Who changed Dwight Howard's shot where he sets for a free throw with the ball near his chest?

In some ways, I equate a big man's FTs to a normal sized person shooting on a closet hoop.

And honestly, I shoot the same way on a 10ft goal as on a closet hoop, but with less power from my shoulders and even more emphasis on my wrist flick. Dwight seems to have thrown everything out besides the wrist flick, and it's probably (damn near) impossible to ever get in a shooting rhythm with that form.

A shooting motion in its entirety requires
- Knees (which Dwight neglects)
- Upward motion of the ball/body (which Dwight neglects)
- Strong follow through

And for a shooter, if they screw up on one part (say they don't put as much knees into their shot, they can compensate by putting more upward motion and flick in their shot). Everything for Dwight relies on the follow through, which puts all his eggs in one basket.

 

Why isn't Calvin Murphy in there teaching this kid how to shoot FTs?

"Murphy was one of the best free-throw shooters ever, setting NBA records for most consecutive free throws made and for the highest free throw percentage in a single season (1980-1981). Both records have since been broken. "

Link

 

I agree with a lot of that, but i think he definitely has an issue with his body and fixing it should only help his movement, which we all agree is a problem when he shoots.

The thing about Dwight is, he's not just a muscular guy from top to bottom. It seems that way and he has this reputation for being a strong beast, but the reality is, he's not really that muscular or strong. His legs are long and thin. His pecs are about average for a pro athlete and he doesn't have awesome traps or lats. He gets pushed in the post easily and he's never been the kind of center that goes through defenders.

Only his deltoids really pop, especially his anterior deltoids. His muscles just have a larger surface area, so they look beastly, but that's result of his size and stature, not actual muscle hypertrophy. Just look at the third picture at a side angle:








There's little depth to his back, chest, and midsection. Even his biceps. He's cut, yeah, but the real mass is in his shoulders and maybe the triceps too. Once that's evident, it's much clearer that there is an imbalance there, which is also shown by his protracted shoulders, which i alluded to earlier. That's different than just being stiff from being too muscular all over.




Also, back and rotator cuff injuries, which he's had, can also be signs of imbalances.

I agree they probably don't want to mess around with his mechanics so much, since it's something that takes time to correct, but I'd drool over the thought of such a great player actually having room for physical improvement. If they do have plans to address it, i think they would start this following offseason.

 

I think you expect me to just say yes, so you can then respond the anterior deltoids don't directly round one's back and protract shoulders, which would allow you to claim I dont know what i'm talking about, again. However, there are ways for a muscle to influence movements it's not primarily responsible for. Imbalances don't just happen because you over trained a muscle on purpose and directly, like having tight pecs because you only bench press. Sometimes a muscle or muscles can become over active when you're not trying to target it because of compensation. "Helper" muscles can be forced to be more like prime movers and that can lead to injury because it disrupts the correct movement pattern.

This is why even experienced therapists have to go through some trial and error, as well as different assessments, to really pin point the culprit.

For example, he may be protracting his shoulders to compensate for weak shoulder adduction. The body will find a way to pull in the arm, either way.

 

I heard he shot like 80% during practice so i think he's pretty consistent. The problem is practice and real game is different. In real game, he's not relaxing and tend to use more force to shoot the ball than necessarily.

 

Not sure what caused it. He could have already had it and further locked himself in with more training. Really, time alone can make it worse. The more you do and the more years you have it, the deeper you fall into the bad movement patterns. Someone who is a couch potato may go years without reinforcing the bad movement too much, while someone who's active will, since they do more. Reinforcing it would then make it harder to reverse.

I had imbalances for years due to not rehabbing injuries as a teen and i was also a good shooter. My form actually changed though, around 20-21 years of age (I'm 30 now). I attribute the change to the imbalances changing my movement patterns. However, i still shot well, just differently. I think shooting has a lot to do with an innate ability to judge depth perception, as well as knowing what a successful attempt feels like and just replicating that, whether the movement is correct or not, as it relates to proper biomechanics. That's why I said earlier it'll definitely help his movement, but may or may not help his shot. Can't make it any worse, IMO. It could do something as simple as fix the forward shift in his stance. A forward shift can often activate muscles to stiffen because the body senses it may be falling forward. Perhaps if that's fixed he'll be more relaxed at the FT line.

What you had sounds like a more common problem, which usually just happens from bad posture when you sit. Most guys have that, if they're not doing any corrective work. It's a much simpler fix at a younger age and if you haven't done a lot of weight training because there is less to "undo" to correct the problem. Another problem with Howard is he seems to embrace it and exaggerate it to show off his physique, which is a way of reinforcing it and worse than just letting it be, which you probably did before correcting it.