i've been playing basketball since i was five and there's obviously an evolution to the game and trying to

get better and kind of staying ahead of the curve when it comes to elevating your game for each you
know level of competition um and there was a point in high school where i had to really look at my form
and see how i could improve so that i could be ready to play at that time on the varsity level in high
school up until my freshman year in high school i used to shoot kind of like a catapult

where i wasn't always the strongest kid i was usually the shortest kid on my team so in order for me to
shoot from further out i kind of had to sling it from basically below my waist and kind of just basically
catapulted as hard as i could

i naturally had you know pretty good touch

um pretty good aim and pretty good rhythm with it but my release point was entirely too low for me to
really be effective on that varsity level with taller defenders taller guys trying to guard me

and so there came a time between my freshman and sophomore year where me and my dad kind of
talked about you know breaking down my form from the ground up so that i could really raise my
release point to where it is um right now

uh so that i didn't get my shot blocked on the on the varsity floor in high school so you know the change
was tough

it was probably one of the most frustrating summers of my life basketball wise

it took thousands and thousands of reps to to really change my form from that catapult shooting from
here from my waist to bringing the ball above my head where i shoot now

but obviously in the end it was all worth it so

um there was a time where i basically for three months in the summer i didn't want i couldn't leave the
paint to to you know really work on the mechanics of my shot the rhythm of my shot getting stronger so
that i could repeat that form every single time

um and it had you had to be patient and so that's something that uh that really helped me you know
become a better basketball player a better shooter and be ready for that next level of competition on
the varsity level

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there's so many different shots you can take on the court whether it's catch and shoot you know off the
dribble catching on the move

everything is very similar when it comes to your forming and your mechanics because it all starts from
the ground up

so if your balance is straight and you're squared up to the rim as best you can you're going to have a lot
more consistency with your jump shot

so we always try to teach 10 toes to the rim

so no matter where you are on the court

no matter how you get into that shot right before you're ready to release you should have your ten toes
facing squared up to the rim

naturally for me what feels comfortable is a slight twist to the left so i'm not perfectly square to the
basket
i usually have my feet about 10 to 15 degrees pointed to the left but they're all pointing in the same
direction

i don't have one foot going this way one foot going that way i try to stay as square as possible ten toes
facing the same direction but they're a little off center to the left that's just what's natural for me and
my body and my mechanics and my shot and for you finding what that balance is is something that you
need to get out on the floor and just you know see what feels comfortable

but the consistent thing across the board for with all great shooters is those ten toes facing in the same
direction

um from there your hips and your chest are gonna follow that same pattern and be facing right at the
basket where you want to shoot

**********

all the greater shooters are great at using their legs as the foundation for their shot they don't shoot
with their arms they shoot with their legs first so they get that energy that flow and that motion and
that power through their jump shot and everything else is kind of a flow from there

um so the best way to get into that position obviously we talked about 10 toes to the rim

loading our hips our back side and and getting into this good shooting position this good well-balanced
athletic position is key

we don't want to have our knees bent in

we call that valgus we don't want to have our knees bent in or out we want to have everything squared
shoulders toes hips all on the same line and we don't want to have our knees in front of our toes then
we lose our balance

all right we want to have our knees behind our toes loaded into our hips loaded into our glutes and from
there you can basically be able in great athletic position to be able to rise out of your shot and really
explode through your core so that's where you get all of your motion that's how you can shoot the same
from whether it's in the paint all the way out into the d3 area

all because of that core and that power that you get from loading your lower body in the right way

another key to great balance is finding we call it finding your arch and so in any athletic position to be
able to have that balance and that strength through your feet you basically take the arch of your foot
and you plant that into the into the ground as best you can we don't want to be able to roll out on our
on the outside of our feet one you're going to create injuries and two you're just not going to have any
balance and strength of your jump shot

so finding that arch is key planting it into the ground allowing all of that energy and that strength come
up through your lower body and being able to get out of that position into a nice jump shot in a nice
extended position from there

************

in this day and age almost everybody has a cell phone or some way to video themselves on the court
and video the mechanics of their shot and that's one of the best ways to learn kind of what you're doing
to take yourself outside

your body video yourself shooting and see where you can improve on your mechanics and the subtle
details that might uh need a little bit of tweaking that you you might not be able to feel but you can be
able to see
so videoing yourself shooting the basketball would be a great way to help you learn about your
mechanics

having one leg in front of the other will turn your chest and cause the ball to move side to side

if your knees bend in you lose power and balance and you can injure yourself

if you bend your knees outward you'll sacrifice power and you won't be in an athletic position to counter
or beat your defender

if you point your feet away from the basket you'll turn your chest and have trouble with accuracy

if your feet turn a little bit naturally that's okay but too far and you're going to run into a lot of problems

if your knees are out in front of your toes that means your hips are not loaded and if your hips are not
loaded your shot's going to be all upper body which will make it tough to add range to your mechanics

