Become A Great Shooter With These Basketball Tips!

So you want to become a great shooter? You want that great feeling of "nothin' but net" when the defender is trying really hard to stop you.

Having a good shot makes you a threat on the floor, especially if you can handle the ball and drive well to the hoop.

This page contains a variety of basketball shooting tips and drills that you can start practicing right away...

Basketball Shooting Tip #1: FUNDAMENTALS

1. For shooting the basketball you must have your entire body in the right position to ensure that you have the greatest chance of making the shot. First you should have your strong arm up and Bent at a 90 degree angle.

2. Also have your weak arm up along side it as a helper hand. This is a basketball tip OFTEN overlooked.

3. Then flick your wrist and push your arm up to propel the ball towards the net. The first step for you is to learn these fundamental basketball shooting tips, and then you can move on to the next section below...

Basketball Shooting Tip #2: THE JUMP SHOT

1. Body Positioning - Stand 2 or 3 ft. directly in front of the basket. Assume a jumping stance. Your feet are shoulder width apart, and parallel to each other; one foot is slightly ahead of the other (you should learn to shoot with either foot forward). The knees are flexed. Although both feet are entirely in contact with the court, almost your entire body weight should be on the balls of the feet and distributed equally on both feet. Your shoulders should be square to the basket and slightly ahead of your hips, which should be directly over the mid point of your feet. Your head should be erect. Keeping you shoulders squared to the basket is a CRUCIAL basketball shooting tip.

2. Ball To Hand - Hold the ball in two hands, in front of you, close to the body, and just above waist level. The fingers and thumbs of both hands are pointing directly away from you; keep the elbows in. The hands should be on the top half of the ball; The complete inner surface of the hands should be in contact with the ball. The fingers and thumbs of each hand are spread comfortably. The distances separating the fingers and the thumbs should be the same. The forefingers should be parallel to each other. To hold the ball, push both hands towards its centre to create enough pressure to hold it.

To establish fingertip control, apply gentle, but firm pressure with the pads of your fingers, that is, the area between the tips of the fingers and thumbs and the first joint. Applying this pressure creates a paper thin air space along the fingers, thumbs, and palms, starting at the first joint and ending at the heel of the hand. Cock the wrists, making sure they are relaxed, so that you can easily cock and uncock them in a full range of motion. (To cock your wrists, bring the back of the hands towards the body. Do not lock your wrists!)

3. Ball To Body - Now move the ball to the point above and in front of your head from which you will shoot. You must be able to see the basket under the ball. As you raise the ball, rotate your shooting hand so that it is directly behind and under the ball by the time it reaches shooting position. As you rotate the shooting hand, which controls the ball, the non-shooting hand slides over the ball, ending to the side and slightly under the ball. The non-shooting hand takes no part in the shot. Its job is to help hold and protect the ball until the moment the shooting action begins.

Hold the ball as high as possible. The higher you hold the ball, the taller you become. Ideally, there should be only a slight bend in the elbow of the shooting arm, particularly when you are close to the basket. Keep the ball directly in front of you. Looking from the side, one should see that the forearm is vertical, so that the wrist is directly over the elbow. From the front, the elbow of the shooting hand should be directly in front of or slightly inside the shoulder, never outside. Now you are in SET POSITION.

4. The Shot - Your shooting action begins the moment you are in set position. Shooting is a one-piece action in which you quickly jump and uncock the wrist. This quick jumping action generates most of the power for the shot. The feet barely leave the floor. As the hand comes forward as the wrist is uncocked, the ball immediately begins to rise up on the fingertips. Quick wrist action and fingertip control give a crisp back spin to the ball. For maximum control of the ball, it should come off the tips of the forefinger and middle finger. To transfer power from the legs to the ball, release the ball just as, or just before, you complete your jumping action. Make sure the ball leaves the fingertips before the arm straightens in follow through. As the shooting arm straightens in follow through, the wrist should end up only slightly ahead of the elbow, which should not be tightly locked. The hand will have completed its full range of motion from being cocked back to being crisply snapped forward. Throughout the entire shooting action, keep your eyes focussed on a spot on the back of the rim directly opposite you; stay relaxed so that all the joints, particularly the wrist of the shooting hand, move very easily. Key Basketball Shooting Tip: The stronger your legs, the better your jump shot.

The farther you are from the basket, the more power you need. To get more power, increase the flex or bend in the knees. If necessary, you can lower the shooting position of the ball, but never so low that you cannot see the basket from under the ball. When you get to a distance from the basket at which you begin to force the shot, you have reached the limit of your shooting range.

