Correcting A Funny Spin on the Ball

I coach an Under 16 Boys basketball team.  One of my better players is 13 year-old who is moderately large and quite strong for his age.  He is 5"10' , but wears size 15 (US) shoes and has hands which are at least as proportionately as large.  He is left handed.  He has recently started shooting a jump shot.  The player has generally good form and, if anything, shoots with a little too much arc (a first for me).  However, every fifth shot, or so, comes off with a clockwise, sideways rotation.  The player's final hand position after release looks fine -- elbow straight, arm angled towards top of backboard (maybe higher sometimes), hand reaching into the cookie jar with fingers pointing to the floor, guide hand well off the ball, with thumb pointing to the sky.
 

Since the sideways rotation is always clockwise and the player is left handed, the only sense I can make of this is that the player is cascading his fingers as he releases, pushing off first with the pinky, then the ring, then middle and last the index finger.  Especially with his large hands, this could impart sideways rotation to he ball. Unfortunately, the release happens too quickly for my old eyes to verify what's happening. I have asked the player to do one handed shooting from 3-5 ft, concentrating on releasing off the middle finger.  He does just fine with that.  But as soon as he goes back to shooting a jump shot, the sideways rotation appears.  Is this a question of just getting more reps with the one handed shooting, or should I be doing something more -- or differently?  Any guidance you can provide will be much appreciated.

-- Richard  Surrey, London



Hi Richard, 
The way to coach this is through your players awareness of what he is actually doing.  He has to ìdiscoverî it; your telling him will not get it done.  Obviously the hand and fingers are sometimes creating sidespin as he releases the ball.  Spend some time figuring out what he is doing and when.  Then, here is what I suggest for a different way to shoot.  Work with him to learn to do nothing with the wrist, hand and fingers.  Then the sidespin will disappear.

Also note my coaching is NOT to end with the hand in the cookie jar....
I know thati one of the common instructions these days, but it invites a wristy, flippy motion.  Usually the spin is backspin when you drive the fingers down, but this boy sometimes gets some sidespin, a little variation in the motion of the fingers, thus an unpredictable action.

The way I coach it, the arm does all the work of the Release as it straightens on line with the eye and basket, with a constant speed and force.  The only job of the wrist, hand and fingers is to keep the ball on line.  Then they can let go and the hand just flops forward and down, relaxed.  When you do this, you will get perfect, medium backspin every time.  The whole shot is driven by the bigger muscles of the lower & middle body, but the Release is just from the arm motion.  The speed of the arm action, an accelerating motion, is about 70% of max.

Try this with your own shot and with your player.  You will find tremendous consistency and ìrepeatabilityî start to appear.  The shot is aimed high, 45-60 degrees if possible, depending on power and distance, and to control distance you vary the arch, not the Release. This new stroke will eliminate that occasional side-spinning action. Comparing and contrasting this way of shooting vs. how he currently shoots will lead to a choice of the more effective new way.  Remember that he has to see and feel things in order for change (learning) to be possible.