Here's Why You Can't Make Shots In Games (The TRUTH)

One of the biggest problems that I hear from players, they can't seem to shoot consistently in games. They may shoot well in practice or in workouts, but once game time rolls around, they struggle to make shots. This is a super frustrating thing and I want to tell you exactly how to fix this problem so you finally become a consistent shooter in games. And once you start doing the things that we go through in this video, you're gonna feel prepared and confident once game time rolls around. And all of a sudden you have coaches and teammates and fans who are counting on you to perform and make sure you stay until the end, because I'm going to give you some specific things that you can do and implement right now. And I guarantee that you've never heard of the last one. Let's get into it. So I'm going to be very honest off the bat, because this is the problem with probably 95% of players who struggle to shoot consistently or maybe they can shoot well in practice and they don't. It doesn't translate over to games. Probably the biggest reason why is just simply because you haven't gotten enough reps up yet. This is, this is generally what I see with players, especially when I start working with them. And it's early on and I see that they have, you know, their form isn't awful, but they're not consistent. And it's almost always because they just haven't done it enough. Right? No matter what you do right, as you do it more, you're going to get better at it. It's very simple. And I think with shooting, it's the same way. Now, I think where players can struggle is that they overthink sometimes when it comes to form. And I'm not going to get into form here. Form is important for sure, but I'm not going to get into it. I'm going to link a video above. If you struggle with your form, check that out, it'll help you with that. But I think that when you, when we talk about form, you have to look at the fact that every single player shoots differently, right? Even when you look at the best players in the world, you look at the best shooters on the planet, right? Steph Curry, Ray Allen and Klay Thompson don't shoot the exact same way. Kevin Durant doesn't shoot the exact same way as any of those guys. So when you look at it there, there is no one right way to do things. I think what's more important is mastering what works for you, what feels good for you, because everybody's biomechanically a little bit different. And I think it's really important that you get the reps when it comes to your form specifically. Now again, I'm not saying that there's no way to improve your form or optimize your form. Again, I'll link a video above for that. I think when it comes down to it, the most important thing is that you get up a ton of reps working with what you have. Because what that's going to allow you to do is something called self organizing. And this is a really important concept to understand. And a lot of, a lot of most players don't understand it, but a lot of trainers don't even understand it either. Self organization is just your body's ability to figure stuff out. Essentially when you shoot the ball, let's say you're doing a shooting drill, let's say you have to make five shots in the wing. If you miss a shot to the left, your body's able to self organize and say, okay, oh I need to, I need to change a little bit and shoot a little more to the right next time you make the next one. That's an example of self organization. Now what that allows you to do is as you get more and more reps, you get better and better at self organizing, right? You make a mistake and you've already experienced fixing that mistake because you've done it so many times that you can quick fix it on the next shot. But you only get to that point if you put in the reps. If you don't put in the reps, you never get the chance to work on this ability to self organize. And I think it's really important that you understand that. So if you know, hey, our like your body is really, really smart, your brain is really, really smart. It's able to figure things out, but only if you give it a chance to. And you're only going to give it a chance to by going and getting those reps. So I think that's the important, that's the important thing to understand. Instead of worrying and overthinking so much about shooting form, prioritize more the importance of getting your reps in every single day. And as you do that, you're going to self organize, you're going to become a better shooter. And then if you add in changes to your form, whatever the case may be, optimizing what you do, it's only going to make things better. But the most important thing and the main reason why you're not consistent is because you just straight up don't get enough reps up. So that's the first thing. And again, this is probably the biggest issue with 95% of players who struggle with consistency is they just don't shoot the ball enough, they don't work on it enough. Now let's talk about if you are somebody who does get a lot of reps up, you spend a lot of time in the gym shooting and, and you still aren't able to consistently make shots in games. We need to look at how you train then. How much does your training mimic the game? Or more specifically, how much does your training mimic the shots you need to be able to make in games? Because this is where there's also a lot of a disconnect with what players do in practice and what they actually are required to do in games. And we can't have that disconnect or else you're going to struggle to actually translate what you do in practice to your games. So let's just give some examples right here. Do you ever work on shooting against a closing out defender? Do you ever work on shooting off of a bad pass? Do you ever work on shooting from an unclean catch? How about working on shooting when there's pressure involved with the shots that you're shooting? If you're not doing these things, then chances are you're going to find it hard to make shots when these things become present, which they are in games. In games you have closing defenders, you have bad passes that get thrown to you, you have unclean catches, sometimes where you fumble it or you're, you know, whatever it hits your hand a different way than you're used to. And there's always pressure on every shot you shoot. Obviously there's the obvious pressure, like we're down by two and I have a three with two seconds left. Obviously a lot of pressure on that shot. But even just a shot in general, right, there's five players on the court and you're taking the shot, meaning there's pressure on you inherently because there's four people relying on you. The only way that they score is if you make this shot. You have seven to 12 people on the bench and you're shooting the ball. The only way that they get points and win the game is if you make this shot. So there's