Best Shooting Tips and Drills for Baskeball

It takes hours and hours of practice and dedication to become a great shooter.
In this article, we will examine some of the key factors that separate good shooters from great ones.
Basic components that all great shooters share:

• Preparation: All of the best shooters (high school, college, NBA) are always prepared to shoot. They always have their hands up and ready to receive a pass and they have great footwork to immediately be able to shoot the shot once they catch the pass.
• Consistency: Great shooters have a consistent form and technique to shooting that they have developed from hours of practice. Muscle memory will play a big role when a player shoots a lot of shots from different spots on the court.
• Shooting Form: The best shooters may not all shoot the same way, but there are a lot of similarities to their form:
  1) Finishing all shots with a follow through, elbow is above the eyebrow on all follow throughs, finger tips are slightly spread and pointed down to the floor
  2) Shooting elbow, shoulders, and feet are always square to the rim
  3) Guide hand point straight to the ceiling
  4) Knees and elbows move at the same speed (connectivity) to release the shot in one fluid motion

Knowing how to shoot and practicing the form will help a player improve his/her shooting, but this is just the first step to becoming a great shooter.
The next part of the article will outline some guidelines and drills that we like to use at Premier Hoops, which really separate the good shooters from the great ones.
Guidelines:

• Start off close to the basket. Practice form-shooting and close range shots such as floaters to start all shooting workouts.
• Add a “Pressure” variable to all shooting drills. When shooting under pressure, a player imitates game like situation and has to really focus to get through the drill. For example, for form-shooting and floaters, set a number of how many shots to hit in a row before being able to step back to the next spot. The number can be “5″; So, a player has to hit 5 shots in a row in order to be able to step back to the next spot.
• Create competition in drills: When doing drills with your teammates, make a competition out of it. For example, who can make 5 shots first (below is a great partner/small group shooting drill from Coach Sean Miller that we use at Premier Hoops).
• Do timed drills. By timing drills this players can track their progress and this also puts a pressure component into the situation.
• Practice, practice, and practice! It takes a lot of misses and years before developing a great shot. The more hours you spend practicing your shot by yourself and then against others in games, the faster you will develop a great shot.

These are some great drills to do to become a great shooter:
1) “Beat the Pro” Drill
This is a great partner drill to improve shooting: Many professional basketball players use this drill to get a lot of shots up and to add pressure.
The shooter slides or curls from elbow to elbow. Every make is +1 and every miss is -2. If you hit +7 you win and if you hit -7 you lose.

Another example of this drill done by Ray Allen:


2) Great partner shooting drills from Coach Sean Miller of Arizona, which we use at Premier Hoops workouts. These drills incorporate footwork, pressure, and competition.


3) 5 in a Row Shooting Drills
If you are looking to get up a ton of shots and put pressure on the line, then this is a great drill! This drill should take 45 minutes – 1 hour to complete.
Rules: Start from spot one and finish at spot 15.
-The shooter must make 5 shots in a row to move on the the next spot.
-Spots 1-5 are floater shots, spots 6-15 are jump or set shots.
-After 3 misses, the partner who is rebounding becomes the shooter.
-The first partner to hit 5 in a row from all the spots wins.
Visit www.premierhoopsters.com to learn more about Premier Hoops Basketball.