Common Sense In Basket Ball

Heppe Cup, and its victory last. season
added the Alexander Memorial Cup to
the_already large collection in the uni-
versity trophy room. Now Coach Mc-
Nichol has good hopes of winning the

‘first leg on the new Ralph Morgan Cup.

this winter, for although the brilliant
Joe Schaaf has been lost by graduation,
Ed McNichol has three sophomores of
whom he expects great things. -

- “Joe Schaaf,”-said Mr. McNichol, “is
what might be called a self-made basket-
ball player. He has been interested in
the game ever since he was’a very young
kid, and when he was eight or nine years
old he had a basket rigged up in his
back yard, and started to practice shoot-
ing. He practiced for hours a day, day
in and day out, and that faithful prac-
tice developed his natural ability until
he became the best shot in the league.
He was the high individual scorer in
1928, and again in 1929. In the former
year he established a new modern league
record by scoring 125 points. Last sea-
son he shot 44 field.goals, breaking the
record,of 43 established by Orson Kin-
ney, of Yale, in 1917. Schaaf scored
nine field goals in a game against Co-
lumbia last winter.

“An ambitious young player may de-
velop his shooting skill by individual
practice, but there is one serious danger
that he must guard against. That is the
danger of copying too closely the style
of some prominent player. For exam-

ple, Nat Holman, the professional star, |

is a remarkable goal shooter, but he has
a most peculiar style—a style that gets
good results when used by him, but that
would result in the ruin of nine out of
ten young players who attempted to
copy it.

_ “Style really is unimportant in shoot-
ing. The big idea is to get the ball into

the basket, and to do that consistently.

the young player must use a natural toss
—do things in the easiest and most nat-’
ural way. I’ve noticed in the games of
our University of Pennsylvania Inter-

7

scholastic. Tournament that. at least half.
of the players are in unnatural positions
when they shoot. That’s all wrong.
The boy who wants to make the grade
in college basket ball must learn to do
things in an easy, natural way. And
here is something that every basket-ball
player should remember—good shooting
is mostly a matter of good control of
the arm muscles. I’ve watched players
shoot basket after basket in practice, and
then miss basket after basket in a game.
Why? Because, while they were prac-
ticing, they had their arm nmscles under
good control, but in their eagerness to
score in an actual game they lost that
control. Basket-ball players must learn
not to ‘tie up.’ _

“The best advice I can give the boy
who wants to become a good basket-ball
player is to go to some one who really
knows the game, and get some compe-
tent coaching. A really good coach can
do wonders in the way of developing
natural ability, and even a few minutes
of personal attention from such a coach
may keep the young player from form-
ing bad habits, and start him on his way
along the right road. The ambitious
youngster also will do well to attend as
many college and professional games as

he can—intelligent observation of actual

play will teach any one a great deal
about the game. And you must prac-
tice, practice, practice! You can’t get
too much practice! And, if you expect
it to do you any real good, it mustn’t be
half-hearted practice. You must work
every bit as hard while you are practic-

ing as you would work in an actual

game.
“One thing more about individual
practice. The boy who has to practice
his basket shooting in his back yard
shouldn’t feel that he is handicapped be-
cause he can’t do it ina gymnasium. It’s
much better for him to practice out-
doors. Basket ball is a hard game, and
it is made harder by the fact that it is
played indoors, and too often on poorly