How to fix your child's shooting form.

Look at the photo above. That follow through, held high after the ball is gone, is what a fixed shot looks like. Getting there is not complicated, but it does take honesty about how most kids get broken in the first place. Nobody teaches a kid a bad shot. He builds it himself, usually by shooting from too far away before he is strong enough, and heaving the ball just to reach the rim. Fix that, and the rest is patient work.

Start close. Closer than you think

Every form fix starts a few feet from the basket. Close enough that your child can shoot with real form and no extra effort. If he has to jump forward, twist, or push from his chest to reach, he is too far away, and every rep is teaching the heave. Distance is earned. He backs up when the close shots look the same every time, not before.

This is the part parents fight. The kid wants to shoot threes like the players on TV. Letting him is how the two-handed push and the sideways spin get baked in. Strength decides range. A young kid shooting close with clean form is developing. A young kid launching from deep is practicing how to miss for years.

Feet first, then one quiet motion

Feet under him, pointed at the rim, same stance every shot. The shot starts from the floor. Then it is one motion: ball up in front of his body, elbow under the ball, no pause at the top where the push sneaks in. Young shooters do not need a complicated checklist. Feet set, ball in front, up and out.

The guide hand is the silent killer. It is supposed to hold the ball still and then leave. When a thumb flicks or a palm shoves, the ball spins sideways and nobody can tell him why he misses left and right in the same game. Watch his off hand after the release. If it moved, it helped, and helping is the problem.

Hold the follow through

The easiest fix a parent can coach from the driveway: make him hold his follow through until the ball lands. Wrist snapped, fingers pointing at the rim, arm up. A kid who holds the finish stops rushing, stops falling sideways, and starts repeating the same motion. Half of form is just refusing to let him snatch the shot back the second it leaves his hand.

Fix one thing at a time

Here is where well-meaning parents bury a kid. Feet, elbow, guide hand, follow through, arc, all corrected on the same afternoon. He will think so hard about his hands that he forgets to shoot. Pick the one flaw doing the most damage, work it until it sticks, then move to the next. Shooting form is rebuilt in layers, and patience is the whole system.

Then it becomes a reps question. Clean form needs thousands of counted shots to become his shot, which is why our Shooting Club puts players on the Dr. Dish machine with the makes counted for them. If you want the full picture of that climb, read what it takes to be a knockdown shooter.

Watch it hold up in a game

The last test of any form fix is a live game, when he is tired and a defender is closing out. This is one of our league MVPs. Watch the shot look the same whether he is open or rushed. That sameness is the whole goal:

If your child's shot needs a real look, bring him in. A coach can spot in two minutes what a parent has been guessing at for a season, and the first session is free. Form fixed early is a gift a kid carries for the rest of his playing life, and it is all part of everything your kid gets here.