BBall Breakdown

Coach Nick sits down with professional shooting coach BriAnna Joy Garza, now based in Austin after years on the road, for a deep dive into the mechanics and philosophy of shooting the basketball. The two quickly realize how much of their curriculum overlaps, starting with BriAnna’s core secret: moving the ball at the same speed from start to finish, loading on the catch, and her “hold a cup of coffee” cue for engaging the inside of the wrist. Nick shares the quarterback-coach article that unlocked his own thinking on matching the speed of the dip down to the rise up, and they trade stories on why almost none of the greatest shooters were ever truly square to the basket, including a Jerry West anecdote about a coach not seeing his own turned feet. They get into the freedom of the hop versus the one two, why so much old-school shooting instruction was dogma that HD frame by frame footage has since disproven, and the tricky politics of being a shooting coach around NBA teams. Around the 22 minute mark they finally find something to disagree on, whether to engage the wrist early on the catch or let it load with a natural down up back forward rhythm, and the back and forth on crushing the egg, pronation, and eye dominance is the heart of the episode. A genuinely nerdy, generous conversation between two people who clearly love the craft.

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