3 Reasons Why Your Shooting Workouts Don't Translate To The Game (Podcast Episode 92)

Foreign welcome to the Vision Basil training podcast. Appreciate you guys who tuned in today, Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, SoundCloud, Google Podcast, wherever you've been listening from and of course everybody who is on YouTube right now watching. I appreciate you guys. Drop a like subscribe if you're new. If you guys are on Apple Podcasts right now, do me a favor and scroll down the bottom of the page, leave me a review, let me know what you think about the show. And I think they did the same thing on Spotify as well. I honestly have said that like three straight episodes it feels like, and I haven't really checked, but I do believe that there's reviews now on Spotify. So if that's where you're listening at, I appreciate that as well. So today I want to talk about shooting and specifically why you're shooting in training and practice might not be translating to the game the way that you like it to. And I'm going to give you three reasons why that might be. So the first thing to talk about though, is that at the end of the day, I think a lot of times, especially on social media now, there's a lot of black and white in terms of how people refer to things, especially when it comes to basketball training, when it comes to the way that you work out, people will say, hey, you have to do it this way or else it's not going to work. You can't do it that way. It has to be this way. You have to do this drill, can't do that drill. And basketball training and getting better at anything, learning and skill acquisition, it is a science, but it's also, there's an art to it as well, you know, so you have to find a way to be able to balance that. And that's the difficult part about basketball training, about becoming a better basketball player, is that there is not just, hey, do this, do this, do this, do this, and you're going to be great at that. Right? There's always different caveats and everybody's a little bit different. Everybody needs different things. So that's the first thing that's kind of what I want to preface this with, is that I'm not saying that there's one way to do things and every player needs to follow the same exact step by step thing to get results. But generally these things are going to be areas that you can improve on, or if it's an area, maybe you haven't even thought of that if you do make these adjustments, it's going to lead to you becoming A better shooter pretty much in every single case. So the first thing I want to talk about, reason number one, why your shooting work may not be translating to the game is kind of the obvious one that I'm going to kind of skim through a little bit, but that's having bad form or a lack of consistency in terms of the amount of time that you work out for. So obviously form needs to be solid so that you can be a great shooter. I think everybody knows that. And there's so many different aspects to that. Footwork, hand placement, the rotation of the basketball arc, energy transfer, and probably a dozen other things you can talk about when it comes to shooting. So I won't go in depth into that right now. That could be its own podcast in general, but that that's kind of where it all stems from. And a lot of times, like if you make a simple adjustment, I think when it comes to shooting, I just be real quick with it when it comes to shooting and form. I think the two main things that, like when I when I'm working with a player and they struggle a little bit with that. The two major things that if you fix are going to lead to you becoming a much better shooter are, number one, energy transfer. Number that's just your ability to transfer energy from the ground up into the shot, right? That's how you shoot the basketball is by transferring energy you get from the ground through your body into the basketball. And if that's thrown off, if the chain of energy is, if there's a break somewhere, then you're going to struggle to shoot the ball consistently. You're definitely going to struggle to shoot the ball when it comes to longer distances. So that's number one. And then number two is usually footwork. So finding ways to be more consistent with the way that you shoot the basketball and your footwork that a lot of times is also an area that's like pretty simple to fix but can really make a big difference when you do. And then obviously, like I said, there's so many other little things you can talk about that I'll go into another time in detail and I've talked about it a little bit on different videos and all that. So I have a playlist on, on shooting. And so I would go back and check that if you're interested in more. And I'll probably go into depth specifically on that in the future as well. But like I said, that's the first part of, of reason number one. Number two is just consistency when it comes to time. So obviously you have to put time into it. If you don't put time into, you're not going to be great at it. And the thing with time, though, is that it's also, again, it's a black and white sort of thing. People talk about, oh, how many shots per day? I get DMs all the time asking, how many shots per day do you need to be a great shooter? Or, hey, how many shots should I be shooting every single day? And the answer is, it depends. Like it is with almost everything else in life, right? It depends on who you are. Depends on how much time you have. And I just talked about it in, I believe it was my previous episode. Actually, I think it was the episode before that where I talked about why a lot of times reps are overrated because people talk about, oh, I shot this many shots today, but how valuable were those reps? So there's a lot that it's very easy and we'll talk about it today, but you can very easily shoot, have less reps that are more valuable and therefore better than somebody who does more reps. Right. 