so probably the most common way to get into your shot in a game is probably going to be off catch and

shoot there's a lot of motion on the floor you might not necessarily have the ball every possession but
uh that point in time where you're receiving a pass to go into your shot is going to be is going to happen
and so to be ready for that we talked about having good balance our doing our work early having our
feet our hips our chest and our hands ready to receive a pass so that we're shot ready and ready to
really capitalize on any kind of space we have to get our shot off so in order to do that obviously i want
to be in that position ready to catch the ball before the ball even comes so before i even see my
teammate passing me the ball i'm already ready and in good balance and in good shot ready form here
from there wherever the pass comes from i'm showing 10 fingers to to catch the ball i don't want to
have my hands down i want to have my hands out here i want to have everything ready to catch that
ball so that i can do something with as soon as i catch it as soon as it hits my hands showing those 10
fingers to your teammate is really important because obviously you want the ball because you're ready
to shoot from there when i catch the ball wherever the ball comes in we kind of classify that as the level
of the catch so from here when i catch the ball i don't want to take that ball from here much lower than
maybe an inch or two below that to get into my shot because one we're gonna waste time and two it's
just hard to repeat this motion if i'm catching and dropping the ball and then coming back up for my
shot so wherever that ball comes in you may drop it a little bit to get your rhythm and get the the
motion started but from there the the ball should follow a straight line up into your shot pocket and
then to your release so no matter where that ball comes from i catch it here i'm shot ready i'm squared
up to the basket i'm in good balance i catch it's a straight line up to my my release point above my head
wherever you feel comfortable and you can kind of release it from there

it's extremely important to catch the ball with those 10 fingers ready to receive the ball outside you
don't want to let that ball get too close to your body you don't want to let to you know let the ball kind
of sneak up on you like that you want to be ready to catch the ball for a lot of reasons the most
important being catching the ball shot ready not only allows you to have the consistency and the rhythm
to be able to take a shot but you're catching the ball in what we call a triple threat position which gives
you multiple options you know to use as a basketball player once you catch the ball so obviously i can
shoot from this position i'm in great balance to be able to catch and dribble and from this position i'm
also i got good positioning hands on the ball my eyes are up surveying the floor i can also be a passer
from here those allow me to be extremely difficult to guard because i'm i'm unpredictable when i have
the ball if i catch it here you don't know if i'm ready to shoot if i'm ready to blow by you and get to the
basket or if i'm ready to set up my teammate with a quick pass from this position so as a defender
you're thinking about all those different options that you have to guard against and that gives me the
upper hand and the advantage against my my defender when i catch the ball shot ready squared up to
the basket able to see the floor they have to either close out to me really hard they're going to either
probably try to challenge my shot which allowed me to open up so many different options for my
teammates to be able to pass out of that position to be able to drive the lane draw even more defenders
to me so that everything else opens up if i catch the ball locked leg fake not facing the basket i'm no
longer a shooting threat and therefore the defense doesn't have to respect me with the basketball in my
hands and everybody else on the floor isn't a threat either because i was not able to catch the ball shot
ready ready to do something with it

sometimes in a game when you have uh a lot of moving parts and defenders everywhere um and you're
you've got yourself open and you're ready to catch and shoot and you're waiting for that pass to come
that pass might not be always on time on target um and what i mean by that sometimes it might be
outside your body and it's up to you to have to adjust to meet the ball so that you're still shot ready and
able to maximize your time and space and get that shot off no matter what's going on the floor and the
best way to do that to keep the consistency of our mechanics is if that pass is out to my right here and i
know i see it coming i'm ready to get into my shot ready positioning instead of just being lazy and
reaching for the ball and having to bring it back to my body and then having to go into my shot ready
mechanics i need to meet that ball where it is and it's okay to make a sidestep to to meet that ball ten
fingers ten toes pointed at the at the rim in a shot rated position so that you know my shot release is as
quick as it needs to be to get it off so as that ball comes i can still move to the side and get into my shot
ready positioning no matter if it's over here too i can do the same thing and catch it right in the center of
my body able to stay in line with the basket and get that shot off right when i need to and even if the
pass comes in low at your feet which may happen from time to time in the game instead of just you
know you're already maybe in shot positioning your your 10 fingers and toes to the rim your chest is and
your your hands are ready instead of uh you know just dropping your hands and just reaching for the
ball and trying to lunge for it all we do is just drop our hips a little bit lower and we're still in shot ready
positioning and i can just release from here it may seem like a longer distance to travel but my body is
already in the same position as if i was here in my normal shot positioning i just start a little bit lower all
my mechanics are the same and i can able to be able to rise up and shoot it from there

