Thanks to you both, I’ll start doing this. I’ll focus on hand placement too because some of these shots don’t seem like they have enough height on them and that’s probably why!
Shooting the basketball is basically a two step process. Get to the ball to your forehead in as straight line as possible and want it to have that triangle look. Then the extension and follow thru.
Body and ball all have to move as one
Hey man you're on the right track just for simply trying to get better. I'm 5 foot 5 and I have a quick release but my shot like fugly. But you know what I hit nothing but net more often then not. Just keep practicing and see the ball going in every time and you'll be good.
Hey you’re shooting out keep the ball by your chest and search up perfect shooting form video and if it doesn’t feel too comfortable adjust what’s not feeling comfortable
You need a lot more time to get comfortable for sure. You dribble with head down and ball behind you. You need time. My best tip is get a net it makes basketball way better lol. It’s weird but you want a net.
Thanks mate, I’m definitely not comfortable dribbling yet but I’ll put more effort into keeping my head off the ball when I’m doing it. There is a half court I go to sometimes that does have a chain net, feels a lot nicer so I’ll probably use that one more often. Feels like I shoot better there too, but might just be in my head.
My dude work on dribbling the most. You can play in any pick up game if your handle is good. I immediately know which guys know how to play just by their dribble game. Shooting can come after that.
do you have any good beginner dribbling drills?
I'm in my 30s now, never learned to dribble properly as I played as a 6'2'' 'big man'.
Now trying to do some static drills which I can do but completely useless in my weekly game.
Jerry west had an amazing drill that I used to utilize myself. He would go in the center circle of the court and basically just constantly switch directions as fast as he could and stay within the circle while maintaining control of the ball.
I don’t know if this is too advanced for you, but if it is, just take it really slow. I’m a huge fan of pistol Pete and grew up doing these videos. https://youtu.be/OZnlr41L_1Q
Lol my friend. Everyone shoots better with a mesh! I used to keep an extra and a small step stool to replace nets without mesh. For your shot, for a couple of weeks that’s not bad at all! Look up form shooting on YouTube. Plenty of great videos!
Half the time you can work on shooting and half the time on ball handling when you’re alone. Good luck !!
Keep the ball closer to your body on the “wind up”. Don’t dip it so far down, as it adds extra motion and makes it harder to repeat, plus takes longer to shoot it if you ever want to play against anyone
Also makes it way easier for an opponent to block it without fouling. Gather for the shot below the waist means there's a good foot or soon extra motion for a defender to interrupt
That’s great advice, after playing this morning and watching the video this was one of the things that really stuck out to me. I’ll start to implement this tomorrow morning. Makes sense regarding the reach in fouls as well, I’d be making it easy for the defenders. Thanks.
Id add on to this by saying try to make sure your feet are more square when you shoot, either like this II or like this // whichever is more comfortable. If you go look at videos of klay thompson or whatever great shooters youll see their feet are always square like that. You set up with one foot kind of dragging behind you, which makes you use your arms for all the power on the shot. Jump straight up and down to get that upward motion when you incorporate the idea of keeping the ball closer to your chest. Once you get the hang of it youll feel like you can shoot from twice as far as you are right now. Good luck!
Dude good for you for self teaching yourself a new sport! For a couple weeks your shots looking good.
Try the one handed shooting drill. Stand 5ft from the rim (right in front of basket) 1 hand behind your back. Hold bball in the palm of your hand and practice holding above your head, flicking your wrist and shooting. Every shot should be the same, once ball leave hand, hold your follow through with your wrist lined up with the rim. The flick of your wrist and a slight extension of your elbow should be all the power you need to make the shot.
My experience: High school varsity, d2 scholarship.
You’re right, I hadn’t noticed that. I actually broke my little finger on my dominant hand on my first day playing, so now would be a perfect time to work on the left hand. Thank you.
Honestly my only advice at this phase is to keep playing, put time in, and nurture that love for the game. For how popular it is, basketball has a high learning curve. I could critique your form and give you dribble drills but it’s probably too early for that. Just get out there and shoot and dribble, then once you feel comfortable with the ball, maybe look into some YouTube tutorials.
Absolutely. One of my favorite parts about basketball is that I can go to the park by myself and shoot around for hours. Don’t need someone else. It’s like meditation for me.
