How To Become A Consistent Scorer in Games

So when it comes to consistency, it's by far the most difficult thing to develop as a basketball player. Let me tell you a quick story that kind of illustrates this point. So I was working with the player, I worked with her for a few years all throughout high school. And when she was going into her junior year, we were working a ton on mid range and floaters because she was a great three point shooter. And we're trying to add another element, another level, two more levels to her game really. And so a of lot, lot of times when we were in workouts, you know, she would get, be able to get to her, her mid range pull up and she would create space for it or she'd get to her floater. She make the great decision when it came to the shot that she would take and she would miss it and she would get so frustrated because she was doing the right things. And yet there wasn't consistency in the outcomes yet. Like she was missing shots that she felt like she should make and she was working on. And one thing that I'd always tell her is that consistency is the last thing that comes, right? The first thing we have to be able to do is actually physically be able to make the shot right? So you can get to a point where you can actually physically just put the ball in the basket from the mid range or make a floater or be able to get to a stop in the mid range to be able to create the space. We have to be able to do that first and foremost. And she, she could do that right? Then the next thing is being consistent when it comes to making the right decision on when to do that. Okay? And she has started to develop that. The last thing that comes is the consistency of the outcome or the results. So you consistently making that shot is the last thing that's going to come. We have to work through those first two points first. And so it's going to feel very, very difficult to get to a point where you feel like you're making the shots that you should make consistently. Because consistency comes last. Fast forward two years to your senior year and she made so many floaters throughout her the season that were probably among the most difficult floaters that I've seen at the high school level. And she became very, very consistent with that shot because she kept on going and worked through that initial difficulty that comes with getting better at something. And because of that, she became consistent when it came to everything outside of her game. When we talk about how great she was at shooting, then developing all the other Stuff she became as good at floaters as she was as a three point shooter because she was willing to work through those initial stages and build that consistency. Something that I always say to my players is that consistency comes last. You have to be able to actually physically do that, execute what you're trying to be consistent at. And then you have to continue to, to, to define that and work through it and get good at making the right decision on when you do what. And then after you've done that for a while, you've built that up. The consistency of the outcomes is going to be there. And that's an important thing to understand. Consistency is going to come last. When it comes to becoming a consistent scorer. What you have to understand is that if you're having moments where you're already doing a good job, where you have a game where you score points and then you have a couple games where you don't score and a lot of players freak out and think that, oh, I must be doing a lot of things wrong and you know, I, I must need to make some sort of major change in what I'm doing. In reality, a lot of times it just comes down to the fact that consistency in whatever you do is going to come last. You have to continue to go and, and do the right things until that consistency gets there and be patient and willing to, to work through the fact that it's not going to happen right away. So it's important to understand that and something that if you've trained with me, you've heard me say to you, because I say it all the time. Consistency comes last year to be willing to work through the difficulty that leads up to that point right there. So today we're going to talk about exactly what goes into becoming a consistent scorer. Anybody can have a good game, right? Like kind of what, what I just mentioned, anybody can make a shot. Making that shot consistently is the really difficult part. Anybody can have a great scoring game, but having a great scoring season or consistently scoring well is a really hard thing to do. So we're going to talk about a few things that go into that. The first part that is mentioned right there is the mindset you have to have first and foremost if you want to get to that point. If you aren't mentally tough enough to work through the fact that it's, you're not going to be consistent early on, then you're never going to get to the point where you are. So that's the first thing to understand what I think that the, the second point the second part I'll lay out that really, really matters is consistent scoring has way more to do with your basketball IQ and your understanding than it does your physical skills and abilities. Okay? And we're going to talk about exactly why that is and what exactly that looks like here. But there's a lot of really, really talented players out there who aren't consistent at all. And so when we look at it, some of the best players that I know are inconsistent in terms of what they could have been, right? You would see flashes of it, but yet you wouldn't see that show up at all with any sort of consistency. So that's not the part that, that, that goes into consistency. The. The. Your physical abilities. Of course this stuff matters. You should be working on