Blind Men Can Shoot

Focus is a skill

Some of you may remember the absolute absurdity of that article about Steph Curry not being able to see 100% clearly for most of his career.

In short, for his whole life, Steph has suffered from something called Keratoconus, which causes distorted and blurred vision. Sometimes it even results in needing a corneal transplant. 😲 (Side note: Who knew you could transplant a cornea?? Science is nuts, y’all.)

When Steph was young, his case was nbd. But as he's aged (gracefully, I might add), the condition worsened, which prompted Curry to get contacts in his 2019 season. We all know what happened next.

Let me remind you, he got contacts years after his record-breaking season (402 3pt-made), as well as after he'd gained numerous accolades:

3× NBA Championships, 2× NBA MVP Awards, and 5× NBA All-Star Selections, to name a few.

So how did he manage to achieve all of that while essentially shooting through blurred vision?

He created a ridiculously strict regimen of quieting his eye with every single rep he takes.

So… what does it mean to quiet your eye?

Simple.

It means locking in on a teeny tiny point in the middle of your target... and then making that target point even smaller.

Most shooters look at a general "middle-ish" area of the rim when they shoot, which leaves more room for error.

Fun fact: roughly half of the time when I've asked my athletes exactly where they look when they shoot, the answer I get is a wide-eyed, “I don’t know.”

Half of them!!!!!!! 😂

And then I'm like, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE LOOKING WHEN YOU SHOOT??!!”

And then we both laugh and train their quiet eye for the rest of their lives.

Lol kids are hilarious.

Moving on. :)