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Part VI: Using Technology. Up to this point in our study of FT shooting, we have been measuring mechanical efficiency and balance with our own intuitive sensing tools. Modern technology provides some far more accurate sensing tools that coaches in other sports are already using, and basketball coaches should find useful. In snow skiing, high level coaches are doing studies where they place electronic pads under a skier’s front and rear bindings that measure (every hundredth of a second) the amount of down force on each binding. The front binding is just ahead of the ball of the foot, and the rear binding is under the heel. The sensing pads broadcast pressure readings by telemetry to a computer. Today, this technology can be linked to live video tape so a pressure distribution graph appears in perfect synchronization across the bottom of the screen on video replay. This lets coaches evaluate a skier’s weight distribution forward and aft at every point in a turn. All this happens on snow, at speeds up to 80 mph, in constantly changing race course environments. How much easier would this be to do at a free throw line – indoors, at a fixed location on a level floor? Pressure sensitive pads can be placed under each foot and linked through a video camera so we can study exactly what a shooter’s weight distribution and down-force are on each foot at every point in a shot. In this article, we have been evaluating all kinds of force and balance issues based on what we can see with our eyes and feel in our bodies. This is certainly helpful; but we can’t compete with the technology now available. If I were to carry out a really comprehensive study of free throw shooting over the next year, you can bet I would use pressure sensing pads with coordinated video tape. The first thing I would want to measure is the down-force at two critical points in a players shooting motion: First is the moment the shooting arm begins to extend; and second is the moment of ball release. What might this tell us about the consistency of Mel’s shots and Tina’s shots – or any group of players’ shots? There is other technology available today that is widely used in golf swing analysis that allows us to super-impose one players swing over another – or multiple swings by the same player. A camera can be set, at whatever angles one chooses, to film free throw shots and do similar studies. More complex, but readily available, are video analysis programs that wire athletes with transmitters or “reflectors” on key joints or balance points that when filmed provide “stick figure analysis” of mechanical movement. These are used to study the mechanics of athletes in gymnastics, running, figure skating, throwing the discus and shot, etc. – the list is almost endless. This technology can measure the speed of a golfer’s hip rotation or hands throughout a swing. It would be fun to do this with FT shooters who exhibit varying levels of simplicity and complexity in their shooting mechanics. This technology is especially useful to study a broad array of athletic movement and balance issues. This would be very useful in demonstrating to players the relative simplicity or complexity of their free throw mechanics. For games of accuracy performed from fixed positions (archery, darts, rifle and pistol shooting for example) very stable foundations are prerequisites for success. These sports demand extreme accuracy, and coaches work on balance fundamentals to very slim tolerances. Basketball has much lower standards for accuracy (50% from the field and 75% from the free throw line are considered excellent). The 50% is understandable as the tasks are inescapably complex. But if allowed to stand still at the free throw line, 75% seems a very low standard, indeed. Seventy five percent is the average for all players in the NBA. Thus, one half of the NBA’s extraordinary athletes shoot less than 75%. It seems to me that a higher level of precision should be expected throughout the basketball culture. Only when the standard is raised, will coaches and athletes cease to tolerate the broad range of extraneous movements we now see at free throw lines in every level of the sport. To fully appreciate how little attention free throw shooting receives in the basketball world, please consider that only one team (Dallas) in the entire NBA has a special coach for free throw shooting (Gary Boren.) Three of Gary’s teams have shot over 80% in the past seven years. And no other NBA team has done so. For perspective, over the past 26 years, only eight UConn teams have shot over 70%. The best of those were .756 in 1980-81; and .727 in 1990-91. If I were a coach in a top level program, I would establish a team goal of 80% made shots from the FT line – and I would employ all the resources of modern science and technology to help my players reach that level of excellence. And when they reached it, I would raise the expectation to 85%. How we think about sports is very important. If free throw shooting is seen as a small part of the larger game of basketball, then 75% sounds pretty good. If, on the other hand, free throw shooting could be seen as a separate sport that is an “accuracy contest” (like archery and darts and shooting) then all coaches and athletes would work to much finer tolerances in developing their shooting mechanics. This mind set is needed in that small but significant part of the game of basketball where