Buying Guides

The first step in choosing a shooting aid is to determine what the problem with the shot is. Here are the basic problems our basketball shooting aids will help fix.

1. Line Drive Shot - the shooter doesn't put enough arc on their shot and shoots a line drive.
2. Flying Elbow - this is when the shooter sticks their shooting arm elbow out instead of in. Shots will typically not be straight but will go to the side.
3. Two Handed Shot - the player shoots the basketball with two hands. This makes the shot more of a push shot and depending on where the guide hand is the shooter may actually be blocking their own shot.
4. Incorrect Hand Placement - the shooter does not know where to put their hands when shooting the basketball or are inconsistent in using the correct placement of the hands on the ball.
5. Shot Put or Palm Shots - the player places the basketball in their palm which results in the loss of control of the basketball when shot. Likely there won't be much if any rotation on the basketball when it is shot.
6. Bad Shooting Form - the player does not use good form on their shot especially the shooting arm.

When looking at a shooting aid, you don't want to spend your entire time practicing with the aid on. A good rule of thumb when using any shooting aid is to not use it for more than 1/3 of your practice time. You use it to help develop muscle memory but not rely on it as you won't be able to wear it in games. There are also a lot of other devices on the market and we have been asked to sell them all. Some simply don't work or there are products that are less expensive and do the same thing. We have sold these basketball shooting aids for years now and believe they are the best products to help improve your shot.

	Problem #1   Problem #1 the Line Drive Shot. The shooter first should understand why we shoot with arc before telling them they should just do it. Using more arc makes the rim bigger and gives the ball a much greater chance to go through the hoop. Shooting a line drive shot makes the rim smaller with less chance for the ball to go through. The Supersized Basketball is the training aid that will help cure the line drive shooter. Why? Because now that the ball is bigger if they are going to make any shot the shooter will have to use arc to get the ball to go through the hoop. If they continue to line drive the shot they will rarely make a shot. The Supersized ball is official weight so it won't be any heavier for the shooter to lift, just bigger in diameter forcing a good arced shot. There are products out on the market that you can attach to the rim or backboard to cure a line drive shot but those require setup time and quickly get very expensive. A bigger basketball is the easiest and lowest cost solution to fixing the line drive shot. You can also easily take the basketball with you to any gym or playground vs. hauling around equipment.
	Problem #2   Let's solve problem #2 the Flying Eblow. The Shooting Buddy is designed to help keep the shooting elbow in tight like it should be. If that's your problem then the Shooting Buddy is the only product that will solve the flying elbow.
	Problem #3   Problem #3 is easily fixed with the Shooting Strap. The Shooting Strap has always been a great seller and is very effective in solving the two handed shot or fixing a misguided guide hand. It forces a one hand release which will also help with good follow through on the shooting arm. You can also get the Shooting Strap as part of the Star Shooter system which includes a shooting DVD and workout book.
	Problem #4   Where do my hands go? This problem is easily solved with our SkilCoach shooting ball. The hands painted on the ball show a player how to correctly place hands for either a right or left handed shot. This is important to have both sets of hands on one ball because even if a player is right handed, they must learn to correctly place their hands for left handed layups. Whether you are a coach or a parent, at some point you are going to have to step away and let the player practice on their own or they will practice on their own. This ball will help ensure they continue to practice what you teach them when they are on their own as they can easily place their hands over the hands on the ball. It's the ball with the built in coach. Any youth program should have enough of these basketballs that every player can use them during practice so the players are continually reminded of where their hands go.

The M.V.P. Vertical Jump program is the #1 selling vertical jump program we offer and here's why.

