I wanna try these things^^ nice tips... hope these will help me :)

nice tips,
I learn more on this site.
I will always read the tips in your site. can you send into my email some tips?

Hi Archie,

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I always shoot very good,but sometimes very bad

how to increase our shooting range

It helped

what if my shoots keep missing

Hey guys, I'm 16 and have been playing basketball my whole life. I've always have been some what talented but never to the same amount as some of my other teammates. So, this summer I had decided that if I wasnt given the same amount of talent, that I would earn my skills through hard work. Each day (excluding vacations) I shot on average 300 shots a day, I was always active and worked on the things that I needed to get better on. I still need to work on my left hand dribbling and my up close and personal deffense, everything else I have basically down. I do need to get stronger though, I am very skinny and people knock me over easily. I've worked so hard for the upcoming season, all throughout the summer I've been playing with different players in other leagues, and have been doing quite well. But when my school team from last year got together this past weekend, I did horribly, normally in my other league I am an excellent player, but when I got onto the floor with my old teammates, I did horribly. It seemed like all my hard work, the countless hours of shooting, dribbling, running, etc. all went to waste. I was basically man handled and my confidence was crushed. I felt so out of place, I was so confident that I was ready for the season, because of the incredible amount of time and work I put into it. I was so shocked at what happened, I was frustrated because I didnt know what to do, because I couldnt do anything. I don't know what to do, I've lost all confidence in myself in both the game of basketball and in life because of how badly I feel about all my hard work seeming to go to waste. I know inside that I deserve to be the best player on the team because of the work I put in, as i hit the court daily. But for some reason all my confidence was ripped away, I still had desire to be the best but yet I felt it was impossible to obtain it. I am extremly confused and I need your help, my life fells almost empty because basketball is basically what I live for. Please could you give me some advice on how to regain confidence in myself, to be able to step up and achieve my goals when its clutch time, not just when I'm sitting around at my hoop at home or just playing a small game of pick up. Maybe I have to practice more at game spped? maybe I have to hit the weight room more? maybe I have to dribble the ball elft handed nonstop while I am practing? I don't know, But what I do know is that I REALLY need to get my confidence back before basketball season starts. Thanks guys I would appreciate the help, sorry this is such a long message, I just cant find any one to help me find an answer to my problems.

Zach,

First of all, there's a very good chance that this game you played poorly in was just a fluke. You CAN'T base your confidence on 1 game! Seriously. How many times has Michael Jordan bounced back after a few poor games? Everyone has their ups and downs. It's seriously not a big deal and you are thinking WAY too much. Just go out and play, give it all you have, and have fun! Enjoy yourself. Basketball is so much fun. Don't make it a job and stress yourself out.

All you can ask of yourself is to give it everything you have. If you didn't try your best, that is the only time to be disappointed.

If the ball didn't go in... so what?! Who cares? The best shooters in the world miss over half the time. The often go on streaks of missing 5,6,7, or more shots in a row. Do you think they get down? No! They realize that they will miss shots. It's no big deal. They realize they will make mistakes. All they can do is focus on the next play.

Realize that you can do much more than score and make assists. Coaches absolutely love players that hustle, play defense, and rebound. None of these traits require skill. All of these things (even rebounding) are simply based on EFFORT and DESIRE, not skill.

Read this article and realize that you can be a winner and contribute to the team in other ways. Trust me, I'm a coach and I know.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/players/10-basketball-tips-playing-time.html

If confidence becomes a big problem, which I don't think it will because it sounds like this is just a fluke and you be completely fine, you can use our shooting guide which has many confidence building techniques and slump breakers.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/btshooting.html

You can also try this technique:
http://www.positivecoach.org/Blog.aspx?id=3918

I'm in eighth grade and I've decided to try out for basketball because I have tons of friends that play the sport, and them and my mom have always toild me that its really fun. But I've never played on any kind of team, so what if I don't make the team? I'm learning a lot from your websight, so thanks a lot for all of your tips. I'm learning and practiciing as much as I can, but do you guys think I should continue to try if I don't make it?

Jamie - If you enjoy playing, you should absolutely keep trying. Work hard and try again next year.

