In Reply to: traprh - would love your coaching feedback Re: in-game shooting posted by BruinLove42 on March 17, 2025 at 10:05:51
I've always believed getting sped up is a mental thing in that your natural decision making process (mental) is disrupted and and rather than keeping your normal, relaxed pace, you start rushing decisions (often bad ones) that affect your normal game pace (and you know what that feels like) and fundamental technique. Much of the time when "sped up", you aren't completely relaxed and tend to rush/force your shots and are prone to unforced turnovers. And the more you get that feeling of being sped up, your confidence is also affected, to some extent, in a negative way.
When I was an active player, when things felt a bit different or sped up during the flow of the game, I'd do some deep breathing (sort of yoga breaths) and try to slow myself down mentally. And I would focus on "not rushing my shot" or not making any of those risky, low percentage passes.
As far as practice goes, I always practiced my shooting visualizing and simulating game conditions (visualizing and practicing shots based on the types of shots I would get against a zone or man D). A big thing for me was mastering "positive visualization"--that's knowing you are going to make the shot (visualizing it going in) and actually believing it (works especially well on free throw shooting). I've always had a very good imagination so those things came pretty naturally for me (all mental stuff). But when I practiced my shooting, I made a game of it alternating various position shots and various styles (jump shot, floaters, set shots, drives into the paint, etc). I would alternate these and not just set out and throw up a 100 shots from one position. Worked for me but since everyone is different, everyone has to find out what works for them.
I quit playing competitively at 40 (at 23 was a member of the US CISM team--military equivalent of the US Olympic team. Between 24 and 40, I was involved as player/coach of military base teams and some shooting clinics for HS and younger players). In my 40s, I continued to play pick up games and played on several Radio Station charity teams in San Diego (KFMB and KCBQ) till I was 50. That's when I decided I wanted to spend more time working on my golf game :-)) I did continue to do some clinics for local HS players and the local Boys and Girls club till I was around 75. Not very active anymore on the basketball front. Anyway, good luck and feel free to email me if you want to talk more (pharvey33@gmail.com)