How To Avoid Making This Huge Shooting Mistake
Learning how to shoot the ball properly can take years, and even then, there’s still always room for improvement. Whether you’re shooting on your own time or in a game, being able to hit from long range is an invaluable skill that will help you outscore your opponent no matter what sport you play. If you want to be able to shoot from outside of the paint with ease, don’t make these common shooting mistakes.
Are you off-balance?
Playing basketball can sometimes feel like you’re defying gravity. Your ability to keep your eye on that ball and not let your mind wander off is what will help you play better basketball. That’s why taking a few minutes before each game to meditate and get focused is a good idea. It will help you become more in tune with yourself, stay focused, and ultimately avoid making mistakes—like being off-balance—during game time.
Get in the right position
Putting yourself in the right open position gives you better opportunities to shoot the ball. Always make sure you are in a good open position when shooting, even if it means passing up an open shot so that you don’t give your opponent an easy opportunity to get the ball back. A good open position will always give you a better chance at making your shot, even if that results in a loss for your team on that particular play. Don’t get greedy with the ball and remember: passing up an open shot is rarely seen as selfish or weak, but failing to create one is almost always seen as such.
Don’t end up short
You’ve seen it happen at games, you’ve seen it in practice: a shooter will take a jumper and get short on it, or come up well short of the basket. Even with a few feet of space left, they come up much shorter than they should have. The big problem here is that most young players aren’t taught how to shoot properly. They can get by in some situations with improper form but it doesn’t work as well when there are hands and bodies between them and their target. If you want to become a better shooter (and not just when you have space), then make sure you practice shooting with proper range and form; if you’re missing from long-range all of your shots will look like what we showed above.
Don’t be afraid to shoot
According to a study conducted by the University of Louisville and the NBA, 64 percent of players who shot with confidence and believed they would make their shots hit their target at least half the time. Meanwhile, those that were hesitant only connected 30 percent of the time. If you want to shoot like Stephen Curry, you need to feel like Steph Curry. Confidence is everything in basketball and playing with swagger can make all the difference between scoring a basket or drawing a foul. It’s important to always shoot with confidence no matter what—after all, if you shoot it poorly then your opponent will probably score anyway so why not go for it?
Practice makes perfect
In reality, many players try to go right back to the same shot that didn’t work. But practicing mistakes will make you a worse player. Instead, if you make a mistake on the court, correct it and don’t repeat it again in the same game. When practicing off the court, avoid reverting back to the same bad habits you were trying to fix on the court. Perfect practice makes perfect – not repeating mistakes during practice will make for better overall play on game day.
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