200 really good reps is better than 400. Mindless, just, you know, not high quality reps. Right. But obviously people are always concerned with numbers. Hey, I did this. I shot this many shots. It's less about that. It's more about the quality of reps that you get. So if your quality, like I would take a workout that had 100 quality reps over a workout with 400. Okay, reps, you know, where we'll talk about it. But reps that include perception, decision making and then the action. I take a hundred of those over 400 stationary shots where you don't have to think about a thing. You're just mindlessly shooting the ball over and over and over again. Okay? So at the end of the day, to kind of give you an easy way to think about consistency, be in the gym, at the court, getting up shots whenever you can. That's. That's essentially the guidance I'll give you with that because again, I'm not going to give you a certain amount of reps. Oh, do this every day. The more you shoot the basketball, the better you're going to be at it. That's pretty straightforward. Again, this first category I figure is, is mostly the simple, like stuff that you probably already know. But I figured that's, that's. That can easily be a reason why you're not a gray shooter or why it's not translating into the game. So that's number One is just not having good form or a lack of consistency when it comes to the time that you put in. So number two, the second area I want to talk about when it comes to why your shooting work may not translate to the game, is that it's not game like, okay? And there's a lot of ways we can approach this, but obviously it might if it's not game speed. So you're jogging through every shot. It's more of like a shoot around sort of thing for you. If you go to go to the court every day and shoot around for three hours and then wonder why you get into a game that's 32 minutes long and struggle to shoot, it's because your intensity levels are two different. It's two different intensity levels when you're working out versus when you're in a game. So it's not going to translate, obviously. So that's number one is just not approaching things at game speed. Again, simple one. And then also we're going with game like is are the shots that you're working on, are they game actions? Okay, so are you working on relocations, coming off driving kicks? Are you working on, you know, getting into your shot off of a backpedal or off of a sprint and transition? Or are, you know, you working on shooting off of ball screens or off of pin downs or handoffs or whatever game actions you might think of? But those situations that you're in in games, or are you actually working on those, or is everything you do just spot up without moving? Again, if you're trying to be great in a game, you have to be working on the things that you're going to be doing in games. Okay? So again, kind of a straightforward one right there and kind of to move forward with that is do you have a variable element to the shooting that you're doing in these workouts? So when you think about like a typical shooting workout, a lot of times you're going to be spending time shooting from the same spot over and over and over again, right? Think five shots, five spots. When in a game, are you ever going to stand in the same spot and shoot the ball five times in a row, right? It's never going to happen because you're going to go play defense. After you shoot the ball one time, you're going to come back and there's not even a high chance that you shoot the ball at the same spot again that possession, right? So if you're just doing that sort of blocked practice where everything's just over and over and over, and there's no variability between reps, then you're going to struggle when you get to a game, and it's nothing like that, where everything is variable and you have to be able to adapt from shot to shot because everything's going to be different. One shot will be in the corner, next one's going to be at the elbow, next one's going to be on the opposite corner off the dribble. Like, you never know. Everything is going to be different. So is there a variable element to your shooting? So an example of how to do that would be, are you changing up the spot every time? So maybe instead of shooting, you know, getting up your shots by shooting, you know, five in a row here and five in a row there, maybe you shoot a shot at a different spot every time. So the first time you're shooting on the wing, the. The next shot you get from, like, the low wing, the next shot you get from the opposite corner, and you're just changing up the space that you're shooting from. So now we're able to get a little bit of variability and it's a little bit more game, like, because in a game, you're going to be shooting from different spots more than likely, and you're not going to be shooting the same shot over and over and over again, right? So this could also be changing up the type of shot. So instead of shooting catch and shoot three every time, maybe it's catch and shoot three, and then it's a two drill, pull up, and then it's a, you know, flow into a three, and the next one's a step back, whatever. That's an example of just adding variability to the type of shot that you shoot as well. Another great way to mix things up and make it a little more game. Like, really what the point of this is is that you want to get reps without repetition. And all of that means is that can you get your reps without it being mindlessly repetitive? Because when you're shooting the ball at the same spot over and over and over again in a workout where it's 10 shots in a row from the same spot, you're not. There's nothing mindful about that, right? There's no decision that's being made. There's no perception has to be that you have to make first. It's all about being on autopilot. There's no cognitive load that comes along with shooting the sh. The same shot over and over and over again. And then you get to a game and there is a cognitive load. And that's where the disconnect is. A lot of times when it comes to shooting, right, there's no. If we're talking about shooting the ball at