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Definition of Pure Shooting

By Aim High Hoops

Click here for more information about Pure Shooting, our new basketball training video!

In the famous Seinfeld episode in which Jerry and George are pitching their TV show idea to NBC, George says: “I think you can sum this show up in one word: ‘nothing’”.  While George and Jerry eventually have to modify that message with the NBC producers, Seinfeld fans know that “nothing” is absolutely the perfect description for the actual sitcom.  While so much goes in to making that show popular, “nothing” is the one word that fits best when describing what the show is about.

Is Jerry Seinfeld the new spokesman for Aim High Hoops or something? We wish!

The connection here is that to define the term “Pure Shooting”, one only needs a single word: confidence.  Just like Seinfeld, our Pure Shooting training video took a lot of time, planning, and adjustments along the way. We use a lot of basketball terminology in the training video.  Mastering all of the teaching points requires patience and commitment.  

However, everything we offer at Aim High Hoops, from the Pure Shooting training video, to the Pure Shooting Clinics and Pure Shooter’s Report Card, is designed to help players learn confidence when shooting the basketball.  Having confidence means believing that ball is going into the hoop before the shot even takes place, because a foundation of good mechanics, plus a lot of repetition, has been built. Our training video and clinics teach good shooting mechanics, and we also share our ideas for effective shooting repetition, but ultimately, we want players to know what it takes to be Pure Shooters, and that is confidence.

Confidence is what we emphasize early on in the Pure Shooting training video, as well as at the Pure Shooting clinics, and we say in both instances that players, at the end of the respective programs, should know exactly what it takes to have confidence when shooting a basketball.  Whether or not players choose to do what it takes to earn that confidence is another story!  The ones that do what it takes are rewarded with an unshakable confidence that results in a lot of made shots every time they step onto the court.

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

The Art of Pure Shooting Promo

By Aim High Hoops

Click here for more information about Pure Shooting, our new basketball training video!

It has been a busy two months!  We had three great turnouts for each of the Pure Shooting Clinics this fall, averaging over 60 participants for each clinic.  We look forward to keeping in touch with the players not only during this season, but throughout their playing careers.  What we were looking to accomplish at the Pure Shooting Clinics was to help players lay a solid foundation to their shooting mechanics.  We emphasized our 6 Principles of Pure Shooting at the clinics, and also took the opportunity to promote our Pure Shooting training video and Pure Shooter’s Report Card. We felt that if players bought in to the 6 Principles at the clinic, the training video would provide an even better understanding of the 6 Principles.  The Report Card would then connect our teaching to the players’ current shot mechanics by analyzing the players’ shots, using video footage according to the 6 Principles.  Hopefully, in time, players’ shots then become more aligned with the 6 Principles and they feel more confident about making shots!

We are pleased to say that some of the clinic participants bought the training video, and others bought the Report Card.  We look forward to being a resource for many years to come to players that have already been a part of Aim High Hoops and for those that will work with us in the future.

We invite our blog readers to visit the main website, www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com, to learn more about the Pure Shooting training video, Pure Shooter’s Report Card, and our Pure Shooting Clinics.  We have recently updated the site with our “Art of Pure Shooting” promotional video (check under “Pure Shooting” tab), which we are very excited about!  Please check it out and continue sending us feedback.

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

Pure Shooting Basketball Clinics

By Aim High Hoops

Click here for more information about Pure Shooting, our new basketball training video!

On September 25, 2010, Aim High Hoops will officially be open for business at the first of three Pure Shooting Clinics this fall. The clinics are for 5th-8th grade boys and girls, and the goal of the clinics is to teach players the overview of our Pure Shooting method as seen in our Pure Shooting training video.  We believe that players will walk away from our clinics absolutely confident that they know what it takes to become a pure shooter.  Coaches and parents in attendance will also know how to help players take the necessary steps to become pure shooters.  As we say in the Pure Shooting training video, the way to become a pure shooter is a “simple answer that requires a lot of work.” We’re excited to help!

At our Pure Shooting Clinics, players can expect an overview of our 6 Principles as well as our shooting warm-up and shooting workout routines.  The player to coach ratio is low enough for players to receive individual feedback throughout the clinic.  This is important because every player’s shot is a little different and good advice for one player is not always good advice for all players.  Our 6 principles remain the same for players of any age and skill level, but there are different ways that players can apply the principles to their shots, depending on their current age, level of physical maturity, and skill level. 

On sale at the clinics is Pure Shooting, our first training video which breaks down even further the Pure Shooting method we will be presenting at the clinics. The video has demonstrations for the 6 Principles, the shooting warm-up, and the shooting workout, using players of different age levels, as well as various camera angles and on-screen graphics in order to enhance viewers’ learning experience.  

For the players at the clinics, also available for purchase is the Pure Shooter’s Report Card. We will use clinic video footage to analyze a player’s shooting mechanics based on our 6 Principles of Pure Shooting.  Based on the 6 Principles, players will understand where their shot mechanics currently stand, and they will learn what to do to make their mechanics even better.

Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about hosting a Pure Shooting Clinic in your area.

