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How to shoot three pointers in basketball
USA Basketball - 3 Ways to Make More 3-Point Shots
Lots of players would like to be able to increase their shooting range and become a good 3-point shooter. We all know of examples of players, like Robert Horry, who are recruited to join teams mostly because of their ability to make 3-point shots. "Big Shot Rob" has seven--that's right, seven -- NBA championship rings. Shooters with deep range have helped teams on every level win championships.
Here are three incredibly simple drills and concepts that can help any player extend their shooting range and add to their scoring arsenal.
Warm-Up Speed
Jog (but never walk) through each of these shots. This will help you work up a sweat.
Start around five feet from the basket, and shoot until you make a shot all-net before moving back one step. Repeat the process until you get all the way back to the 3-point line. Continue shooting until you make an all-net 3-pointer.
Initially, do this from the baseline and work your way back to the 3-point line in the corner. Then do the other (right or left baseline) and finally go down the middle and finish with a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Finally, do your normal stretching routine.
Practice Speed
This next part of your practice shooting is best done with a rebounder and a passer. However, if shooting on your own, simply pass to yourself, shoot, rebound and speed dribble back to the spot.
You are now repeating the process of working your way back, only this time going as fast as you think you can, then speeding up your perception of what you think is going fast, and go even faster! Obviously this is great conditioning.
There are several kinds of footwork currently being used by good shooters. These include: the classic inside foot 1-2 step, the 2-foot jump stop, the plant rear foot and step-in, and hop into the shot (1-2 step or 2-foot jump stop). Ask your coach before deciding what do to.
Make one all-net shot of each of the following types of shots and work your way back from three distances: start at 10 feet out, then move to 15 feet and finally to 3-point range. Do both a catch-and-shoot and a shot off the dribble, moving left-right-center. That's six made all-net baskets from each spot.
As before, you must make an all-net shot before progressing to the next type of shot and distance.
Competitive Speed
This is the most important part of becoming a proficient shooter in actual games. Do this workout with defenders. Learning this way will give you transference from practice to actual games. You'll play this way and it will be easy to make shots in games and at crunch time.
Have defenders close out on you (sometimes from closer than they will be in the game) to try and steal the ball and block the shot. Want to become a fearless shooter? Have the defender foul you on purpose. But this should be just a slap on the wrist or controlled nudge, so you don't get hurt. Make (again not just take) three shots like this during every practice and you will become a more focused "in the zone" shooter. You probably will also get to the free throw line in games and have a chance to make a 4-point play!
Math + Honesty = Real Results
Have you noticed that doing any one of the stages will cause you to make -- not just take (this includes shots that go in without being all-net) -- over 100 shots!
You shouldn't care about missing. You don't have to make every shot, just shoot until you make the amount of shots needed to progress to the next stage. Do only as many stages as you are comfortable with. The warm-up stage alone will make anyone a better shooter and is essentially what many great shooters in the NBA do a couple hours before every game.
By the way, just because you take a lot of 3-point shots and you think that you are a 3-point shooter, doesn't mean you are. If it takes more than 15 shots to make an all-net 3-pointer and you have to change your shot to get the basketball to reach the basket, then the 3-point shot is out of your range -- for now.
Your current and realistic range is where you can make two all-net shots in 10 attempts or less. Just be patient with yourself and work on these drills and stay within your range and you will soon gradually extend that range.
Before attempting the 3-point shot in games, first make (just get it in -- you don't have to shoot all-net) six out of 10 in practice on three separate practice days. These shots should be from where you would shoot within the flow of your offense. That's when the statistic of probability is on your side, and you will have a real mathematical chance to shoot at least 35-40 percent from 3-point range when you play.
Anyone Can Do This
I have personally used these drills as a head coach at both the high school level and an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level. I was fortunate to learn quite a bit about 3-point shooting while serving as assistant coach with Craig Hodges. As a player, Craig was on the Chicago Bulls' first championship team with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, both now in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Craig also won the NBA All-Star Weekend 3-point contest three years in a row.
Increasing range and becoming proficient at 3-point shooting will not only help you have more success now, it will also increase your chances to move to the next level. Look at what Pitino, Horry and Hodges have accomplished.
Now it's your turn.
How to Shoot Three Pointers, According to Stephen Curry
This interview was published August, 2014
During an afternoon at Pier 36 in New York, known simply as Basketball City, a revitalized sports mecca in the shadows of the Manhattan Bridge, I got to ask NBA guard Stephen Curry a unique question: “So, honestly, how did I shoot today?”
