Heating

It can get really cold in the winter in a lot of places. First thing you’re going to need is some heat. But before you have heat, you probably need to have your building insulated, that will make a bigger difference than anything else. Before my building was insulated, it would get to a point where it couldn’t get any warmer no matter how long I kept the heaters on. After that though, I could heat up the building pretty well in about an hour with 13,500 watts of heat.

The main two heaters I used are 5,000 watt electric heaters from Cadet. I put one on each side of the main hoop and blew the air into the center of the court. It works really well during the winter. I have a video of it below:

I bought them from Amazon. I included an Amazon affiliate link below to them:

Cadet Hot One 5000w Heater

I’ve had them in place for over 2 years without a single issue. I run them at full power.

Humidity Issues

If you live in a humid climate like Florida or the midwest, humidity can be a real problem inside sheds. The problem is that the humidity gets ‘trapped’ inside, causing it to rust or corrode all metal inside the shed. How your shed is built can also have an effect. When mine was built, they forgot to put in a vapor barrier under the concrete, so I would get condensation sometimes on the concrete (not great). They also forgot to open up the attic ventilation as well, leading to a lack of air movement inside.

To combat these issues, I bought a dehumidifier to see if would really help the issue. It instantly made a huge difference. Previously, it felt like a sauna inside the shed with all the heat and humidity during the summer. With the dehumidifier going, it was still warm but not the humid type heat that really stinks.

I run it later in the spring and summer when the rain starts to fall and the humidity rises. I typically don’t run it all during the winter, and the fall is usually dry enough that I don’t have to use it either.

I made a video showing how I use it below:

I believe I bought it Home Depot, but it’s also available through my Amazon affiliate link below:

GE Dehumidifier with Pump

Make sure you get the pump, otherwise you’ll constantly be dumping water out of it (not fun). There are two models that look almost identical, one with the pump and hose, the other without, so make sure you get the one appropriate for you.

The post Heating and Humidity for your Basketball Court appeared first on Master Basketball.

Also, if you decide to buy one of these (or any of the models, include the new 12k) and my review helped, if you mention my name as a referral I’ll send you a free basketball (typically a Wilson Evolution) of your choice. Email me at at93850@yahoo.com to get it setup. Thanks in advance, I really appreciate and I hope this information below will help you make an informed decision.

Unboxing the Shoot-A-Way 10k “The Gun”

The machine comes on a pallet and wrapped around with cardboard. It is actually really heavy, I think around 250 pounds. I was able to get it off the pallet by myself but it was somewhat difficult, most people will probably require a second person to help.

Setting it up

Finally getting it setup, it will require an extension cord for sure, the cord that comes with it is only about 6 inches long. The nice thing is that there’s an on/off switch right there at the base to control the power. That’s what I’ve used most of the time to turn it on and off. You can see the picture below:

Getting it setup into position is really easy, but was slightly confusing the first couple times. There are 4 poles which need extending the first time but then never really need to be touched again. For the most part setting the 10k up consists of:

• pushing the machine into position under the basket
• putting the orange shot counter bar on the back of the rim
• raising the lift lever to raise the net into position
• plugging it in

That’s it! Really easy. About the only thing that might require height is the shot counter bar, otherwise everything else can be done by about anyone. The shot counter bar is also a little top heavy, so if you use it (it’s optional) you have to be careful taking it down as you need both hands to keep it from falling. I think most people over the age of 12 should be able to set it up after a couple tries. I made a video of it below:

Remote Control

The remote is pretty handy. It allows you to start and stop the machine when you’re too far away to get to it. It doesn’t allow you to change settings or anything, it’s kind of like a car remote in functionality than a TV remote…4 buttons to do things and that’s it. I generally just stick it in my pocket and pull it out when I need to start and stop it. You can increase or decrease the delay between shots but that doesn’t really come into play much. The throw button will throw out a ball, but if you’ve got a remote in your hand, it doesn’t really help much.

Controls

The control panel is pretty easy to use. You just select the places you want to shoot, the number of shots (or makes), and the time between throws and away you go. I made a video to show how all the options work below:

That video should give you a good rundown of all the options available. Typically we use it to make 15 shots in 5 different spots or set it up with multiple people with 1 second between throws to constantly throw balls to everyone on the court.