Sach and Jamie -

Don't measure yourself as person by how you do on the basketball floor. This is a GAME and its supposed to be fun. DO the best you can and move on.
Jamie, I hope you make the team because there is nothing like being part of something like this, so good luck to you.
Zach, keep working on your game and things will get better - you are 16 and still growing, both of you will get bigger and stronger and BETTER, just keep working at it. Everyone matures at a different rate so hang in there.
There is an old saying... "sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you."

I coached for many years and saw young kids come in as freshman and were terrible... ended up as all conference players as Seniors thru hard work and perserverance. So, be patient with yourself and work on your fundamentals.

Thanks, everyone. Your tips helped and I made the team, getting better every day. I had tons of fun. It's a great sport to play, and it kept me in great shape for track. I made the track team this year, because of my 100m sprint at 15.2 seconds. I've had bad luck the past two years with badly pulled muscles because my body wasn't used to the cold weather or all the running so suddenly. But basketball kept me in shape, helped me have tons of fun, and made me faster and faster. Thanks again for your tips, and your feedback. Hope everything went all right for you too, Zach.

hello thanks jeff.. such a good man revealing important steps in becoming a pro..i'm selected to be a varsity player, don't have any position yet because this is the first year i start playing basketball.about 2 month ago...i have good dribbling, speed and under basket shot. but i am very poor in 3 point shot and lay up..the problem is, with my height 164cm, the opponent defend easily block me from shooting under basket.. so i'm trying to work on my 3 point shooting..so do you have any tactics to defeat bigger and higher opponent under the basket..?

Alright so I''ve recently grown a big interest in basketball , I played soccer when i was younger and martial arts was my last sport til high school. I mean i''ve played basket ball and stuff for fun on games with friends and this last month for my church but i want to take it further and do it for my college team. Mostly i think i wanna try something different , Im confident i can do it i''ve always been a great athlete but walking through the college and i see the bball players they are intimidating and i almost wanna be like nvm , there is no way i can do it, they will just laugh if i went in. they all know eachother and im the freshman w/ no bball back ground so ima little hesitant but i know that if i work hard enough i can do it we all start somewhere. So if someone can please give me some kind of advice on what to do to start out practicing this summer . what should i work on , what exercises to do? drills? whatever it takes for me to become a great bball player and get on the team. I would gladly appreciate it. You guys have no idea how determined i am to do this. HELP ME OUT GIRLS / BOYS :)

look im 15 and i love basketball as much as anyone or more, ive been trying out for my school teams since i was in 5th grade never made 1 it hurts it sucks but i always told myself to never give up im one of the best shooters there is im 89% from the free throw line consistently and deadly from three i was blessed with that talent but i cant dribble well and i was born with weak core muscles so im not very fast i love this game and have the heart to be a pro its a shame i wasnt dealt the same cards as other people

I am an average shooter and struggle with confidence in a game, Im a much more efficient passer. Would practicing these 3 steps persistently all I need to increase my shooting confidence?

im a 10th grader on my high school bball team. my shot has always had great form and i practiced it everyday. i made just about every shot and had my confidence up high. however, i got lazy for a bout a week to a week n a half and shot only a couple days. ive started again on a daily routine but my shot has altered itself. something with it feels off, i know how its supposed to feel but i cannot for the life of me get it back to normal. it will not fix and my confidence has just went down the drain. do yall have any advice for me to get my shot back to normal because this is killing me

great tips i hope they work

I really appreciate all the stuff you guys have on the site, basically everything I need to develop as a solid player & better. Especially on shooting I need help because I am relied on to shoot now & need to be consistent stroker but I have trouble w/ my form changing.

My daughter practices hard but I can see in big games she starts to zone out. She is looking to me for guidance and keeps saying she doesn't know how to get out of it. Any ideas friends?

Melissa,

IF you are not the coach, remind your daughter who she should be looking to for guidance...... tell her to relax and have fun..... stay focused and trust her own instincts. I'm not sure what level she is playing at and that makes a lot of difference.

She needs to have a little patience with herself.. play good defense and a lot of times the offense kind of falls in place. Again, stay focused and don't look for someone to bail you out... your the one on the floor, do your best.

Patrick,
My suggestion for you would be - do a lot of form shooting, EVERY DAY.... this will develop muscle memory so you don't have to think about your shot in games. If you are struggling in a game.... get yourself to the free throw line and take a couple of form shots before the ref hands you the ball.

I hope this helps, be patient, good shooters are made not born. It takes a lot of repitions to become a good shooter.

