I am having a problem with parents and other coaches regarding squaring-up when shooting. I am teaching turning slightly to enable the shooter to create better alignment of the shoulder, arm, and shooting eye. How do I deal with these parents and coaches who insist on squaring to the basket?
John Avery
Dear John, I see a couple of possibilities:
1) Ask the parents and coaches to try something. With a squared-up stance and without a ball, have them bring their shooting hands in line with an imaginary target and their shooting eyes, to a set point above the eyes. Ask that the hand face directly in line with eye and target, the center of the palm lined up. Then ask if they feel any tension in the shoulder and upper arm. I think they will report ìyes.î (Try this yourself first, of course, to see if you believe it.) Then ask them, with the hand in the same place, to open their stances 30-45 degrees andnotice if the tension disappears. I think theyíll find that there is no noticeable tension when you rotate open.
Also mention and demonstrate how squaring up is appropriate for a two-handed shot but not for a one-handed shot. We naturally want to reach forward with the one arm and hand, rotating rate our bodies to allow for the extension of the arm and shoulder toward a target. Alignment with the shooting eye is more natural in an open stance. You could also ask them to shoot both ways and decide for themselves which is more natural and tension-free.
2) Tell them youíve heard that most, if not all, of the great shooters in the game opened their stances, many as much as 45 degrees. Jeff Hornacek, Chris Mullin, Larry Bird, Steve Kerr, Detlef Schrempf, etc. They were NOT squaring up. They can check old clips of these now all-retired shooters and theyíll see their strong feet are forward of the other feet and their bodies are open.