Teaching Shooting

Shooting is called ‘the master skill’ in basketball for a reason. The ability for a player to consistently make shots from a range of situations (or even one situation) will support their aspirations to play at the elite level, but their long-term enjoyment of the sport.

Teaching Points

Basketball Victoria recommends the “3 F’s” when teaching shooting:

FEET: Feet are hip-width apart and square to basket. A player’s toe, knee and tucked elbow should be in alignment.
FOCUS: Laser-eye focus on a part of the ring before shooting
FOLLOW-THROUGH: Full extension of the arm and flicked wrist pointed at the basket.

How to build into your trainings

Dedicated shooting practice should make up approximately 20% of your training time. If you have 45 minutes, that means one activity (8-9 minutes) of shooting every training session. For a 90 minute session, you might have two activities: one uncontested shooting and one contested shooting.
Shorter queues = more repetition = more fun and development. Avoid activities where 1 player is shooting and 6 are waiting.
Shooting practice can be technique focused (focus on form) or decision-focused (which typically involves a defender). Include both styles within your training sessions.
Make everything competitive with a time or target. For example, ‘Who can make the most jump shots in 2 minutes’
Think about the types of shots your players need in a game and practice those.
- For U12 and below, most shots are within 2 metres of the basket.
- For an U16-18 team who faces lots of zone offence - the short corners, 3pt line and elbows might be highly important.
You should be in ‘teaching mode’ whenever you are in dedicated shooting practice. Don’t stop/start the activity frequently, but give players quick soundbytes of feedback every 2-3 attempts (not after every shot).