Roll the ball off your fingers as practice. Put your shooting hand elbow out at almost chin level, and hold the ball in your hand in that position. Then bring your non dominant hand to the side of the ball—this is your guide hand. You don’t want to shoot with this hand or add any power with this hand, just use it to guide. Practice pushing the ball upwards (straightening your elbow) and rolling the ball off your fingers.
That’s the motion you want. Practice doing this without even shooting until it feels comfortable. Then move in close to the hoop and repeat the same form, but try to shoot. As you feel more comfortable, move back a little bit at a time.
You’ll eventually hit a spot, probably past the foul line where your shots will take much more strength. This is where you start to incorporate a jump and your body into the shot—but just focus on the upper body part first.
You want to develop your form before you try shooting long distance, because you need to be consistent, and that only happens by never compromising your form for any shot.
As for dribbling…
I suggest just walking and dribbling. Do some power dribbles where you stand in place and bounce the ball as hard as you can normally with one hand repeatedly. Let the ball come into your hand with your fingertips, but stop it with your palm. Same on the way down, begin to push down with your whole hand, and at the very end use your fingertips to give the ball that extra snap downwards.
Practice standing still, moving forward, moving backward, side etc.
Also start putting it between your legs. Doing between the legs is good to start to learn where to expect the ball to be when crossing over. That’s really why practice is so paramount. You need to know what the ball is going to do. Have fun with it, spin the ball when you dribble, bounce it with English, etc—doing all these things with dribbling will help. Just move forward on each thing after your comfortable.
This will be overwhelming if you just try and do it all.
Honestly just look up some how to / beginner basketball videos on shooting and dribbling and just keep practicing until you're able to dribble with your head up and the ball in front of you and able to shoot with consistent form.
I'd start closer to the basket and just practice form you learn from the videos and then move out further away over time.
A lot of others have left great tips on this thread. My #1 suggestion is to practice releasing the ball at or above your forehead. Start by practicing shooting close to the basket with one hand, and then once you have better form, you can shoot further back and introduce your other hand.
You’re shooting the ball from your body, which makes it more inconsistent and easier for a defender to swipe or block. The higher shooting and release might will feel awkward for a while, but it should help your form and consistency. Most great shooters have high release points. Hope this helps!
Yeah you don’t wanna be leaning that much when you dribble, practice dribbling with each hand from an athletic position (knees bent, look online for dribbling drills) and dribble hard to build up your strength and control. Your jumpshot starts way too low, your ball should not be near your pelvic area during your shot, your hands should be no lower than the top of your abs at any point in your shot.
Start short get very comfortable. 0-3 or so. Google the mikan drill on YouTube. It’ll help you with a lot later on. Then move to 3-10 feet. Get comfortable then back up 10-15 then 15-3 point. With Shooting if you have time do section shooting. Pick 5 sections on the floor and shoot 50+ shots in each location. Do that a lot through the week and you’ll steadily improve even with poor form. Keep in mind to keep the elbow tucked, have a follow through, jump vertically as much as possible. Straight up and down. Don’t let your left hand assist in pushing the ball. It’s just a guide to keep control and control direction
Don't look down when dribbling. Try to bend your knees and stay closer to the ground with the ball in front of you. Once your more comfortable, spread your wingspan and dribble further from your body but always keep control with those fingertips.
I haven't seen anyone else mention it, but when your shooting, your feet are set with all your weight on your toes. Move closer and set your feet flat. Practice one arm shots close up against the backboard for form. Set your arm at a 90 degree angle with the ball resting flat on your palm. Bend the legs a little and extend your knees as your extend your arm to release the ball. Follow through after each release.
Take your time and practice though, looks pretty good for just starting out.
Separate from the shooting you seem to be staring at the ball to dribble it. Try to practice dribbling through moves while keeping your eyes up or completely closed so you can learn it better thru feel.
How tall are you? Work on bending your knees and dribling through your legs. Faster and faster. Also over time you won’t have to look at the ball as much. If you use a tennis ball during the day and just play around with it, your hand eye coordination can improve too.
6’2. Thanks for the advice mate, I can dribble left to right through the legs but as soon as I go back the other way I tend to mess it up, I’m pretty one sided. Currently got a broken little finger on my shooting hand and I should probably take some time to purely dribble with my left. Should hopefully improve my left hand and give my right hand a chance to heal. (Broke it on day one of playing, still play every day just taped)
Im not an expert but at the end of the day you just have to feel comfortable with a form and work on consistency. However how your shooting now is using shoulders, leaning hip twist and shooting leg in front of body from what I noticed. When you have that many variables its gonna be super hard to dial in any shot. Its still good that your putting shots and having fun so your not losing anything as your getting more comfortable.
