How to Mentally Practice Basketball Shooting

Mentally practice your basketball shooting by watching a DVD of your own perfect shot.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• DVD Camera
• DVD Recorder
• DVD Player
• Basketball Court
• Basketball

1. 
   Follow-through until the ball goes through the net.

   Have someone record your shooting until you get a perfect shot. When recording your shot, set the camera on a tripod at half-court. Zoom in so you get both elbows (the elbow is the intersection of the free throw line and lane line) and the top of the box on the backboard. This will allow you to view your stance, hand position on the ball, follow through and ball going through the net. Shoot a jump shot. Record until you get a perfect shot. A perfect shot is one in which the follow-through is held up until the ball goes through the net, hits the floor and bounces back to you (due to backspin).

2. Copy the perfect shot onto a DVD 100 times.

3. You can then insert the DVD into your DVD player and watch your 100 perfect shots each day. It will take about 10 minutes. Research indicates that a combination of mental practice and physical practice works better than physical practice alone.

Tips & Warnings

• You may also want to record your perfect free throw, catch and shoot jump shot from a pass inside out and a pass from each side, and jump shot off the dribble going right and left.
• If you have a DVD of one of your games with a good view of you shooting a perfect shot in that game, you can make 100 copies of that shot to watch. Of course the best shot to have on DVD and watch is a clutch shot. We have all seen Michael Jordan's game winning shot against Utah (follow-through held high) that clinched the NBA championship.