all the shots are taken from exactly the same position relative to a standard target. One very important resource available to UConn is the example of Mel Thomas. In a world where 90% shooters are very rare, it fascinates me that Mel’s teammates don’t appear to have learned much by watching her every day. Do they think that Mel just has a gift that is out of their reach? What Mel has, in fact, are better mechanics which she has worked diligently to develop over many years with a very good shooting coach in her home town of Cincinnati. From my vantage point, it doesn’t appear that Mel’s teammates have been inspired to study her mechanics or to learn why and how they work. Lacking this knowledge, they have been unable to take advantage of Mel’s skills to improve their own. We can now see that the problems with a deep knee and/or waist bend are three fold. First, the mechanics are too complex to be repeated with accuracy. Second, the recruitment of far too many inter-connected muscle groups complicates any hope of consistency. And third, the nature of muscle spindle behavior further argues against extended ranges of motion. If we can just learn to think of free throw shooting as an “accuracy contest,” then all of the excess motion so commonly seen, makes no sense at all -- and a whole lot of players should get busy learning much simpler mechanics than they have long been using. To make a point, I have focused on extremes of efficient and inefficient mechanics throughout this essay. This should in no way release all the players in the middle from assuming responsibility for improving their mechanics. Every principle set forth in this essay is applicable to the smallest deviations from ideal mechanics. The “elephant in the room” represents not just the bottom half of all shooters – but every player whose mechanics are less efficient than they could be. 85% shooters can find clues here that will help them become 90% shooters. And those in the 70% universe can all improve significantly if they learn and apply the principles here outlined. Every player who is short of the 90% mark needs some of Lance Armstrong’s commitment to the smallest details and every advantage he can gain from science and technology. Every one of the World Champions I have coached were good athletes who had the big stuff down pat – and became the very best in their sports by mastering the little things. The route for all athletes to be the best they can be requires a commitment to excellence that is available to all, but is pursued by only a few. It is admittedly difficult for players or coaches to initiate major revisions in FT shooting mechanics in mid-season. But in the spring and summer months, players have more than enough time to develop free throw routines that offer the highest probability of improved shooting percentages. This said, my experience in many sports is that whenever athletes adopt more efficient mechanics, significant improvements in performance follow very quickly. In closing – I would like to say that this exploration of free throw shooting was first motivated by a question, and has been sustained for five months by my curiosity – by simply wanting to understand why so many gifted athletes miss so many free throws. In the world of sport, as well as science, curiosity is a wonderful precursor to discovery. Most advances in knowledge begin with a hunch, are later stated as hypotheses, and are then tested by many people’s experiments and debate to be ultimately confirmed or discredited. As a visitor from other sports to the world of basketball, I have tried to approach this essay not as an arbiter of truth but as an inquisitive guest hoping to expand perspectives, curiosity, and knowledge. As a teacher and a coach, I have always been comfortable asking questions I did not know the answers to, and encouraging my kids to do the same. Organizing this essay has been my way of just poking around for some new understanding. I hope, in the process, I can help a significant number of basketball players to become better free throw shooters. Warren Witherell, December 1 -- May 8, 2007. As with all articles and books I have published, I welcome questions and comments from interested readers. I can be reached at: wwitherell2@gmail.com or (802) 462-3399. Appendix A I want to express my appreciation to each of the basketball shooting specialists whose videos and DVD’s are listed below. Each of the “gentlemen” (I have chosen the word carefully) have been most kind to spend helpful time with me (a complete stranger) on the phone. I have learned a lot from their conversations, and even more from their videos. Anyone who is serious about becoming a better shooter should acquire more than one of these videos and pay close attention. I have only addressed big issues of mechanics in my essay. These coaches teach the small and critically important details of successful shooting. It is instructive to explore their web sites. I list them in random order. Tom Nordland’s “Swish Method” videos. There’s lots of info at: www.swish22.com. There are numerous video clips linked on this website which are most informative. Gary Boren, “Free Throw Shooting Video.” This is available from www.The-Equity-Group.com Herb Magee, “Nothing but Net”, and “Nothing but Drills.” customerservice@herbmagee.com Ernie Hobbie, “The Shot Doctor”. ArcAngel. (1-888-9-ArcAngel.) Dr. Tom Amberry, “Make Every Free Throw.” Book, video and DVD. www.freethrow.com |