that, obviously. But we have to have the IQ and the understanding and the confidence that goes into being a consistent player, and that's what we're going to talk about right now. So I think the first thing that's really, really important when it comes to becoming a consistent score is understanding what a good shot is, what a bad shot is, and why those things matter. Now, a lot of times when players think about a coach telling them about a good or a bad shot, they think of it in terms of like, oh, this coach is trying to handcuff me. This coach is trying to limit me and hold me back and not let me, you know, be me or play my game. And, and to be fair, there's a lot of coaches who. It is like that, right? There's a lot of coaches who want to have control of everything, and they want to keep you in a box because that's just what they know, right? There's a lot of coders who are like that, but actually, when you look into it, you need to have an understanding of what a good shot is and what a bad shot is, because that goes hand in hand with how consistent you're going to be at the end of the day. I've used this example in other ways, but I'm going to use it again because I can make it really, really simple. Think about this. Let's say that you just learned how to drive a car, right? And you have to make 10 trips, right? We'll say you have to make 10 trips. You can either make 10 trips to a gas station that's half a mile down the road, right? You. You've. You. You know exactly where it is. The route is really, really easy. There's never any traffic. Super easy. You can do that 10 times or you've Got to make a draw. You've got to do 10 trips to a city that's an hour away on a super busy highway. Right. Which one's going to be easier? Which one is more like which one is going to give you a higher likelihood of being successful, meaning making your trip and getting back every single time? Obviously the one that's closer, really easy. Not a difficult route, not a lot of traffic. That one's going to be easier. Right? You, you can, you can make your 10 trips either way and you'll complete your mission, but one of them is significantly easier for you to be able to do that. When it comes to good shots and bad shots and relating that to scoring consistently, you want to take the path of least resistance. You want to score consistently, find ways to, to make scoring easy for yourself and do that as often as possible. The easier it is for you to score, the easier it's going to be for you to be consistent. So understanding what a good shot is and ultimately what a good shot is is a shot that is a low risk shot, meaning that it's an easier shot. And we want to balance that with how high the reward is. Right. So a layup would be a low risk and moderate reward shot. Right. You're getting two points for it, but it's incredibly low risk. It's the easiest shot that you're going to be able to take right there. Okay. A free throw is the same way. In fact, a free throw is probably pretty, probably easier than the layup, depending on what percentage you shoot from the free throw line. Okay. You're probably going to shoot a higher percentage from there. So again, we have a moderate reward with, you know, we can get two or three points at the free throw line, but it's a, it's a very low risk. A three point shot is a little bit more of a moderate risk because it's a more difficult shot, but it's a high reward. Right. Especially we're talking about an open three. Okay. So understanding what a good shot is versus a bad shot is and we'll, we'll jump into what I have as my, my shot grading chart. So before we get into this though, I actually go into this and I kind of pulled this from my free basketball IQ Masterclass is an hour long, goes into a ton of this IQ stuff, understanding stuff. And this is one of the things that we cover throughout this. And so if you want to go deeper into this sort of stuff, developing your basketball iq, again, hour long masterclass, completely free. We go into this, you'll learn how to score more points, how to create more for your teammates, ultimately play with more confidence and be more successful in the court. So that's me linked in the description down below. So once this video is over, go ahead and check that out if you have not. But my shot grading chart right here we have at the top a plus shot will be layups of free throw. So again we have the lowest risk on those type of shots. The easiest shots where you're getting a moderate reward for it, two points, potentially maybe even an and one if you get fouled on the layup. An A shot would be like an inside out threes. That's essentially like a driving kick three. So your teammate drives into the paint, help collapses to stop them and they kick it out to you for an open three, right? A pretty, pretty simple shot, pretty easy shot if you've worked on it. And it's a shot that can happen all the time. So we have a, a moderate to low risk shot for a high reward which is three points right there. So another good shot that we want to be able to take consist B plus would be like an extra pass 3. So your teammate drives, kicks it out to the wing maybe and then your teammate on the wings kicks it to you in the corner real quick off an extra pass where now we just have a little bit more of a side movement. So it makes, makes it maybe a little bit more difficult but still open shot, good shot. If we can get it, then we have like a post up opportunity. So especially if we have a size mismatch, this can be a really, really good opportunity if we get like a post up and then kind of below that as we begin to like that little bit more of a gray area. So C plus we have a mid range shot. The mid range isn't always a bad shot, but you got to think about it like this. We have a moderate