Building a shooter: A philosophical difference.

Before I get started we need to clear a couple of issues out of the way.

Issue #1 - In order for any of this to be useful to you, you have to believe skilled players are made and not born. If you feel that the proper training and dedicated meaningful practice time put in by players and coaches is not how to become a skilled athlete you might as well stop reading. If you don't believe someone can be made into shooter given enough quality work the rest of this debate isn't worth your time.

Issue #2  - This isn't about the mechanics of shooting. You can research any number of coaches world wide to debate footwork, technique and skills. If you need recommendation please check out any resources you can get your hands on by coaches Dave Love, Dave Smart and Steve Alford. They are my personal favorites in terms of breaking down shooting technique.

With that out of the way I want to discuss shooting. More specifically what some coaches would call shot selection, or decision making or playing the percentages. The crux of the discussion is this driving question: Is an open shot, where you catch ready , balanced and confident a good shot? Some coaches some coaches say definitively yes, some say definitely not, most have a complicated answer involving percentages in games/practice or their system and the shots "they" want.

My feeling is that against good defense, in a fast paced game you are never going to do better then open. Particularly in an international style game with a shot clock. If you pass up open you will most likely end up taking contested shots later. Regardless of what your feeling is on who should be taking what shots when, most coaches are willing to concede that if they believe a kid is a shooter they will let and even encourage them to shoot when their open.

So how do make a shooter? Obviously it comes from hours and hours of practice at the edge of their abilities creating muscle memory and chunking their technique. They also need to build the fitness, balance and tower strength to match the speed, explosiveness and strength requirements to get and make the shots they need to in order to be successful. How though do you get a kid to do all that?

As far as I can tell coaches fall into three camps in terms of their response:

CAMP 1 - I don't make players, players make themselves.

These are coaches who train their kids in practice, but primarily practice is about the team and their stuff. They tend to be of the belief that they can give kids the basic knowledge but after that kids are on their own. They cite examples of hours of work legends put in on their own time and expose the virtues of the kids who "want it bad enough" finding a way and the time to be successful. They coach the team but players are responsible on their own for building and developing their skills. The owness for becoming a shooter is totally on the player. So coaches either end up with shooters who've built themselves or no shooters. Generally the kids who are taking more shots on their own are better shooters. In games they end up taking more of the shots (by design or personal desire) so they score more. By shouldering more of the offensive load they need/want to score and help the team win so they train more on shooting to be able to do that. So this coach gets a couple of kids a year who make themselves into scorers, who they can cite as examples to the others.

CAMP 2 - You earn the right to be a shooter.

These are coaches who are very focused on their kids skills and areas of weakness. They train specifically to improve/hide areas of weakness and maximize their existing skill sets. These coaches have a very clear idea and generally some body of evidence to support who can take what sorts of shots from where. They work with kids to build their skill sets and encourage them to become more skilled by setting targets. ie. IF you want to play the 2 or be able to take 3's you need to be able to consistently make 70% in practice. They then work with them and give them training regimens to set and meet targets to increase their skill sets based on their wants, needs and expectations. Kids that want to be shooters get the training they need and support to become skilled shooters. The coach then provides the feedback, training and reward/consequences for an individual effort to focus and maximize performance and success. Players are identified, labeled and trained accordingly and always have the option of changing or growing their roll and skill set based on opportunity and desire. Shooters of various types and levels are constantly being built or have the option to get built to some degree.

CAMP 3 - Players are shooters.

Coaches who believe if you are in the game you need to be able to shoot it. Everyone is trained and expected to make shots. Generally the team's success is dependant on who ever is left or gotten open to make shots. Tends to involve a lot of long term commitment to developing skilled universal players, while also focusing on building a relationship of trust and understanding with athletes. These coaches take them on a journey of player development that covers decision making, reading defense and individual skills to make the easy open read. In the short term team success is sacrificed as players work through the learning curve. Coaches though build a relationship of trust with the athletes and inspire commitment by tying work, player confidence and success into team success rather then treating them like related but manageable entities. Players and coaches focus on belief in players potential as a shooter and training is constantly needed to be at the edge of their ability, rather than maximizing current abilities and avoiding/minimizing weaknesses through coach control.

ME

I do my best to fall into Camp 3 mostly because I believe in kids need to be able to play the game the right way universally. I also tend to find this method the most likely to inspire more confidence in kids and improve the quality of teammates relationships. Basically I feel like if a kid takes and makes a shot they are more likely to want to work (with me and on their own) to get back in a position to make another 1 or maybe two+. The best shooters in the world focus on their makes not their misses I want our play and training to match that.

I feel like if a kid can't take a shot until they've made hundreds in a row just to get to point where you are ok with them trying to make 1 (let alone more); in today’s society kids are just going to do something else more inspiring and easier to feel connected. Our players need relationships and mentors more then previous generations.  They will not accept being marginalized and have the flaws dictate their development and how we want to play particularly when a world of on and offline activities will accept them as is.

Its about player investment. We constantly talk about wanting kids to be more committed, kids needing to take responsibility, kids being apathetic.

IMO what a lot of people mean when they say these things. Is no matter how hard, boring, challenging the activity, or disconnected kids are from the material or expectations (class, practice, game etc) because the kid is there they have some sort of obligation to pursue it passionately so anything less is a character flaw.

Telling a kid we can't let you shoot until you put in the time to prove yourself or make yourself a shooter isn't honest. Honesty would be telling them you can't let them shoot because your confidence in their decision making, and them developing as a shooter on a learning curve, is less important than winning games. You can't build a relationship with a kid based on your controls and them then needing to do all the heavy lifting emotionally, physically and confidence wise. They need to want to be part of what you are doing, it needs to match their needs and goals, it has to inspire them to want to be better.

If you aren't at least partially the motivating force and inspiration for improvement, where and when and from whom are they going to learn it: probably not from basketball. Skills, athleticism, confidence, determination, commitment, decision making are all learned behaviors are you teaching them or expecting them? How do you convince a kid to help you build them into shooter?