Shooting 101

Many people believe shooting is a talent that if you have it you have it, and those who don't wont.

Not the case. People who practice the right way will have it, people who don't wont. It doesn't matter how many hours you practice, if your not training the right way all your efforts will be in vain.

Now stop practising the wrong way and improve your shooting with the B.E.E.F method.

B.E.E.F is the acronym used to remind shooters what the shooting process consists of.

Balance, Elbow, Eyes, Follow through.

Balance- This is most important in all aspects of basketball, and most sports. When shooting, you want to keep your feet shoulder width apart(or there about, depending on your comfort) to ensure that you are properly balance for your shot and ready to extend or jump(depending on the amount of strength you need for your shot). Remember, most of the power in your shot should come from your legs.

Eyes- This next part of the shooting process can be done at the same time as lining up your elbow. Your eyes should be focused on the front rim or the back rim, and ONLY the front or back rim. So where ever you are on the court, the part of the rim closest to you is considered 'front rim' and the farthest part of the rim is the 'back rim'. As easy as it sounds in theory, this is one of the hardest part of shooting. Many people(myself included) will have a bad habit of not focusing entirely on the rim and only the rim. For whatever reason we will get distracted by what's going on the court, whether its a teammate distracting you with his flaring arms crying for the ball(I dont like you people), trying to keep an eye on the defence, allowing the crowd to distract you, or looking at the ball during shooting and/or while the ball is in the air(my Achilles heal). People often get frustrated with their shooting when they feel they've found a comfortable shooting form, they know they're doing everything right but they keep missing. 9/10 focus is the reason from missing. Eyes need to be locked on the rim, your focus needs to be tunnel vision on the rim when shooting.

Elbow- Once you're feet are planted and you've established balance, you want to then line up your shooting elbow(this is your dominant hand) with the rim. A trick to ensure that your elbow is in line with the rim is to start from the ground up. Personally I like to have my right toe facing the rim, that way I know my knee is also lined up with the rim, and with my knee lined up with the rim I can now line up my right elbow with my right knee(with my feet shoulder length apart). I usually use this on freethrows, when I have time to set up an concentrate on shooting. This way everything is in line as seen in the first image.

Follow through- Now all that's left is the follow through. You're balanced and ready to spring up to power your shot, your elbow is in line with the rim, eyes are locked in on the rim, now its time to follow through and finish off the job. On your follow through you want to extend your elbow(which is in line with the rim) towards the front or back of the rim you are ever so focused on. The follow through needs to be a fluid motion and feel natural, if your follow through feels uncomfortable you are shooting the wrong way, and should not practice this uncomfortable shooting form. A lot of times I see players shooting a certain way because it's how they see good shooters or their favourite basketball players shooting in the hopes that this will work for them, completely ignoring the fact that they're forcing themselves to shoot in a way that does not shoot comfortable to them. On the release of your form, you typically want to wave goodbye to the ball and be able to see your shooting wrist dipping into the rim as if you are a young child climbing a counter and reaching in a cookie jar. Always remember Cookie Jar, even though you can actually reach into the rim like a cookie jar, your shot should finish with that cookie jar pose. This is why most coaches will tell you to hold a pose at the end of your shot(this is why you'll see basketball players keep their hand up for a second or 2 after the ball is released, but be careful not to keep the pose for an excessively long time, Refs will issue a technical foul for unsport-man-like conduct. That will be viewed as showboating.)

Its most important that the entire BEEF method needs to be done fluidly. Once the shot starts (from the time you knees bend), the shot should be 1 steady motion, no pauses to concentrate on what to do next. NEVER stop your shooting form to concentrate or think about what's next. Also remember, Comfort is everything! Now get out there and start knocking shots down.

Shoot with BEEF & You will Achieve (yeah its corny, Whatever)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmsw6ViKsXs