Here is a great shooting drill to improve your balance and develop a quicker shooting release from the Breakthrough Shooting and Scoring System with Jim Huber.

In addition, you will find five layers (or progressions) below the video that show you how to improve better decision making within your skill development.

By quickly doing the foot fire (switching feet back and forth), this simulates a game situation where your feet won't be in perfect position prior to every pass... whether it's in transition or off a cut or screen.

So you learn how to quickly stick your feet from any position into a balanced, shooting stance and go up with your shot.

Check out the video...

Layering This Shooting Drill to Add Decision Making

Once proficiency in the skill is shown, I'm a huge fan of progressing with variable and random practice which can lead to better game performance. You also start to add layers of decision-making to replicate what actually happens during the game.

1 - Skill with no defense (progression above)

2 - Skill with variable practice

3 - Skill with light defensive pressure

4 - Skill with defense dictation

5 - Skill with live defense

If you just go straight to live play with layer 5, some players struggle and you don't see the skill progression that should be occurring.

At times, it even leads to regression and loss of confidence which is a double whammy.

Many players need progressions 2, 3, and 4 for the appropriate challenge. That way, they can still have some success to build confidence in their newly learned skills.

Drill Progression 2 - Skill With Variable Practice

Variable practice simply means to change an aspect of the skill after each repetition. Just like in a game, you rarely shoot the same shot twice.

You could change the footwork, distance of shot, location of shot, number of dribbles prior to shooting, or any other variable that makes sense.

Drill Progression 3 - Skill With Light Defensive Pressure

With this progression, you simply add light defensive pressure when practicing the skill.

In the drill above, you could have a defensive player close out and put a hand up to contest the shot.

That way, the player gets used to shooting with defensive pressure. The defense's goal is not to block the shot at first. But you could progress to allow the defense to block the shot when players are ready or need a greater challenge.

You can simply move the defender's starting position to increase or decrease the challenge.

You can also practice the skill required if the defense stops the shot. This might mean some sort of move off the dribble drive.

Drill Progression 4 - Skill With Random Defense Dictation

With this progression, the defender is not trying to stop the offensive player. The defender is simply trying to dictate an action. And the defender gives different looks to force the offensive player into different actions.

For the drill above, you could...

1 - Give enough space off the closeout to allow a shot off the catch.

Or

2 - Stop the shot and force a drive to the basket.

If you want to work on jump shots off the dribble, that could also be an option instead of driving to the basket and shooting a lay up.

Note: It's okay if you don't make the right decisions at first. The key here is repetition.

Also, don't be afraid to test your limits and see what it takes to get your shot blocked.

Tip for Coaches on Correcting Too Much:

I prefer to let players learn through repetition. Often, the player just needs the repetition to let the mind and body figure it out.

If you constantly try to correct every repetition, it can hurt confidence and create indecisiveness. So be very careful not to correct too much. Now if you see the player make the wrong read for 2 straight minutes, then you can offer some advice.

Drill Progression 5 - Skill With Live Defense

Now is when you can replicate this situation and play live. The defense's goal is to stop the offense. The offense's goal is to score.

You can play mini-games to 3. You can play make-it, take-it or any other variation that you find fitting.

You can also mix up locations on the floor on each repetition.

Of course, if you have enough players, you can progress to 2v2, 3v3, and other variations to incorporate attacking help defense and passing skills.

Another Video With These Progressions

The video below focuses on how to progress through a simple catch and shoot drill where you're working on developing a quicker release. However, you could do the exact same progressions with the footfire drill above.

Here is the timeline of the video, so you can quickly navigate...

0:00 - Introduction and Overview
0:52 - Progression 1 - Quick Release
2:00 - Progression 2 - Quick Release with Variable Practice
3:17 - Progression 3 - Quick Release with Soft Closeout and Hard Close Out
5:20 - Progression 4 - Quick Release with Defense Dictation
6:12 - Progression 5 - 1v1 off the Catch

The complete explanation of this drill is here.

Resources to Improve Your Shooting and Scoring Skills

Breakthrough Shooting and Scoring System

Game-Based Training System (50+ drills with progressions for 2 to 4 players)

Breakthrough Basketball Skill Development Camps

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...

Comments Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First Paige Estelle corter says: 6/22/2020 at 8:50:47 PM I have been watching all of these videos that my grandpa give me. If you could please send them to this email.😁 Thank you!!!🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀 Like   1 reply   login   register Jeff Haefner says: 6/23/2020 at 3:46:16 PM Ok. I signed you up for the email newsletter. You should get a confirmation email. Once you click the link in that email, you should start getting the emails sent directly to you. I have also deleted your email from this comment so you don't get unwanted spam emails from others that see or scrape this comment. If you need anything else, let us know. Like     login   register

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