When shooting, you can make yourself taller by jumping higher. However, in doing so, you will not be able to get as much power from your legs. So, you should jump high only when you are fairly close to the basket. Again, it is very important that you release the ball as or just before you reach the peak of your jump. Falling or fading away as you shoot will result in a great loss of power. You should not attempt learning the fade-away until you have mastered the basic jump shot. Usually only gifted athletes are able to become proficient at this shot.

Basketball Shooting Tip #3: LAY UPS

A layup is simply a short range shot that usually hits gently off the backboard. Most of the time layups are preformed while running towards the basket.

To shoot a proper layup you must have your hands and in the correct position. If you are shooting on the left side of the basket, you would shoot with your left hand, jumping off your right foot and vice versa. If you are dribbling towards the basket you stop dribbling until you are about 2 feet from the basket. You then pick up the ball, take one or two more steps and gently bounce the ball against the square on the backboard before you take your third step (that would be a violation). It is not the ordinary shooting method because you do not have a helper hand there to guide, it is more of a one handed shot. The way you would do it would be to have your palm underhand and then with the speed and momentum that you have collected from dribbling let it hit off the backboard.

Lay-ups are definitely a part of basketball shooting tips, and they are extremely important for you to become good at...

Basketball Shooting Tip #4: FREE THROWS

1. Line the foot that corresponds with your shooting hand—if you’re right handed, your left foot—up with the nail that is nailed into the center of every free throw line in every gym, across the country. If you are shooting outside, try to guess where the center of the foul line is. This guarantees you a level of alignment with the rim, helpful to your success. Though there are exceptions to the rule, most great free-throw shooters follow this line of thinking (even if they won’t admit it).

2. Fix your eyes on the front of the rim. Do not use the back of the rim, or, even worse, the white square on the backboard as your point of reference. Doing so means that you are looking towards a place on the basket where, if you hit them, you will most probably miss. Whereas, if you aim towards the front of the rim, your mind automatically tells you to shoot the ball at this point with a trajectory conducive to a friendly bounce. And even if you hit the front of the rim, if you have the rotation that you should as a shooter, the ball will roll into the basket.

REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!! Key Basketball Shooting Tip: Practice free throw until they become automatic.

Basketball Shooting Tip #5: THE JUMP HOOK

In the jump shot, your shoulders and body are square to the basket. In the jump hook, you protect the ball by keeping your body and non-shooting arm directly between the ball and the opponent guarding you.

1. Getting set for the jump hook is the same as described in jump shot tip above. Stand 2 or 3 ft. directly in front of the basket. To get set, go through the steps explained in the Jump Shot Tip above UNTIL you get to shooting, then read the instructions here.

2. Once set, rotate your body ninety degrees so that the shoulder of the non-shooting arm is pointing directly at the basket. While rotating the body, slide the non-shooting hand along the surface of the ball so that it ends up directly between the basket and the ball. The shooting hand continues to face the basket. If you are shooting with your right hand, your forearm should be vertical and the ball should be directly over your right shoulder. To make yourself as tall as possible, your shooting arm should be fully extended, with only a slight bend at the elbow. This is the stance for the jump hook.

3. Once set for the jump hook, jump and shoot as explained in the Basic Jump Shot. To protect the ball, keep the non-shooting hand fully extended, until the ball is well on its way to the basket. Learn to shoot the jump hook with either hand.

After shooting from a stationary position, work on shooting by stepping on to your non-pivot foot and raising your pivot foot off the floor (see my tip the Stride Stop Lay-up in the shooting category). For example, if you want to shoot a jump hook with your right hand, then establish your left foot as the non-pivot foot. Then, take a step with it, jumping vertically and shooting as you complete the step. To avoid traveling, make sure your non-pivot foot does not come down to floor until after the ball leaves your hand.

To practice the jump hook with a step-in, do the following. On the left side of the basket, stand at a 45-degree angle to the backboard about 4 or 5 ft. from the basket. Get set to shoot the basic jump shot. Instead of shooting the jump shot, step into the paint with your left foot on a line that is parallel to the baseline. As your left comes to floor, execute the jump hook.

Return to the starting position. Get set. Then step with your right foot toward the baseline on a line that is parallel to the sideline. Execute the jump hook with your left hand. After several repetitions of each shot, do this exercise from the other side of the hoop.

Practice executing the jump hook after receiving a pass or ending a dribble near the basket from a lay up position on the court. Use the jump hook when your opponent denies you from shooting a lay-up.

The jump hook will help you against taller defenders, so don't under-estimate or under practice it ... Study the jump hook basketball shooting tips carefully.