Shooting Practice Session

In general, we recommend that the athlete should practice their shooting as often as possible because with more practice, more learning occurs. However, the athlete would have to determine their goals before they begin the task of learning to shoot. Once these goals are set, their amount of desire to learn how to shoot will be known and thus, it will be easier to determine exactly how often the athlete should practice.

When introducing the skill of shooting we recommend using an observational learning model. The person performing the shooting skill could be a coach or a peer. We recommend that the model be a peer as this might make the observer/learner feel more confident when it comes time for them to attempt the skill themselves.

The initial one or two practice sessions would use blocked practice. Blocked practice involves repeated performance of the same task. This kind of practice seems to make sense in that it allows learners uninterrupted time to concentrate on the performance of each task, so that they can engrain, refine, and, if necessary, correct one skill before proceeding to the next. Blocked practice is used in the early stages of learning (verbal-cognitive) as it is of more benefit because the athlete may need a number of repetitions in order to produce the action successfully just once. As soon as a rough idea of the shooting skill is acquired by the athlete, practice is shifted from blocked to random. This switch is recommended because blocked practice produces effective performance during initial rehearsal but does not create lasting learning, like random practice does. Random practice involves different tasks being performed and the order of rehearsal is mixed during the session.

During blocked practice, people either fail to practice the target skill, or they practice the target skill in a context that is not the same as that of the target context. The specificity of learning notion suggests that the best practice experiences are those that bring individuals as close as possible to the conditions of the target skill and the target context. Such conditions are often absent in many blocked practice sessions. When the target skill, in this case shooting, must be produced in a target context that includes random conditions, which shooting in wheelchair basketball does, random practice is far more effective than blocked practice.

Random practice is presumed to cause gains in learning due to the trial-to-trial forgetting of task solutions to the different movement problems, to the development of more meaningful and distinctive representations of the different tasks in memory, or both.

In accordance to the previously described principles applying to practice sessions, the following shooting drills were developed. The first drill involves blocked practice and from there the drills progress until the athlete is practicing the target skill (shooting) in the target context (random game conditions).

The athlete can perform this drill alone but it is recommended to have a partner present to aid with the performance of the drill. The athlete performs 10 shots from each of the designated spots on the floor (1-9). The athlete does not move to the next spot until all 10 shots have been performed from the current spot. The partner can retrieve the ball after each shot and pass the ball back to the shooter. The focus in this drill is on technique as the athlete is becoming familiar with the skill of shooting. Once they are comfortable with the technique and are having more success on their long range shots the drill can be progressed. To progress this drill the speed of the shot can be varied with odd numbered repetitions being performed at a moderate speed and even numbered shots performed at an accelerated pace.

In this drill the athlete shoots from the same spots highlighted in drill number 1, but in no particular order. The athlete shoots from one spot, propels themselves to one of the other spots, receives the pass from their partner and then takes a shot. The number of shots taken without switching the shooter and retriever/passer roles can be decided by the athletes. As in drill 1, the main focus of this drill is technique of the shot. This drill does however progress the athlete from blocked practice to random practice which, as mentioned previously, is more effective in producing learning of the skill.

The shoot and lay-up drill is performed individually. It involves taking a shot from one of the designated spots, then retrieving the ball, regardless if the attempt was successful, and executing a lay-up. The player then moves to another of the shooting spots and repeats the drill until all of the shooting locations have been completed. This drill is another progression which brings movement into the shooting. This drill involves random practice as well as being closer to the target context of game conditions where the players are quite often moving and are required to execute a lay-up on fast breaks.

* Other ways in which these drills can be progressed to better match the target context of real game conditions is to execute the shot:

* A special factor to consider in the skill of shooting in wheelchair basketball is upper girdle (shoulders, chest, triceps, biceps, forearm) muscular fatigue. In regular basketball the athletes use their legs to run up and down the court and to aid in generating force in shooting, rebounding, blocking shots, etc. In wheelchair basketball, the athletes use their upper girdle muscles to perform all skills involved in the game. This incredible amount of work that the muscles of the upper girdle must perform during a game of wheelchair basketball is significantly greater than in regular basketball. Thus, for shooting practice to match the target context of game, the factor of fatigue should be integrated into these shooting drills when the athletes have attained a fairly high level of performance of the shooting skill. There are many different ways in which the element of fatigue can be worked into these drills; one example is by having the athletes perform traditional 'lines' or 'suicides' previous to performing the shooting drill.

This is drill is to be performed in partners. This drill is basically the traditional game of 'one on one'. All of the described thus far have been performed unopposed and unless your opponents are incredibly lazy you will be faced with a defender when shooting in a game situation. The final progression thus involves the introduction of a defender. This 'one on one' drill can be performed on a half-court or, if the two players are of the same approximate skill level, it can be performed on a full-court. The full-court version would bring the fatigue factor into the drill, bringing the drill closer to the target context of game conditions.

A practice program that eventually progresses the athlete to a drill that is characterized by diversity and adversity will leave more significant and distinctive impressions and will ultimately reinforce shooters' memories. As well, the amount of learning that occurs increases when practice is progressed towards the same speed and accuracy requirements of the target skill in its target context.