A slight but knowing smirk crosses Curry’s face, followed by a pause that can only be categorized as the most polite response a human can muster as he searches for the right words. The 26-year-old All-Star for Golden State, a second-generation pro talent, is arguably the best shooter in the game today (he still says Ray Allen is king). Curry’s career 44 percent from beyond the arc is currently third in league history as he enters his sixth season. But drawing from the Degree slogan he wears across his back as the brand’s ambassador, Curry believes he can always “DO:MORE” to improve.
“I’m just trying to hone my skills to a more precise and better level than they were last year when it comes to ball handling, seeing the floor, pick-and-roll situations, and shooting the basketball,” Curry says. “You can never really stop working.”
Jonathan Ferrey / Contributor / Getty Images
Curry walks a few of us through his summer shooting drills, explaining everything he works on from bottom to top with an acronym he learned from his father as a kid: B-E-E-F
Balance: “Keep your feet shoulder-width apart with your dominant foot just slightly ahead of your other, maybe six inches. Bend your knees for a good foundation.”
Eyes: “Keep your focus on the front of the rim. There are three hooks holding the net up that are always facing you, and they’re about the width of a basketball, so I lock my eyes on that target and try to put the ball just over those hooks, instead of aiming at the back of the rim.”
Elbow: “Keep your elbows bent with your upper arm perpendicular to the basket and parallel to the ground so it’s stacked—not just hanging out like a chicken wing. ”
Follow-Through: “You always have to follow through every shot. It helps you shoot with a better arch and get a better rotation on the ball. And there are always cameras on you, so it helps you look good whether you make it or miss it.”
He also explains how his bodyweight workouts focus on becoming stronger in moves specific to basketball, “Like exploding to my right hand, pushing off, and being able to get to that spot quicker, and rise for the shot quicker,” while also not building bulk that might confuse his feel for the ball. “My body won’t change much, but I’ll be stronger each year.”
After the drills, we square-off in a three-point contest. I make eight of 25, followed by Curry nailing his first five in succession before missing 15 straight in the way only a polite man with pinpoint accuracy can. So how did I do?
“You’re like Tim Duncan,” Curry finally muses. “You like to use that glass. That’s your forte. Once you get the touch for it, you’ll be fine. And you got better once you were outside the arc, so maybe you’re just too strong for this game.”
Yes. It’s definitely that. Absolutely. And nothing else.
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3 tips for increasing shooting distance
Nikita Yamshchikov, Founder of Ball In
@nikyamschikov
How to shoot three-pointers or even how to make three-pointers? How to throw from a logo like Curry or Yang? Asked such questions?
Keep 3 tips to help you!
Tip 1
Work on the quality of the movement: how you lift the ball from the bottom and how you release it. Try to move the ball close to the body and not back behind the head, this will give more energy to the ball.
"Use your feet to hit a 3-pointer" is often a misnomer because it's more important to transfer energy to the ball efficiently rather than pushing stupidly up when the ball is dead center.
To improve this, try throwing without legs. For example, sitting on a chair or with a wide setting of the legs.
Tip 2
Don't rush to chase long distances at once. Learn to make a precise movement close to the ring and gradually move away. When your hand makes a different movement every time you throw, stability is out of the question. Moreover, the further you throw, the stronger each extra movement and deviation affects the result.
First stability, then increasing distance. Try a simple exercise: you start at the ring and make 5 hits, if it took you no more than 7 throws, take a step back. So you move away until you make 3 misses from some point. Made 3 misses - start over.
Watch the video for another exercise. It also fits the first tip.
Tip 3
Be patient. One workout and 100 throws won't be enough to get big changes and learn something. A throw, and even more so a good and stable one, requires a large amount of high-quality repetitions and fixing the movement.
Make your shooting training not just voluminous, where you make 400 hits, but as high quality as possible. 200 hits in 250 throws is better than 400 hits in 1600 throws.
Do you want to improve your shooting, and improve your dribbling and finishing? Try the LVL UP course
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Made April 2013 at 19:45
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Winter is finally gone, which means it's time to break out of your cramped apartments to freedom and do all sorts of street activities. Today's article in the "Advice" section is devoted to basketball, and specifically to how to learn how to make three-point shots, and not just rush aimlessly around the field.
How to learn to shoot three-pointers?
A three-point shot, like a free kick in football, is one of the most spectacular moments of the game. With such a killer throw, you can bury your opponent's hopes a second before the end of the match, and also win the respect of your friends by showing your unsurpassed accuracy. Of course, it takes a lot of time to hone any skill, and reading this guide won't instantly make you Reggie Miller or Ray Allen (the best three-point shooters in NBA history), but you can learn some useful skills. Further, everything depends only on you: training and perseverance, and at one fine moment you will succeed.
