Shot Mechanics Explained / Part 3

The Elbow Flare:

As a veteran coach and working with a lot of kids with shot mechanics, I would say that the elbow flare ranks second behind guide hand interference( top two mechanical flaws) contributing to miss shots and  one of the most difficult errors to fix as this is a case where the body is fighting self.

The main reason why the elbow flare is difficult to correct is it is hard to diagnose the exact cause of it. There are multiple possible causes that force compensatory movements that create the flare as a symptom.

I will dive a little deeper into the possible causes and why some of the solutions that some coaches give won’t fix it. Most of the time the flare will fix itself eventually. Let me explain, some coaches teach players to tilt their toes slightly inward away from the dominant shooting hand to take tension out of the shoulder and force elbow alignment. The problem is that a player can consciously execute that during a controlled session with the  coach but it will immediately breakdown in the flow of a chaotic high paced game as a player from a practical standpoint can not think ten toes tilted on every possession when they execute a shot off the dribble or pass . This would create a cognitive load on the brain while trying to play the game and react to every play at game speed, plus the basket angles remain dynamic during games. You cannot really teach that as a system. Other coaches tell players to tuck their elbow in(myself included in the past) but this presents the same cognitive load in the flow of the game. 

Stephan Curry shoots with his toes tilted and so do I but it did not come from a coach telling me beforehand to tilt my toes as I did not have a coach when I was learning the game. 

This brings me to my next point and that is what I mentioned earlier that the flare will in most cases eventually correct itself. I cannot speak for Stephan Curry but I can confidently say my elbow flare corrected itself by putting in enough shots over time, crossing a certain threshold in repetitions to where the body eventually adjusted ,with no conscious effort on my end, to find the least resistant path to the basket. You will feel it. Stay tuned I will discuss the causes in part 4 .