reward, two points and we have more of a moderate risk on the shot because when we talk about a mid range shot, generally it's going to come off the dribble which is going to inherently make it a little bit more difficult. A lot of times it's going to be somewhat contested or somewhat pressured. It makes it a little more difficult and it's really, really difficult to be able to consistently work on the exact type of mid range shot. You're going to get into a game because a lot of times it's going to come off of the dribble and you're going to be in a different spot and it's going to be a different defender on you. One defender might be a little bit shorter but quicker, maybe one defender is a little bit taller but slower. And so you have to be able to adjust every single time right there. So that's why the mid range is at a C plus, because there's a lot more risk involved with it. And at the end of the day we would get the same amount of points for a layup as you would for a mid range shot which is going to be more difficult and there's more room for error on it. So not that it's always a bad shot, but understand that if we can pass that up to get either a layup or to be able to get an open three, which is going to give us a higher reward that's better when it comes to scoring consistently. And then we have C for out of rhythm three. So this would be like, you know, a step back three or a three where you don't get a really clean catch on it. And then D would be contested jumpers, so contested pull ups, all that sort of stuff. Very difficult shots that the, the, the risk is probably outweighing the reward when it comes to what we could get right here. So understanding good shots to batch us is important because the more often that we can be in that A plus, a B plus B range for our shots, the more, the easier it's going to be mean, the more likely you're going to make those shots and the more likely you're going to be able to do that with consistency. If you rely a bunch of the time on mid range shots and stuff, that's a little more difficult. It's harder to be consistent. Not that you can't do it, but it's going to be harder to do that. So ask yourself how, like how often am I getting those highly graded shots? And if you aren't getting them very often, you got to find ways to be able to do that. Find ways to be able to get more layups, more free throws, be able to get more catch and shoot threes, be able to get to more post ups, especially when you have a size mismatch on somebody right there. And when you focus your, your effort and on getting great shots, you're going to become more consistent scorer. This is why I say that being a consistent scorer is less about talent, less about your skills and abilities and more about your understanding of the game, your basketball IQ understanding, hey, I'm going to pass up this shot because I can get a better shot. That's going to put me in a better position, to be consistent with the points that I'm scoring right here. So that's why, number one, it's really important to, to understand what's a good shot, what's a bad shot. And this is coming from someone like, I'm a varsity head coach. And so, yeah, like a lot of times when you hear your coach say, oh, we got to take better shots. Oh, you just took a bad shot. We think of it as like almost an attack on us. In reality, how you have to view it is like, hey, if I want to be consistent, if I want to score more consistently, then I've got to take better shots. I've got to take the best shot possible as often as I can, and that's going to lead to the best results, the best outcomes for you. So, number one, when it comes to becoming a more consistent score is understand what a good shot is and what a bad shot is and why it matters, and then be able to focus on getting those highly graded shots as much as you possibly can. The second thing is kind of like what I've been talking about, developing your basketball iq. There's nothing more important than this. And I want to talk about a couple of specific areas that are going to directly apply and help you to start scoring more points more consistently. Number one is understanding basic actions. So this would be pin downs and ball screens. Specifically, these are the two most common actions in the game of basketball. Basketball. What an action is, is an action forces the defense to do something. So when we set a pin down or a down screen, a wave screen, whatever we want to call it, it's going to force the defense to guard it a certain way. They're going to have to chase over it or switch it or go under it. And when they do that, they're taking something away, but they're also going to give something else up. And if we understand how to take what they give us, we're going to be able to again, score with, with the most ease, as opposed to not understanding how to really take advantage of the way that defense may guard an action. We're going to struggle to be able to soar consistently because a lot of, a lot of times we're making the wrong decision or trying to do the wrong thing, depending on the coverage. Right here. I already mentioned that basketball IQ masterclass that I have, but we actually go really in depth into this as well. So like I said, after this video, make sure you check that out. We go really in depth and depend out different coverages how you should respond to how they guard you, whether you're the screener or the person being screened for. And that's going to instantly help you to score more points. The second type of action that's really important to understand how to play out of is a ball screen. So it's probably the next most common type of action that you're going to use. And again, the defense is going to play it some way to take something away. They're going to play