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

AimHighHoopsOnline@gmail.com

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

Pure Shooting training video on the way!

By Aim High Hoops

Click here for more information about our new basketball training video!

Since August 2009, we have discussed and added to and changed what Aim High Hoops was all about.  Our first discussion was about producing basketball training videos, and although a lot of things have happened along the way, the ultimate goal from those initial talks has never changed: to produce a high-quality and easy-to-follow basketball training video for players wanting to become better shooters.

We are proud to announce that almost 14 months after first outlining the film script, our Pure Shooting training video is in reproduction and will be available for purchase by the end of September.  We will offer Pure Shooting through our company website, www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com, as well as at our three Pure Shooting clinics we will be hosting this fall.

Pure Shooting gives players a clear, proven roadmap for becoming better shooters, and hopefully, Pure Shooters, which means players will know their shot is going to FEEL GOOD and LOOK GOOD all the time, and BE GOOD as much as possible.  For players to have a shot that can FEEL, LOOK, and BE GOOD, there are 6 Principles that we teach in the training video.  While there is a lot of detail involved with the 6 Principles, remembering “only” 6 things is essentially what can help players really accelerate their skill development, which is our goal for players at Aim High Hoops.

Parents and coaches can also use Pure Shooting as a teaching tool.  The 6 Principles explanations are supported with demonstrations by players of different ages, both male and female, and we offer a series of advanced teaching points for players who are ready for such advancement.  Parents and coaches can therefore take the Pure Shooting training video and pass along the teaching points for beginning players as well as more experienced players. We’re extremely pleased to be able to offer Pure Shooting to you!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

www.AimHighHoopsOnline.com

Time for the Madness!

By Aim High Hoops

March is here.  For basketball fans, this is the best time of the year.  It starts with high school playoffs, followed by the NCAA conference championship week, and of course, finishes with the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments. 

There is so much more that goes on during March Madness beyond the great basketball games.  The Madness represents so many different things for so many different people. Players, parents, coaches, and fans are all fully emerged into the phenomena, and there is nothing else like it.

From the players’ perspective, “bittersweet” is the best way to describe the Madness. Many are playing their last high school or college games before moving on to the next level, while even more have laced the sneakers up for the last time.  The few that can call themselves “champions” have completed journeys that began before they could remember, and that took thousands of hours of practice to achieve.  They all share a bond with friends and others that are only teammates, a bond formed from the time, sweat, and physical and mental challenges endured together throughout their seasons and careers.

For fans of all ages, March Madness is a time to forget about other things for a while and be a kid again, by sharing in the tears of joy and sadness with the teams and players they love.  What fans look forward to every year is the great competition and exciting plays, the last-second shots, and the clutch defensive stops.  They cheer for the underdogs… the George Mason Universities who shock the world and reach the ultimate pinnacle of college basketball, the Final Four.  They take off work on Friday and head to Peoria, IL, or Madison, WI, to watch the local high school playing in their first State Tournament series in the school’s history, and for those few hours, they are in a different world.  What these fans see in these teams that make it to the end is a culmination of hard work, sacrifice, a drive towards a common goal, and a lot of good fortune along the way!

Enjoy the Madness!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

Going one-on-one with Aim High Hoops

By Aim High Hoops

No two basketball players are exactly the same.  Every player has individual, defining characteristics of how he or she shoots, dribbles, passes, competes, wins, loses, practices, etc. 

At Aim High Hoops, we embrace the fact that every basketball player’s game is unique.  In addition to producing instructional videos for shooting and dribbling, we also will be offering individualized shooting instruction beginning this spring.  We want to help players understand the strengths and weaknesses of their jump shot, by providing a personalized assessment of the player’s shot and recommendations for improvement. 

We offer this to players of any level.  Think of it like building a house.  If you need help laying that first brick, we’re there for you. If you have the foundation (playing experience) built but need some of the smaller details addressed, we can do that too.

The personalized feedback idea comes from our experiences as classroom teachers.  Students learn in their own ways, no matter the subject.  Sometimes, the advice that teachers give clicks better with some students than others.  The first thing I suggest to students who want extra support to help their learning is one-on-one work, either with a tutor or myself. The result of the personalized attention is usually a better understanding of the material, because it can be explained in a way best suited for the student.

What we asked ourselves was, why not apply the successful teaching method of individualized instruction to basketball skill development?  We couldn’t find a good answer to that question, so we pursued ideas to make it happen.  There is nothing new about individualized basketball instruction, unless you are talking about reaching out regionally and nationally to players in their own backyards.

Our goal is to get the Aim High Hoops name out into the national marketplace.  There is some national competition out there for instructional videos, don’t get me wrong, but once you buy a video from most of those companies there isn’t much opportunity for follow-up.  I think about when I first tried to teach myself piano.  The instructional books I bought were well-organized and fairly easy to understand, but the learning was slow.  It wasn’t until I worked with a piano teacher one-on-one that the music concepts really became clear, and the result was that my learning really accelerated. 

