The Why: Basketball & Learning Never Stop
To reach higher levels of accurate basketball shooting, and basketball performance in general, a player must train harder, smarter and weirder than their peers. You have to break it all down into tiny, tiny details.
In Search of a Perfect Jumper is an ongoing research project aiming to look at how the small things turn into big deals in basketball, in non-basketball careers, and in other important areas of life. It’s a weekly series of pieces published to pose questions and find answers about basketball between micro and macro levels. Shooting, the most popular and fun skill, is a key to tap into basketball, the vehicle that can take us further in the important areas of our life.
The Kaizen of Kyle Korver
“There was a smaller detail after that. I found a new detail and then a new detail and then a new detail. Eventually I was stroking, and eventually I wasn’t that tired.
“I started breaking down every single little detail of this simple stroke and tried to make it perfect. Get one perfect stroke and try to do it again. And just got lost in trying to perfect the stroke.
“I focused on one detail and after 100 strokes, that didn’t feel like a detail anymore. That felt natural.
Kyle Korver isn’t talking about his mastered jumper. He’s reflecting on a misogi, an annual body and mind bending Japanese Shinto ritual; a taboo challenge intended to renew and radically expand your sense of what’s humanly possible.
For his first misogi, Korver paddleboarded through 25 miles of California waters in the offseason between the 2013 and 14 seasons; the 2-season stretch when he broke through our perceived barriers of accurate shooting by setting a record of nailing at least one 3-pointer through a stretch of 127 games in a row.
Kyle Korver was already a top-5 shooter before, and after incorporating the misogis in his offseasons, he continues to sharpen his shooting skill, like any true marksman or woman. This past season, his shot chart looked like this:
Inspiration Everywhere
Kyle Korver, Steph Curry, Katie Smith, Steve Kerr, Katie Smith, Ray Allen, Becky Hammon and Reggie Miller are the most familiar snipers in the pro basketball world. What about the no-name guys? Players still working their way forward, from high school to college to the big leagues, in America or overseas? Players on their way down, the average basketball player, who starting in his mid-20s, becomes increasingly occupied at the office and at home.
What if we dug into the stories, experiences and lessons of all these shooters, from different skill levels, each with different goals in career and life? What if we broke down their great abilities into tiny, tiny details that the rest of us could learn from and apply into our own practice? What would we discover about shooting forms (techniques), about modern day competition, about sports science, about basketball’s history, about global basketball, about work ethic, about technology, about training methods, about individuality, about human behavior, about teamwork, about off-the-court friendships, about player and coach relationships?
The Learning Never Stops
In Search of a Perfect Jumper is an ongoing research project aiming to do just that. While it offers instruction and basic drills to improve your shot, it aims to go beyond just pointers and tips. It’s a weekly series of pieces published to pose questions and find answers about basketball shooting in order to make and see important patterns and connections.