over it, they're going to go under it, they're going to switch it, they're going to blitz it, whatever. They're going to throw some sort of coverage at you and you have to be able to make the right decision and take what they give you. So if they blitz and that might, that might mean that, you know, maybe they throw someone at you who is really slow, you can get around them and now all of a sudden you can get downhill or you immediately give it to your, your screener who just rolled. Or if you see that they, you know, they switched it and all of a sudden you have a mismatch, now you might want to attack that mismatch or maybe they go under the screen and that gives you that pull up three in rhythm and that's the right decision to make right there. But understanding how to respond based on how they play you in an action is crucial when it comes to being a consistent scorer. So like I said, the understanding of how to use actions is crucial when it comes to you being a consistent scorer. So make sure you check out that basketball IQ masterclass down below. Like I said, we go in depth into that sort of stuff. And then the next thing that goes in that, that I want to go into with that is some off ball movement. So first of all, understanding a 45 cut, and this is something that I've been thinking about a lot and I've talked about a lot because I even see it work like when I'm playing, right if I'm playing pickup and I understand when to cut and the best times to do that, you're going to be able to get easy layups, you're going to be able to get easy A plus shots coming out of it. So 45 cut is very simple. It's just a cut from the wing. So if you're on the wing, you're just cutting the basket. That's a 45 cut. Now when you do this is usually when that ball gets to like the opposite block or opposite short corner, so your teammate drives in and you know they're coming from the left wing, you're on the right wing. That's a great time for you to 45 cut because a lot of times your defender is going to be focused on what's going on over there. Or maybe they haven't quite moved into help position, or maybe they've already moved in help position early. And so you're going to be wide open when you make that cut to the rim right there. That's an opportunity for a 45 cut. Also, we can get a 45 cut coming off of like a post up. So ball goes into the post in like towards the block or the short corner. You cutting from the opposite wing a lot of times is going to leave you wide open for a layup. Right? This is one of the easiest ways to score in the game of basketball. And so something that you should look to do more often. Again, if you want to get some of those highly graded shots. In this case, an A plus shot is utilizing 45 cuts. The next thing is relocation. So whenever your teammate drives you, understanding you need to relocate when you're on the perimeter to give them an angle to pass because you have a teammate who should be in help and usually they're going to be playing the passing lane. So they're going to stay in the passing lane whenever they go to help. So you, if you just stand there and don't relocate, your teammates are going to be able to get you the ball because your defender is in the passing lane. But when they drive and you relocate, it gives them an angle to pass through the basketball because your defender is no longer in that passing lane. Okay? So understanding off ball movement with 45 cuts and relocations is super, super important when it comes to getting yourself great looks consistently, which is going to lead to you scoring consistently. And then the last thing is talking about transition. And there's a lot that I could talk about with transition, but I think the most important thing to understand is that you want to win the first three steps. So let's say you're on the wing, your teammate pulls the defensive rebound. You want to think about immediately taking the fastest, biggest three steps you can possibly take down the floor towards the basket you're trying to score on. Like you want to say that like if everybody, if there was a race, you might not be the fastest player on the court, but you're the fastest player with those first three steps. All you care about is winning those first three steps. When you do that, a lot of times you're going to Be open for your teammates to advance you the ball. And now you can get open transition layups much more easily because you focus on winning those first three steps right there. Okay, so all that stuff goes into basketball IQ understanding, and that's really what leads to your ability to consistently perform on the offensive end when it comes to scoring points. Right there. Now, the last thing I'll talk about is really overall the mindset that it takes to be a consistent scorer, to get consistent performances. When it comes to how you score, your confidence and approach needs to be consistent. So your confidence and your approach to things can't change game to game based on results. Because you have a game where you miss a lot of shots or you have a couple turnovers and you know that's frustrating, obviously, but if you allow that to change how you play, you're never going to be consistent. You have to start judging yourself based on kind of like what we talked about. If I graded the shots that I took, what would my grade be? Was I taking a lot of A plus, a B plus, B shots? Was, I think, a lot of good shots? If so, I've got to keep, I got to keep taking them because those are the best shots in basketball. And so I know that if I'm working on my skills and, you know, I'm working on my abilities, I can make these shots. I've got to keep. I got to keep taking them because not only are they going to be good for me to score more, but they're best for our team because