YBCA

Recently Drew Hanlen of PureSweat mentioned on Twitter that one of his clients established a new record in a game he calls “Baseball”. You can check out Drew's Twitter timeline (@PureSweat) for specifics about the record. The rules of the game were succinctly described as follows: a swish is a homerun; a non-swish make is a single; and a miss is an out. There are 27 outs in a game.

That evening I had a training session with 3 very young players who desparately needed extended time working on shooting mechanics. In the past I've had great success with having players do form shooting close to the basket from 5 spots while taking turns shooting and then rotating to different spots. However, the repetitions in this type of drill can quickly become boring and/or uninteresting for the very young. I decided to take Drew's Baseball game and appy it to the form shooting drill in a competitive way to generate a little excitment.

One concern I had in doing this was that I didn't want to have the players sacrifice form in the process of competing..something that often naturally occurs in younger players who are competitive. In order to address this, I added a rule that if good form was not executed during the shot, then it would be ruled a foul ball, the basket would not count if made, and the shot would have to be repeated. This tweak added the motivation for maintaining good form that I was looking for, and the baseball context removed the analytical stress that might otherwise have been associated with their attempts to be precise in their form. To them, messing up on the form wasn't that big a deal..it was a foul ball and they got another chance to improve on the execution.

So with 3 players, here is how the “game” was played.

1) Three spots were used: the right side block, the left side block, and a spot in the middle of the lane about equal distance.

2) Play starts with one player at each spot. The player on the right block is “up to bat” first, followed by the player in the middle and then the player on the left block. Each player keeps track of their score, how many men are on base, and how many outs they have. Only one player shoots at a time and each shooter starts with the ball at the designated starting point (first the 90 degree, “standing L”, set position, then during later “innings” the triple-threat, “lying down L”, position).

3) Players continue to shoot in order, but can't shoot before the “umpire” (i.e., coach/trainer) is ready to assess their form. Scores are accumulated as each shooter (batter) shoots (hits). When a shooter makes 3 outs, they stop shooting and become a spectator until the second shooter makes 3 outs. At this time, the inning is over and the shooters rotate to the next spot to begin the next inning (bases are cleared).

4) As the innings progress, additional elements can be added, such as, a shot fake..a direct jab..a cross jab..etc.

5) After nine innings the scores are compared and recorded.

Having nine innings provides a lot of repetitions and opportunities to tweak some things, yet still keeps it fun and interesting. The entire process seems less laborious for the young players while providing a substantial quantity of quality repetitions to develop the desired neural circuitry for good shooting mechanics.

Hopefully your young players will find this a refreshing change from standard form shooting drills. 

Regards,

Rick Allison

LoneStar Basketball Academy

http://www.lonestarbasketball.com

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