tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8213298060389132689.post-57701607176043992622007-04-22T19:28:00.000-07:002007-04-22T20:27:16.407-07:00There are a lot of factors to keep in mind when shooting. One of these factors is the touch. Often times you will hear announcers during a basketball game talk about the "shooter's touch" or "he has a nice touch". What do they mean by this? Well with a proper shooting touch, the ball will manuever through the air with a particular rotation and you will notice that the ball will not bang off the hoop or backboard. So how do you achieve this touch? The answer is to have a basic understanding on how to hold and release the ball in addition to practice practice practice.<br /><br />First of all, you have to make sure that you are holding the ball properly at the start of your shot. The key is to grip the ball with your fingers spread and the ball must not rest on the palm of your hand. Again, I will say this again, because it is very important... the ball must not rest on the palm of your hand. If you were holding the ball like a waiter holds a serving platter and pointed your fingers away from you, you should see a small gap in between the palm and the ball. The ball should be resting on your fingers and the pads of your hand at the bottom of your fingers. Now still holding the ball like a platter, have the fingers pointing towards you as if you were ready to shoot the ball. When shooting, you should use your wrist to help roll the ball off by rotating your wrist forward. The ball will naturally roll off your fingertips and you should use your fingers to help guide the ball towards the basket. If you watch the rotation of the ball after performing this movement, the ball should be rotating back towards you, the rotation should occur on an axis that is parallel to the floor. If the ball rotates in a side to side motion versus a front to back motion, then you are rotating your hand when rotating your wrist forward, so concentrate on having the palm of your hand facing the floor at the end of the shot, if the palm is facing any other way, then you will not get the right rotation. The best analogy is to create a goose neck. Imagine that your hand is the head of a goose with your fingers being the beak and your arm being the goose's neck. After shooting the basketball, you hand and arm should form the goose neck and you should maintain that position until the ball reaches the target.<br /><br />The best drill to achieve touch that I teach players is quite simple. Stand close to the basket and hold the basketball like the waiter holding the serving platter. Make sure your shooting elbow is at a 45 degree handle. With one hand, and one motion straighten out the elbow and rotate the wrist forward and have the ball rotate off your fingertips towards the basket. Do this a number of times trying to swish the basketball (in other words make the basket without hitting the rim and touch nothing but net). As you continue shooting, adjust your shot and feel how the ball should come off your fingertips in order to swish it. Remember to maintain the goose neck when doing this drill. The goose neck assures you that you are following through the shot and not stopping in the middle of your shot. Lack of follow through will force you to compensate your shot since its not being executed the same way everytime. If you are a coach and you are watching your players do this drill, continue to remind them to maintain the goose neck until the ball goes through the basket. Once you make 10 swishes in a row (harder to do than one would think), take a step back and continue shooting in this manner and make another 10 swish shots in a row. Keep stepping back until you have to use a 2nd hand to guide the ball and your legs in order to shoot. Then start shooting normally and you will feel that the touch you achieve from the closer shots in your normal shots. This is the kind of drill players should do prior to a game or practice on their own to get their touch. I still perform this drill prior to playing in city league games.lakeshowdawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03396525825276193251noreply@blogger.com