Shooting Mechanics: Elbow/Shooting Pocket

The elbow must be in a direct line with your power foot.   This means that if you took a picture of yourself shooting, that you could draw a red line from your power foot to the elbow.  No chicken wing!  The chicken wings happens when you aren't tucking your elbow into your body.  By tucking the elbow in you create the shooting pocket, which every dominant shooter has.  The shooting pocket is the C that your upper and lower arm form with your hand.  This "C' is created by positioning the upper arm at a ninety degree angle in relation with your lower arm.  If you look at Dirk in the picture below he does this perfectly.  His shooting pocket is formed with the perfect ninety degree angle, with the ball placed in his shooting T.  A common mistake in shooting is to release at a lower point from where your should be releasing.  For example, Shawn Marion is a terrible example of a good shooter.   He releases from almost under his head, which is why he doesn't score most of his points on jump shots.  Every great shooter gets the ball to his shooting pocket before he shoots. Dirk is just one example.  If you go look at pictures of Jordan, Kobe, Pierce, etc, you will see they all have the shooting pocket in common.