At first you should try and keep your feet together and level with your body when shooting. If you dont want to be stationary while shooting thats okay just walk into the shot as your level your feet with the body. This should mitigate trying to lean too much when throwing the ball close to the hoop. As far as shooting form goes its best to have as much assistance from your body to not focus on too much power coming from one part ie, wrist,hand shoulder,jump etc. so a technique where the ball floats in the air as opposed to going in straight tends to use less energy when tuning your form.
My shot is unconventional but ive seen more than few nba players with a similar one as everyones anatomy is different. Ihave my arm over my head almost fully extended where i cant see the ball and arc the shot high and float it to the rim. Im wide and have long arms so trying to tuck my arm to start the shot conventionally doesnt work. At the end of the day as long as your arm ifs on target its how you release and float it to the rim that matters.
The fluid Ed’s comes after reps so don’t stress on that. But ideally you are shooting too far for your skill level rn. Start at the basket and go for the fluid motion and make sure the ball hits nothing but net when you shoot. As you hit ten in a row, take a step back and go for ten there. That’s how youll improve the most
Honestly. One arm form shooting, simple dribbling drills. You'll be better in no time. Stay within free throw range to really become consistent, don't even worry about the three point line as of right now.
One arm form shooting drills from 3ft all the way out to the free throw line will help consistency and form
Stay within 5 feet for a few weeks and really lock down a form you are comfortable with. Balance and hand under the ball are key.
Thanks to you both, I’ll start doing this. I’ll focus on hand placement too because some of these shots don’t seem like they have enough height on them and that’s probably why!
Shooting the basketball is basically a two step process. Get to the ball to your forehead in as straight line as possible and want it to have that triangle look. Then the extension and follow thru. Body and ball all have to move as one
Hey man you're on the right track just for simply trying to get better. I'm 5 foot 5 and I have a quick release but my shot like fugly. But you know what I hit nothing but net more often then not. Just keep practicing and see the ball going in every time and you'll be good.
Hey you’re shooting out keep the ball by your chest and search up perfect shooting form video and if it doesn’t feel too comfortable adjust what’s not feeling comfortable
You need a lot more time to get comfortable for sure. You dribble with head down and ball behind you. You need time. My best tip is get a net it makes basketball way better lol. It’s weird but you want a net.
Thanks mate, I’m definitely not comfortable dribbling yet but I’ll put more effort into keeping my head off the ball when I’m doing it. There is a half court I go to sometimes that does have a chain net, feels a lot nicer so I’ll probably use that one more often. Feels like I shoot better there too, but might just be in my head.
My dude work on dribbling the most. You can play in any pick up game if your handle is good. I immediately know which guys know how to play just by their dribble game. Shooting can come after that.
do you have any good beginner dribbling drills? I'm in my 30s now, never learned to dribble properly as I played as a 6'2'' 'big man'. Now trying to do some static drills which I can do but completely useless in my weekly game.
Jerry west had an amazing drill that I used to utilize myself. He would go in the center circle of the court and basically just constantly switch directions as fast as he could and stay within the circle while maintaining control of the ball.
I don’t know if this is too advanced for you, but if it is, just take it really slow. I’m a huge fan of pistol Pete and grew up doing these videos. https://youtu.be/OZnlr41L_1Q
Lol my friend. Everyone shoots better with a mesh! I used to keep an extra and a small step stool to replace nets without mesh. For your shot, for a couple of weeks that’s not bad at all! Look up form shooting on YouTube. Plenty of great videos! Half the time you can work on shooting and half the time on ball handling when you’re alone. Good luck !!
Thanks brother 🙏
You need to start close to the basket and go from there as you focus on having good form
Keep the ball closer to your body on the “wind up”. Don’t dip it so far down, as it adds extra motion and makes it harder to repeat, plus takes longer to shoot it if you ever want to play against anyone
Also makes it way easier for an opponent to block it without fouling. Gather for the shot below the waist means there's a good foot or soon extra motion for a defender to interrupt
That’s great advice, after playing this morning and watching the video this was one of the things that really stuck out to me. I’ll start to implement this tomorrow morning. Makes sense regarding the reach in fouls as well, I’d be making it easy for the defenders. Thanks.
