Chapter 16: How to Shoot for Dummies
Shin woke up the next day and continued with his routine with a chipper attitude and a goofy grin on his face.
When he left his home for school, he found that there were trucks outside the house next door unloading their cargo.
Shin: " It seems that the neighbors would be moving in today."
With that thought, he walked away to his school, while taking in the morning rush of Tokyo city.
Shin: "Teiko Middle School also won yesterday. Well, that was no surprise, they are a strong school, and the team this year is the strongest they had in their whole basketball history."
Shin was happy that his school had won, but he had a few issues e was troubled about, he was concerned about what he should work on in the period before the Nationals.
The Nationals for Middle School happened in the time between the Interhigh and Winter Cup for the Highschools.
He would have plenty of time to train for the next Nationals, but he had to be extremely careful what he wanted to practice now.
He had learned many streetball moves, and he had a good grasp on the traditional form of basketball, but he was still unable to merge them into one style that fit him.
He could work on that, but he didn't know if he could make it in time.
His defensive skills were the worst of his skills, but he didn't want to spend the short on defense, he wanted something that would give quick returns.
Shin: "Quality of the pass couldn't be improved overnight, so that is out too. I don't have the height to be improving my rebounding. All that is left is shooting and ball-handling.
By the time Shin reached his school, he had decided what he wanted in the time before the Nationals he was going to practice his shooting.
For Shin, learning a move was as easy as seeing it, but the shooting forms of different people were different, and the person with the best shooting form near him was Mibuchi Reo.
Shin arrived at the gym after his day at school, and after greetings, he made a bee-line to the coach.
Shin already knew how Mibuchi shot, but that didn't mean that was the best way for him. He wanted to know what were the mechanics behind a shooting form.
Shin: "Coach, please help me improve my shooting."
The coach was surprised for a while because this was the first time Shin was asking him for advice. The coach recovered quickly and patiently explained,
Coach: "Do you remember the basics of shooting."
Shin: "Yes, Sir. The basics are Balance, Elbow, Eye, and follow through, also known as B-E-E-F."
Coach: "Correct, I have seen your form, and it has the basics down, now let's start with something more advance."
Most Middle school coaches would stop at B-E-E-F, but Yoyogi's coach saw the potential in SHin, so he decided to take it a step further.
Coach: "The first step to shooting is Shot Preparation. Being a great shooter starts before you receive the basketball. This step is often overlooked by most payers and coaches but can be the difference between having enough time to take a good or getting your shot blocked by a defender closing in. You don't shoot fast you get ready to shoot fast."
Coach: "Start with your knees and hips slightly bent. If you catch the basketball with straight legs, it will take extra time to bend your legs before raising for your shot. That will be too slow."
Coach demonstrated what he just said, and Shin saw that bending knees did take time, and more importantly, Shin was doing the same till now.
Coach: "Show your hands to your teammate, which is where you want him to pass the ball."
Shin never knew that there were steps before you even got the ball in your hands, but what the coach said made sense. He had already
Coach: "The second step is how to hold the ball. Upon catching the basketball or raising it into a shot, you must be able to quickly adjust your hands to the correct positions on the basketball."
Coach: "The shooting hand must be under/behind the basketball, and the balance hand should be on the side of the basketball. The thumb of your shooting hand and the base of the thumb on your balance hand should form a "T"
Coach: "All finger pads and hand pads should be touching the basketball. The only area of your shooting hand not touching the basketball is the small gap in the middle of your hand.
Another important but overlooked detail is that the fingers should be spread comfortably wide on the basketball.
These adjustments must happen immediately upon receiving the basketball. You must practice till you can make these adjustments on the go."
Shin knew this step, how could you shoot a basketball properly if it didn't sit in your hand comfortably?
Coach: "The key to being a good shooter is balance. Everything follows balance. A balanced base makes a consistent shooter. The balanced base has three important factors, feet slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart if you have them too wide, you won't have enough to lift.
Next, have your dominant foot slightly in front, and distribute your body weight equally on both feet."
Coach: "Next point is feet direction when shooting the basketball, a player's feet should be turned slightly.
If you attempt to keep your elbow lined up with the rim while shooting with your toes towards the rim instead of them slightly turned, you'll notice the tension in the chest.
To relieve the body of this tension, you should turn your feet slightly, which will allow their elbow and should to line up with the rim more comfortably."
Coach asked Shin to shoot the ball using both ways, and Shin did feel the tension in his chest. By slightly turning your feet, you were changing the axis of your body.
Coach: " Now, we will learn about the shot pocket. The shot pocket is the area a player is most comfortable starting the basketball from when beginning their shot.
All players must find what feels comfortable for them.
Each time a player catches the basketball to shoot, they should be bringing the basketball back to their shot pocket before raising into their shot."
Coach: " Now, we will start the actual shooting, the first step is to wrinkle your wrist, people who shoot the ball with a flat wrist push the basketball towards the rim (flat shot) instead of shooting the basketball up and through the rim.
This step aims to get the wrist of the shooting hand arched back as far as possible (usually a little before 90 degrees).
This will give extra power to the shot and will also create the necessary backspin required to be a good shooter.
When bent back correctly, there will be small wrinkles in the skin on the back of the shooting wrist."
Coach: "Elbow under the basketball, when you're raising for the shot, the elbow of your shooting arm should be directly under the basketball.
This requires players to have their upper and lower arms forming an 'L' shape and also have their wrists bent back to 90 degrees. Doing this will ensure that the basketball will be shot in a straight line into the rim and also have good backspin."
Backspin is important while shooting because it creates a 'soft' shot. When a shot is soft(or has touch), the basketball has more chance of bouncing on the rim and then falling through the hoop. If a shot is taken without a backspin, the ball is going to hit the rim and bounce away with very little chance of a score.
Coach: "The last step is the shooting of the ball, the balance hand(non-shooting hand), as the name implies is helping to balance the basketball on the shooting hand up until the release point.
As the elbow starts to extend in the shooting motion, the balance hand rests flat off the side of the basketball.
If the balance hand isn't t flat on release, this means that a player has pushed the basketball with the balanced hand (most often with their thumb) while in the shooting motion and the shot will usually end up missing left or right."
Shin and the coach prepared a shooting routine for Shin's practice. Shin was excited that he had learned so much and couldn't wait to implement it.
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