Friday, December 12, 2008

Learning to shoot a basketball

Here's an article I wrote applying the way we learn, to the art of shooting a basketball.

Learning to shoot a basketball

When people ask 'how do I learn to shoot a basketball?', most of the time people tell them to just get out and practice. Grab a ball, find a hoop and just shoot ... you'll get better.

I tend to disagree with this statement. Sure, practice and repitition is important, but its just one part of the equation. Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Learn the right way to shoot, the best basketball shooting drills to work on and you'll become a great shooter much quicker.

We basically learn to do anything in 3 ways: by listening/asking, by watching or by doing. So applying these 3 ways of learning to the art of shooting a basketball you get:

1. Listening ... talk to other players, ask coaches

2. Watching ... watch people playing and shooting, watch games of professional players, watch instructional videos, get someone to video you shooting so you can see your own shot (and you can see what you're doing right and wrong)

3. Doing ... practice shooting, repitition, playing

So if you really want to improve your basketball shot, don't just learn by doing ... seek out people for advice and when you're not on the court, watch great shooters and learn from them. As well as just practicing your shot, use the others way of learning (and some of the suggestions above) and you'll find your shooting will improve much quicker.

Wishing you nothing but net,

Dodge Taylor

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