IECA student Thomas Burke put The Gun – by Shoot-a-Way, through its paces in a demonstration of how the basketball shooting machine will help students of all ages become more proficient at shooting.
April 16, 2025
-by Bill Dunphy
Basketball shooting percentages by Inverness ball players are about to go up – wayyy up!
Inverness Minor Basketball welcomed the arrival of a computerized basketball shooting machine called The Gun – by Shoot-a-Way.
The state-of-the-art machine does everything but run up the court. But for the student and minor ball players, it’s a slam dunk that is going to help them improve their shooting skills.
Members of Inverness Minor Basketball (IMB) held a demonstration last Wednesday at the Inverness Education Centre Academy. In attendance were members of the community who helped fund the $13,500 piece of equipment.
The Gun sets up underneath a basketball hoop and users can program it to pass balls to various positions on the court.
For instance a player can set it up to pass three (or more or less) balls to a corner, five to the top of the three-point line, two to the opposite corner.
The shooting machine swivels to the various positions and requires the player to get to that position.
The computer records how many baskets a player makes or misses and that information can be saved for future reference.
Players can also download various workouts that university and professional teams use.
There are currently three such machines in Nova Scotia: St. F.X., Cape Breton University, and Inverness. On the day it was sent to Inverness, two were delivered to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and one to a school in Arizona.
Phil Blackwood, of IMB and also the phys ed teacher at IECA, said, “We feel extremely fortunate that through the generous support received from our sponsors we were able to obtain The Shoot-a-Way 12K. This state-of-the-art piece of training equipment will provide our athletes with the same first-class opportunity to improve their game that all 30 NBA teams and 99 per cent of NCAA Div. 1 teams use.”
Blackwood said the machine has endless uses.
“The beauty of the machine is its efficiency. Since you don’t have to collect your own rebounds a player can take 700 or more shots in just an hour. During that time the players stats from each location they are shooting from are recorded and posted on a screen on the front of the machine so they can see how well they are shooting in real time. This just scratches the surface of what The Shoot-a-Way 12K can do,” he said.
“We’re really excited that Inverness Minor Basketball has such an awesome piece of equipment and look forward to our athletes using it.”
IMB received funding from various community sources. Gold sponsors include: the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage; Cabot Cape Breton; and the Municipality of the County of Inverness – Councillor Bonny MacIsaac.
Silver sponsors include: Ceilidh Trail CB Club; Dr. Bernie MacLean Cultural and Recreation Centre (Community Bingo); and councillor Bonny MacIsaac.
