“See the Front Rim”
Posted by Steve Bzomowski on February 1, 2007
When shooting, focus, really concentrate your vision, on the front of the rim. Don’t just look generally at the area of the hoop. See the front of the rim and imagine shooting the ball over the rim. Remember, the target is actually air, that slice of air that occupies the area of the circle encompassed by the round rim. To get to the target, you have to shoot “up” and have the ball come down through. When releasing, follow through intentionally with your shooting hand, wrist snapping at the basket. Given good balance with your feet, the ball will go where your hand sends it, so be aware of what your hand does on the release.
February 11, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Steve:
Great insight. It just reminds me that it is the little things that make a good shooter. The next post should be the top three/four things one should think about for a break away layup. Would love to know exactly where to look, when I should be picking up the dribble, how the ball should leave your hand, where the ball should go off the backboard and how much spin should be on the ball.
February 11, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Cags - - About “See the Front Rim” . . . I probably should have noted that there is a split in opinion about teaching what to focus on. Maybe a little fewer than half of all coaches would say “front rim”; a little fewer than half would say “back rim” and a small minority would say “the hoop”, as in shoot at that thing up there. I once heard Jeff Hornacek say he focused on the front rim, “could see the paint chips missing from the rim”, and this was right after he dropped 36 on the Celts. That was good enough for me. Plus, it’s what I do and have always done. Over the front rim. I’ll take your prodding and do a write-up on “break away layups”. Let me say one thing about that shot here though: the one thing you do not think about is . . . missing it! There’s something about thinking you might miss that causes you to miss . . . and that pertains to any shot.