Hello coaches Im in 9th grade I play for my JV team. my coach says I shoot with 2 hands and I notice this. how do I not do this anymore and get a higher shooting percentage.

Josh -

This can be corrected, but you'll have to be willing to feel uncomfortable for a bit while correcting the problem. Usually the problem lies with the guide hand, as I doubt you have both of your hand directly behind the ball.

Here's a link to a quick thread where we talked about a shooting problem similar to yours:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com//forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=1276&hilit=shooting+with+guide+hand

Hope this helps!

Josh ...

It's time to work on your form. I had my varsity players do this before every practice. I would suggest that you start against a wall so that there is no pressure about making a basket. Start with one hand, you can take one Dribble and bring the ball up and go to your shot, make sure you hold your follow through. Either put your other hand behind your back or to your side but do not use it at this point. This is going to take a lot of practice, hundreds to thousands of shots until you have what we call new muscle memory. That is step one.

Step two:
Once you get comfortable with this, go to the basket start shooting with one hand ....from one block to the middle to the other block. Keep doing this until you are comfortable shooting the ball from that distance.


Step three:
Then you can put your guide hand alongside of the ball but not touching it, and do the same thing...from block to middle to the other block. After you are comfortable doing this it's time to add the guide hand.

Step four:
Now you can head your guide hand. (Remember your guide him has nothing to do with shooting the ball) go through the same procedure as above working on that till you are shooting comfortably with one hand.

Do a search on YouTube of the swish method of shooting the ball....there is a 14-year-old boy was been working on his shot for three years using the swish method. Watch him shoot .... Nice and easy...short range shots. Don't worry about the three ball until you have corrected your shot..

Good luck and let us know how it is going after a few days.

Correction to step four.....

I meant to say now you can use your guide hand by putting it on the side of the ball... It has nothing to do with the shot other than to keep the ball on your shooting hand. The thumb on your guide hand should be pointed backwards as you are releasing the ball.

Again, that Swish video should help you.