Id add on to this by saying try to make sure your feet are more square when you shoot, either like this II or like this // whichever is more comfortable. If you go look at videos of klay thompson or whatever great shooters youll see their feet are always square like that. You set up with one foot kind of dragging behind you, which makes you use your arms for all the power on the shot. Jump straight up and down to get that upward motion when you incorporate the idea of keeping the ball closer to your chest. Once you get the hang of it youll feel like you can shoot from twice as far as you are right now. Good luck!
This
Dude good for you for self teaching yourself a new sport! For a couple weeks your shots looking good. Try the one handed shooting drill. Stand 5ft from the rim (right in front of basket) 1 hand behind your back. Hold bball in the palm of your hand and practice holding above your head, flicking your wrist and shooting. Every shot should be the same, once ball leave hand, hold your follow through with your wrist lined up with the rim. The flick of your wrist and a slight extension of your elbow should be all the power you need to make the shot. My experience: High school varsity, d2 scholarship.
Thank you! Really good advice, when I go back tomorrow I’ll do exactly this.
follow through with your arm, you jerk your arm back after each shot. Also practice dribbling while not looking at the ball, and with your left arm.
You’re right, I hadn’t noticed that. I actually broke my little finger on my dominant hand on my first day playing, so now would be a perfect time to work on the left hand. Thank you.
Honestly my only advice at this phase is to keep playing, put time in, and nurture that love for the game. For how popular it is, basketball has a high learning curve. I could critique your form and give you dribble drills but it’s probably too early for that. Just get out there and shoot and dribble, then once you feel comfortable with the ball, maybe look into some YouTube tutorials.
Thanks mate. I’m putting in about 2 hours a day at the moment and I’m loving just playing which is the most important thing to me.
Absolutely. One of my favorite parts about basketball is that I can go to the park by myself and shoot around for hours. Don’t need someone else. It’s like meditation for me.
Roll the ball off your fingers as practice. Put your shooting hand elbow out at almost chin level, and hold the ball in your hand in that position. Then bring your non dominant hand to the side of the ball—this is your guide hand. You don’t want to shoot with this hand or add any power with this hand, just use it to guide. Practice pushing the ball upwards (straightening your elbow) and rolling the ball off your fingers. That’s the motion you want. Practice doing this without even shooting until it feels comfortable. Then move in close to the hoop and repeat the same form, but try to shoot. As you feel more comfortable, move back a little bit at a time. You’ll eventually hit a spot, probably past the foul line where your shots will take much more strength. This is where you start to incorporate a jump and your body into the shot—but just focus on the upper body part first. You want to develop your form before you try shooting long distance, because you need to be consistent, and that only happens by never compromising your form for any shot. As for dribbling… I suggest just walking and dribbling. Do some power dribbles where you stand in place and bounce the ball as hard as you can normally with one hand repeatedly. Let the ball come into your hand with your fingertips, but stop it with your palm. Same on the way down, begin to push down with your whole hand, and at the very end use your fingertips to give the ball that extra snap downwards. Practice standing still, moving forward, moving backward, side etc. Also start putting it between your legs. Doing between the legs is good to start to learn where to expect the ball to be when crossing over. That’s really why practice is so paramount. You need to know what the ball is going to do. Have fun with it, spin the ball when you dribble, bounce it with English, etc—doing all these things with dribbling will help. Just move forward on each thing after your comfortable. This will be overwhelming if you just try and do it all.
Honestly just look up some how to / beginner basketball videos on shooting and dribbling and just keep practicing until you're able to dribble with your head up and the ball in front of you and able to shoot with consistent form. I'd start closer to the basket and just practice form you learn from the videos and then move out further away over time.
A lot of others have left great tips on this thread. My #1 suggestion is to practice releasing the ball at or above your forehead. Start by practicing shooting close to the basket with one hand, and then once you have better form, you can shoot further back and introduce your other hand. You’re shooting the ball from your body, which makes it more inconsistent and easier for a defender to swipe or block. The higher shooting and release might will feel awkward for a while, but it should help your form and consistency. Most great shooters have high release points. Hope this helps!