1. It is a comprehensive program that trains the 4 components that help you jump higher - flexibility, core strength, plyometrics, and strength.
2. Credible author - Alan Stein is a professional basketball trainer and has worked with top athletes. You can actually contact Alan and he will respond to you. There is a name and a face behind this program.
3. VERY IMPORTANT - with most programs you will do the same exercises over the course of the entire program and you will hit what is known as the plateau effect. Your body will adapt to the excercises and you will see less improvement over the course of the program. M.V.P. mixes up the exercises so your body will always be challeneged every couple of weeks with different exercises. This is what is called muscle confusion. By providing an extensive variety of different moves that take time to master, M.V.P. is continually challenging your body into new growth and explosiveness. The more you confuse your body, the harder your body has to work to keep up: the more variety you put into your workout, the better and faster your results will be.

We recommend the M.V.P. Vertical Jump program as the most effective vertical jump program available. Another benefit of the M.V.P. program is it's cost. As you'll see below some of the devices can get expensive and aren't as effective as M.V.P. If you coach a team and want to have your entire team do the program, all you need to do is buy 1 DVD and print out the workout charts. You can do this year after year and your only cost is the $39.95 for the DVD. We've seen some coaches buy 10-15 pair of plyometric shoes which will run well over $1000 when they could have spent less than $40 and taken care of their players for not just one year but all the years to come with a better program than plyometric shoes.

	Jump Attack Another quality program on par with M.V.P. is Jump Attack by Tim Grover who is also a professional basketball trainer and has worked with many elite athletes. The only downside to this program is that it is a book and you can't see the exercises demonstrated properly. There are just illustrations throughout the book that show the beginning and end of the exercise. If you are ok with that, then there is nothing wrong with this program except that you won't be able to contact Tim Grover with any questions. Overall, a solid program and one you can believe in.
	Plyometric Shoes   The plyometric shoes. These have been around for a long time in both versions as the Strength Shoes and the Jumpsoles. These have been marketed very well through theyears and do sell fairly well. Both have a plyometric program you do with the shoes but that is only one phase of the M.V.P. program above which has four. Both of these programs will suggest you do some weightlifting as well in their manuals but do not provide any program for doing so. The risk of injury is also greater with these types of shoes. If you are sold of these shoes then we say go for it but can't recommend them as the best programs and it's very debatable as to the effectiveness of the actual shoes. It's more likely people see results from these shoes just because of the plyo program they are doing, not so much the shoes. There really isn't any face behind these shoes as they are more inventions by inventors and not professional athletic trainers. The main difference between the Strength Shoes and Jumpsoles is that the Strength Shoes contain an entire shoe on top of the platform while the Jumpsoles fit onto your existing shoes. The Jumpsoles therefore cost less.
	Weighted Vest & Shorts   The weighted shorts and vest will help create resistance to any exercise you do whether it is running, jump, doing pushups, etc. So these will help you get better results when worn doing plyometric vertical jump training as they will make your muscles stronger when doing them. These will also improve your conditioning. Recommended for the serious athlete who likes hard work and is looking for an additional edge.

Basketball for Beginners is just that. If you are a first time coach or player then you can watch this DVD and pick up all the basics of basketball. Common rules are covered as well as learning the layout of the court. Enough drills are presented to get your team working on the fundamentals of basketball which will allow you to easily fill an hour practice.

• Teach an offense you can actually run in games
• Offenses emphasizes fundamental basketball skills
• Multiple camera angles, on screen graphics, & exciting presentation
• Easy to follow instruction
• Fastbreak that transitions into your offense

Magic Johnson's Youth Basketball is a comprehensive DVD that will cover all the fundamentals of basketball. This DVD will take you beyond the Beginner's DVD above when it comes to drills. It won't cover the rules or the court, but focuses just on developing solid fundamentals. This is a more advanced DVD than Beginner and would be suited for a rookie coach or someone who has coach youth basketball for several years. Again, you'll have plenty of material to fill out your practices.

The Steve Nash MVP Fundamentals is very similar to the Magic Johnson Youth Basketball DVD. It is comprehensive and will cover all the fundamentals. We often tell people they are basically the same so if you or your kids are a Steve Nash fan get the Nash DVD if your a Magic Johnson fan get the Magic DVD. The Nash DVD does have an entire section for youth basketball coaches for developing team offense, defense and transition so it is a very good DVD to invest in.