REPETITION AS A FREE THROW SHOOTING DRILL
Hey Coach! Make improving free throw shooting a goal for every
practice session, basketball camp or clinic.
Spice up your basketball shooting drills with the FREE THROW TRAINER.
This is, among all the basketball coaching tips you've heard,
the simplest and most successful.
Create a free throw shooting drill for your team 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 4th Instructional Video in our series of 5.
This video is on Repetition and Practice routines.
It’s important to say that if you are a young player and haven’t hit your growth spurt yet, utilize an adjustable hoop or step closer to the basket so that you practice a 10 or 12 foot free throw.
We want to avoid learning bad habits which can develop when we are not strong enough yet to comfortably get the ball up to the basket. I shot on a hoop on our garage beginning at age 8 yrs old that was about 8 feet high. I don’t believe this hurt me at all.
So lowering the hoop or stepping back to 12 feet or even 10 feet away to practice the normal 15 foot free throw can be very helpful. The point is to develop sound techniques and confidence, so when the growth spurt comes you can easily adapt to the regulation distance and height.
For girls and young women players, make sure you use the gender specific basketball. It’s slightly smaller and it’s what will be used in your game situations.
What I am saying next is I believe, at the heart of your free throw program because it depends on you and your commitment to improve. The free throw trainer is not like a newly created baseball glove that only requires wearing it to experience a better performance.
The FREE THROW TRAINER™ can only be an effective tool if you do your part. Remember the NY Times article, which you can find on our website by CLICKING HERE. While some players shoot free throws very well and others have made big improvements, the overall rate of Free throw shooting at the NBA and NCAA levels has not improved in 50 years.
One of biggest problems is a lack of a real commitment to improve.
With your help we want to change that.
Before beginning a practice routine I suggest shooting 100 free throws and establish a baseline of where you are. If you have someone rebound for you be sure you also do that when you shoot another 100 to check improvement.
You want to have the conditions be the same to get an accurate comparison. You can utilize the same hoop and if you are outside make sure the conditions are similar. (Wind, for instance, can alter results.)
I like the idea of shooting the baseline 100 on your own for 2 reasons. First, you don’t have to depend on someone else to practice and second it more closely simulates a game situation because you never get to shoot more than 2-3 free throws in a row in a game situation without moving from the line. Once you know this baseline number you can begin to work at improving it. This baseline can give you a measuring stick to see if in fact you are improving and by how much.
Three steps which can lead you to improvement.
1) Make a commitment to improve your free throw shooting. Share your commitment with your coach, teammates, parents, or friends to keep you accountable.
2) Follow through and start a practice routine. In Star Wars Yoda said, “There is no try, only do.”
It is a fact that to get good at something you need to work at over and over again.
According to Sports Illustrated when Magic Johnson was a Freshman at MSU his free throw percentage was in the high 70’s. Eventually he attained a 90+ free throw percentage. His secret: Shooting 150 free throws a day.
Practice produces muscle memory and muscle memory is tied directly to your success. Muscle memory is so important to understand that we have a separate article on it. CLICK HERE to read it.
It makes sense to have a consistent regimen of shooting free throws in order to improve. On our website we have an article about shooting 10,000 free throws. We are not kidding. CLICK HERE to read it.
By yourself in your driveway you can shoot at least 300 free throws in an hour (5 per minute) getting your own rebounds. If you can shoot 7 per minute that’s 420 in an hour. Using the 300 per hour rate you will need about 33 hours to get it done. That’s one hour a day for 5 weeks. Piece of cake, right? Think about the satisfaction you will have from pulling off this kind of commitment.
If you are not this ambitious create a consistent pattern of practicing free throws.
I like the idea of shooting sets of 100 and keeping track of the number you make out of 100 (calculating your percentage) as well as your longest streaks (shots made in a row). Realizing you are capable of making 6, 8, or 10 in a row increases confidence. Keep challenging yourself to improve your percentage and your streaks.
You want to get your practice percentage as high as you can because the general rule is (according to the NY Times article on free throws) is players will shoot about 10 percent below their practice percentage in game situations.
Make it fun, not a chore that you dislike by challenging yourself in creative ways.
3) Observe and analyze as a scientist would in order to make needed adjustments. Sheer repetition is not the only answer.
This is quite easy to do utilizing the FREE THROW TRAINER™. If you miss the trainer altogether, that is, no part of the ball hits it, then the shot is off center. Remember shots are often off center because of mechanics so make needed adjustments in order to shoot the ball consistently straight.
You will find that if you hit the trainer the ball will usually go in. You will also find that shots that are very close to hitting the trainer can still go in because the basket is quite large and forgiving.
Eventually you will no longer need the FTT because you will have developed the muscle memory of shooting the ball straight and visioning the trainer sitting on the middle front of the rim guiding you. This may take you a relatively short period of time (3-4 weeks) or it may take you some months. Your pace is your pace.
The goal here is to keep practicing until you develop the muscle memory and the mindset of shooting the ball straight so that you are no longer trying to make it, you simply make it.
I’m Al Heystek the inventor of the "Nothin' But Net" FREE THROW TRAINER™
Heystek & Atwood, LLC
Al Heystek and Andy Atwood
Heystek & Atwood, LLC
Inventors of the Patent Pending "Nothin' But Net" FREE THROW TRAINER™
www.FREETHROWTRAINER.com