3 Jump Shot Mistakes Killing Your Shot (and the Drills That Fix Them)
Everybody wants to be the best shooter on the team. But to be honest, a lot of you are making simple jump shot mistakes that are killing your shot. The good news? The coach in this I Love Basketball TV video says each one is easily fixable. All it takes is a slight adjustment.
Not sure your jumper is even the thing to work on first? Find your training strategy with our free training quiz.
Mistake 1: Your hand alignment is off
Everyone's told to grab the basketball and put your hand right in the middle of the ball. They tell you that so you can shoot it straight. And they're right about the straight part.
The problem is what it does to your arm. Hand in the middle, fingers pointing forward, and now your upper arm is going off at a weird angle. Take your hand like that and just raise it. You can see how crooked the arm actually is.
The fix is small. Instead of the thumb pointing straight ahead, turn your hand so the thumb points a little closer to your chest. Your hand kind of makes a U shape on the ball.
What you don't want is your hand on the side of the ball with the thumb pointing up. Too far. Just slightly turned.
Now raise it. Everything stays stacked. Arm straight, wrist over top of your elbow, and when you follow through you can push straight to the rim.
Part two of alignment: your feet
A lot of people are told you have to shoot with 10 toes to the rim. The coach says that's not necessarily wrong. You can also tilt your feet.
The issue with 10 toes is where you usually get told to put the ball. Toes straight, hand in the middle, ball in the middle. Now your fingers are trying to point straight and your elbow's twisted out. That's mistake one all over again.
The tilt
If you want to pick the ball up in the middle of your body, add a tilt. Picture a clock on the floor with 12 o'clock right in the middle, pointing at the rim.
Lefty: feet somewhere between 12 and 1. (The coach is left-handed, so that's how he sets up in the video.)
Righty: feet somewhere between 12 and 11.
Now toes, fingers, everything faces the same way. Lift the ball and it's all still stacked. All you have to do is push through the middle of the basketball.
Why does it work? It pushes everything closer to the rim. Think about almost any throwing sport. You end with your dominant side closer to the target. Baseball or football, you start back and your dominant side finishes closer to the target. Shooting's the same thing. With 10 toes, he says, sometimes people turn their body trying to get that dominant side closer to the hoop, and they get twisted at the end.
If you like 10 toes
Fine. Keep it. Just don't pick the ball up in the middle of your body. Put it more on your dominant side hip. Fingers straight, toes straight, and when you lift it everything's aligned toward the rim. Push through the middle and shoot it straight.
So a tilt isn't wrong. 10 toes isn't wrong either. You just have to line up the right way for the one you pick.
Drill: the drop drill
Get to your spot. Five spots works, but the coach says it doesn't matter how many.
Before anything else, get in your stance. 10 toes or tilt, whatever you shoot with, set it up first. Hands loaded and ready to shoot. Start straight up, drop straight down, get into your shot.
That setup is the biggest part. 10 toes? Your focus is keeping the ball off the middle and more on your side. Tilt? Keep it more toward the middle line of your body. Drop quick, then raise through the rest of the shot.
If you go five spots, try to make 5 to 10 shots per spot.
Mistake 2: Collapsing the angle
This one's sneaky. Players get set, the ball's ready to go, and right before they shoot they bring it back closer to their body. The angle in the arm closes up. Pull it back, then fire.
You can see why they do it. They're trying to create energy to get the ball from them to the hoop. Everybody has to create energy.
The problem, in the coach's words: how you load is the direction of where you're going to go.
Want to jump higher? You drop down, then jump up. Throwing a baseball or football as hard as you can? Load back, throw forward. A jump shot has to go up and out at the same time. Pull the ball straight back and you'll typically want to fire it straight back out, and that causes issues later on down the line.
The fix
Bring the ball down to right around your belly button area. That lets you keep the angle you set with your arm, forearm parallel to the floor. From there, push the ball up, hold that angle, and follow through toward the rim. The angle stays the same. That's what creates consistency.