Good luck.

I finally decided to teach the kids the fundamentals of basketball (the right way) when at one time I was able to make 85 free throws out of 100 attempts (10 sets). I just challenged myself and see If it was really meant to be. That was back in 2004. Now part of my skills demonstration is showing them different free throw routines (and humbly making the shots), ask them to observe, what they notice going through the different routines and advising them the best shooting form to use sans the time-wasting, distracting shooting routines. Maintaining the right shooting form with the right mechanics, physical and mental conditioning a given, is really the key.

I'm 15 years old and in basketball last year I did pretty good. And after basketball I had went to the dr because I had scoliosis and it was so bad I had to have surgery in the net two months so I'm in my freshman year of basketball and I use to play point guard but I got moved to right hand guard because I am the bet scorer. But in practice in games I lost my cofidence in shooting I don't like to because i feel like a ball hog and my shooting is just messed up now and I don't finish. I don't know if its cause i don't shoot or I'm not confident will some one help me..?

Sammy -

It sounds more like confidence than ability. Work on your form and shooting closer to the basket... work your way back until you get to the point where you were shooting last year.

I'm sure that your surgery forced you to take a few steps back... but if you are serious, and are HEALTHY enough to play, just keep working on your game and your shot.

If you are having problems with your shot in games I will tell you the same thing I told my players... get yourself to the Free Throw line where you can take a couple of form shots before the ref hands you the ball. This is the best place to fix your form in games.

Good luck.

I'm going to try to incorporated more shooting drills into our practice planning. Our team has been shooting well in practice but less than 20% from the field through the first three games. Last night we shot 17% from the field, only 8 shots were attempted outside of 10 feet from the basket. I really feel our girls just don't have any confidence that there shot will go in right now.

We have a some really talented ball players which most of them are Seniors and I know if they get that confidence back they will be hard to beat. We have out rebounded all our appoints significantly, forced numerous turnovers but we just can't seem to make the easy baskets. One drive last night we attempted 6 shots within 5 feet of the basket all of which were off offensive rebounds and came away with 0 points.

Thanks,
Coach Josh

Josh -

The only thing that I can think of is to make sure that your players are working on their shooting at GAME SPEED.

You might add a defender to put a little bit of pressure on the shooter / NOT blocking the shot.

Hope those ideas help.

I am 13 and probably the 2nd best in my team, but on the court i have no confidence.I shoot about 300 shots a day. My brother(16 yo) is very good at basketball and he doesn't even try or practice. I cannot dribble because of my low confidence and the last time i dribbled up the court i turned it over. I have hit 9 threes in a row in practice but somehow i cant shoot in games

Tom -

Trust me, you are NOT alone in this situation. Just remember this, every sport involves mistakes - just look at baseball players that hit
.300 and make MILLIONS...... .300 means they are failing 70% of the time.

"I cannot dribble because of my low confidence and the last time i dribbled up the court i turned it over"

This seems like your biggest problem.... so, while you are shooting 300 shots a day, you need to put in some time dribbling. Work on this until you can make all sorts of move in your sleep. See if your brother will help you out here.... and maybe play some 1 on 1, playing against better competition will make you better.

As for your shooting... I had several guys on my team that were great practice players, drove me nuts when they were playing against the starters... put them in games and they choked. So, obvioulsy they didn't get a lot of playing time.... one game we were down a lot and I needed a good 3 point shooter in the game.... I put him in and he keeps passing up shots. Finally at a dead ball I call the kid over... I tell him that I didn't put him on the floor because of his looks..... SHOOT THE DARN BALL. He laughs and says, OK, IF you put it that way.... and he starts to hit some shots.

So, let me tell you the same thing.IF you can hit nine 3s in a row in practice... SHOOT the ball..... you are NOT out there because of your looks.

Seriously, relax and have some fun, and when your shot comes to you... shoot it. Don't worry about missing. Look at that freshman kid from Michigan, has to come in to the game for the College Player of the year..... and he hits four 3s and gets 17 points in the first half. Have some fun.

Tom -

Here is something that I found today, things that I used for my teams as "Thoughts for the Day."

Perfect for you.... especially the last sentence.

"I'm a firm believer in quiet confidence. By that I mean knowing inwardly that you are good, and not exhibiting a boastful attitude outwardly.

If an athlete doesn't believe in himself, no one else will."