the same spot over and over again, there's no anticipation, like, there's no reaction, and then there's no decision to be made. So when we get to a game and you have those things and all those come into play, you're going to be overwhelmed, and you're not going to be prepared for those situations consistently. So when we talk about skill, a skill is not just the physical ability to put the ball in the basket, right? We think about shooting as a skill, and we think about your form. You think about that sort of like the physical aspect to it. But really a skill is three parts, right? So you. You have the perception of the situation, so what's happening, right? What does the situation look like? And then you have to actually make a decision, and then the physical skill happens, Then you actually execute that skill. A lot of times we're just focused on that third part, which is the physical action, and we just kind of throw out the first two parts of the skill. But then we get to a game, and every single shot you take is going to have those three parts with it. So if you're not working those first two, then what are you supposed to do when every single rep you get in a game needs you to be good at both of those things, right? That's where, again, the disconnect is right there. So with perception, right, you can think about it simply like, is there a defender near me? Okay, so that's kind of the basic part of it. Then. Then the question is, okay, can I get the shot off if there's a defender near me, right? Do I have the space to be able to shoot the basketball or do I need to dribble? Is there space that I can get to off the dribble? Obviously, it can go even deeper than that. Is my teammate open in the corner? Do I need to make the extra pass? You know, is there help defense? And can I get my. By my defender and have, you know, be. Be wide open in the paint for a layup? Because there's no help defense. There's a lot of aspects to perception right there. But even we talk about a defender, how fast is your defender moving, right? So just perceiving the situation, that's the first part of any skill. And then the next part, we talk about the decision. So based on your perception, based on the things that you see, what's the solution to the problem that you're facing? The problem is you need to put the ball in the basket or you need to make a play. And what is, what is there around you that is trying to stop you and what's the solution to get, to get past that, you know, so your defender is closing out to you really, really fast and out of control. So you use a shot fake and then get to a mid range pull up because they jumped at the shot fake because they were out of control, right? Or the defender wasn't closing out very hard to. So you shoot the three. There's the decision you make based on the perception of what's happening around you. Okay. And we'll talk a bit more about how to, how to add these aspects in. But then we get to the third part, which is the action, which is the physical shot that you have to make. And again, most of the time when we work, when we talk about shooting, players are just working on that third part and they're not actually getting the perception and then the decision and then the action, right? So again, that's, that's a disconnect right there. So again, this is the process you're going to go through. For every single shot that you're going to take in a game, there's always going to be those because there's always defense in the floor, right? There's always something for you to have to perceive. There's always a decision you have to make and then comes the action. So we can't neglect the first two parts right there. So if you're not doing that in workouts, then it's your, your shooting ability is not going to translate to the game the way that you would like it. So we talk about examples that work that, right? So one thing that I like doing is, is working on like just off a closeout, right? If you have a person you're working out with, right? Or if you're a coach and you have multiple players making them work off of a closeout so they have to actually read the situation. Do I have space to shoot it? Do I not? Are they forcing me right? Are they forcing me left? Are they out of control in the closeout? You have that perception and then they make that decision and then the action comes. So everything, every rep that you get in that is so much more high quality than a normal. Like, think about it like this. Like I said earlier, if you have a workout where it's just 400 mindless shots, where there's no perception, no decision all action. Let's say you have 400, 400 shots in a workout. Compare that to a workout where you have, let's say 150, but all of them are based with that perception, that decision, and then that action. So think about yourself getting three times the amount of work per rep with that, with that 150 shot workout. So you're actually getting like 400, let's just say 450 reps right there compared to the 400 rep workout. But you're doing it with way less, you know what I mean? So that's why I said there's no number specifically, because you can have a workout with way less involved with it or way less shots, but way more involved with it. That's way better than a 400 shot workout, right? So that's an example of that. Another thing that I love is something I got from Alex Sarama on Instagram from Basketball Immersion and, and he talked about, I think, called jungle shooting, where it's essentially like if you have, say you have two players, say you're like, you're a coach, right? And you have two players that you're with and you basically just go through different game actions. So you might start with the ball, you pass it to a player, close out, you basically give the option, okay, you have to shoot the ball, right? But it can be off the dribble. If I don't close out hard enough, you can shoot it. If I do close out hard enough, you can attack the closeout, you can make an extra pass right there if that's what you want to do. And, and