“Good shooting cover over a multitude of sins,” is a common saying in basketball. You can be playing bad, but still scoring points because you are shooting well. Everybody has experienced that on both the good side and the bad side. There is nothing you can do. You can be playing great defense and force the other team to take contested, hand in the face, with no time to shoot three, but the ball goes in. It is an absolute dagger. The question is, how do you become that player who no matter what your defender does, as soon as he gives you an inch of space, the ball is going in. To become that player you need positive repetition.

The first part of your shot that must be worked on till perfection is your stroke. Your stroke is the finishing part of the shot. It is when you are releasing in. To work on it, act like a waiter that is holding up a basketball. Have a 90 degree angle in the arm pit and elbow pit. Then go straight up and release the basketball.

Now that you have the stroke down, you can begin with the next step which is the motion. This is the part that leads of to the stroke. With the motion, you will want to start with your shooting arm parallel to the ground. You then want to bring the ball into your shot pocket, elbow pointing down and forearm parallel to the ground. Then you have to lift up your arms into the waitress position and stroke the ball through the hoop. At first, this motion will be jerky as you go from one step to the next, but your goal should be to get it silky smooth like Kobe’s shot. When you bring this shot onto the court, you must also remember that your arms are guiding it and your legs are giving it power.

The next part you must drill are your legs. To do this, sit with your butt on the edge of a chair, and stand up, using your motion form shot that you got from those other drills, and shoot it. This will teach you to use your legs for power and your arms just to guide it.

The next piece of the puzzle is footwork. To be a great basketball player, you must be able to shoot the ball with any combination of feet patterns. Like a left right stop, a right left stop, or a two foot hop stop. To practice this, go out there and do it.

Now that you have your shot down, how do you get better? That answer is simple. Positive repetition. You have to shoot a lot of shots in all sorts of game situations. Off the pass or off the dribble. 3 pointer, mid range, and short range. Know your teams offense, and practice those shots. Make some drills that will work on what you need work on.

Other ideas are to use cones as defenders, or to use them as if coming off picks. Having a partner to help you and encourage you is also very helpful with encouraging you and pushing you to new limits. You can run a variety of drills with them getting off more shots than you would have by yourself. In all these things remember to always have a lot of positive repetition.

To become the player you want to be you have to practice basketball shooting drills. To find great basketball drills you can visit geratbasketballdrills.com.