The Basic Steps of a Sound Basketball Shot: From Stance to Follow-Through

You are on the court with the ball in your hands, getting ready for one shot. It looks like a single quick movement that is over in a second. In reality it is a chain of small steps, and each one hands off to the next. If one step slips, the next one pays for it, and the ball misses without you knowing why.

So in this article we will follow one shot from the moment you set your feet to the moment you finish. We will lean on what the NBA's Jr. NBA program teaches young players, and on research that measured shooting with sensors and simulations.

01Step one: the stance

A shot starts from the floor, not from your hand. Face the basket, spread your weight evenly over both feet, and bend your knees slightly. If you shoot right-handed, place your right foot slightly ahead (the reverse if you shoot left-handed), but by no more than about 12 centimeters (5 inches). Both feet point toward the basket.

Once your body settles into this stance, you have a steady base, and the ball is next.

02Step two: the hand

Rest the ball on the fingertips of your shooting hand, the way a waiter carries a tray, and keep your palm off it. Your other hand supports the ball from the side and helps you balance, but it does not push. Don't shoot with both hands: if the guide hand sits too far forward, accuracy suffers. Keep your head over the ball.

With the ball settled in your hand, you need to decide where it is going.

03Step three: the eyes

Pick your target before you shoot, and don't just look at the basket in general. Jr. NBA suggests locking your eyes on the back of the rim, or on a spot just over the front of it.

A simulation study by Chau Tran and Larry Silverberg of North Carolina State University backs the first option. They found that the ball is best sent about 5 centimeters (2 inches) in front of the back rim, and that aiming at the center of the hoop lowers the chance of a make by about 3 percent. Their model assumed a shooter who makes 70% of free throws, so treat the number as a guide, not a rule.

Once your target is set, the arm that sends the ball toward it takes over.

04Step four: the elbow

Keep your shooting elbow in line with your body so that the arm moves straight up and straight down along one path. Then push the ball up toward the basket until your arm is fully extended and your elbow locks. Tran and Silverberg also recommend releasing the ball along the imaginary line between you and the basket, and moving smoothly, because a smooth motion gives you a consistent release speed from one shot to the next.

As your arm extends, the moment the ball leaves your hand gets close.

05Step five: the release

The ball should roll off your fingertips, and your middle finger is usually the last to touch it. Shoot with your fingers, not your palm. Then snap your wrist down, and the ball leaves with backspin.

Backspin earns its place. Tran and Silverberg estimated that about 3 revolutions per second works best. It deadens the ball when it hits the rim or the backboard, which gives it a better chance to drop in.

One last step locks in everything before it.

06Step six: the follow-through

Finish with your arm extended and your wrist snapped down, and repeat the same finish on every shot. A consistent finish is a good sign that the steps before it are repeating in the same order. If your finish changes from shot to shot, look for the step that slipped before it.

07What about the arc?

Many players ask: what angle should I shoot at? The physics answer is that 45 degrees is ideal only if the ball leaves your hand at the same height as the rim. Because players release the ball below rim height, most need a higher angle, typically between 52 and 59 degrees, according to Physics Today. The Tran and Silverberg free-throw simulation lands close to 52 degrees.

Measurements from a University of Kansas research team agree. They tested 29 young men taking both two-point and three-point shots. On two-pointers, the more accurate shooters released the ball at about 54 degrees, while the others released at about 50 degrees. The shooting approach, standing or stepping in, made no meaningful difference.

08How do you change your shot without losing your progress?

Once you know the six steps, you will probably find that one of them needs work. We suggest changing one step at a time. Start close to the basket, as Jr. NBA advises, until the motion feels automatic, then move back gradually.

To find out whether the change helped, log one session before it and one after, with the same number of attempts, and compare them in ShootingStat. The app shows your FG%, eFG% and TS% on your stats page, plus the percentage for each shot type. And remember that a small number of attempts doesn't give a stable picture, which we explain in the difference between the three percentages.

If you feel pain in your shoulder or wrist while training, stop and talk to your coach or a specialist.

09Summary

• Start from the floor: a balanced stance with slightly bent knees.
• Put the ball on your fingertips, and use your other hand only to guide.
• Pick your target before you shoot: the back of the rim.
• Push the ball up with your elbow in line with your body.
• Let the ball roll off your fingers with backspin.
• Finish the same way on every shot.

Change one step at a time, and log your sessions to see what the change did.