then that next player gets the pass, can make that decision. And so now you're, you're able to get those different, you know, okay, perception. How is this coach playing me right here? And even I'll even do this if I have like, you know, three players, I'll go myself and then one of the other players on defense and we'll just kind of give them different looks, you know what I mean? So every shot that the group gets is going to have that perception and then that decision and then next will come the action. Okay, so that's a great way of doing that. I'll have to post about it on Instagram as well, just so you guys can get an idea of what I mean. I'll probably even put a clip of that in here so you guys can, can see it. But that's a great way to be able to get those different actions, those different, you know, game looks. Right? We can work on relocations we can work on ball screens, we can work on handoffs and all those different things that come from those different game actions, but we can add that perception, that decision making into it as well. And this can be as simple as if you're a coach just giving a visual cue. So, so, like, for example, maybe the player will start with a float, and then you play them one of three ways. You either force them right, you force them left, or you give them space to shoot the basketball. So if you jump and you force them right, well, then the, the read becomes drive, right? If you don't jump and you give them the left, then they're going left. If you back up and give them the space, then it's the shot. So we're getting that action, but there's perception noting where you are, the decision on what the right solution is, and then comes the action. So we can make all of our reps so much more effective just by giving them a simple read to make. You know what I mean? And so that's, that's a great way to work on all three of those, the perception, decision, and action. And then when it comes to working on that variable and that random element to shooting, this is where audio cues are great as well. Where it might be, okay, we're gonna work off a relocation. So you're gonna slide from the wing to the corner. I'll pass you the ball. If I don't say anything, shoot it. Or if you catch it and I tell you to go, then you're going to do a two drill, pull up, or I might say elbow, or I might say baseline, or I might put my hands back out on your drive and I might call for the ball right there. There's adding a visual cue back into it again. But it can be as simple as giving an audio cue where we can't go on autopilot. There's a little bit of cognitive load involved. And now it becomes much more game like you might not have the full perception and then decision and then action, right, that you might have with a visual cue or with live defense, obviously, but you can still get more of a cognitive load than you would if you're just getting up those mindless reps again. So there's another way we can make shooting reps more valuable and make it more translatable to the game. And then the third area I want to talk about is if your shooting work is too easy, that's another reason why it might not be translating to the game. So if you're working on Shots that you're already good at, you already make at a high level and that's just what you work on, is the stuff that you're, you're good at, you're comfortable with. You have no reason to get better from a biological perspective. Okay. And again, I just talked about this, I believe it was last week. It's talking about why misses are actually a good thing. Right. Why? Why? I. A lot of times in like in workouts, I try and make my players miss more shots. Right. My goal for a drill might be that you make 50% of the shots when we could do drills easily, that you would make 90% of your shots and you probably feel real good about it. But when it comes to the actual long term development, it's not always going to be great. And that's why you have to have that long term view because when it comes to practice, you're not usually going to see the improvement within that initial session. Right. And this is where a lot of times there's a disconnect between like coaches and, and what actually the science says is they don't see their play. If they see their players struggling, they're like, oh no, I don't know if they're getting any better. Or what are the parents going to think if they see their kid missing all these shots? Or what is the kid going to think if they're missing all these shots. But what you have to understand is that it's not about what you see right now. It's about the learning taking place that's going to present itself in the next session. Right. They're going to come back. And I talked about this way more in depth in my last episode. But when they have to go through those misses, their brain is going to essentially when they find solutions, it gets rewarded and they become better at that. So they actually increase their solutions that they have available to figure out problems. And that's how you get better. That's how learning takes place. Okay. So again, if you're, if you have not listened to that episode, you go check that out after this one goes really in depth into that. And a lot of good stuff you can take away if you're a trainer, coach or player too, a lot of stuff you can take away from that. But when it comes to making drills harder, making it more difficult, this is where like kind of weird and not game like drills can come into play. So for example, I just posted on Instagram and you actually, I just put a full workout on YouTube about this as well, where it's all about variability and adding that element of randomness to it. So we can work on that adaptability from shot to shot. So with drills like forcing bad footwork on your shooting or forcing variable footwork on your shooting, which is something that we went through in the workout, or changing the shot pocket that you're shooting the basketball from, or changing the speed of your shot or the momentum, or how much of a