Breakthrough!

Just went to go shoot around for a little bit before the lights went out at the park on the corner... Let me share a breakthrough with you:

How to bury a fade-away jump shot off a spin move. This will presuppose a right-handed shooter without any strange hitch in form.

I just typed out some very long instructions/scenario. Worthless. Instead...

Basically, what I just discovered is that off a spin move towards the baseline, where my right foot is the plant foot, there's a simple fix for what is otherwise a really really fucking hard shot.

The shot is, then, a fade away jumper, falling towards the baseline. You're shooting is off the dribble, off a spin-move, so the feet are not going to be set as they would be for a catch and shoot, curl off a screen, or even face-up, pull-up jumper (like on a fast break). There's also the issue of avoiding the travel. In this situation, instinct might want you to swing your plant foot back to set side-by-side with the pivot, which of course would be a travel. So you could well be fading away off your right foot; less than ideal for a right-handed shooter. It's very likely that to create the most space between you and the defender the pivot foot will not be parallel to the plant foot at all-- another less than ideal footing to release a shot from. BUT! Here's what I just figured out...

Let the feet be off center if they have to be. Gotta the shot off quick, and don't want to be shuffling the feet around. Ideally, off the spin move, you want the shot to be one motion; one that began with your last hard dribble to begin the spin. A la Tim Duncan and his ridiculously fluid turn-around jumper.

When you elevate, focus on leaving both feet as close to the same time as possible. Elevate as balanced as you possibly can; that is, do not overcompensate for the spin by using more of one foot then another. Keep with the motion of the spin. If you don't, you'll be shooting across your body because of the imbalance in your toes. Balanced elevation. I emphasize this because, as with any fade-away, you're going to use a lot more of legs than usual, and so the margin for error in your feet is slim-none.

Focus on the landing. This is the breakthrough for me.
Obviously, the shots not over until you've at least started to come back down, but as far as foot placement on the landing, I don't know that I've ever paid much attention to it except as 1) an indicator/result of possible problems earlier in the shooting form; 2) important so you don't get hurt. Duh. Anyway, "back to the lecture at hand,"

Focus on the landing. Once the shot has traveled past your ass/waist, it's in the hands of your upper-body. Nothing to do there. Either your torso knows what to do or it doesn't. Tweaking the upper-body to hit a shot like this will plug one hole but open another. You'll be all kinds of cockamamie by the time it rims out, so don't even bother. Remember, the difficulty here is in the feet ("here" being a stand-in for "99.99999% of missed shots due to poor form").

So you focus on the landing. Try to get the left foot to land pointing at the rim. Your right should have already been pointing to it because it was your plant foot. THAT'S IT!

Spin. Elevate as with any fade-away. Once the shot is past your waist*, focus on landing with both feet (especially the left) pointing to the rim. That's it. 1-2-3.

*By "past your waist," I don't mean the ball. I doubt my ability to properly articulate this. I'm talking about the motion of your shot/body as it moves up from the toes to the eventual release point. It's something you can feel in your body. The muscles firing in (hopefully fluid) succession from the toes to the fingertips. Anybody who's ever "worked on their jump shot" will know what I'm talking about.


I haven't played in weeks and weeks and weeks, and was just out there for about 15 minutes in jeans, soft-heel dress shoes, jacket, etc. etc. etc. I've never blogged about playing ball before, ever. I just figured this out, and could not miss. I'm serious man, money in the bank, every time. Unreal how perfect the shot felt start-to-finish with this. Man, winter is gonna suck. ALright!


[Worth noting: This is ALL assuming-- and this is a BIG assumption, I know-- your release from the waist up is not problem. If it is, what the hell are you doing taking a turn-around fade-away jumper? Go baseline and get to the hoop or pass it. Come back in like 25,000 shots from now.]