How to Shoot a Basketball

Some players seem to instinctively know how to shoot a basketball. It’s as if they were born with the knowledge and ability, and require only a few minutes of instruction and some fine tuning to develop a consistent, accurate shot.

And other players seem destined never to be able to shoot the ball. Ever.

The sooner a player is taught how to shoot, the better. If the player is taught how to shoot the basketball properly from the beginning, taught proper form from the moment he steps into that peewee basketball camp, and from then on simply needs to improve and refine his shooting form, he’ll have a much better chance of shooting well throughout his basketball career.

It’s the players that don’t learn properly at an early age, those who aren’t taught or aren’t taught properly, that have the most difficult time when they play varsity. They have so many bad habits formed that it becomes a real chore to break them all, to develop proper shooting techniques. Only the most dedicated, most focused players will be able to pull themselves out of that rut.

But for those players whose bad habits you can’t seem to break, here’s my advice: don’t try to fix all there flaws. Choose a few of the more important problems and focus on them. Focus on the changes that will have the greatest impact on their game.

These three aspects of effective shooting should be drilled into every player:

1. Elbow under the ball. When the ball is released, it is going to fly most naturally, easily, with the least amount of effort, along the line of the forearm. i.e., if the forearm is vertical, the ball will travel straight; the farther out to the side the elbow is - the more horizontal the forearm becomes - the more the ball will want to travel off to one side of the other.

By keeping the elbow directly under the ball when the player is shooting, the ball will travel straighter towards the hoop. This will lend itself greatly to a more consistent, accurate shot.

2. Ball on the fingertips. There is control in the fingertips; there is no control on the palm of the hand. Holding the ball on the fingertips allows the player to handle the ball better, to keep it balanced above him as he prepares to shoot, to direct the ball straighter than he could if the ball sat on the palm of his hand. Sure to improve accuracy.

3. Arc. The shot needs to have good arc if it wants a decent chance of going into the hoop. A shot that is flat will need to squeeze itself just over the front of the rim and drop just ahead of the back of the rim, but is more likely to slam into the rim and bounce off. A shot with good arc has the entire circle to drop into - a bigger target, which will improve accuracy.

There are other aspects to shooting that are important - the player should always snap the wrist as he shoots, to put backspin on the ball and get a better roll, and the power in the shot should always come from the legs, not the shoulders or arms - but when you are dealing with a player who has many bad shooting habits, make the changes that will likely count the most. These three should make the most noticeable difference in a player’s accuracy and consistency.

For more basketball shooting tips, check out Basketball Shooting Skills.