BASKETBALL SKILLS

Basketball Shooting Skills with Jay Hernandez

Shooting the ball and making shots consistently are two very different things. My partners covered the art of shooting very thoroughly. What are some pitfalls that will hurt your chances of making shots?



1. Not being ready to shoot. Stay in a stance on offense like you would on Defense.



2. Not being balanced and feet placement. Make sure your feet are shoulder width apart and when you land they should stay that way. Make sure on the move that your right foot is slightly in front of your left foot no matter how you catch the ball. I also see players clicking their feet together on the jump or landing awkwardly.



3. Players hitch their shot or hold the ball too long. Some players stop the momentum of their shot at multiple spots before releasing the ball. Other players elevate and hold the ball too long. This causes players to lose the power they get from the lift and make the shot more of an arm throw. This usually causes flat shots and misses at the end of games.



4. The crooked follow thru. Make sure your follow thru is at the basket and not to the left or right. When players make passes it is rare for their follow thru to be left or right when their target is straight ahead. The same concept goes for shooting.



5. Focus on the target. I have seen over and over again players looking at the rim and then taking their focus off of the rim and onto the ball as it is in the air. Players should focus on the hoop the whole time. The same goes for any other sport or activity like pitching, playing darts or bowling to name a few.


Basketball Passing Skills with Jay Hernandez

Passing is as fun as any skill set because it involves more than 1 person. Any opportunity you get to involve a friend in an activity it usually makes that activity more fun. Players who are prolific passers are usually the same players who know how to handle and get into seams. Players who can do this usually force help which opens up passing lanes for your teammates. Passing is a great pressure release. When you play against great defensive teams or a great individual player the best way to get them off of you is to make a pass and cut.

A couple of keys to passing includes:

1. Don’t telegraph your passes. Look to score and just that threat alone will have the help defense come over and you will instinctively make the read.
Fake a pass to make a pass. If you want to go chest pass off of triple threat you will fake low and get the defenders hands down and you quickly pass high or vice versa.

2. Use different types of passes through out the game. Using the same move over and over will be easy to stop after a while. Same goes for passes. If you only use one type of pass the defender will be able to get their hands in a position to get a deflection or a steal.

3. Try to hit players in rhythm. This means if a player is coming off of a screen the ball should already be in the air as they are going shoulder to shoulder off of the screen. There is nothing worse than a player fighting to get open and the ball arrives 2 seconds too late. This hurts the chances of scoring and also negates the assist for you. “Train like a Pro!”