If players are so bad at shooting free throws, why don't they just bank it off? http://www.wired.com/playbook/2011/03/physics-basketball-shots/all/1 The blue in that image represents the area on the court where a bank shot has a higher percentage of going in than a regular shot.
weird, personally i can hit "all day" from the red areas when it comes to bank shots...never thought it would be easier from the front. To me, it seems easier to measure where the sweet spot is from that angle. I guess height plays a big role, since it changes your point of view (im only 5'10). As for free throw shooting, a lot of the poor shooting players are bigs and their issue is an inability to shoot softly consistently, probably because of larger hand or longer fingers. Hitting the backboard correctly still requires a specific and consistent touch. They can't be very consistent if they have trouble grasping and releasing the ball.
I never understood why some players are so bad at free throws. It's the one aspect of the game that never changes so you should be most consistent there.
I was actually the state champ for Texas 4A at free throw shooting when I was a junior in high school. Free throws are purely mental. It's about having a routine and knowing you're going to make it. Any doubt in your abilities to stand all alone and sink a free shot and you're gonna miss.
I read somewhere it has something to do with arm length being inversely proportional to shooting touch. Durant is exception for this rule and I'm sure there are plenty of others. Yao's wingspan though huge for a normal sized human, was fairly small for him, so his touch was good, thus making him a good FT shooter. That said, ANY NBA player (I'm looking @ you Dwight) should be shooting at the very worse 70% from the FT line. You can at least get to that point. Dwight doesn't need to keep hitting the gym to get bigger, he just needs to get that FT shooting % up. He shoots 70%, he will be the most unstoppable force in the league (as it currently stands).
My weird teacher wanted us to do that years ago and I was the only one that could pull it off. It's difficult but not impossible if you have a good feeling.
actually, if i understand the article right, it's the red and purple areas where a bank shot has an up to 20 percent advantage over a direct shot. the blue areas on the other hand are the spots where bank shots don't have any real advantage.
I'll never understand how these people who are played millions to play ball can't hit a free throw, its not that hard...
Just a couple observations: 1. Having experimented myself with shooting thousands of jumpers from the wings in high school and college and being somewhat of a mathematician, I figured out early on that there was more forgiveness in the bank shot than in the straight jump shot because the incidence of reflection can cover up for the shot being too hard much more than a shot being shot direct. And there are more angles (spots) on the backboard that will yield the ball going through the hoop than shooting direct at the rim. 2. It takes more leg strength to shoot the bank shot. So while the chances are greater of a make when comparing a single jump shot to a single bank shot, what is not figured in is fatigue. Fatigue can work for or against the bank shooter. On the short bank shots, when you induce fatigue, the disparity between the bank shot accuracy and the straight shot is even more pronounced in favor of the bank shot. Most of us know what fatigue does to a shot. It causes you to speed up your release and not let the ball roll off the finger tips as well as you search for more umph to get the ball to the glass/rim, which makes it less accurate and in more need of the forgiveness of the backboard. This is even more true for the hang, fade, and fire short shots from inside 15 feet. But where fatigue kills the efficiency of the bank shot is in the longer distance bank shots where it is more of a standard jumper, not the hang and fire jumper that you can get off when you are closer to the basket. When you are tired from running up and down the court, the extra strength that it takes to shoot the bank shot from distance (over 15 feet) causes the accuracy of that shot to underperform the standard straight on jumper. The perfect basketball player robot (non-existent) would be able to sense their fatigue factor and change from the bank shot to the straight on shot as fatigue decreased the accuracy of the bank shot from distance. If you don't believe what I am saying, go to the court and prove it for yourself. When you are loosened up but still fresh, go to the wing just inside the 3-point line and start firing bank shots. Even if you've never practiced shooting the bank shot, just fire it up there and see for yourself how much easier and less precise you have to be on that shot because of the forgiveness of the angles off the backboard. Then shoot some straight on jumpers. Then scrimmage for about an hour, play hard, feel the burn in your legs, and at the end of the scrimmage, try to catch and shoot or catch dribble and shoot the bank shot. It takes less ENERGY to shoot the straight on shot from distance. On another note, I have very often wondered why coaches haven't asked guys with overly large hands like Shaq, or with frozen wrist syndrome like Ben Wallace to concentrate on hitting the backboard with the shot from the FT line. Some of these guys are such terrible shooters, giving themselves NO CHANCE to be decent FT shooters because they line-drive it up there so hard (Dwight) or they have no roll/touch that I think they should experiment with knocking the ball off the glass. Shaq really only had 2 shots, the dunk and the 3-5 foot BANK SHOT. He had such terrible wrist flick that he couldn't even shoot the 3 footer with any accuracy. Why not just extend that bank shot out to the FT line? What would it hurt? When I watch Dwight shoot, my eyes hurt. It's plum stupid. He can't arc the shot. So, why not just fire it off the glass??? I am convinced it would improve some of these guys percentages. Shoot, I could take the ball in one hand and throw it off the glass into the bucket with no dribble or offhand touch with more accuracy than some of these big lunks can muster when they go through all their antics, greasing the ball, dribbling, bending up and down, and then clanging the shot off the iron. And on a final note, if you are a smaller, quicker player that wants to learn how to finish in the paint over bigger players......learn to use the glass and SPIN. You can practically negate 12 or more inches of height by learning how to spin the ball off the glass. Shot-blockers by nature are angling to block your shot in a direct line with the bucket. But if you've learned the skill of putting spin on the layups and bank shots, you can score on anybody, I mean anybody. Because you can shoot the ball off the glass in a path that is not a direct path to the goal and you also have the option of going under the shot-blocker and using spin at all those silly, crazy angles to finish. One thing to watch for in young players that is a separation point is their ability to finish in traffic and the sure fire way to see it early is to see if they have the ability to use spin and angles. The ones that can do it the best wind up in the NBA and go by the names of Iverson, Ellis, etc.