The three-point shot in its current form originated in 1967 in the ABA (American Basketball Association) championship, and later adopted by the NBA. Interestingly, in the NBA, the distance of the three-point line is 724 cm from the rim, while in the American collegiate championship it is much less - only 602 cm. The standard distance for most courts in the rest of the world is 675 cm.
Pre-training
If you are serious about impressing everyone with your abilities, start training. It is better to start doing the first exercises from a close distance, about half a meter from the ring, and gradually move away. When training at close range, you should try to throw so that the ball hits the ring without hitting its edges. The main thing here is to bring muscle movements to automatism.
Andrei Kasai
musician, illustrator
Three-pointer is not easy, but there are a few tricks that will definitely help. Well, first of all, let's not forget the good old prayer. Here all means are good: amulets, ritual candles, limbs of dead animals, training. Secondly, you can always cheat. No one has yet canceled a well-tested technique - a spade. And don't forget, a three from a shield doesn't count.
Preparing to throw
To begin with, you should completely relax the body - mainly the arms and hands (but do not spend too much time on this). Look at the ring, focus on a specific target. Feel the ball in your hands. To do this, you can twist it a little, pokanit several times. Then you need to carefully build a picture in your head of how the ball hits the ring. Try to mentally imagine its trajectory: when throwing from long distances, it is a parabola with a maximum height of about two meters above the level of the ring.
Leg position
Place your feet slightly apart parallel to each other and orient them towards the middle of the basket. In this position, the direction of the kinetic moment of the body during the jump will coincide with the direction of the throw. If the feet are uneven, you will have to make additional efforts to extinguish the energy of the body. The range and accuracy of the flight in this case will be very different from those planned.
Hand position
The weaker hand must be the guiding hand and be located to the side of the ball, the stronger hand must be the thrower and be in front. The fingers are open, the ball should lie on them, without touching the inside of the palms. The elbow of the throwing arm should be approximately in line with the basket and bent at a 90 degree angle.
The world record for most three-pointers is held by Dave Hople, the shooting coach of many NBA players, including Kobe Bryant. In a minute, he managed to put 18 three-pointers in a row into the basket.
Throw moment
Take a deep breath and exhale to throw. At the moment of the throw, the arm is fully extended, the wrist is directed upwards, and the hand tells the ball to rotate around the horizontal axis in the direction opposite to flight. The ball at this moment, as it were, rolls off the index and middle fingers. In the final stage, there should be a movement with the brush, seeing off the ball. At the moment of release, the ball must be above the player's eyes, but at the same time at the same level with the goal. The greater the distance, the greater the amplitude during the swing and the final effort.
Common errors:
Flex your arm less than 90 degrees. In this case, the trajectory will be more horizontal and the throw will turn into throwing.
Shoulders and back tilted back. Then the range of motion will increase greatly.
The ball comes off the ring finger. This causes it to rotate sideways and accuracy is reduced.
The guiding hand interferes with the direction of the throw.
Shield use
Using a shield is a bit of a cheat, of course, but if a three-pointer can decide the game, why not. All basketball backboards have a rectangle. If you are opposite the ring, you need to aim at the middle of the upper part of the rectangle above the ring, if on the side - at the corner of this rectangle closest to you.
Do both a catch-and-shoot and a shot off the dribble, moving left-right-center. That's six made all-net baskets from each spot. 
You don't have to make every shot, just shoot until you make the amount of shots needed to progress to the next stage. Do only as many stages as you are comfortable with. The warm-up stage alone will make anyone a better shooter and is essentially what many great shooters in the NBA do a couple hours before every game.
These shots should be from where you would shoot within the flow of your offense. That's when the statistic of probability is on your side, and you will have a real mathematical chance to shoot at least 35-40 percent from 3-point range when you play.
”
And you got better once you were outside the arc, so maybe you’re just too strong for this game.”
Of course, it takes a lot of time to hone any skill, and reading this guide won't instantly make you Reggie Miller or Ray Allen (the best three-point shooters in NBA history), but you can learn some useful skills. Further, everything depends only on you: training and perseverance, and at one fine moment you will succeed. 
The main thing here is to bring muscle movements to automatism. 
Try to mentally imagine its trajectory: when throwing from long distances, it is a parabola with a maximum height of about two meters above the level of the ring. 
The elbow of the throwing arm should be approximately in line with the basket and bent at a 90 degree angle. 
The greater the distance, the greater the amplitude during the swing and the final effort. 
