All Pro Shooting Basketball Tips

In the previous article I discussed Shooting Mentality, the definition and why it is important to develop. Another offensive mentality that is a Must to develop in order to be an effective offensive player is Scoring Mentality. Let’s start with what my definition of Scoring Mentality is.

Scoring Mentality: because of my confidence in my ability to score, I use all of my talent, all of the time to “Position” myself to score.

You should notice that the definition of both shooting and scoring mentality started with confidence or more specifically “my confidence”.

In order to develop the confidence in your ability to score you will need to learn how to “position” yourself to score. Then you must get out on the basketball court and implement that knowledge so you can begin to build off of the successes that you will have, which will help you increase your level of confidence.

I want to diverge somewhat here, for a moment and talk about the difference between a turnover or a missed shot attempt and a mistake. I am sure you know what a turnover is and a missed shot, but a mistake is different.

A mistake is not learning “why” you turned the ball over and “why” you missed the shot and because of that, not making a correction the next time.  I have told players numerous times that I have a zero tolerance for making mistakes. Of course that may raise some eyebrows, because it would seem common knowledge that everyone makes mistakes and I just say “only when you don’t learn from them.”

My point for saying this as it relates to you developing the confidence to score or shoot the ball is that you may make a turnover once in awhile and you are going to miss a shot now and then and that can either destroy your confidence, if you let it, or you can learn from the experience and become a better basketball player.

There are many ways for you to position yourself to score. Some of them are with the ball in your hand and some of them start without the ball. Lets talk first about a few ways you can learn to position yourself to score after you receive the ball.

Option 1 of course is to shoot the ball right away if you have an open shot, “Shooting Mentality”.

Option 2 is blow by the defense, right or left off the dribble. You need to figure out right away in the game if the defensive player who is guarding you is quick enough to stop you from blowing by them. If they are then you will need to use the next option.

Option 3 is to shift the defensive player by making them lean one way or the other so you can then blow by them. There are several ways to do this, which include: jab steps, up fakes and ball fakes. Off the dribble they may include change of direction moves like: crossovers inside out moves and more.

I want to encourage you at this point, now that you know the 3 options, to go and practice them and learn more about how to be more effective doing them. There are a lot of moves and dribbles that I didn’t mention here. Take the initiative to go and explore what they are and see what option they would fit into.

When you practice correctly over and over again all 3 options, you will dramatically increase your skill level and effectiveness on the court.

Okay lets move on to learning some moves that you can do prior to receiving the pass that will more effectively position you to score.

What you trying to do with or without the ball is create some space between you and your defender. Every drill I do with a player who has not received the pass yet starts with a jab step. In the drill if the player is supposed to pop out and receive the pass and they don’t jab step first, which means to shift the defense one way and excelerate the other way, then they have to do the drill again. I want to help them make shifting the defense an automatic move they make and the only way to do that is with “focused drills”, in which they do it over and over again without exception. If you just pop out to receive the pass the defense will just pop out with you and you become very easy to guard.

You will also probably receive the ball outside of your shooting range as well because you had to pop out so far to receive the pass. Because of this you have then already given up Option 1 and will you either have to pass the ball away or dribble into a better range to shoot. Do your best to receive the pass in a position where you are still able execute Option 1.

Another way to position yourself to score and this would include with or without the ball is to run tightly off screens that are being set for you.  This will make the defense either try and fight over the screen or go below the screen, either way you should be able to create some space between you and them.

I hope you have learned a few things that you can begin to incorporate into your game that will help develop your shooting and scoring mentalities. There are many ways that I did not cover here that will help you become more effective on the offensive end of the basketball court. My goal was to give you an overview that will inspire you to continue to want to learn more.

You have the ability through “focused effort” and the desire to always learn more, to be a player that You can proud of. To be a player who shows up everyday in practice or the game and is an example setter for your teammates and contributes at the highest level to making your team better.

You can’t do it All, but you can give your All…and I hope you do!

Please feel free to contact me for further instruction, through individual lessons, camps or clinics.

Please leave a comment…

Thanks,

Mike Phelps Director of All Pro Shooting

www.allproshooting.com

mikephelps@allproshooting.com

www.allproshooting.com/wordpress

860-336-6137

Shooting Mentality:

Great all round offensive basketball players have both shooting mentality and scoring mentality. Having both of these mentalities in one player is very rare, but they don’t  have to be if you have a desire to develop them in YOU.

In Part 1 I am going to talk about  shooting mentality and what my definition is and why it is so important that you have it. Let’s get started!

Shooting Mentality: “Because of my confidence in my ability to shoot the basketball, when I am open and in my range I shoot.”

As you can see from this definition having this mentality starts with also having confidence. How do you develop confidence? Very simply, “confidence comes in doing.” It also comes from understanding the importance of what you are doing. Here’s an example…In basketball the offense is designed to create open shots for players. This may come from running a certain play or players just working and creating well together.

