by B.J. on 12/05/2004 09:32:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

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Basketball Shot Mechanics Part Deux: It's Automatic !

Even though I had not played basketball for a year since I "retired", yesterday, I was hittin it agin and agin like I was #23 from the city of wind.

That means I was playing some good basketball yesterday at Marshall.

But that was just by myself. With an official JUNIOR-SIZED basketball. A flat one at that. Plus, I had this super-liberal refreshing look on basketball as there being no "right way" to play which allowed me to loosen up, create more than usual, and land el balle in el hoopo. I had always hated that because I was short, that I had to play a certain way.

Ironically, whatever else it was that helped me put it in, I approached each shot the same way to the point where I was formulaically hitting and missing shots.

So I came up with a new theory on efficient basketball shot mechanics; all you need is to bend your knees and release the ball as you pop your bent knees upward. After that it's all placement, which is dependent on how you square up to the hoop and your grip on the ball.

As soon as I popped my knees and squared up, I could tell which shots were going in. Almost any shot I attempted, be it a fade-away or really higher jumper just as long as I popped my knees up, it went the hell in.

But, and a big one, as the ball seemed to get heavier on my hands as the longer I played, my predictability of shots was drifting and the shots started missing as a result of placement, rather than my knee-popping. I guess that part was due to my arms and shoulders getting fatigued. But that can be solved by good ole medicine ball workouts.

No one can deny (partly cause just about no one was there anyway) that the shot was almost automatic.

And you know what ? "Automatic" is what basketball in the NBA and NCAA demands when they talk about rebounding "machines" and 3-point "gunners." So being that my shot was "automatic" for this one random day after a while of not playing at all, for a while I entertained thoughts of casually joining the Bruin basketball team. Why wouldn't they want a Maurice-Drew-heighted, rail-thin, out-of-shape, wannabe-balling Asian kid ? Doesn't UCLA need more of that ? Wow, that would be the first time I provided something "automatic" for someone.

First Basketball Mechanics Post

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