Shooting Range

The machine is most helpful from ranges outside 12′. Any closer and the net is either too high to shoot over, or too low to actually catch the ball. You can adjust the machine to throw the ball short or really far. This is done by adjusting a crank in the back. See the picture below:

It can throw it a long ways for those really far out 3 pointers. It can sometimes catch you by surprise if you forget what you were shooting last on different days. I’ve had times where my son was shooting 3 pointers and then the next day sets it up to work on free throws and the first pass is coming out at a speed to get it to the 3 point line.

No strength is needed to adjust the range. It’s really easy to move the crank clockwise or counter-clockwise.

App Functionality

The Shoot-A-Way app is basically a wrapper around the Shottracker app, if any of you are familiar with that. On the surface it seems like it’s only counting your makes and misses and not much else during the actual shooting. However, after the session is finished, it actually breaks it down where you shot from and how well you did from each section. It’s a little better than it leads on. I’m not sure why it’s so rudimentary while you’re shooting, but maybe that’s something for a future update. You can see what I’m talking about below, the first picture is what it shows when you’re shooting, and the second is what it shows afterwards.

Reliability

So far we’ve shot about 10,000 shots on it, and I think it’s only misfired like once or twice. It’s very reliable. The touchscreen can be a tad unresponsive at times but nothing too bad. I think it’s partially because phones seem so responsive and since this is slightly older technology it doesn’t feel the same anymore.

I’ve never had the software or anything else have any issues. The add on speaker system can be slightly finicky with the bluetooth connection on some phones.

Shoot-A-Way For Home Use

Is it worth investing in this machine for home use? I would say it would depend on a few factors:

• Age of your kids/how many years of use it will get
• how big of a space you have to use it
• your personal budget

My kids are younger and love basketball, so I decided to make the investment. Plus these machines have a high resell value, so it’s not like it’s going to depreciate to zero. So 10 years down the road when we’re no longer using it, should be able to recoup some of the cost (or donate it to a school if I so choose).

I made a demo of two players using the machine at the same time below. You can either have the machine go back and forth delivering balls to spots in order, or you can select different spots and order them #1, #2, #3, etc and shoot a specific sequence. Shooting a sequence requires turning on the option in the “advanced” menu.

Shoot-A-Way cost

So how much does it cost? Mine (the 10000) cost $6200 for the base model + $300 for the sound option + shipping costs. All together it was under $7k. I also got quotes for the 6000 and 8000. I believe the 8000 was just a few hundred cheaper and honestly didn’t make much sense to get since the prices were so close together. The 6000 was a lot cheaper (especially some of the used models) but with less features (I think only 9 vs 17 spots), less configurability with shooting options, etc.

Shoot-A-Way also has a trade in program for those who want to upgrade down the line, although personally I think you could probably sell it for more locally than Shoot-A-Way is giving you. It’s probably a good option for those people who live in a remote area with few buyers though.

Conclusion

So am I happy I bought it? Absolutely. Actually I probably should have bought it a lot sooner, kind of regret not buying it 2 or 3 years ago. But I have it now and that’s all that matters.

The other question is, how much improvement can I expect? Well even though we’ve had it a pretty short time, I can say that my kids shot percentage has gone up 5% to 10% in a pretty short period. The biggest thing though, which I wasn’t expecting, is the increase in range that it’s given my older son (while not even shooting 3 pointers). Doing a sequence of ~125 shots from 15 feet out over a month caused his accuracy on 3 pointers to go up pretty dramatically, from ~20% to around 35%+. He wasn’t even practicing 3 pointers on it and it helped extend his range that much. He used to try and make 5 three pointers at the end and it would take him 20 to 25 shots usually. After a month he was making 5 of 9 sometimes, which he never was before.

The post Shoot-A-Way 10000 Basketball Shooting Machine Review appeared first on Master Basketball.

RAMgoal Mini Hoop

RAMgoal has finally come up with the solution I’ve been looking for. My oldest son loves his mini basketball goal, but unfortunately he’s so tall that the over the door goal became too small like 2 years ago. The other problem is that I have a younger son who’s much shorter and the existing goal is actually ok for him. RAMgoal came up with the solution to solve both issues with their adjustable goal. I’ve included the Amazon affiliate link below:

RAMgoal durable adjustable indoor mini basketball goal and ball

By basically making a normal wall mounted basketball goal only about 1/6th the size (but retaining the quality) they’ve made something that will last way longer than a normal mini goal plus adjust as your child gets taller (or if you have multiple kids). When you put it together, the part you notice right off the bat is how thick the rim is compared to all other goals. It’s legit. And heavy. It’s like a real rim in a mini size.

