10 Tips to Improve the Mental Side of Shooting

By Tony Fryer, 1on1 Basketball Academy

Being a great shooter can change your life. Great shooters have a much better chance to make the team, become a star, get a scholarship or even play professional basketball.

Here are 10 mental concepts and techniques that will help any player become a better shooter and make more shots, in any situation, in any game.

Go beyond the physical fundamentals to get into the "zone" like all great shooters do:

Use Relevant Psychology

The part of psychology most relevant to sports performance is neuroscience. A major concept of neuroscience is that everything you do is controlled by thought. Your body is controlled by your mind. Controlling your mind through thought is called focus.

Peak performance requires focus. You must have very specific purpose and intent. Simplify that purpose to the smallest variable possible, and that becomes your focal point. You don’t need to think, but you do need to focus! Pure focus equals maximum performance!

Physics and Biomechanics

Before understanding and adjusting your personal shooting psychology, you must first establish this baseline concept. The physics of making shots are exactly the same for everyone. Things like arc, trajectory, and backspin are equally in play for all of us, with every shot we take. Yet the "fundamental shooting form" taught by most coaches when teaching players to shoot doesn't always match proven science. Biomechanics and physics say it's about the ball--not the body.

LeBron James is averaging 77 percent from the free-throw line for the 2009-2010 season. Rick Barry (6th on the all-time scoring list when he retired) averaged over 90 percent from the charity stripe for his entire career and has the second best free-throw percentage in the history of the NBA. At the NABC convention, I had the opportunity to talk to Rick about his two-handed/underhanded free throws. Barry’s shooting form is a totally different technique from what players like LeBron prefer to use today. But Barry is the perfect example of a player who focused on getting the basketball to go in, regardless of how he got his body to do it.

While players can use totally different shooting form and "fundamentals," the physics of the shot arc, trajectory and distance remained constant.

Get Beyond Analysis Paralysis

As coaches we often tell players to "concentrate," or "take a deep breath and relax." Another popular coaching directive is "don't think too much" and just shoot. But how do you deal with the mixed signals of relax, stop thinking and yet still work to concentrate? What does being relaxed mean? By the way, when was the last time your mind was completely blank? Okay, except for now while you ponder the question! To get beyond analysis paralysis in shooting you must learn to control your focus.

Feel Your Body and Trust Your Feelings

Top shooters have a feel for what a good shot is. They know the moment a shot leaves their hand if it is good or not. So what "feel" should you aim for? Here's a simple drill to get more control over the basketball and one of the most effective ways to improve your shot:

Stand within eight feet or so from the basket and make an all-net shot with one hand. Do this over and over again. Memorize how the ball feels rolling out of your hands and off your fingers as you make all-net shot after shot. Do it with your eyes closed and focus on feeling the ball roll off your fingers--don't look, just feel!

When you duplicate that feeling, you will engrain the necessary physics of arc, directional control and even backspin to make more shots. When you focus on getting that feeling, you are better able to duplicate the feeling. When you use this technique you stop thinking. Your mind will then subconsciously search for and recreate the feeling/sensation of the ball rolling off your fingers towards the basket. As you focus on that one specific thing, all of a sudden your footwork, jumping, and everything else will begin to align to give you the best chance to make the shot.

This "focus on the feeling" action is how our mind clears away conscience thought (even fear) and finds "the zone." This will happen all by itself if you "focus" on one simple feeling. This is exactly what happens when people use a mantra to meditate and find enlightenment.

Meditate to Concentrate

According to psychologist Daniel Goldman, "powerful concentration amplifies the effectiveness of any kind of activity." Meditation, or mindfulness, is the ability to retrain attention, so that it fosters concentration. Several NBA players, including Kobe Bryant, meditate before games. Lakers coach Phil Jackson is a proponent of meditation and is known as the "Zen Master." Coach Jackson has had both his Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers teams practice Buddhist meditation before they practice jump shots.

Jackson has won 10 NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers. Meditate on that...