How an NBA Shooting Coach Perfects Jumpshots | The Assist | GQ Sports

What's happening? GQ, this is Chris Matthews. Many of you may know me as Lethal Shooter, Shooting Coach, Bobby Portis, Tavis Card, Papa Skyler Diggins, Candace Parker, Travis Barker, Drake, Future, G, Herbal, the list goes on, anyone who loves the game basketball, I am. willing to

coach

everyone we named, his

shooting

percentage increased while he

coach

ed them. I feel like the numbers don't lie. If you want to master the art of

shooting

, you must take the time every day to shoot the ball. I just can't watch TV and say I want to be a shooter, you have to get your muscle memory, do your reps, do your footwork, place your hands, so I think anyone can be a shooter, you need to understand that what you did before it doesn't It doesn't work and once you understand that that didn't work and you trust me, you will win the main points.

I look for the shooting artist before training the players how to catch the ball. What is your footwork like? How do they shoot when they are tired? What's happening? Their favorite move, what move can't they do? How do they shoot after a timeout when the coach literally turned them on? How do they shoot when the crowd is against them? How do they shoot at home? Some people do put a stop to it. The defender in front of them can't shoot, so when I'm training against you, you know what I'm going to hire someone to get you six foot 10 or if you're tall and you can't shoot against someone shorter.

I'm going to hire someone who isn't tall like you to close. I watch every single thing the person does because if you miss that thing that is reducing their shooting percentage as a coach, you failed that person, you didn't. No matter how well you shoot, you need someone to help you. Tiger Woods has a coach. Steph Curry has a coach. No one is good enough to be taught or criticized by anyone. Buddy Hill this summer. He is a great example. He is shooting a puck with the ball this year. and when I was coaching him the first day he was like testing me, he said what do you see wrong with my jump shot and I was like, well I see this, he was like, no, you're not right and I was like, shoot your way. and then we'll shoot my way if your way wins, we'll keep it your way and then when he was doing my way he said, "Okay, okay, tell me everything if you can let them see how beneficial it is to work on it." his craft and getting better, that's what my life is about, danny green hired me to be a shooting coach last year, he was number one in the NBA last year, I was only with danny green for a few weeks, but he let me change some things. things with his hands, the lower half of his body, shooters like Buddy and Danny, who are already elite shooters, they don't come in saying this is what I'm doing wrong, they come in and say, what do you see?

My workouts aren't the same for everyone, it depends on who the person is. When I was with Bobby Portis, I was like, wait, man, this guy has the potential to be one of the best shooters. I was telling this to Bobby because he really believed in this jump shot and my main goal. I said I'm going to make you top 10 in the NBA and I shoot and he was laughing at me, yeah, yeah, whatever, let's get out of here, let's eat something and then he finished in the top three, he doesn't have the ideal shot. it has a wide base it has a slight problem in the rise but it is consistent it is perfect for her body type you know a lot of people have to understand that your body type will not be the same as Susan's and once we find out what it is consistent for you and that tune for your body we want to continue to maintain that he's a big guy, he's like 6 10.

I changed the way he was standing because if you have bad balance on your feet you're not going to have a consistent jump shot, I changed the way he caught the ball because the way he caught it couldn't reach the fast pace I needed for him to have a consistent jump shot, I changed how low he took the basketball, some players can go very low with the ball, but everyone has different body types. The way you catch the ball can determine whether you shoot 45 from three or 35 percent as soon as your hand touches it, it all goes to your brain if you're not grasping something the right way, your brain can't really grasp that repetition in that jazz and with my clients I teach them when they catch it what the sensation of shooting it is, some people when they catch it, they catch it strongly.

I know as a shooter you want to catch it but you want to have so much strength. You know, because how can you catch something so hard and shoot it so smoothly? I've had clients before that when they catch the ball you can hear like and it's like, how can you shoot the basketball being so tough? You have to be nice to her. I may be wrong but I've never had a client in the top three in the NBA in three point percentage, that was just a testament to how well he shoots and most importantly how he works hard because people don't realize that professional athletes have the entire day reserved and take the time at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. at midnight to photograph what Bobby was doing last year in the playoffs.

They would have practice, he would shoot late at night, he would wake up to play the next day and that was just a testament to how much he wanted to be a great shooter. People say, how come you don't take the time to train with normal people? I train knowing. people every day it's just that when I train a celebrity it goes viral. I was in Atlanta helping Dwight Howard and 21 Savage Hippie get up and I thought, You know what, I'm going to train 21 Savage? We train, I think at midnight it's crazy. midnight and then when I posted that all these other rappers started hitting me like me I didn't even know they trained rappers like I got hit then all these other celebrities started hitting me you know michael b jordan chris brown two chainz. little yacht machine gun kelly that's my boy machine gun kelly he loves basketball he's a kid from Cleveland he grew up watching basketball and it's easy to coach people who are celebrities who love the game but the most important thing is they want to learn people don't realize machine gun kelly is very tall, he's like six six, so the biggest adjustment we changed with him was his tracking because sometimes when he catches the ball, he wasn't tight.

When you throw the ball, you must have a strict body to do the same. every time, but sometimes he realized that their bodies were doing different things, so I was teaching him how to be strict and have good follow through and once he realized that, he has a good chance when I train Drake, takes art seriously. shooting he's in men's leagues he has leagues at his house it's not like he's just trying to work out like he wants to win Drake wants you to train him like you train the NBA guy because I'm going to test you, you know?

If you're a celebrity or something I want to see if you really love the game I'll do something to you to see if you say oh wait man why did you hit me so hard so I was very aggressive when I said very aggressive I'm talking about how aggressive I would be with Deandre Jordan. His favorite shot is a fadeaway. He loves Kobe, so when he was hitting him and he was working on the fade on him, he was showing him something like, "Hey, if someone's hand is here, you got it." that way, but you don't go right away because they're trying to push you that way, you give them a little bit so they have to change your footwork so you can go that direction, if someone's hand is here, you want to go that way direction, but if someone's hand here is dead because if you arch your back like that you can go wherever you want or you can be like this and face up, which I showed them too, I would say from top to bottom we change their whole jump shot, the Lo The thing about Drake is that he has beautiful tracking, but it was the mechanics at the beginning from the beginning that were not right, but the tracking was correct, so I changed everything from the foot to the top and then kept the tracking. same thing because the follow up was perfect and if you give him homework and retrain him you will see the difference in his jump shot because he shoots every day if he's not in the studio if he ever hits me.

I'm going to continue coaching him because he doesn't do it just to be great, he does it because he loves the game. It's amazing to look a customer in the face and they smile when you tell them something. It's like he feels it. but I never knew that I can't explain that kind of joy and that's why my life is so committed to them, just helping others and helping them take a step in the right direction for everyone to see this if they want to be an elite. The shooter take the time to form shots every day.

He tries to make at least 300 shots a day. Stay within the midrange once you get the hang of it. Go to the three-point line once you get the hang of it. Go to the NBA line once you get the hang of it. We're in Stephen Curry land