by having your elbows correctly aligned, meaning you won't tire as quickly and will be less prone to injuries.
Follow Through
Your follow-through will make the shot more controlled and accurate and should be done with a straight wrist and your fingers pointing toward the basket.
In most sports where you hit or propel an object, be it golf, soccer, hockey, football, bowling, or darts, the follow-through is an important part.
Even though this might seem unimportant because you're no longer in contact with the ball, in basketball, the follow-through actually helps align the shot as you'll be releasing the ball during a consistent and unchanging motion.
Without a follow-through, you'd be releasing the ball while your shooting arms decelerate, providing an uneven force being applied to the ball, making it much harder to make stable and consistent shots.
Shots with a follow-through allow for a repeatable shooting motion that you can practice until it becomes second nature.
Focus on the Arc
The higher the arc, the better your chances of the shot going in. Use your legs to generate vertical power.
The arc is so important because it provides the ball with a clear angle of attack into the net. The greater the vertical component of the shot, the more likely the ball is to drop into the net from above as opposed to entering it from the side.
If you imagine the basket like the bucket, the easiest way to get a clear line into the bucket is from above. Looking at the bucket from the side means you can't see a clear path into it.
For a basketball, arriving at the basket from above opens up its path into the basket. Basically, there are more possible routes into the basket from above than from the side.
Repetition
Regularly practicing shooting a basketball will develop muscle memory and make your shots far more consistent.
Repetition can also help with the mental aspect of shooting. It's much easier to make a shot if you know you've made that very shot hundreds or thousands of times. Your confidence will improve with every basket you make and in games, you'll also be confident to make the same shots.
One of the biggest mistakes that young basketball players make is not practicing regularly enough.
Start with Easier and Closer Shots
Learn to walk before you learn to run. Easier and closer shots will allow you to build up your confidence while also working on the fundamentals that we mentioned earlier.
As you start landing the closer shots with more consistency, you can move further away until you're confident making baskets from a range of angles and distances.
While it may be tempting to practice shots from ridiculous distances or angles, it's probably best that you master shooting from the sorts of distances and angles that you'd likely find yourself in during a game.
Run Different Shooting Drills
There are plenty of different shooting drills you can do and variety will help keep training sessions interesting while also improving different shots.
It also helps to run shooting drills that emulate common in-game scenarios. If you're training on your own, these may be movement-based drills whereas if you're training with others, you can actually play through said scenarios as part of your shooting drills.
Again, you must master the fundamentals of shooting before you start trying to incorporate movement and dribbling into your shooting.
Analyze Your Shooting and Get Feedback
If you can record your drills, go back through the footage, look for errors in your form, and try to work out what went wrong for the shots that you missed.
Your coach can help you work on the areas that need improvement and even come up with the best drills to improve the aspects of your game that you need to work on. Your willingness to work on your game is also a great way to show your coach that you deserve to make the team.
Exercise
Physical conditioning can improve your shots. Work on your strength, flexibility, and fitness. Endurance will help you be able to make shots late into grueling games and your legs and core play an important role in generating powerful and consistent shots.
Exercise and your overall fitness will also reduce the risk of injuries, which would be a quick way to undo a lot of the hard work you've put into improving your shot in the first place!
Focus
Basketball requires both brains and brawn and it helps to be in the right head space when you play. Much like muscle memory, it can help to train your brain when you take shots.
Whether this is through visualization, a positive attitude, or a pre-shot routine, you must find a way to effectively focus on shots.
Patience
Improving your basketball shot will be a slow process and requires patience. Set yourself achievable goals, track your progress, and celebrate any improvements.
The very best players practice shots thousands of times and you shouldn't expect to see quick or immediate improvement.
Take your time, enjoy yourself when you practice shooting, and remember that a lot of your progress will be too slow to notice in the moment but when you look back a few months, you'll see how far you've come.
If you'd like some extra help with your shooting, don't forget that you can always get in touch with a private basketball coach. They can work out what you need to do to improve, provide you with drills to take better and more consistent shots, and even advise on diet, exercise, and a training routine.
A lot of the coaches on the Superprof website offer the first session for free so you can try a few different ones out before choosing the right basketball coach for you and how you'd like to improve your game!
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