Short answer: make 100 shots a day, not take 100. Split them into 5 spots x 20 makes, cap each session at 45 minutes, shoot five or six days a week, and run the same fixed benchmark set on days 1–2 and again on days 29–30. That last part is the only way to know if the month did anything.

Here is the whole month on one screen:

Week	Days	Daily target	What changes
1	1–7	100 makes, catch-and-shoot	Benchmark on days 1–2. Find your range.
2	8–14	100 makes	Same spots, one step further out
3	15–21	100 makes	Weak spot gets 40 of the 100
4	22–30	100 makes, then 50	Deload days 26–27, day 28 off, benchmark days 29–30

Makes or attempts?

Some versions of this challenge count attempts. The 10,000 Shot Challenge run by one youth program, for example, asks players to attempt and record at least 10,000 shots from June 1 to September 30, and pitches it as about 100 shots a day.

Attempts are fine for a summer volume goal. For a 30-day plan, count makes, with a time cap. The reasoning is the same as in how many shots to take per practice: a make target scales to your level, punishes rushing, and only gets easier when you actually get better. A 40% shooter needs about 250 attempts to reach 100 makes. A 55% shooter needs about 180. Both did the work.

The cap is what keeps a bad day from becoming a two-hour grind of tired mechanics. 100 makes or 45 minutes, whichever comes first. If you hit the cap at 85 makes, the day still counts. Write down the 85 and go home.

The daily session

Five spots, 20 makes each, in the same order every day:

Left corner
Left wing
Top of the key
Right wing
Right corner

Before the first spot, take a few minutes of form shooting close to the rim. It does not count toward the 100.

Pick a distance where you make roughly half your catch-and-shoot attempts (what counts as a good practice percentage has targets by level). That is a rule of thumb, not a law: much higher and the session is too easy to teach you anything, much lower and 100 makes will not fit inside 45 minutes. If that is inside the arc, shoot inside the arc. Nobody is grading the distance.

Record makes and attempts per spot, not per session. The session total hides the one thing worth finding: which spot is dragging the number down.

The four weeks

Week 1: baseline. Days 1 and 2 start with the benchmark set (below), then the normal session. The benchmark sits outside the 45-minute cap. Otherwise, 5 x 20 at your chosen distance, and change nothing.

Week 2: move back a step. Same five spots, one step further from the rim. Your percentage will drop, the sessions will run longer, and some days you will hit the cap short of 100. That is the point.

Week 3: tilt toward the weak spot. Look at your per-spot numbers from weeks 1–2. Your worst spot gets 40 makes; the other four get 15 each. Shoot the weak spot second, while you are still fresh, not last. Saving your worst spot for when you are tired just proves it is bad.

Week 4: hold, then back off. Days 22–25 are normal 100-make sessions mixing the week 2 and week 3 setups. Days 26–27 drop to 50 makes. Day 28 is off. Days 29 and 30 open with the benchmark set, followed by a light 50-make session.

Rest days and the deload

"100 a day" sounds like it means every day. It does not have to.

Plan one or two days off per week as part of the challenge. A rough guide: if your first spot of the day is clearly worse than it was earlier in the week, your legs are telling you something, and a day off will do more for your shot than another 100 tired makes.

The deload in week 4 has a narrower job. You are about to retest, and you want the retest to measure your shot rather than your fatigue. Two lighter days and one day off before the final benchmark is a reasonable buffer. The goal is that day 30 feels like day 1 physically, so the only thing that changed is your shooting.

How to tell if it worked

Your daily percentages will not tell you, because the plan changes the spots and distances every week. The week 2 numbers should be lower than week 1. That is the design, not a slump.

What tells you is a benchmark set that never changes:

5 spots x 20 attempts — attempts, not makes, so the test is the same size every time
Same spots, same distance as week 1
All catch-and-shoot
After warm-up, before the main session

Run it on days 1 and 2, and again on days 29 and 30. That gives you 200 attempts at the start and 200 at the end. Two days each, because a single 100-shot test is still noisy: for a true 40% shooter, 100 attempts can land roughly 10 points either side of 40% at 95% confidence (standard binomial math, and the reason percentages need volume before they mean anything).

Then read the difference the way the benchmark guide suggests for 200-shot blocks: under 5 points is noise, 5–10 is possibly real, and over 10 means either you improved a lot or something about the test drifted. Check that you really stood on the same spots before celebrating.

Be ready for a modest result. Thirty days is short. A month that ends with the same average but a smaller gap between your best and worst spot was not wasted.

The log

Copy this. One row per spot, per day:

Day	Spot	Makes	Attempts	%
1	Left corner	20	41	49%
1	Left wing	20	52	38%
1	Top	20	38	53%
1	Right wing	20	45	44%
1	Right corner	20	61	33%
1	Total	100	237	42%

Already this shows something. The right corner took 61 attempts to get 20 makes. That is your week 3 spot.

Common mistakes

Counting attempts and calling it makes. If you are rounding 94 makes up to 100, you are not doing the challenge. The cap exists so you do not have to.
Changing the benchmark. Moving a spot half a step or swapping in off-the-dribble shots on day 29 makes the comparison meaningless.
Logging only the total. You cannot find your weak spot from one number at the end of the night.
Skipping the deload to "finish strong." Testing tired understates your progress, then you decide the month did not work.
Keeping count in your head. Remembered makes drift upward. Write it down as you go.

Running it in an app

A notebook works, but walking to the sideline after every spot gets old. SwishCall lets you tap, call shots out loud, or let your iPhone's camera count, so the per-spot record builds while you shoot. The free tier includes template workout plans, basic shooting stats and session history, which covers the daily log. Saving this exact five-spot plan as your own workout needs the custom plan builder, which is part of Pro, along with trend charts and court heatmaps. It is free on the App Store (opens in a new tab).

Quick answers

How long does 100 makes take?

For most players, 25–45 minutes. At 40–50% you need 200–250 attempts, and as a rough guide, a player rebounding for themselves gets up 6–12 shots a minute, depending on distance and how far the misses bounce. If you are regularly past 45 minutes, move closer.

Is 100 shots a day enough to get better?

100 makes with intent, five or six days a week, is real volume for most players. Whether it is enough depends on what you measure: run the start and end benchmarks and let them answer it.

Can you improve your shooting in 30 days?

Sometimes, a little. A month is short for a measurable change in percentage, so a gain of a few points is a good result. If you changed your mechanics during the month, expect to get worse before you get better.

Should I shoot 100 free throws a day instead?

Free throws are a fine add-on, but not a replacement. They are one shot from one spot. Add 20–30 extra in sets of 10 at the end, so you practice them on tired legs.

The short version

Make 100, not take 100: 5 spots x 20 makes, 45-minute cap.
Week 1 baseline, week 2 step back, week 3 load the weak spot, week 4 deload and retest.
Take one or two days off a week; they are part of the plan.
Benchmark 5 x 20 attempts on days 1–2 and 29–30, and compare the 200-shot blocks.
Log makes and attempts per spot, not per session.

The 100 Shots a Day Challenge: A 30-Day Plan That Actually Measures Something