Youth Basketball Forward Skills: Taking Shots

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, and what we want to talk about right now is using our forwards as shooters in the offense. Hopefully, you're lucky enough that your forwards--your power forwards, your small forwards--aren't just guys that can power inside, but they're guys that can shoot the ball a little bit too. We're going to show you here with our power forward how they can come out and create shots for themselves in the offense. And one thing that we tell them is always be a shooter. When you catch the ball, turn, your first option is to shoot the ball. Then if you're covered up you can do some other things within the offense, but we want you to shoot the ball. That's how you score. So, what we're going to work with right now is, we're working with hands and footwork. And what we're talking about here with our post players is we want our post player to go ahead and pop out to receive the pass--go ahead, pop out to receive the pass--now, you see that his footwork, he's got his footwork perfectly where he catches it and he faces himself up to the basket. That's in a ready position. He was also down in a good shooter stance, he had the ball in the shot pocket. His first option right there is to shoot it. Then if the defender covers him up, he can do some other things. You also noticed his hands. Let's show them real quick in slow motion. When you come up, show them your hands--how you had your hands. He also comes up and his hands are ready all the time. He's showing me not only where to pass the ball to, he's also showing me that he's got his hands ready in the shooting pocket so that he can catch the ball, and when he catches it, he readies the ball, he's got it ready for delivery, and he can make a shot. This is the first part of being ready to shoot, and being a shooter as a forward. "