Catch and Shoot Primer: Data Driven

Don't be average. The average reader invests 36 seconds on an article. 36. Seconds. Remind players that the quickest path to improvement is learning the game, because the game is eighty percent mental. 

Shooting... "the most important and least taught skill in basketball". "Practicing ten thousand hook shots could make you ten million dollars." Good players and good teams do a few things well. Do well what you do a lot.

At the heart of shooting well is CATCH AND SHOOT. "Last season, according to the NBA’s SportVU Player Tracking Statistics, teams shot almost five more attempts per game off the catch than they did off the dribble, which is understandable – catch-and-shoot attempts generated a league-wide average effective field-goal percentage of 51.6%, far superior to that of pull-up attempts, 40.4%." 

"Good players need two dribbles, excellent players one, and elite players don't need to dribble." Score in the most efficient way possible, which most commonly means catching and shooting. "You are most open the moment you catch the ball." You need four ways to score. Catch and shoot is one. 

The NBA tracks (incompletely) catch and shoot stats. 

The better teams score the most off catch and shoot. 

How do we get there? Bobby Knight wouldn't allow free shooting, believing it a waste of time. Here's a visual reminder. Free shooting 💩. 

Points of emphasis: 

• "The right-handed shooter's natural shot is going left, because she is already turned."
• Klay Thompson's 60 points came in 90 seconds of possession with 11 dribbles. 
• Quickness of release starts with pre-shot preparation. I have players who won't invest their effort in readying the shot (hands ready, "spring loaded")
• Targeting is essential to score. 

A few "Catch and shoot" drills

"One more." Pass and follow. Last player shoots. Via Kevin Eastman. 

"Ortega." Relocating and shooting. Via FIBA. 

Full court "3 by 3 by 3".  Players on the baseline pass then sprint to opposite end for catch and shoot. Via a coaching clinic I attended last season. 

Shooting groups. Via Etorre Messina of the Spurs. Every player must make five and then next shooter rotates in. Competition between groups. If a group makes seven consecutively, that's also a win. 

Video:





Steve Nash workout. A 180 shooter: 50% FG, 40% 3s, 90% FT shooter in a season.