to maximize the quickest release possible for you is really important to to focus and lock in on the path
that the ball takes from your catch-ready position to your final release point so a lot of mistakes that
most people make is when they catch it here they bring it through the center of their body underneath
their chin and their nose and normal human reaction to that is to either have to move your head out of
the way you're obviously blocking your view of the rim which is not good for your aim and for your for
your eyesight the best thing to do when you're catching shot ready draw a line from your hip through
the right side of your body because i'm a right-handed shooter up through your eyebrows and up into
your uh into your shot position

so

so it kind of looks very very similar to this you come up right through here i see the rim the entire time i
get up into my shot ready position into my high release point and i can shoot it from there don't rotate
your hands

you load your elbow of your shooting hand at your ribs and catch it so you're not rotating your hand
across your body don't reach across your body move your body to the ball chest hips and hands

don't catch with flat hands or catching your palm

don't catch the ball with your fingertips

when you catch the ball you want to receive it in an athletic position
don't catch up right then dip down into your shot twisting too much during your jump will decrease your
accuracy as well jumping really far towards the basket if you find yourself twisting or jumping too far a
good way to practice is to stand with both feet right behind the line and make sure that you jump from
behind the line and land behind the line

when you start adding footwork to your shot get a friend or teammate to rebound for you and pass you
the ball as you move to it a simple progression is five straight up and down

then five moving towards the basket

five moving away from the basket and five to each side

going for perfect makes from each position

when you're moving laterally it's important to keep your nose in the center of your body so you can go
straight up into your shot be sure to drive through the ground straight up and down and move straight
into shot ready position so your heels don't touch the ground only start practicing this stuff once you've
gotten down the static form shooting your mechanics stay exactly the same you're just adding the
footwork

watching film is a key part to my success because um the saying goes film never lies and so what you see
and how you kind of break it down and um just putting yourself back in the that position whether it's a
film clip of something you did or watching somebody else um you could always kind of apply it to to
your game and learn from it and so you know for me i watch film to kind of critique myself and make
sure i'm getting better understanding you know learning from my mistakes watching filming as a as a
player and being purposeful about you know what you're looking at is totally different experience than
watching you know a game in real time or watching from a fan's perspective because it's not just about
watching the ball or the ball go through the basket but for me i could watch you know the same clip like
20 times in a row and see something new every single time whether i'm watching myself the whole
possession whether i'm watching the guy that's guarding me the whole possession whether you watch
how all five guys on offense are moving together and understanding spacing and um and just the flow of
that possession uh i could watch the whole defense um i could even have fun and watch the reactions of
fans in the in the crowd or my teammates and things like that so um you can get lost in just watching
one clip and understanding all the the intricacies of of of the game and of that single possession and
why everything happens the way it does so in this play right here i'm the setup man and it happens
pretty fast but you see the separation i was able to see between me and my defender and and uh
basically retrace my steps to come back out to the same spot i started the play is designed for me to
come off not one not two but three screens on the other side and come off on the left side of the court
but as i said every play is not choreographed and things happen and you have to make adjustments and
take what the defense is giving you and so in this situation i come off the first screen and as soon as i get
into the paint i see that my defender's already committed to trying to beat me to the other side and so i
basically just stopped in my tracks come back to the other side and at that point he know he messed up
and i'm able to take my time do a simple straight line pop a great screen by my my teammate bogut
because his man is trying to recover um and get out to my shot but he doesn't let that happen because
he screens basically his own man and from that point i'm able to uh to knock down that shot you'll see
that even though i have a lot of time to uh to get my feet ready because there's so much separation
between me in my defender my mechanics still stay the same so my preparation for this shot stays the
same no matter if that guy was one foot away from me or 10 feet away from me and so i catch the ball
shot ready by getting my feet and toes squared to the basket as soon as i catch the ball so there's no
hesitation there even though i'm wide open there's no there's no reason to change my mechanics to do
anything different than i would on any other possession

the art of shooting is honestly to its core it's a very complex science there are so many different
variables that go into it so sometimes you may have what you feel like was the perfect form but you
know the ball came off your middle finger instead of your index finger or um you know those in and out
shots that were right there on target just were just a tough miss um and so you know obviously we're all
seeking perfection we want to you know make as many shots as we can but sometimes it just doesn't
work out like way it shouldn't affect your confidence at all because it is such a hard hard thing to do so
the more time that you put into it you know you're going to give yourself the best chance to be a more
consistent jump shooter but you can always get better and you can always find another way to take
yourself to the next level