pressure inherently on every single shot that you're going to shoot in a game. But a lot of times players don't have any sort of pressure in any of the shots they shoot in their workouts. They just go and they make their 300 shots and there's never any consequences for missing shots. They never have to make a certain amount of shots in a row. There's no pressure. So it doesn't translate well for them when they get two games and every single shot has that pressure involved. So let's talk about how to do these things, how to incorporate these things into what we're trying to do in practices. So first thing is having a partner can be a really, really great thing when it comes to working on your shooting. So a simple closeout drill where they toss the ball out to you and close out and they might not even be trying to block the shot. You can literally do it that way where they just have to contest it or they just have to make you uncomfortable beeping your space. And you guys can compete and say, okay, it's make it, take it. We'll go first to five on the wing and then we go the other wing first to five and then top first to five. Or you go all five spots. Like there's a lot of really simple ways to do it and having a party can be a really good thing. They can also just throw a bad pass to you and you guys can work. Okay, we've got to make, you got to make five shots in the corner all off bad passes. Once you get five, we switch and then the other person goes and you got to go through all five spots. Can be as simple as that. Where now we're working on two really game like elements where there's actual, you know, a contest or pressure depends on pressure on a shot. And then we have bad pass shooting which you're going to get a lot of bad passes in games or, or passes that aren't going to be exactly the same in the exact same spot every single time. So now we're able to work on, on those things right there. Now if you don't have a partner, which you know every player is going to have times where they are going to be by themselves shooting the ball regardless of how often you have a partner. Like there's going to be times you're by yourself. So there's still a ton that you can do when you're alone to work on these things. And I'm going to give you five things right now to try that are going to help you to become a way more consistent in game shooter. The first thing is bad footwork shooting. And this is a really weird looking thing, but I think it's really important because when you shoot the ball and if you watch Basketball, right. People who have a problem with this sort of drill are people who don't really watch the game and they don't really look at the details of the game. Because if you do watch, you're going to see that it is incredibly imperfect in terms of a lot of things. But footwork for sure. Sometimes you get rushed into a shot and you have to make the shot, but despite the fact that your feet aren't perfect, sometimes you come off of a screen and you catch the ball and you got a defender trailing you. You got to get the shot off and your feet aren't going to be exactly perfect. So is the better option to avoid those shots, which is going to mean you're going to shoot the ball less, you're going to be less effective and you're just be less successful as a player, or is the better option to prepare yourself for those moments of imperfection so that when you get into games you're able to still succeed despite that thing working against you? And this is where Jolius comes in super important because it's going to, you're going to find that it's going to make it easier for you to make shots when it, when your feet are normal, it's going to be easier for you, right? And then if they happen to be off for whatever reason, you're still able to make the shot. The goal is to become an expert level shooter, which means we need to challenge ourselves because we don't want to be a beginner level shooter who can only make shots when everything is perfect. So that's the first thing is bad footwork shooting. And you can make this as simple as maybe in your warmup you say, hey, I've got to make 10 shots in the wing with weird footwork. My feet can be anything but normal. I got to make 10 shots or you know, I'm going to go all five spots. I got to make three shots or five shots, which is my feet being anything but normal. And it's simple way you can do that. Second thing is bad pass shooting off of like a self pass or bounce. You can literally bounce the ball up to yourself and, and you can treat it like it's a high pass and catch it when it's above your head. You could bounce it off to the side and treat it like it's a pass off to your left or to your right. You can, you know, drop it softly on the, on the ground and you can, you know, treat it like it's a low pass. Whatever the case may be. You can make these passes. Not perfect, because again, in games, you're going to get passes that are imperfect. And again, simple as the first one, you can go, hey, five spots, five makes. I got to have a bad pass at every single one. And every bad pass is going to be different. First one's going to be high. This one's going to be off to the right. Next one's going to be low. This one's going to be high, but off to the left, though, and there's a lot of ways you can do it, and I think that's a really good thing. So second thing is bad pass shooting. Coming off of a self pass. Third thing is pressure shooting. So this is where you require yourself to maybe make a certain amount of shots in a row. So instead of just going and saying, oh, I got to make 10 shots at the spot, you say, I have to make four in a row or. Or five in a row. Whatever is challenging for you. Whatever is doable, but challenging for you. There's a way that, okay, on shot number two, there's pressure. Shot number three, there's pressure. Because if I made this shot, I'm done. If I miss it, I have to go back to the beginning. I'm back to zero, right? So now there is actual pressure on these shots. You have to learn how to shoot through that, how to be able to make shots in the. The. In the face of pressure. Because shots with pressure just are different. They feel different. It's inherently different. So being able to still succeed when this pressure is super important. You can do it that way, or. One of my favorite ways to do it is we might go to 10 makes, but you can't miss two shots in a row. So maybe we're the corner to start. You got to make 10 shots. If you miss two shots in a row, you're back to zero. And so we go until you make 10 without missing two in a row. And that's another great way to do it, because it gives you another element which is just in the. In the game, having that confidence that you're not going to miss two in a row. Right? In that drill, you might miss one, but you got to focus up and make the next one. So there's no time to be frustrated