Our biggest goals in creating our shooting habits are to form simple, repeatable habits, and to give ourselves the highest likelihood of of success in a highly variable sport.
If we know some negative outcome is going to happen, we want our habits to be aligned to limit it.
Here is an example. There are a lot of ideas out there for what target a player should be aiming at when they shoot. I’ll explain what I teach and why.
First off, I want to make sure players are looking at a physical target. Something tangible. I want to avoid looking at the empty air in the centre of the ring, because the eyes don’t have a physical target to focus on. Because of this, the eyes are trying to judge the distance of something that doesn’t exist. Instead, give the eyes something physical to lock on on.
Next, I want players to focus on a small target. Some players will say they simply look at the hoop. The problem with this is that they now have a large target, but if they miss it by a little bit, they get an airball. I prefer to flip that equation. I prefer a small target, with room to miss by a lot and still get a make.
Now we are really down to two choices. Front rim, or back rim. I teach the back of the rim, and the reason goes back to that negative outcome that we know is going to occur and need to be prepared for. We are playing a very active sport. Players get tired. When they get tired, they tend to miss short. So since we know the player is going to get tired, I encourage players to aim for the long target and leave themselves room to miss short. We don’t want to aim for the short target, get tired and miss short – that results in an airball.
So I encourage players to find the little ring or coil that attaches the netting to the bottom of the rim. Find the one that furthest from them no matter where they are standing and lock in on that as their target.
