One of the most accomplished college players of all time, coach Roger Galo, talks about developing his own shooting mechanism, The Galo System.
In an exclusive interview with TalkBasket.net, Coach Galo analyses his shooting mechanism, refers to the challenging aspects of developing one, explains how important confidence and shooting mechanism are for a player’s shooting accuracy and more.
You have developed your own shooting mechanism, named The Galo System. What are its special characteristics and how is it helpful to the players and their shooting accuracy?
“Essentially, I have developed the “Holy-Grail” of basketball shot-making. Its components are based on years of research, experimentation, and principles taken from various sciences.
Unfortunately, much of what we are taught and trained to do is riddled with challenges and contradictions, which explains the low shooting percentages and the frequency of hot and cold shooting performances.
The components I’ve discovered and engineered are categorically superior across the board and perform reliably across all areas of scoring, especially within the context of a game.
Because my movements are rooted in the sciences of kinesiology, biomechanics, physics, anatomy, and mathematics, they are not only more efficient and effective, they are more repeatable, contributing to consistency.
A significant characteristic is that much of it is intuitive, making it faster, simpler to implement, and easier to master.
An economy of motion makes it not only more reliable, but also faster to execute, making it harder to block and offering more scoring opportunities due to its speed and efficiency.”
How difficult is it for the players to change their shooting mechanism and get used to a new one in order to improve their shooting?
“It really depends on the level of the player, how long they’ve been playing, and how long those habits have existed.
The reality is that even the higher level players in college, the NBA, or the international level, regardless of their stats, generally all consider themselves to be good shooters. Very few admit that they are not.
It is akin to the attitude that every coach is a shooting coach. Every coach thinks they know shooting. I’ve come across many shooting coaches who are not in tune with exactly how they (themselves) shoot.
Therefore, they may verbally describe something or explain how to do something but when they are actually shooting to demonstrate, the instructions don’t match up. I’ve had college seniors and aspiring next level players (NBA, G-League, and international) who have completely overhauled their shots with my system in weeks.
Much of the process depends on what is going on between their ears. Changing their movements and empowering them with a higher level of understanding seems to make so much sense to them.
Introducing specific proprietary drills with which they begin assimilating the technique allows them to more effortlessly and quickly master this shot than any basketball experts thought possible.
The belief that it takes hundreds of thousands of repetitions to become a great shooter stems from conventional wisdom directly connected to the traditional basketball shooting form that’s been coached and is still being trained over the past 50 years.
So much has evolved in nearly every aspect of the game, except the shot. I achieve faster and bigger gains in far shorter time and with far fewer repetitions than basketball pundits care to acknowledge or believe.
But, if this system is as I’ve described it, and is that scientifically supported, and more intuitive, wouldn’t it follow logically that the player would perform better?”
What are the challenging aspects of developing a new shooting mechanism, which is different from the usual ones?
“There are several challenges. The biggest challenge is the fear that the vast majority of coaches feel when they see someone shooting differently than those around them.
The fear of the unknown, the temptation to discredit it without knowing anything about it- despite the fact that players I train may be literally breaking records, numerous records on the offensive side of the ball or are ranked highly as a “shooter or scorer.”
It’s an indication of how closed-minded the basketball community is towards shooting. Ironically, that’s not the attitude regarding yoga, analytics, core strengthening, cross training, sports psychology, nutrition, recovery, or anything else.
It’s like they’ve accepted there is no other way to shoot, that it’s impossible, doesn’t exist, no way, no how.
I’ve literally had some very good shot-makers leave me and regress because of the pressure exerted from their coaches and their teammates stemming from the fact that they have not seen or read about this system, and they’ve not seen a video of it.
Since it is so fresh and new, there are not many who they can research. Every player around them is shooting entirely differently than they are. I’m very guarded, almost to a fault, for not allowing my shooting system to be seen publicly because coaches and players steal from each other.
Connected to this fear issue is the issue of ego getting in the way. There aren’t too many coaches who can accept that somebody might know more than they do, especially if they’ve been at it a while.
That ego oftentimes is accompanied by a provinciality that prevents them from learning and growing. It gets in the way of them thinking “this might have value.”
What are the key elements that affect a player’s shooting accuracy? is it confidence? shooting mechanism? both?
“I believe it’s both. The mechanics play a bigger role than the mind. Confidence is part of the mind. If a player is taking a shot while allowing doubt to creep into their mind before they’ve even launched it, then that is going to contribute more to missing.
But what I’ve experienced with the Galo Shot-Making System is that the mechanics are so reliable, repeatable, intuitive, and effective that confidence, if it were an issue, is eliminated by virtue of experiencing the success they’re having and watching how many more shots they’re making.
The newfound, higher level of control, accuracy, consistency, and understanding is so empowering that one’s confidence level soars.
For example, I was the 3rd leading scorer in the country and an NBA prospect, having shot many, many years with the traditional method with all of its challenges.
I am now confident, more prepared, more accurate, and faster as a shot-maker than I’ve ever been and I’m proving it against younger, high level basketball players.
I’m taking and making shots I never had the confidence to take against longer, taller, more athletically superior players than those I played against in college.
Do you think this shot-making system had much impact on me, my psyche as a scorer? Absolutely! One’s confidence is bolstered by watching that ball go through the basket so effortlessly and so regularly.
Doubting oneself’s ability to get a shot off and make it becomes a non-issue. Doubt leads to passing up the shot and getting the ball to a teammate that many times isn’t in the best position to shoot.”