fade or lean you're having on each shot, that's where we're getting. And again, that that variable work, but it's also forcing you to have to be uncomfortable. And outside of that comfort zone is where that learning takes place, where, again, your brain is able to figure out what works. Okay, how do I. What's the solution to this problem that I'm facing? And you're able to do that over and over and over and over again. And that's where you're going to miss more shots, but you're going to learn more long term because you're putting yourself in a position to have to actually learn and get better. So again, there's a full workout with that. It's on Instagram as well, so check that out if you have not. But that's how learning is facilitated. So in drills like that, where I'm wanting them to probably miss more than normal, usually I just shut up and let them figure it out, right? They might miss all our shots. And I'm generally not going to say a lot to them because not much I can do. In fact, the only thing I can do is make that process not as valuable for them by trying to give them answers to different things, like when, when they're able to figure it out through those difficult drills and through the uncomfortable moments, that's where they're going to be better. So for me, that's such a big key to being up to becoming a better shooter. And basically the point to make and the point to understand with this is that if your shooting drills are easy, find a way to make them harder. If it's easy, make it harder. And that can be really simple. It can be as simple as just moving farther back. So if high school threes are easy, then we're going to move back and shoot pro threes. And that's what I do for a lot of my players. If they're already really good shooters of the high school line, we're just going to start shooting college or pro threes always. Because now again, we're, we're expanding that capacity and making things more difficult and forcing Them to learn and be able to figure it out as well. So struggling and misses are a big part of that. And that's where those weird or not game like drills, which people might say, but when you look at it and you, if you understand how learning is actually facilitated, those weird drills, those not game like drills, are actually going to allow you to make more of those game like shots when we go back to it. And when the, when the defender closes out on you and they force you to shoot the ball a little earlier than you'd like to, when your footwork's not perfect, when your shot pocket's not perfect, then you're gonna be prepared for that because you already have found solutions in those situations where things weren't perfect. Okay. And the more like when you talk about drills like that, that's what they do is they increase your solutions, the available solutions you have to problems. And at the end of the day, the more solutions you have, the problems, the better shooter you're going to be because you can be successful in more situations than somebody who doesn't have those same solutions. So sometimes by doing drills that aren't game like, quote unquote. If you're listening to this, every time I've said game like, so far it's been in quotes because I think that's a, a very big misconception. But when we do those drills, we increase the ability to make those game shots because we're working those different qualities and finding solutions to problems. So those are the three reasons why your shooting work doesn't translate or why you aren't seeing as much improvement shooting the basketball as you might like. And really the, the three biggest things to remember is just number one, don't just train the action, right? There's three parts to it. You have to train the perception, the decision and then the action. And when you do that, those reps become much more valuable and they translate much more to the game. So even if it means you do less reps overall, if your reps are three times as valuable, then you're going to be getting better and exponentially better. When you consider the fact that you actually are working on a two thirds of the game of basketball when you have those reps that work, all three parts of that. Okay? So number two is add variability to your shooting whenever possible. So again, we went through that. Adding audio cues, even if you're by yourself, changing up the type of shots that you're shooting, where you're shooting from, not allowing yourself to get into, you know that that you know, that robotic, mindless state. And then number three is that if it's really easy, make it harder. And again, that can be simple as moving back farther, going faster, or it can be more complex by, you know, forcing bad footwork or working about working on shooting with bad footwork, working on shooting, you know, with, with a different shot pocket every time or you know, shooting off of different types of fades or different sorts of steps that you might not always take in a game, but it's is giving you more solutions to problems when inevitably you're in a game and a problem arises and you're going to be prepared for that. Okay, so again, if you struggle translating your shooting practice into games, this stuff is going to help you. Again, basketball is not black and white. There's not one solution for every single person across the board. But these three areas, again, if you focus on them and you take what you can from this, you'll get better as a shooter, guaranteed. Okay, so hopefully this helps you guys out. Gave you guys stuff to think about. Again, if you're on YouTube right now, drop a like subscribe if you're new, if you are an Apple podcast job, a review, let me know what you think about the show. If you're on YouTube, also leave a comment if you have any questions. Anything that you want me to talk about in the future, make sure you guys are following me on Instagram at Vision Driven Basketball if you are not already. I really appreciate all of you guys who listen. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.