One Two Punch - Chapter Six: "Practice, Practice, and More Practice"

Chapter six is done... I have to admit I took the free throw shooting techniques from the novel, "The Million Dollar Shot" by Bill Gutman.

And it's one of the shorter chapters, but there's only so much you can write about two people practicing basketball.

Chapter Six: “Practice, Practice, and More Practice”

The first thing I wanted Danny to learn how to do was to shoot a free throw. I’ve always thought, if you can shoot a free throw, you can shoot a jump shot.
I give Danny the ball and say, “All right, now step up to the free throw line, and take a shot.”
“Ok,” he replies. He looks rather tense as he steps up to take the shot with my eyes on him. He brings the ball into his chest and shot puts it with both hands towards the rim. It hits the front of the rim and drops straight down.
“Well, we may have some work to do,” I say as I grab the rebound. “First off, you actually are doing a good job holding your elbows in. However, you have to use your legs more when shooting.”
“Ok.” He takes the ball from me and puts up another shot while jumping and it hits the backboard and comes right back to him.
“Well, we’ll get there. By ‘using your legs’ I meant helping them propel the ball towards the basket, not actually jumping. By jumping you are only decreasing your chance of making the shot.
“Now let me show you how to shoot a free throw,” I say, signaling for him to give me the ball. I step up to the free throw line. “You want to dribble the ball a certain number of times, anywhere from 2 to 5. But it has to be routine. You can’t just go from 2 to 5 to 3. Also, you want to keep the air hole of the ball up. Then, you bend your knees slightly, elbows in, and aim for the spot above the rim, not the rim itself,” I say as I shoot the free throw, which swishes through.
“Ok, cool,” Danny says. He gets the rebound and lines up at the free throw line. He takes a shot doing everything I told him, but it glances off the back rim.
“Let me ask you something, Danny,” I say after grabbing the miss. “What are you thinking of when you shoot the basketball?”
“I’m thinking of making the shot.”
“Wrong! You have to clear your mind, thinking of absolutely nothing,” I point out.
“Ok. I’ll try that.” I give him the basketball and he follows the routine again, this time, sinking the shot.
“There you go! If you keep doing that, this championship is in the bag!” I say.
“Wow, cool. I didn’t know I could do that,” Danny says.
“One more thing Danny about free throw shooting I want to tell you. It’s gotta be routine. Like eating breakfast or taking a shower. You don’t even think about what you’re doing or what you have to do. You just do it,” I advise him.
“Ok, I’ll keep that in mind,” he says.
“Now I’m going to show you how to handle the basketball,” I say.
I show Danny the proper methods of passing and dribbling the basketball, and before too long, Danny is even able to complete a between the legs dribble.
“Wow, very good!” I say. “You see, I knew you had it in you!”
“Well, I am a quick learner,” Danny replies.
Within hours, I believe I got Danny good enough as to where he would be a capable backup on the high school team I coach.
At the end of practice, I play one on one against Danny for fun, but as he is fatigued and still inexperienced, I beat him handily, despite trying to be easy on him. However, he does make about half of the shots he takes.
“Great practice, Danny. Seeing as the qualifier’s next week, and we’re both busy until then, this’ll have to do,” I tell him.
“Ok. I think I got it.”
“Great. Now if you ever have time this week to practice and I’m not available, I’d like you to practice here in the gym.”
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,” he says.
“Great, see you Monday in class, son,” I tell him. First time I’ve ever called him that.
“See ya, dad,” he replies.
I can only smile.