if I'm taking an A plus shot, it means that our team took the best possible shot in that possession, which is going to lead to, if we do that consistently, us scoring more points because we're taking the best shots. And so you have to judge yourself less on the outcomes of things and more on was what I did a good decision? If I made a good decision and I missed the shot or I made a good decision and, you know, I turned the ball over, you have to be able to live with that and understand that it's law of averages, right? So for every horrible game you have, there's going to be a game that comes along that balances that out. Meaning if I know, like I say this to my players all the time, I said it to my brother last year because, you know, my brother is a college basketball player. Really, really good shooter. As A sophomore shot 45% from three, which led his team and his team led the country in three point shooting percentage. And then as a junior, he was starting off the year, not shooting well. He was shooting, like, in the, like, low 20s from three. And I told him, I'm like, listen, man, like, you're. You're a good shooter, you're a great shooter. Meaning sooner or later the numbers are going to reflect that you're not a 20% shooter. Like, you're not that. So that means that there's some games coming up where you're going to shoot 60% from 3, 70% from 3, because it's all going to balance out. Like, you're not a 20% shooter. So you have to keep on doing the thing, keep on shooting the basketball, trusting that the law of average is going to work things out for you. And it did. Ended up shooting, I think, 37% on the season and had a lot of games down the stretch where he shot 60% from three. And everything ends up balancing itself out. Okay. But you have to allow that process to happen, and that only happens if you're willing to keep doing those things until you see those positive results. Kind of like how I started off saying this. Consistency comes last. If you're not willing to go through the difficulty of not being consistent, having a great game and having two terrible games, having a game where you make a bunch of shots and having three games, you don't make a ton of shots, you have to be able to work through that and understand that that's a whole part of it. Eventually you're going to get to a point where you play with more consistency, but you got to be willing to go through that difficult part first where you will not be consistent. Okay? The worst thing that you can do is have a fearful mindset or be afraid of making mistakes or missing shots. You have to be able to say the, hey, I'm going to judge my performances not based on how many points I score, not based on, you know, all these factors that everybody on the outside is looking at. The, the newspaper writes about the players who score the most points. People talk about the. The players who score the most points. So it's very easy as a player to think that that's what matters and that's how you should judge yourself. In reality, if you can look and say, hey, that was a good shot I took. That was a good decision I made. I made a good decision driving. I got a great shot there. If you could judge yourself on that, you're going to be able to be much more at peace with the outcome and the results. And the, the. The secret is that when you're okay with the fact that you might miss this shot with that you might turn the ball over, you're going to end up playing better. Okay? So change the way that you judge yourself and stop doing it based on the outcomes and do it based on, hey, did I make a good decision? Was that a good shot and did I do that consistently? And when you do that again, it's going to lead to better performances because there's less pressure you put in yourself and you are able to work through that initial inconsistency that you may have and you allow that law of averages to work for yourself. Okay? So all that stuff goes into being a more consistent scorer. So again, understanding the fact that consistency comes last, right, you have to develop the ability first and then you start getting good at making the decision to do it and then the consistency of the outcome is going to come last. So you have to be willing to work through until you get to that point. Number two is understanding what a good shot is, what a bad shot is, and why it matters to you. Number three is developing your basketball iq. So understanding how to use different actions, different off ball movements and then how to make the most out of playing in transition. And then number four is not allowing bad performances when it comes to shooting or whatever, not allowing that to change your confidence or change your approach to a situation, but instead judging yourself based on how good your decision making was and whether or not you took good shots or bad shots. And, and knowing how that is going to lead to you ultimately playing better and playing more consistently. Consistently. So those are the things that I've seen that really go into being a consistent performer on the basketball court. And so hopefully this helps you out. Like I mentioned a bunch of times in this video. Definitely want to check out that basketball IQ masterclass down below. Completely free. It's an hour long. It's one of the most important things that I ever made. And honestly, it'll help you to start to score six or eight points per game more just within that first hour of watching that, just right away because of the stuff that we learned, the different IQ points. And like I said, we go in more in depth in a lot of the stuff we already talked about right there and way more. So definitely check that out again. That's the top link in the description down below. I appreciate you for watching Talk Soon. Peace.