or miss or upset that you missed a shot, because you just gotta make the next one. And then it gets you in the mindset of, I might miss one, but I'm not. I'm not. I'm not missing two in a row. And that's a great thing. That translates well into the game as well. So that's another great way just to add pressure to your shooting. And I would recommend that as often as you can, substitute this in for the spot shooting that you do. If you normally end your workouts with five, five makes at five spots, instead of doing that, do three in a row at five spots. Whatever the case may be. Again, whatever is challenging for you, number four is just randomized shooting. So this can be you changing your spot every time. Maybe you shoot in the wing, next shoot at the elbow, and then you shoot in the corner. And you're just different every time because in a game everything is different. So this is a great way to challenge yourself too, with that. And another way you can do it is to imagine that you're against defense. Almost like, hey, you know, I'm going to work on for five minutes shots off the catch where I'm imagining I'm in different spots. I've got defenders closing out. I just came off a screen. We just came in transition. My teammate just drove and kicked. To me, you'd be all around the court. And for five minutes you're just imagining like you're in a game hitting catch and shoot shots. And every shot is going to be different. First one's a driving kick on the wing, next one's going to be a pin down on the other wing. This one's going to be transitioned to the corner. Whatever, whatever the case may be, whatever you want to do with that. It's another great way to just get different looks, which is going to translate to you being able to hit different looks in games because that's typically what's going to happen. And then the fifth thing, and this is something that I don't really see people talk about. And I think this is a really interesting thing. It's something that I've been doing a lot with my players recently, is one rep shooting. So when you think about the game, the game is one rep. You get one shot. You catch the ball in the wing, you're open, you shoot it. That's your shot right there. If you miss it, you're going down to play defense. If you make it, you're going down to play defense. It's not like practice where you shoot 10 shots in a row at that spot and you miss it. Oh, well, you get it right back. And again, we talked about self organizing. When you're in practice and you shoot 10 shots in a row, it's much easier to self organize because you're in the same spot. Nothing's changed. So, okay, I'm self organizing, whatever. When you get to a game, you have to be able to self organize, but you're not going to get to shoot the ball again at that same spot. You might not. You might shoot the ball at a different spot and it might be like 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes later. You don't know. You have to be able to step up and make that shot anyway. And this is why a lot of players struggle to make shots in games, because that's the hardest part about shooting in games is this the fact that you might shoot the ball on the wing, miss it, and then you're not going to shoot the ball again for five more minutes and also it's going to be in the corner and now you got to make that shot. So it's much more difficult to self organize. So we want to train this, this ability again. We can't hide from it. We have to try and prepare ourselves for it. So are you able to go play defense, to run in transition, to maybe drive and kick out to your teammate and then space back out and then get the ball again and then shoot the ball and hit that shot and then can you go do that again? Except maybe it's four possessions of that now before you get another shot. Can you do that? Can you, can you make that one shot that you get? And that's very difficult to do. So we can do this by doing a drill that I like to call one rep shooting. So you're going to shoot a shot and then you're going to go do something. So some, some options might be. You might do three push ups, you might do a sideline, sideline sprint, you might do 10 jumping jacks. You might do. Something that I like to do with my players is like we might go for, we might go in the wing and they have, we just go live reps. So they have to score three times on me. And then we'll say after every made shot they have to make a catch and shoot three for that point to count. If they don't make the shot, point doesn't count. And they got to go till they score three times and make three and make a three after each make. So you can do something like that or maybe make it simple and say I got to go make three layups and then I got to shoot my, my shot right there. And we, we can do this with a certain number of makes. We could say if you want to do it that way, you can say, okay, I'm going to do My three push ups and then I'm going to, I got to make catch and shoot three and I got to make 10 shots. And you might do this to end a workout or you're going to do your side by sideline sprint, shoot a three and then you got to do, you got to make 10 of those or you have to, you know, this is a great thing you can do. Like if you have a partner, you guys want to play one on one, just play one on one to five. But every time you make a shot like you, every time you score on the other person, you have to make a three for that point to count. And now we're still working on that ability to hit those shots after we've done something different, which is very much something that translates well to games. So if you aren't doing anything like that, make sure you add that into your training. And if you take those things and most importantly you commit to getting more reps, being consistent with that, you're going to become a much more consistent shooter in real games. You're going to find that the stuff you do is going to translate much better. And if you want something that's going to walk you step by step through your shooting form, the fixes that you, you may, you may want to add or just again the optimizations you, you may want to add and a full program that's going to help you to get those reps that are targeting game shots as well as the different drills that we talked about just now. Then make sure you check out the elite shooter system. That's my full program, my full shooting program that's linked in the top link in the description below. This is something that will help you take your shooting to a completely different level. And again we go through a lot of stuff we talked about today. So if you want to become a more consistent in game shooter and again to say things to a different level, make sure you check that out again top link in the description down below. I appreciate you for watching. Make sure you drop a like subscribe if you're new. I'll talk to you soon. Peace.