The first shot of practice should look like every other shot. Form shooting from 3 feet primes the muscles before kids start shooting from real distance. Five minutes of close-range form is worth twenty minutes of bad shots from the three.
What you need: A hoop, a basketball, one or more players.
Setup: Player stands 3 feet from the rim. Optional: line up a few kids on either side of the rim.
How to run it:
- Cue: Set, Bend, Lift, Cookie.
- Set feet square to the rim. Bend the knees. Lift the ball with elbow under. Snap the wrist into the cookie jar (hand relaxed forward, fingers at the rim).
- Make 10 shots from 3 feet. The hand should freeze in the cookie jar after each release.
- Move back to 6 feet. Make 10 more.
- Move to 10 feet. Make 5 more, then practice can begin.
What to watch: The follow-through. The hand should hang in the cookie jar position for at least one second after the release. If it drops too fast, the wrist snap is incomplete.
If they’re struggling: Stay at 3 feet. Or shoot one-handed (no guide hand) to feel the wrist snap clearly.
If they’ve got it: Add a back-cut after each shot: shoot, cut to half court, sprint back, shoot again.