Youth Basketball Shooting Tips: Proper Stance

Series Summary

Basketball, b-ball, hoops—these are all names for one of the most popular games in America. Whether it’s professional play in the NBA, college games, the local high school team, a friendly round of one-on-one round, or an outdoor street game at the playground court, basketball is exciting and fast-paced, pitting player against player and skill against skill. Having strong fundamentals like dribbling, passing, and shooting is the key to the success of any aspiring player or team. Though flashy dunks, trick shots, and off the wall dribbling antics are fun to watch and have their place, they often create a “superstar” mentality that ultimately hurts the team if not put in check. What makes basketball great is the combination of individual talent and team strategy, ultimately producing a match that’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you can't shoot in basketball, then you won't be able to score. If you can't score, you can't win games. In this series, an experienced basketball coach will teach you the proper, form, stance, backspin and follow-through for shooting a basketball. You will learn how to shoot jump shots and well as free throws. Watch these videos and improve your basketball shooting skills.

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson. What we're talking about right now is the proper mechanics to making a good shot. Just like with everything, defense, shooting, everything starts with a good fundamental base. So what we're going to do right now is we're going to talk about the base and how we start out our shot. You can see right now that we've got our feet about shoulder width apart. You don't want to shoot the ball real wide and you don't want to have your feet too close together when you make a shot. In order for you to have good jumping ability and have good body balance, you want to have your feet about shoulder width apart. So you can see that our player has good stance right here with their feet shoulder width apart. The next important thing is in order for you to be a good shooter; you've got to use your legs properly. And to use your legs properly, you have to be in a good stance. You have to be able to spring up into your shot. So the first part starts with your down in a good shot using your good base, being balanced. That way we can get a well balanced shot. If you're too far forward, you're going to lean forward on your shot. If you're standing straight up, it?s going to be hard to get your body out and make that shot. So again, it all starts with having that good base and a good spring system for us to make a jump shot."