Moving without the ball is the key to every shooters’ success. When you think of the best such as the Ray Allen’s and Rip Hamilton’s of the world; you know that they never stood still and they always had proper shooting technique. A lot goes into shooting on the move; its not just catch and launch away.
“Repetition is the Key to Success.”
A phrase you hear often; I’m not sure who came up with it and not even Google knows (I checked) but whoever said it was spot on. If shooting the ball is your thing and you want to become one of the greats it will take a lot of technique and a lot of practice.
Your form and technique when shooting on the move is so essential and I can’t stress it enough. As you come off the screen, you always want to make sure your inside foot is planted and your hands are ready to catch and shoot. Before you begin to elevate for your shot, you want to make sure you always have your feet set, square with the basket so that you get the correct lift on your shot.
When using screens its important that you use them the proper way. The screener is just as important as the guy running off the screen, so its imperative that the screener is set so your team doesn’t get called for a moving screen. As you run off the screen, you want to run as tight as possible to your teammate; diminishing any room for your defender to get through, forcing him to trail.
One thing to keep in mind when moving without the ball is pace. Pace is underrated and often forgotten. Sometimes you want to slow down, halfway before you get to the screen to keep the defender on their heels. As you feel them on your hip, draw contact and take off; keeping everything we discussed previously in mind. What this does is, it gives you room to come off the screen and get your shot off cleanly but when you draw that contact make sure to not push off (a slight nudge should be okay) because flopping is big in basketball today, unfortunately.
When this becomes successful and the defense starts to cheat/switch or doesn’t simply communicate….. Boom! You’ve succeeded because now you can cut or the screener can slip backdoor and now the defense is at an disadvantage.
