Rev Your Engines

The best feeling is knowing you’ve made a difference for someone.

Yesterday, I was on a call with a collegiate athlete who’s been a long-time student of mine. The first time I met her, I knew right away, she was already an absolute bucket. A prolific scorer at all three levels. (And she shoots every day.)

She recently earned Conference Player of the Week after a 27-point and 24-point performance. When I asked what felt different with her shot, she said she made a small adjustment: lifting the ball from the center of her body, rather than directly up her right hip.

This was something we’d never even worked on together which I love.

You see, of the many reasons I urge athletes to shoot every day, this is the biggest one:

There’s no way she would’ve discovered that adjustment if she hadn’t already learned how to study herself.

The Power of Self-Study

Today, I want to break down the kinesthetic importance of self-study and share an example of the simple, “sticky” language I use with my athletes to help them:

• Understand their shot

• Identify weaknesses

• Make tweaks long after our sessions together

ki·ne·si·ol·o·gy

/kəˌnēsēˈäləjē, kəˌnēzēˈäləjē/
noun

The study of the mechanics of body movements

Shooting is a combination of both gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

That means to make shots, we use large muscles — legs, trunk, torso, and arms in perfect sync with the tiny muscles in our hands and fingers. And to make things even more complex, all of that has to coordinate in real time with what our eyes see.

Phew. There’s a lot going on there.

As athletes grow stronger and develop new movements, their musculature changes to match. Because these larger muscles adapt quickly, our shot must adapt just as fast.

If we don’t shoot every day, we can’t keep up with those changes.

Muscle Memory and Consistency

A few athletes have natural biomuscular memory the ones who can show up after weeks off and still find their shot right away. (I am not one of those lucky ones.)

For most of us, our muscle memory is more like a goldfish’s memory short.
If we don’t constantly remind our bodies of the feeling, it forgets.

That’s why we use sticky language when teaching, language that’s easy to understand and hard to forget.

Set vs. Start

Let’s clear up a common shooting term: “SET.”

(If you pictured two different points in your shot, you’re not alone.)

There are schools of thought for both, and I’ve heard it taught either way. Here’s how I avoid the confusion:

I use the analogy of a car. In the most powerful cars, the best drivers rev their engines to the start.

Our shot doesn’t start in our set — it starts lower, where we generate our power.

If we want more power, we rev our engines a little deeper.
If we don’t need as much, we don’t rev as much.

This is similar to what many know as the “dip,” but with language that’s more intuitive for athletes.

Just like a car engine, your shot needs maintenance.
If you don’t tune it up by shooting every day, it won’t perform the way you want it to.

Simplify and clarify your language. The game is evolving and we must evolve with it.

It’s empowering to see something you’ve taught click. My hope is that this helps you teach, coach, and impact too.

Until next blog 🙂

Shooters Shoot.
— BriAnna