Estimated read time: 3 minutes

Hey Coach,

If I asked you what you fix first when a player misses a shot, my guess is form.

Elbow. Arc. Follow-through. Feet. You walk into a shooting drill, a player bricks one off the back iron, and your instinct is to go correct the mechanics.

That's not a bad instinct. But it's the wrong order.

Mike Carlson spent 10 years playing professionally. He's coached shooting at every level since. This week on The Hours, he and I broke down five rules for shooting and the order that surprises coaches most every time is the factor we prioritize last:

Technique.

Technique is fifth.

Not because it doesn't matter. It does. But because technique that gets layered on top of a broken foundation doesn't stick. You can correct elbow position until you're hoarse. If the player hasn't developed the things that come before it, the elbow drifts back within two possessions.

Here's what comes first:

1. Authenticity

Every shooter who lasts has their own shot. Not Steph Curry's. Not a textbook release. Theirs. The first question isn't "is their technique right?" - it's "is this their shot?" That's the thing that has to survive the pressure of a game, a rough shooting night, a crowd in their face. It only survives if it belongs to them.

2. Power

Before mechanics, you need power. A player who can't generate force through their shot will compensate - and the compensation shows up as the bad mechanics you're trying to fix. Go find the power problem and you'll often fix three technique problems at once.

3. Craft

Shooting is built in the dark, in the gym, before anyone is watching. The craft comes before the mechanics because the mechanics are a product of the craft - they emerge through repetition and intention. You can teach someone the right form in ten minutes. The form doesn't become real until the player puts in the work to make it theirs.

4. Mindset

What does your player believe about their shot? How do they respond to back-to-back misses? How do they carry themselves to the line in a tied game? The mental framework has to be in place before technique refinement means anything. A shooter who falls apart under pressure hasn't solved the mindset yet. No amount of mechanics work fixes that.

5. Technique

In the right order, technique work lands. The player has a shot that belongs to them, the power to execute it, the craft to repeat it, and the mindset to compete with it. Technique refinement at that point is addition, not reconstruction.

Athletes inside SAVI Training are applying this kind of sequenced development. Here's what one of their coaches had to say about their players’ transformation:

Before your next shooting workout, look at what you're coaching first. If you walked in planning to correct form, consider which of the four steps before it might actually be the real issue.

Let me know how it goes.

Stay SAVI,

Tyler

P.S. The full SAVI Shooting System - 28 days of teaching, daily workouts & journal prompts - is inside SAVI Training. Seven days free, then only $13!