If you always do what you’ve always done you'll always have what you've always had.
Today at camp we were breaking down shooting form and one player was having trouble following through straight to rim. He would always follow through out to the side, which I mentioned to him and tried to get him to move his hand over more towards the air valve. (A common mistake when shooting the basketball is having your elbow out or your hand not under the ball. What most people don’t realize is that yes, you're elbow is out, but it’s because your hand is placed on the ball wrong, not because your elbow is actually out). His response was, " I've always done that". I then asked him, " Well when you shoot 3's in a game are you shooting 45% or do you make 60/100 3's in a shooting workout?"
If you want to make improvement it always comes with making changes. Maybe your form is perfect, but you need to make changes in your workout schedule to get more shots up. If your form needs work then you need to make adjustments there. Changing your form is tough to do, especially in today’s basketball environment because your are constantly being evaluated by college coaches, scouting services or even your high school coach. The fall I believe is really the only time where you can take a significant amount of time to work on your shot, but it can be done if you really want to make improvements. The game is so much more fun to play when you can really shoot the ball!
Here are a couple suggestions if you are going to go about this on your own:
1. Film your shot as it is without trying to make any adjustments from the front, both sides and the back.
2. Find a video online of Steve Nash or Stephen Curry to compare your shot to.
3. Compare your shot to Nash's or Curry's and make necessary adjustments.
If you are having trouble with your guide hand — several of you may have this problem and not even know it — I highly suggest Jay Wolf's shooting strap, which locks your guide hand so you can't use it to "thumb" the ball. You can check it out here.
Remember, If you always do what you’ve always done you'll always have what you've always had.
—
Mike Lee
Be sure to follow on Twitter @mikeleehoops!