Shooting School - Release Point
The “Release Point” is the term we give to the position the shooting arm finishes after releasing the shot.
The Release Point is important as it will play a role in determining the flight of the basketball to the hoop.
There are many theories on what angle the ball should approach the hoop but all theories are in agreement that the optimum flight of the ball will follow a high arcing path to the basket.
If the Release point is too low (9 O’clock) then the ball will be shot flat and hard, too high (12 O’clock) and the ball will often fall short and range will be hard to gauge.
Rather than talk about angles and confuse our junior players more than we have to, we like to talk about the hands on a clock.
12 would be straight up, 9 would be straight out and 10.30/11 is what we consider the optimal release point.
We have found that this use of imagery has been really effective in helping players find the perfect release point.