If the ball is passed to a player and they don’t shoot when their open, then you have to run another play. There are many reasons why a player won’t take an open jumper, which I am not going to go into here. The bottom line is they have not developed shooting mentality YET. If you as a player however, understand from this example why it is important that you take the open jumper then maybe this will inspire you to develop the confidence to take the shot.

Having shooting mentality also has nothing to do with whether the ball goes in basket or not. Sometimes the ball goes in and sometimes it does’nt. The point is you are open, so you shoot! I have talked with many players who have said that they don’t want to be considered a ball hog so they don’t shoot sometimes when their open, but that is just NOT understanding the game of basketball as you can see from the above example.

I have confidence that YOU and every other player who steps foot on the basketball court can develop shooting mentality if they really desire to do so. If you want the ball to go in more frequently learn the correct way to shoot and get in the gym and practice correctly as much as you can.

I have no doubt that you will have much more FUN as a basketball player when you take the open jump shots. Just a little something for you to think about. You can miss a little over half of your jump shots and still be consider a good shooter.

Stay tuned for Part 2 when I talk about how to develop scoring mentality and how YOU can become “A scoring machine!”

Please leave your comments and suggestions and I would really like to hear how you are doing with developing your Shooting Mentality. Also, I will be glad to help you anyway I can.

Part 2: Shooting Mentality coming soon…

Mike Phelps: Director of All Pro Shooting

www.allproshooting.com

mikephelps@allproshooting.com

There are tons of basketball drills you can do, but lets talk about how to pick an effective drill and what your focus needs to be while YOU are doing the drill to gain the maximum benefit.

• First of all, basketball drills need to simulate a game situation. Here is a guideline on how to pick a drill that is simulating a game situation: If you can visualize yourself on the basketball court, in a game, actually making that move that the drill is instructing you to do, then that drill is simulating a game situation.

• Second: You need to do the drill at game speed so that you will transfer the skills you are learning into the game. I often say to players that; “if you do a drill at half speed you will get really good and half speed, but come game time your going to be in trouble.” The reason is pretty obvious. When you are doing a drill you are preparing yourself for the game. So you must demonstrate to yourself that you can effectively perform the skills that this drill is helping you to develop, at game speed. This will give you the confidence that you will transfer those skills into the game itself.

• Third: you need to visualize yourself in the game itself, while you are doing the drill, “be mentally in the game.” See yourself being closely guarded by a defender. Keep your eyes up “scan the court” while you are doing the drill. See your teammates on the court and the players defending them.

• Fourth: Set a goal for what it will take for you to complete this drill. If you are doing a drill that ends with a shot, for instance, then set the goal in terms of how many shots you need to make or what percentage of shots you need to make in order to complete the drill. Goals are an individual thing. The goal that an NBA or WNBA player may set to complete a drill will probably be different than what a middle school player might set.

I invented a drill for an NBA player one time in which he had to make twenty shots on this particular drill in order to complete this drill. I knew he had the conditioning and the skill level in order to accomplish the drill but even for him the goal made him stretch. Well, I have used that same drill with players at all levels of play and each person I did the drill with had a goal that was appropriate for them.

Did you notice a couple sentences back that I mentioned the goal made the player stretch? Well that is very important when you are doing a drill. Really work it , get a sweat going,  go at game speed in order to finish the drill. You don’t have to practice out of your comfort zone, but you certainly need to be practicing at the high end of your comfort zone. Setting a goal of 20 makes maybe unrealistic for you, but setting a goal to make 5 shots may not be. So set a goal that is realistic for you, but that when done at game speed it really makes you work hard to complete it. You need to have the confidence that in a game the moves in this drill will be there when you need them and they will be if you follow these guidelines.

A question I always ask players that I am working with is: What is the goal of a drill? Of course I get a variety of answers including, “to get better”…”to learn new skills”…”to get in good shape” etc. All of these answers are correct and I am sure you could add one or two of your own. The answer that nobody has given me so far is to: “Finish the Drill”. The goal really of a drill is to finish the drill so you can move on to the next drill.

Your practice session should be set up so that you move from one drill to the next, accomplishing the goal for each particular drill as you go through your workout. The more goals you accomplish in your workout, at game speed, the more effective and focused that workout was.

I was working with an professional player one day. We had had many sessions together before so I had a good idea of his skill level and how hard he worked as well as his focus level. This particular workout session he was working hard, which I never questioned, but I could tell his focus level was a little low that day. I knew this because he was taking longer to finish the drills than normal. All of the drills ended in him having to make a shot and he was missing more shots than he normal. Finally I said to him, “if you are choosing to miss your shots today do everything else better”.