****************

so the ball positioning in my hand is is a huge key to becoming a more consistent shooter and creating
that feel and touch that you need to uh to get proper spin on the ball um and also have you know a
great connection from your hand to the ball so that your release can be as as high as you want and you
still have control over it

so the first part is that you don't want the ball sitting in the palm of your hand it's almost like a rock just
sitting right there in the palm of your hand

what i try to teach is to have a little space in between my palm and the ball with the ball sitting in the in
the pads of my fingertips

that allows me to get the proper spin on the ball

the proper rotation um and i just have more more touch and more control over it

uh from there i try to teach where your hand positioning is on the ball um and try to create a straight
line down the center of the ball so that you can have a proper release that the ball stays on line where
your arm is targeted to the rim

the best way to do that taking your your dominant hand whatever your shooting hand is

finding the air valve on the basketball and taking your lead finger and putting it on right on top of that
uh that air valve right here

from there i know my hands you know centered on the ball and you can kind of get a sense of what that
feels like and take a couple practice shots just staring at the rim doing form shooting with your finger
right on top of that valve

obviously in a game things are going to be happening pretty fast you're going to catch the ball in all
different positions but you can always get back to that center position if you train yourself what that
feels like

************

i ask people all the time you know when you catch and you're ready to shoot like what do your eyes lock
in on as a target

some people just say simply the rim some people say the back of the rim some people say they look at
the square and trying to line up the ball right in between the square
for me what i feel is most comfortable

when i look at the rim i look where the rim and the net meet there are always these little hooks that
attach the net to the rim and for me there's always two sometimes three hooks facing me

which are almost the same width as a basketball and so my goal is to put that basketball right on those
hooks looking at the front of the rim so i remind myself to have as much arc as i can so that the ball is
traveling down as it's coming to the rim instead of having a flat jump shot that's most likely going to hit
the back of the rim i want to look at the front of the rim and just try to put that ball just over the front of
the rim with a little bit of touch a little bit of arc

so in case i'm not perfect and switching it i give myself a good opportunity to get a soft balance on the
rim

there's always two hooks sometimes three that are always facing you no matter where you are on the
court and that's what i lock in on whether i'm doing form shooting to get my workout started or during
games when everything's moving really fast that's the one thing and the one piece of target that doesn't
change

*******

your release point is a very important part of your shot because it determines how close the defender
needs to be to you to affect your jump shot

so if i imagine a defender that's right in front of me if i'm shooting from a release point that's pretty low
he doesn't really have to close out very close to me to affect that jump shot either to block it or to you
know interrupt my angle or my eyesight to the basket

if i have a higher release point just bringing the ball up here and be able to shoot from this position it
demands that defender has to be a lot closer to me to be able to contest that shot

if the defender is closer to me i know i have him right where i want him because he's not going to block
my shot because my release point is high but it also allows those driving angles to open because the
closer he is to me the harder it is for him to defend those driving angles

obviously we talked about having a high release but you want to finish with your elbow above your eye
as best you can that's going to give you proper arc and give you a nice little entry point into the basket
instead of having more of a flat release we want to be able to point it up towards the sky with that
elbow high above our eye we don't want to have it coming across our body we don't want to have that
chicken wing kind of elbow situation out here on to the to the side we want to have a kind of a perfect
line from my hip up through the release point elbow above my eye from the side vision you should be
able to still see my eye so i'm not up here facing away from the basket i'm in just a natural position with
my uh my elbow above my eye it's just a little bit out and i have a nice uh positioning to be able to
follow through

at the top of your finish you gotta have that gooseneck kind of a feel with your uh your elbow above
your eye your elbow fully extended and you can almost have a visual if you do this follow through right
in front of the basket it's almost like you're putting your fingers right into the basket and putting that
goose neck right into your target

so that's kind of what you want to visualize as you finish with a high high follow-through and great
extension on your jump shot

***********
here brandon is fanning his shooting hand which makes the ball spin sideways and move from side to
side

similar to fanning thumbing gives you the left to right action and side spin

you need to keep that thumb from pushing the ball forward

when you release and finish make sure your elbow isn't too high we don't want too much arc on the
basketball

we want about a 45 to 48 degree arc anything higher than that you start to lose a little bit of control and
accuracy

you also don't want to finish with your arms too low which will create a flat shot

we want to be what we call two-eyed shooters don't cover one eye with your arm as it'll cause left to
right or right-to-left movement of the ball