Welcome To Keys To The Gym

LONHOBIR is a made-up word for good shot selection—a thing that almost all players are terrible at. The word takes the first letter of each word of the following phrase: Shoot Layups Or (shots with) No Hand (up) On Balance In Range.

You’ve got to wonder (unless time is running out) why anyone ever takes anything but a layup or a shot with no hand in the face on balance and in good shooting range. If you can’t get the shot you want, pass off. That seems easy enough, yet players instead want to flip up a scooper or let go a flying hook or a fade-away jumper. What for?

“But Coach,” you hear players say, “I’m good at that shot.”

“Sure, but you’re better at shots with no hand in your face. You’re even better at shots when you’re on balance. You’re even better at shots when you’re a little bit closer.”

Why take a fade-away when you can pass off and try again? Why take anything but a very high-percentage shot? The guess might be that players are selfish, and they want to score, and they are afraid that if they don’t shoot when they have it, someone else will. But that is not the answer. One-on-one games prove that.

In a one-on-one game, you not only get every shot, but the more shots you make, the more shots you get to shoot since most players play one-on-one with a “make-it-take-it” arrangement. Yet, even in one-on- one games, players repeatedly take poor, low-percentage shots instead of being patient and waiting for a better opportunity. There is no explaining it except as being a lack of awareness. Most players just don’t give much thought to percentages.

Learning to make a shot with a hand in your face is not nearly as important as learning to pass up such shots and learning how to get shots with no hand in your face. Of course, layups and inside shots are not included in the “no hand” rule. You should be able to make those with ten hands in your face.

For a quick review, some questions.

What excuse do you have for shooting shots off balance and out of your “sure-shooting” range?

Why do you shoot when there is a hand in your face?

Why won’t you pass off and wait for a higher percentage opportunity?

And the best question of all is, why do you ever take a bad shot in a one-on-one match?

Sometimes, even good players make very little sense.

From Dick’s book Stuff