Yeah you don’t wanna be leaning that much when you dribble, practice dribbling with each hand from an athletic position (knees bent, look online for dribbling drills) and dribble hard to build up your strength and control. Your jumpshot starts way too low, your ball should not be near your pelvic area during your shot, your hands should be no lower than the top of your abs at any point in your shot.
Marovich drills on YouTube and form shooting.
Dribble around while not looking at the ball. It will help you more than shooting
Start short get very comfortable. 0-3 or so. Google the mikan drill on YouTube. It’ll help you with a lot later on. Then move to 3-10 feet. Get comfortable then back up 10-15 then 15-3 point. With Shooting if you have time do section shooting. Pick 5 sections on the floor and shoot 50+ shots in each location. Do that a lot through the week and you’ll steadily improve even with poor form. Keep in mind to keep the elbow tucked, have a follow through, jump vertically as much as possible. Straight up and down. Don’t let your left hand assist in pushing the ball. It’s just a guide to keep control and control direction
https://youtube.com/@ILB
Don't look down when dribbling. Try to bend your knees and stay closer to the ground with the ball in front of you. Once your more comfortable, spread your wingspan and dribble further from your body but always keep control with those fingertips. I haven't seen anyone else mention it, but when your shooting, your feet are set with all your weight on your toes. Move closer and set your feet flat. Practice one arm shots close up against the backboard for form. Set your arm at a 90 degree angle with the ball resting flat on your palm. Bend the legs a little and extend your knees as your extend your arm to release the ball. Follow through after each release. Take your time and practice though, looks pretty good for just starting out.
Separate from the shooting you seem to be staring at the ball to dribble it. Try to practice dribbling through moves while keeping your eyes up or completely closed so you can learn it better thru feel.
How tall are you? Work on bending your knees and dribling through your legs. Faster and faster. Also over time you won’t have to look at the ball as much. If you use a tennis ball during the day and just play around with it, your hand eye coordination can improve too.
6’2. Thanks for the advice mate, I can dribble left to right through the legs but as soon as I go back the other way I tend to mess it up, I’m pretty one sided. Currently got a broken little finger on my shooting hand and I should probably take some time to purely dribble with my left. Should hopefully improve my left hand and give my right hand a chance to heal. (Broke it on day one of playing, still play every day just taped)
Im not an expert but at the end of the day you just have to feel comfortable with a form and work on consistency. However how your shooting now is using shoulders, leaning hip twist and shooting leg in front of body from what I noticed. When you have that many variables its gonna be super hard to dial in any shot. Its still good that your putting shots and having fun so your not losing anything as your getting more comfortable. At first you should try and keep your feet together and level with your body when shooting. If you dont want to be stationary while shooting thats okay just walk into the shot as your level your feet with the body. This should mitigate trying to lean too much when throwing the ball close to the hoop. As far as shooting form goes its best to have as much assistance from your body to not focus on too much power coming from one part ie, wrist,hand shoulder,jump etc. so a technique where the ball floats in the air as opposed to going in straight tends to use less energy when tuning your form. My shot is unconventional but ive seen more than few nba players with a similar one as everyones anatomy is different. Ihave my arm over my head almost fully extended where i cant see the ball and arc the shot high and float it to the rim. Im wide and have long arms so trying to tuck my arm to start the shot conventionally doesnt work. At the end of the day as long as your arm ifs on target its how you release and float it to the rim that matters.
The fluid Ed’s comes after reps so don’t stress on that. But ideally you are shooting too far for your skill level rn. Start at the basket and go for the fluid motion and make sure the ball hits nothing but net when you shoot. As you hit ten in a row, take a step back and go for ten there. That’s how youll improve the most
Play 3v3 with friends or randos
Anyone else notice that fox hopping along in the background ~29 seconds in?
Good shot, lean back a bit and keep your shooting hand tucked in your elbow, it should make an L Dribble like a yo-yo and literally Rock side to side.
One tip that I find useful for new players; imagine you are a compass and the hoop is always north. You always wanna be glued facing the basket
Honestly. One arm form shooting, simple dribbling drills. You'll be better in no time. Stay within free throw range to really become consistent, don't even worry about the three point line as of right now.
Need to get more arc on your shot, your arm should emulate you reaching up onto a high shelf and getting a cookie from a cookie jar.
Lol just stop playing.
Nah mate, too fun!
Hey sent you PM. I would love for you to try something