Expert: Michael Muro - 11/2/2005

Question
My almost 14 year old son has developed a habit in which his jump shot has minimal backspin.  we have read much of Tom Nordland material and it still remain unclear to us if this is due to not enough finger pressure or something else.. it would be helpful if you could identify some of the factors that result in reasonable backspin and any drills that might help in this regard thanks  

Answer
Hi Anthony,

I guess timing is everything as my nephew and I just figured this out for him. He is 13 and very smart. He was going through the same thing as your son, as he could not produce correct rotation on his shot. We had been working on his shot for a year or so and no matter what we tried, he could not get backspin on his shot. We finally figured out that his shooting elbow was out to far and not tucked tight to his body(but relaxed). With his elbow out it was producing a catapult effect and this was causing the knuckle ball or minimal backspin. Once he tucked that elbow in, everything was great! We started with 5' and 10' shots and now he is shooting "3's" with very little effort. Let me know if that helps and if not, right back and we will see if we can figure it out. Good luck!