We are confident that our instructional videos will help your understanding of shooting and dribbling, but we hope we can provide more than that to you. We are excited about the idea of bringing our teaching ideas and applying them to your individual game to help you become the best player you can be.

Keep checking back!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

First Appearances

By Aim High Hoops

Aim High Hoops is going to visit the “Original March Madness” in Peoria and Bloomington for the boys’ and girls’ 2010 State Tournament games. You read that right: Even though CBS uses the phrase, the “Madness” originated from the Illinois state basketball tournament!

It is always such an incredible environment “downstate” (or “upstate” for those south of I74).  Now in my late 20s, I still feel like a kid when I am down there watching these teams battle for their chance at basketball glory. The boys’ tournament used to be at Assembly Hall in Champaign; now it is held at Carver Arena in Peoria.  Kevin Garnett, Michael Finley, Derrick Rose, Jon Scheyer, Shaun Livingston, Eddy Curry are only a few of the many incredible players throughout the years that have wowed Illinois high school basketball fans at the State Tournament before moving on to big time collegiate and professional stages.

I still tell people about Ronnie Fields’s offensive rebound from his own missed free throw that turned into the one of the best dunks I’ve ever seen.  This is back in 1995, when all five defenders were still allowed to take a spot in the lane during free throws. He missed it long and wasn’t boxed out. He got his own rebound, one power dribble with his left hand and went off two feet for a tomahawk jam over EVERYBODY. One of many unforgettable March Madness moments I have.

We are going to visit the State Tournament games to start spreading the word on Aim High Hoops. Unfortunately, we won’t have our instructional video on shooting mechanics available, but we’ll be there to invite people to read the blogs and visit the main website to learn about what we can offer people looking for ways to improve their basketball skills. In a previous post I mentioned that we have additional skill development products such as a “personal shot tutoring” feature that we will be advertising for immediate sale.  Package deals will be available to include serious discounts on a “shot tutorial” plus our shooting video once it is produced later in the spring.  I’m thinking “Grand Opening Sale” is more for furniture or appliance stores…..so maybe we’ll go with the “March Madness Sale”.

See you there!

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.

The Toughest Thing in Sports?

By Aim High Hoops

This past weekend I saw some great high school basketball. Hononegah hosted their annual Martin Luther King tournament all day Saturday and Monday. Division I talent was all over the place, including seniors Jordan Treloff (Illinois State) from DeKalb HS, Dwayne Evans (St. Louis) from Neuqua Valley HS and Lenzelle Smith (Ohio State) from Zion-Benton HS. There were countless other players from the 8 teams that will no doubt be playing competitive college basketball once they leave high school. 

Almost every match-up was competitive. Every game was filled with highlights: great defense, passing, dunking, and shooting. The shooting was tremendous! Some of the players I saw were making 3-point shots like they were lay-ups. Just like with any skill in any sport, the great players make it look easy.  At times for players, it is VERY easy. Just ask a great player in any sport about a time he or she was in “the zone”, when the hoop is bigger, the fastball slower, the fairway wider, etc.

That brings me to the article title. OF COURSE I can’t win this argument with everyone, but I might as well give it a try by propping up my bias and playing devil’s advocate with everything else in addressing this question: what is the toughest sport to score in?

Some say hitting a baseball, because it is a moving object.  Hitting a golf ball square is always a challenge because of the need for angles to be so exact.  What about scoring a goal in soccer….or hockey? Both of those seem kind of tough, proven by the fact that scores are always so low in both of those sports. In football there are so many things that need to go right on every play to even gain a few yards.

A few things to consider about the other sports: 1) In golf and baseball a player gets time to set themselves before hitting.  2) Part of the reason hockey & soccer goals are so tough is the role of the goalie, who just stands in front of the goal trying to stop scores! 3) How about the size proportion of the game piece in relation to the goal…in baseball? An average baseball field is close to 100,000 sq. ft of fair territory, covered by 9 players.  Do the math! In hockey or soccer?  How many pucks or soccer balls fit into those nets?  Some big targets there proportionally!  In golf, the proportion is smaller but there is no defense to contend with. With football, a ball just has to cross a line, etc.

By no means am I saying that scoring in other sports is easy; they are all tough. But which sport presents the most difficult environment in which to score? Let’s consider the job a good jump shooter in basketball has.

Imagine having a goalie in basketball, just like in hockey and soccer,  who was positioned directly in front of the goal the entire game. It would be a different kind of sport, wouldn’t it?

Addressing the proportion of ball to goal aspect, two basketballs can fit through a hoop, meaning basketball players try to score in a goal that is ONLY twice the size of the game object, a far smaller proportion than the other sports I mentioned, and they do so with only split-second opportunities, on the move, while getting harassed by pesky defenders throughout the whole process! 

Well, regardless of if you agree with me or not, successful offense in any sport is tough for so many reasons.  Even “the best” in their sports fail in more than 50% of their scoring attempts….but still make it look easy when they do get it right!

Keep coming back to visit. We want to help you make it look easy too. 

Billy Lewis & Jonathan Schneiderman

Aim High Hoops, Inc.