Training Like The Pros

Have you ever walked into a gym and watched a high school player moving from spot to spot around the three-point line, catching passes from a rebounding machine, firing up jumper after jumper, getting in what many people would consider a great shooting workout?

Well guess what?

You’re not likely to find a professional player approaching improvement in quite the same way. They don’t simply walk into the gym and start taking random shots. They begin by studying film. They identify the situations they encounter most frequently, then recreate those exact situations in their workouts. Every drill has a purpose because every repetition is preparing them for something they’ll actually experience in competition.

That philosophy changes everything.

Instead of asking yourself, “How many shots did I make today?” you should begin asking, “How many game situations did I prepare for?”

See, making shot after shot with no pressure, no defender, and no decision attached to it is practicing a shot that doesn’t exist anywhere but the driveway.

Every summer, players log thousands of reps and wonder why the shot that felt automatic in an empty gym disappears the moment a real defender closes out. DeVenzio’s answer was always the same:

It’s not the number of reps. It’s the quality and intention behind them. Or what we refer to at PGC as deliberate practice.

What Does Deliberate Practice Look Like?

Game shots come with fatigue, a closeout, a shot clock, and a decision attached. If practice strips all of that away, you’re building confidence in a shot that has never once faced what it will face in a game.

Deliberate practice means every rep has a purpose and a pressure attached to it, not just a made basket.

WATCH: What Should Your Shooting Practice Actually Look Like?

Here’s an example of the kind of shooting drills you should be incorporating into your workouts if you want to be an elite shooter…

What Most Players Get Wrong When Practicing Shooting

Many players believe that just because they got their butt to the gym and got up their 500 shots, they should be successful on the court but they couldn’t be more wrong. This is the bare minimum. This is mistaking activity for achievement. The real question you should be asking yourself is this…

Are you training according to your aspirations?

Meaning, if you want to shoot well in games, are you preparing your body and mind to do exactly that? Or, are you satisfied getting in reps solely because it makes you feel productive? Don’t get me wrong, volume certainly leads to real progress, but only if the reps mirror what actually happens in a game.

Spot shooting with no defender, no fatigue, and no decision attached builds a shot that collapses under the first real closeout it ever sees, because the player has never once practiced making that shot decision under pressure.

The players who transform over a summer aren’t logging more shots than everyone else. They’re logging the exact shots they’ll get in games, at game speed.

Remember, great shooters are part athlete, part artist, and part scientist. The athlete develops the physical ability to execute under fatigue. The artist develops touch, rhythm, and creativity. The scientist studies performance, measures results, identifies weaknesses, and makes intentional adjustments rather than hoping improvement happens by accident.

That final role, the scientist, is often the one young players overlook.

Many athletes finish a workout without learning anything. They know they made a lot of shots. They know they missed some others. Beyond that, they couldn’t tell you much about their performance.

Great shooters become students of their own game and measure everything.

They know which shots consistently give them trouble. They understand where their percentages drop. They recognize which footwork patterns break down under pressure and which game situations still make them uncomfortable. Every workout becomes much more than just a fun shootaround…

It becomes an experiment designed to answer a specific question.

For Coaches: WATCH – How to Build This In at Practice

It’s often not “what” you teach but rather “how” you teach it. This week, get an inside look at how PGC Coach and current Head Coach at Emmanuel College, TJ Rosene, helps his players build habits while teaching a team shooting drill.

The Car Ride Home

This is the last car ride home of the series, and maybe the most important question of the month.

“What did you do to align your training with your aspirations today?”

This question does something most parents never think to ask: it puts the responsibility for practice quality back on the athlete, without you having to critique anything yourself. If practice never feels hard, it’s probably not building anything that will hold up when a real defender shows up. Let your child sit with that question instead of handing them the answer.

This Week’s Challenge

During your next workout, resist the temptation to simply count makes. Before every drill, ask yourself one question:

“What game situation is this preparing me for?”

If you can’t answer that question, consider changing the drill. Because the goal isn’t to become great at shooting in practice. The goal is to become great at shooting when the game is on the line.