BETTER FREE THROW SHOOTING with
BETTER MECHANICS
Want Better Free Throw Shooting on Your Team?
Improve each player's basketball shooting form with the free throw trainer.
Highly recommended for coaching youth basketball at camps and clinics,
as well as in the gym or driveway.
Create your own free throw shooting drills
with the FREE THROW TRAINER.
By Al Heystek, Inventor of the "Nothin' But Net" FREE THROW TRAINER™
www.FREETHROWTRAINER.com
This is the text of our 2nd Instructional Video.
This video is on the Stroke, the free throw shot itself and the mechanics of free throw shooting.
In general, good free throw shooters are also good shooters. Dirk Nowitski showed us that in the 2011 NBA finals.
So working on YOUR FREE THROW STROKE can help you with your overall shooting.
As our first instructional video indicated, the stroke is preceded by a sound ritual that will produce a good result. Fundamental to this is foot position, keeping them parallel or basically squared to the basket, breathing and gripping the ball lightly. If you shoot with one foot in front of the other you want the distance to be slight so that your feet are mainly parallel keeping your shoulders square to the basket which will promote shooting the ball straight.
Location of your shooting arm’s elbow. Generally, the closer the elbow is to your body when releasing the shot the more accurate you will be. Shooters who have their elbow out will tend to have poor results, because it is more difficult to shoot the ball straight when the elbow is extended.
I recommend beginning your free throw shot with your right elbow (if right- handed) or your left elbow (if left-handed) close to or even touching your rib cage. So before you begin the free throw stroke your elbow is in the best position to be nearly perpendicular to your shooting hand. Rajon Rondo improved his FT shooting percentage in the 2011 playoffs. Commentators were saying it had to do with his keeping the shooting elbow in close to his body.
The position of your elbow is something you can adjust for comfort but especially for results.
Using your legs
The mechanics of shooting a free throw depend on using your legs. The shot actually begins with the flexing of the legs. Richard Hamilton flexes his knees downward in preparation for the free throw. All good shooters do the same thing, but some do it in a more exaggerated way. The flexing of the knees begins the motion of the shot and actually provides much of the power behind the shot. As the shooter extends the legs, the ball is released as the heels lift off the floor and the shooter ends the shot on his or her toes. Practice this until you find the degree of leg flexing that works best for you.
Follow Through and Backspin
As the shot is released it is key that the wrist slightly bends and the hand follows through toward the basket imagining the hand going into the basket (like going into grandma’s cookie jar). There also should be some backspin on the shot. Backspin helps to soften or deaden the shot so it is more likely to stay in the basket. Backspin increases the chances of getting that “lucky bounce”. If you have an adequate follow through and snap (which is more like a slight bending of the wrist) then you will likely have good backspin.
What about the arc of your shot?
Chauncy Billups is a great free throw shooter and the arc of his free throw is quite minimal, yet he shoots so straight he rarely misses. Obviously you need enough arc, yet too much arc results in the ball coming down harder on the rim reducing the odds it will stay in the basket.
Also more arc requires more force at release for the ball to reach the basket, which can reduce accuracy. Experiment with arc until you get comfortable with what seems best for you.
Of arc, distance and shooting the ball straight, we believe that shooting the ball straight is most important dimension of free throw shooting.
Distance
Keep in mind that that the free throw trainer will help you with direction and distance. Hitting the trainer means that you have shot the ball straight and with enough distance to make that great sound of ball on net-swish. As you work on your free throw stroke it will become clearer what arc you need in order to comfortably get the distance you also need.
Analyzing your mechanics
You can analyze your mechanics in several ways. First you can compare what you do to what you have read here. Second, you can have your coach or other reliable experts watch your mechanics and give you feedback. You of course can use modern technology to video record your free throw stroke and get feedback that way. It’s key to assess the fluidity of your motion. You want the free throw stroke to look easy, graceful, but also purposeful and efficient.
If you discover that your misses are mostly off center then you will want to work on your mechanics so that you can shoot the free throw straighter more often. Once you know what the problem is you can work with your coach or perhaps your parent to make adjustments. The key here is to work on your mechanics for the purpose of increasing the result of shooting the ball straight. The straighter the shot, the more often you will hit the trainer and the more often you will make it.
Muscle memory develops from repetition and practice. Muscle memory is the idea that repeating the action gets it into your brain in such a way that the motion becomes an automatic, conditioned response, or muscle memory.
A word about muscle memory is important. Practice makes permanent, not perfect. Muscle memory develops from repetition and practice. Muscle memory is the idea that repeating the action gets it into your brain in such a way that the motion becomes automatic, conditioned response, muscle memory. We have an article on muscle memory on our website at www.FREETHROWTRAINER.com.
This has been Al Heystek, inventor of the "Nothin' But Net" FREE THROW TRAINER™
Al Heystek and Andy Atwood
Heystek & Atwood, LLC
Inventors of the Patent Pending "Nothin' But Net" FREE THROW TRAINER™
www.FREETHROWTRAINER.com