Don't overdo the dip, though. Some players catch it and bring the ball way too low. The arm might straighten out, and now it's a longer trip back up. Belly button area. That's it.
If your misses come out flat, our post on how to get arc on your jump shot goes deeper on the up and out part.
Drill: low pause, then push
Get nice and low with the ball right where you want to set it. Pause for 2 to 3 seconds. Then push up through the rest of your shot.
You're starting the ball in the right spot and pushing through it. No pulling back. Go five spots and try to make 5 to 10 shots per spot.
Mistake 3: The elbow keeps traveling up
Plenty of players know how to align the elbow. Nice and tucked, straight to the rim. What they don't know is how to actually use it.
They hit their set point and let the elbow keep traveling up. By the time it's up there, all that's left to get the ball to the hoop is a little bit of extension.
Remember, the ball has to do two things to go in. Go up. Go out. The higher your elbow gets with the ball still in your hand, the less power you've got to send it toward the hoop.
So get nice and low, get to your set point, and stabilize your elbow there. Lower or higher set point, the coach says it doesn't matter. Then let the elbow go backwards and up. Back and up. That's what sends your arm out toward the hoop so the ball can cover the distance from you to the rim.
Think about darts
Somebody throwing a dart lines up, sets the angle with their elbow, probably practices a little, and then just extends the arm out. Same idea here. Except your target isn't straight ahead of you. It's 10 feet in the air.
Set the angle. Stabilize the elbow. Then throw the dart, AKA shoot the ball.
Want more on where that set point should sit? We covered it in how to increase shooting range in basketball.
Drill: form shooting a step or two out
Kind of like form shooting, just not super close. Start about a step or two in front of the rim. You're close enough that you don't have to jump.
Get to your set point and hold it for about 2 to 3 seconds so it's really stabilized. Then use your arm to get the ball to the hoop the right way. Flick your wrist. Ball comes off your fingertips.
Make 15 shots from that exact spot.
The domino effect
The coach closes with something worth hanging on to. There's a domino effect to almost everything in shooting.
Get low, everything's aligned, push the ball up, hit your set point, stabilize, then push up and out with the elbow doing its job. Good dominoes.
It runs the other way too. Start with the ball too high and you're forced to pull it back. Now you've collapsed the angle. Now sometimes you can't use your elbow the right way. One bad start, and the next two problems show up on their own.
Working on more than your jumper? Our weak hand basketball drills are a good next stop.
Jump shot mistakes FAQ
What are the most common jump shot mistakes?
The video covers three. Bad hand and foot alignment, collapsing the angle by pulling the ball back, and letting your elbow keep traveling up past your set point.
Should I shoot with 10 toes to the rim?
You can. It's not wrong. Just put the ball more on your dominant side hip instead of the middle of your body. Like the ball in the middle? Tilt your feet instead.
Which way should my feet tilt?
Picture a clock with 12 pointing at the rim.
Left-handed: between 12 and 1.
Right-handed: between 12 and 11.
Where should my thumb go on the ball?
Slightly closer to your chest, so your hand makes kind of a U shape. Not straight forward, and not on the side with the thumb pointing up.
How low should I dip the ball?
Belly button area. Go way lower and your arm might straighten out, which means a longer path back up.
Why does pulling the ball back hurt my shot?
How you load is where you go. Pull it back and you'll want to fire it straight back out, but your shot needs to go up and out.
What basketball shooting drills fix these mistakes?
Three, one per mistake: the drop drill, a low 2 to 3 second pause before you push up, and close form shooting a step or two from the rim. The first two are five spots, 5 to 10 makes each. Form shooting is 15 makes.
Does my set point need to be high or low?
For the elbow fix? Doesn't matter. Stabilize the elbow wherever your set point is, then let it go back and up.
Find your training strategy
Fixing your jumper is one thing. Knowing what to work on first is another. Take the free training quiz and find your training strategy.
