Ethan Khoza breaks down how undersized guards like Carly, a top Pennsylvania shooter, can develop a reliable floater to beat shot-blockers. The video walks through specific drills: freestyle dribble entries, precision work at the hash and elbow, trailing partner chase, and a differential-learning circuit, with targets like eight to ten makes per spot.
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This is a story that I think every undersized guard needs to hear. This is Carly. Now, Carly is one of the best shooters in the state of Pennsylvania. And we've been working together since she was a sophomore in high school. She's one of the best shooters that I've ever been in the gym with. And for guards, but especially undersized guards, this is really step one. You've got to be able to make perimeter shots. Now, you might not need to be the best shooter in your conference or in your state, but you need to be good at it. And Carly is elite at that. But here's the thing. As an undersized guard, that alone is not going to cut it. Especially if you're not an elite athlete. You're going to need to have a secondary part to your game that you also rely on. At the end of the day. If you're undersized, you're playing against good competition. You're just not going to be able to go to the rim as often. With Carly, we saw situations like this happen. So we decided to add a high level floater to her game as well. Now, floater is great for a couple reasons. First of all, obviously you don't have to get all the way to the rim so you can avoid being right in the space of shot blockers. Here's Steve Nash talking about why he loves shooting runners.
Make a couple runners. Like I said, I usually like to make 10 of these. I love shooting runners. When you're a little scrawny six foot point guard in the NBA, can't really jump, you know, I don't really feel that confident challenging Shaq or Yao Ming. So I can always kind of pull up a little one legged runner in the lane.
And it also allows you to get your shot off so much quicker than you would with an actual pull up. Simply because you don't need as much time to gather up into your shot. This is especially important when you're undersized and you might have a lot of bigger defenders either trailing you or rotating over and help. Like in this situation, she gets downhill and she has six one trailing her and six two rotating over and help. So there's no time to actually shoot a full pull up. So the floater is a much better option in order to get that shot up quickly. We spent an entire offseason developing her floater to an elite level. And right now I'm going to go through the exact drills that we did to do this that you can do the same thing. So first we Start off with just this relaxed dribble freestyle into a go call where she'll get right up into a floater off one foot, two foot doesn't really matter. Just as quick as she can get it off. Obviously, you don't need a shooting machine to do this. I just like it because it forces a little bit more arc. And if you don't have a partner to give you a go call here, then just dribble for a couple of seconds and then get into a floater. But mix up when you go and what kind of floaters and runners you get to go next. We have a similar concept, except we're starting on the three point line on the wing here. She's starting off facing backwards, just freestyling, waiting for that go call. Now, this seems very simple, but it actually becomes much more difficult because you have to identify where the basket is. And every shot is going to be a little bit different, just like it is in a game. And this is actually for a deliberate reason. The faster you're able to identify where the rim is, which is a skill in itself, the better you're going to be as a shot maker in general. And this drill targets that we're going to keep with that dribble freestyle right here. But this time we're to go right onto that second hash mark there in the middle. Now, we're just working on our precision on these floaters. So she's got to swish two floaters before she moves to the other side of the on that hash mark to switch to more. Once she does that, we're going to move back to the elbow and do the same thing on that go call. Getting right up into that floater. But the only makes that count are switches. If you watch my videos and you hear me talk a lot about adding challenge to the drills that you're doing, this is a great way to add a challenge that's even more difficult than it would be in games, which is forcing that precision and a specific type of make. This is how you really dial in and become a high level shot maker. Now, this right here is a great drill to do. If you have a partner, she's going to start a couple of steps beyond the three point line, just freestyle dribbling again. And at any given point, she can decide to go and attack. She has to shoot a floater, and I'm chasing her down from behind. Every time that she makes it, she'll flip the direction that she's facing to start. This show is difficult, and it's Going to lead to reps that look like this. But like I said, one of the most valuable things about the floater is being able to get it off very quickly without needing much time to gather it. That's what we're working on right here. Being able to get that shot off with somebody trailing you, this really helps to build that game ability. One of the best ways to get better at a specific type of shot, to utilize what's called differential learning. And that sounds confusing, but all that it means is shooting one shot after the other. But every shot is different than the one before it. So, for example, in this drill right here, she has to make a floater, and then it catches you three. In order to get a point, she's got to get two points in order to move on to the next spot. The reason why this is effective is because, just like in a game, you're rarely going to shoot the same shot twice in a row. In this drill, you need to get good at being able to make different shots in a row like you will in a game, which is why something like this translates so well to making more shots in games. Like I said, for this drill, we go two points at all five spots. For pretty much all these other drills, we'll go for eight to ten makes or a certain number of switches. This goes by pretty fast. Only takes us about 10 to 15 minutes right here. But we do it consistently, and that's why she's been able to develop her floater like she has. So give this a try. Also, make sure to click the top link in my description down below to get my free elite perimeter score program. I appreciate you for watching. Drop a like. Subscribe if you're new. Talk to you soon. Peace.
