Part 3/3: The Elite Shooting Workout That Will Take Your J to the Next Level

by POINT 3 Alpha Mark Adams

This is a breakdown of how I try to work with ballplayers on their shot. It will be broken into three separate blog posts. Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before this post!

ELITE SHOOTING WORKOUT PART 3 - THREE WAYS TO GET A SHOT OFF

I like to coach three different ways of getting your shot off. 

• Run Into The Shot
• Backpedal
• Lifting and Drifting

1. Run Into The Shot

One way I work on shooting is running into a shot. We do 100 shots from the short corner where the player will basically pass and run. I try to have an extra person with me getting a hand up on their shot. So they are basically working on foot patterns. Passing-Sprinting-Running into a Shot. We’ll chart those shots to see how we're doing.

For each player we will have a goal of a certain percent of shots we want to make. We’ll always work both sides of the floor, too.

I NEVER say let’s go get some shots up, I always say let’s go get some SHOTS IN!

2. Backpedal Into The Shot

Basically this is simulating a player getting a rebound, the ball is pushed down the floor, and there he is (Ray Allen style), backpedaling and waiting, out nice and wide to an open space. Lock and load, catch and shoot.

Image courtesy of http://www.nba.com

3. Lifting and Drifting

This drill involves working off of another player. So if the player starts in the corner, I’ll drive, and the player will lift up to the wing for a shot. We’re always working both sides of the floor and charting our shots.

The last thing we'll work on might be a specific drill for his team. So if that players’ point guard is a lefty who likes to go left, the coach may like to put the player I’m working with in the right corner because he gets what we call "back action." So the point guard drives left and can pitch back to the player on the right side for back action. So now we are simulating where he will get his shots in a game. We'll simulate this with me playing the point guard role.

The last thing we’ll work on is drifts. I might drive baseline, and the player will baseline drift. When we do that I’ll be encouraging everything to be quick and sharp.