Mounting Bracket

The mounting bracket is decent. It has quite a bit of play with it unless you tighten up the bolts quite a bit. I guess the good part is when I mounted the one bracket slightly crooked, it still worked like a charm, lol. The screws that come with it for the wall aren’t super heavy duty, basically a little bit bigger than standard drywall screws but that’s it. Definitely need to screw it into studs, the brackets are 16″ apart to make it easy to do that. The adjustable part works really well, smooth without much play.

Backboard and Rim

The backboard is attached via double sided tape (I originally thought it was magnetic). It’s actually separated a little a couple times but a quick slap puts it right back in place. Luckily not a very hard problem to fix. I assume this is to allow for replacement ones easily should one break down the line.

Like I mentioned above, the rim is solid and thick. The net is ok but doesn’t seem that much different than other mini goals (was hoping for something slightly thicker after the rim was so nice).

RAMgoal Basketball

The basketball that comes with the goal is the nicest basketball I’ve ever seen with a mini goal. It’s just like a mini-leather ball, not the usual rubber ball that most goals come with. The hardest part to adjust to is that the ball is a little smaller than most goals. It would be nice if there was an option to get a slightly bigger ball. Any mini ball would work though if you want a bigger ball.

RAMgoal in action

So how does it work in action? In a word, fantastic. My son is super excited to finally have an 8 foot tall mini goal instead of the one that was barely over 5 1/2 foot before. It’s a lot more challenging for him now, plus now he really has to jump to dunk it. First day he had it I think he played 4 hours on it. The smaller ball was a little awkward for him at first but he quickly got used to it. If you’re going to put it at 8′ though you’ve got to have some taller ceilings, ours are like 20′ in our living room so we’ve got the perfect setup there.

Wrapup

So would I recommend the RAMgoal durable adjustable indoor mini basketball hoop and ball? Absolutely if your child plays mini basketball at all. It will last way longer than a normal goal and might actually save you money in the long run over having to buy replacements. Also you have to be ok with an adjustable goal mounted on the wall, it’s not exactly something that’s easy to take down like the over the door kind.

The post RAMgoal Adjustable Mini Basketball Goal Review appeared first on Master Basketball.

1. Easy to adjust, this is the most important thing
2. Easy to move and won’t fall over easily
3. Last through some heavy use

That’s when I found it, the Lifetime basketball goal.

Enter the Lifetime Adjustable Portable Basketball Hoop

This is actually my second Lifetime hoop, the first one I got was the cheapest one they had available.  I wouldn’t recommend that one, it was super hard to adjust the height, I just got it for daycare so the kids would have a goal to shoot on during the summer (so I didn’t have to care about adjusting the height everyday on it).  This is the actual goal I bought, you can see it through my Amazon affiliate link:

Lifetime 90585 Portable Basketball System, 48 Inch Polycarbonate Shatterproof Backboard – Gray

This one though I knew what I was looking for.  I needed a goal where I could adjust it from 8ft to 10ft very easily, so my 8 year old could shoot on the 8ft goal and then I could immediately raise it back up to 10ft for my 11 year old.  This year it will be used mostly between 9ft and 10ft, now that my 8 year old is moving up to 9ft goals.

So this last year I used it mainly for my 8 year old to shoot around on.  He shot over 5000 shots on it this year for the shot contest with no durability issues, so you know the quality is decent.  A lot of goals would start falling apart with that many shots on it.  No problems at all yet.

We also use it as a second 10ft basketball goal when playing full court in my shed.  It works really well for that, although it’s a little hard to do layups on because you run into the base if you go under the basket.  My other goal is a wall mounted Goalsetter Basketball goal.

Moving it around

If you don’t have any weight in the base, it will fall over immediately, so keep that in mind.  Some goals have a little weight in the back built it so it’s at least stable when standing up but not this one, this one requires water/sand in the base or something heavy laying on the back.  I put a big box of nails and a nail gun on the back of mine just to hold it down.

It’s pretty easy to move once the weight is off but you’ll want to have two people around to do it.  The main reason is because the second you move that weight off it will start to tilt forward.  If you’re not in front of it when that happens, it will hit the ground pretty hard. Some coordination is needed in order to move it.

I actually have a video review of the goal here:

The post Lifetime Adjustable Portable Basketball Hoop Review, 90585 model appeared first on Master Basketball.