Why Elite Shooters Look at the Ball Early (And What Eye Dominance Has to Do With It)

Steve Kerr and James Harden both have freeze frames of this and it still doesn't sit right with me logically.⁣
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Taking your eyes off a moving target before you release should hurt you, not help you. But I'm starting to think elite shooters' brains already snapshot the rim early, so getting eyes to the ball sooner just means they never register the defender closing out. Worked with a WNBA player on this exact thing. We put a bigger, athletic defender right on her and she would not miss. She simply didn't see him coming.⁣
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Then we get into eye dominance, which is a different rabbit hole entirely. Right eye dominant guys will tilt or turn their head to line that eye up with the rim, that's a big reason Lonzo's shot looked so funky at UCLA and he still shot over 40%. I've got a kid right now doing the same head tilt for the same reason.⁣
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None of this is broken mechanics. It's the eyes finding their own alignment. #shorts