TRAINING PREP
• Without a ball, practice your form in front of a mirror. Focus on your foot positioning and lower body alignment, loading your hips, bringing your shooting hand up through your eyebrow in a clean line, and releasing with your elbow above your eye and a gooseneck finish.
• Spend 15 minutes walking around the basketball court, keeping your eyes on the rim. Familiarize yourself with the rim hooks and how many hooks are facing you from different angles or distances. Without a ball, practice running to a random spot on the floor, stopping, and finding the rim hooks with your eyes as quickly as possible.
• Practice your hand alignment on the ball. Put the index finger of your shooting hand on basketball’s air valve, like Stephen does, and let the ball rest in your hand to feel the center of the ball. Standing just a few feet from the basket, take 10 shots by finding the air valve first. Then take 10 more just by finding the center of the ball with your hand, not searching for the air valve.
FORM SHOOTING PRACTICE
The only person you should compete against is yourself. Resist the urge to compare yourself to others, and instead, focus your mind and body on improving upon your previous training session. Set reasonable goals for yourself before each workout, and be sure to track your accuracy so you can watch your stats improve. Stephen wants to start his workout with perfect make to build up confidence. He suggests focusing on reps close to the basket, which will build your range and confidence and help you identify problems with your shot. Begin each practice by shooting easy baskets from the paint, concentrating on your mechanics. Every time you miss the basket, diagnose what went wrong with your mechanics, adjust accordingly, then try again. For Stephen, shots that come up long or short tend to be a matter of finding his rhythm through more reps, and regaining his feel for the ball. However, missing left or right usually indicates a problem with his core mechanics, requiring a more detailed analysis and adjustment of his shot to correct it. As practice goes on, gradually increase your distance from the basket, taking different and more difficult shots until you’re shooting from the three-point line. Stephen encourages you to keep building up your endurance until you’re able to make 100 perfect shots over the course of a single practice session. Persist through fatigue, and do your best to prevent it from altering your shooting mechanics.
No comments:
Post a Comment