Basketball players want to shoot the ball and try to score points. Obviously this is an important part of today’s game with them watching NBA players that specialize in three point shots. The challenge is that not everyone can shoot the ball very accurately.
One way for a coach to objectively determine where a player should shoot the ball from is to use a range test. A range test involves setting up shooting stations around the basket. Have each player take ten uncontested shots from each station and then have them move to the next one. At each station, have the players record how many of those ten shots they made. An example of this is below.
Once the test is over, look at the results with the player. For a player to be okay making a shot from an area in a game, they would need to make at least 7 shots from there (i.e. 70%) during the range test.
For example, athlete A makes 70-90% of his shots from the free throw line, bottom of the circle, upper elbow, and blocks. But his accuracy falls to 50% or worse when he gets away from those. That means that Athlete A is okay to take game shots from the free throw line, bottom of the circle, upper elbow, and blocks but not from further out.
The great thing is that this is something objective that athletes can improve on. Every so often this range test can be run again, if athletes improve then they have more options during a game!
Note that this test is not my idea. I’m borrowing and modifying this idea from Kevin Sivils’ excellent book: 101 Shooting Drills for the Game of Basketball