I made suggestions like, dribble harder, make your change of direction moves faster, be quicker with your feet. He responded to all of those suggestions by elevating his workout session to a much higher level and interestingly enough when he did everything else better he also began shooting better. Can you think of a reason why working harder at everything else in the drills would have made his shooting percentage better? If you said that by doing everything else better his level of focus increased, which effected his shot in positive way, you would be on the right track.

Let’s sum up what your focus should when you are doing your drills.

• Pick drills that simulate a game situation
• Do the drills at game speed
• Visualize yourself in a game while you are performing your drills
• Set a goal for what it takes to complete the drill

I am confident that if you follow these guidelines you will get better each and every workout that you have.
Please leave your comments, suggestions or questions before you leave. I would love to hear them and they may benefit others as well.

Mike Phelps, Director of All Pro Shooting

www.allproshooting.com

Getting frustrated and being frustrated is a waste of time. You will probably agree that this statement makes sense. “So why then, are you getting so frustrated so much of the time as you perform on the basketball court”?

Actually if you are experiencing frustration on the basketball, this an incredibly important question to ask yourself. Why, because this is the start of you understanding and then learning how you can manage your frustration and not let it interfere with your performance in a negative way.

When you asked yourself this question, why am I getting frustrated on the basketball court? You probably discovered that the reason is because you are not satisfied with your performance or a goal that you may have set in which you are having difficulty accomplishing.

There are many examples I could give here, but let’s just take three point shooting as an example for now. Your taking three point shots in the game as well as practicing them several times a week, but they are just not dropping as much as you would like or think they should be. You have created in your mind some kind of goal or expectation that you consider acceptable in terms of how frequently the ball should going in the basket but, your performance is not meeting your expectations.

You believe that the basketball should be going in a whole lot more than it really is and, here it comes, that first sign of frustration starting to creep in. This frustration could manifest its self in varying degrees from just hanging your head as you go back on defense to hollering out some, not so nice words. If you haven’t experienced this yourself I know you have seen it happen in others. Right?

Maybe its not three point shooting that is frustrating you. Maybe its your free throws, or your are turning the ball over to much, or you’re not catching and shooting well. Maybe its all of the above and more. Only you know, because you are the one that is experiencing this frustration in your performance goals and expectations that you have set for yourself.

So let’s develop and put into a place a strategy for managing your frustration so  it doesn’t impact your performance in a detrimental way.

First of all I think it’s unrealistic to say, just don’t get frustrated any more. Frustration happens, it’s how you deal with it that is important and crucial to keeping your performance at a Peak Performer level. “Great players get frustrated to, they just recognize their frustrated faster than mediocre players do and deal with it more effectively”. Please read that last sentence again, because in there was your first clue to managing your frustration.

You MUST recognize immediately when you feel the first signs of frustration beginning to manifest in you.

You MUST acknowledge the fact that you are frustration, because if you don’t acknowledge it you can’t deal with it. Here are your steps to follow:

1. Acknowledge your frustration by literally saying to yourself, “I feel frustrated.”

2. DO NOT get mad at yourself for being frustrated, because now you are going to be frustrated that your frustrated and you will move very quickly away from where you actually want to be, which is being relaxed, focused and having FUN.

3. Ask yourself this question: “What do I need to do right NOW”?

Remember: You are frustrated because you are not getting the results that you want, which means that you did something incorrectly in the “process” to get those results.

Here’s an example. You are working on three point shooting and the ball goes long several times. So you start getting frustrated and you identify the fact that you are frustrated by saying to yourself, “I feel frustrated”. Then you reinforce to yourself that you are not going to get mad at yourself for feeling frustrated. Next you ask yourself, “What do I need to do right now”.

Remember: You will always find the answer to that question “in the process”. In the case of going long on your three’s, the correction in the process would be to lift you release point or follow through higher.

This brings up another point that is very important that only you can address. Which is, you MUST know what the correct process is in order to know what the correction to the process is you should be making.

If you don’t know what the correct process is for taking and making three’s, then you will not be able to tell yourself the correction that you need to make. If you are indeed a Peak Performer, which I believe you are, then you will find out what the correct process is in all the aspects of basketball that you want to excel in.

I hope this helps you in your process of becoming everything you see yourself becoming as a basketball player.

Please leave your comments and suggestions:

Mike Phelps

www.allproshooting.com

I have noticed that so many times basketball players seem to leave the majority of their talent sitting on the bench when they are physically in the game.

As a result they are not having much FUN playing the game and they are not being nearly as productive as they could be, because the majority of their talent never made it into the game.

Most of the time they are afraid that they will “mess up” so they play it safe, but you can’t take that approach and feel fulfilled at the same time. Also your team needs you and all of your talent to be there for them and help bring them to their optimal potential.

Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame football coach, would tell his players that he required of them “individual commitment to team effort”.  That means that he required each player on his teams to became peak performers and incorporate those skills, both on and off the field, for the benefit of the team.

