Seems a bit trivial to do a “how to” to shoot a basketball, you pick it up and shoot it at the basketball, duh. It may seem like an easy task but if you ask almost any good player today they will tell you that at some point in their life they were taught by someone, either formally as a coach or informally as a friend or family member. How to throw a basketball correctly.

So how do you properly shoot a basketball? The rest of this article will attempt to break down the steps involved in shooting a basketball the right way, so let’s dive right in.

The first part of this is about your shooting stance and how you hold the ball just before you take a shot.

Step 1. Make sure you have good posture when shooting the basketball. If your posture is weak, it is difficult to get a good feeling. If you keep your legs locked, you’re more likely to lose your balance, and while some of these NBA players make off-balance shots look easy, to most people they’re not.

Step 2. Make sure you hold the ball correctly.

Step 3. You want to hold the ball in the correct position before picking it up to throw it; we call this the “shot pocket”. The proper position to hold the ball is a few inches above the waist on the kicking side, if you are left-handed it is on the left side and vice versa for right-handers, with your elbow directly under the ball.

These next few steps deal with the best part of shooting a basketball, the shot itself!

Step 4. Begin the shooting motion by pushing the ball up from your “shooting pocket” with your shooting hand. Now, where you release the ball is another part of the “feel” of the shot.

Step 5. With each shot you will want to jump up a bit, the only exception to this is free throws, where most shooters remain stationary.

Step 6. It all comes down to this last step, the launch. The shot of the basketball should happen just before you reach the height of your jump from the last step.

If all goes according to plan and you follow these 6 fairly simple steps, you should see the ball touch nothing but the net and hear that beautiful snapping sound.

Once you have resolved these steps, there is one additional step you need to follow

Step 7 (Bonus Step). Practice practice practice.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on how to shoot a basketball and I hope it brings you success in your future basketball endeavors!