This is called being a Peak Performer. All Peak Performers are always in the learning mode as well, that’s how they become Peak Performers.

But, what’s the point in increasing your skill level and not bring what you have learned and practiced so hard to develop, into the game with you? A Peak Performer brings their skills into the game and risks making a mistake, but they also learn from their mistakes.

This turns a mistake into a learning experience which in essence dissolves the mistake, because after all how can a learning experience be a mistake.

So as we all grow and learn and develop our peak performance skills, let’s make sure we bring those skills into the game with us so we can have FUN, feel fulfilled and be there for our team.

Mike

www.allproshooting.com

mikephelps@allproshooting.com

www.AdvoCare.com/09012093

The first series of posts will concern more of the mental approach a player needs to develop in order to maximize their physical skills. I will be giving information on the fundamentals and techniques of learning how to increase your shooting and ball handling skills, but first we need to develop the right mental approach to learning those skills and transferring them effectively into game situations.

It really does not matter how old you are or what level you are playing at, grade school or NBA and WNBA, learning to be a player/coach will separate you from the average player. Basketball is a competitive sport so it is important to develop a competitive edge wherever you can. There are many ways and things you can do as a basketball player to develop a competitive edge, in fact, everything that I will post will help you do just that. Although every competitive edge is important, if done in a responsible way, there may not be anything more important than becoming a player /coach.

In your basketball life, which can last a lifetime if you have enough passion for the game, you may be coached by people who consider themselves a player/coach. You will also be coached by coaches who were never really players, and I am sure they would consider themselves as just a coach. What does it mean to be a player/coach? First you have to believe and see yourself as player/coach.

Even though my main focus is as a shooting and ball handling coach, I will always believe and see myself as a player first. I became passionate about the game as a player first. I love the game as a player first. That will never change! What did change is what I now focus on, which is being a shooting and ball handling coach and passing on what I have learned and continue to learn.

Many of you however,  still have the main focus of your basketball life as that of  a basketball player…. This post is for you!… Being a player/coach doesn’t start when you have a certain amount of knowledge, it starts when you believe and see yourself as player/coach. Just as your skill level will increase as you grow as a (player), your knowledge and how to implement that knowledge will increase as you grow as a (coach).

Many times I have had players that came in for individual lessons or to attend one of my shooting camps and I will ask them if they are shooting 3’s in games. Much of the time the response I get is: “MY COACH WON’T LET ME”. I ask them: Why won’t your coach let you”? Most of the time the answer comes back: “I don’t know, they say that they just want me to play good defense and get rebounds”. That’s when I have to give them the “news”. “Your coach won’t let you shoot 3’s, probably because your not that good at shooting 3’s. I don’t know of a good coach who would tell a player not to shoot 3’s, who is a good 3 point shooter”… and then I ask them…”When was the last time you practiced shooting 3’s”? Of course I get a variety of answers to that question, but usually it comes down to, “not very often”.

I want you to understand something very important here. If you are being told by your coach not to shoot 3’s, they may also be telling you they don’t know how to teach you how to shoot 3’s as well. So if that is the case, who’s responsibility is it to teach you how to shoot 3’s? That’s right YOU! Taking that responsibility means that you are becoming a player/coach. This of course is just one example of one of the many ways and areas in which you can accept the responsibility of being a player/coach. Don’t make you getting better as a player anybody else’s responsibility, but your own.

Everything you learn as a player you should also learn as a coach, whether you are at team practice, individual practice, or in game situations. The most valuable players to a coach are the players who can be a player/coach on the court. It is a mindset most players don’t have.

I want to make very clear that I am not advocating in any way being disrespectful to your coach. Whatever you learn about being a player/coach you are learning so you can be an assett to your team, not a disruption or distraction. Part of learning to be a player /coach is learning how to learn. Which includes being respectful and paying attention and leaving each situation that you participate in a better player and a better coach. Then taking what you learn, whether it is something you learned from figuring it out yourself or learned  from someone else, and internalizing that knowledge,  then practice the skills correctly and then bringing that improvement to the team you are currently playing with. Taking this approach will make you a valuable player on your team and that’s what choosing to play a team sport is all about.

Everything that I have talked about so far involves a process. As you are learning to be a better player and a coach realize that you will never arrive at any destination. There is always room for improvement. The only destination to arrive at is really making the decision to believe and see yourself as a player/coach. That’s the first step. The rest will happen everyday of your life as you live and learn and grow.

I hope this has been helpful to your growth process and given you some ideas to consider. I will be talking much more about this subject as we go along, but that is enough to digest for now. I would like to hear your ideas and responses concerning this subject of becoming a player/coach.

Mike Phelps

mikephelps@allproshooting.com

www.allproshooting.com

www.AdvoCare.com/09012093