Free Throw Coaching Tip on
Activating and Developing
Muscle Memory
to Improve Free Throw Shooting
www.FreeThrowTrainer.com
By Coach Al Heystek
Inventor of The Original, Patent Pending, Made in the U.S.A., “Nothin’ But Net” FREE THROW TRAINER™.
Muscle memory refers to the notion that the physical body remembers what it experiences. If you have learned how to ride a bicycle then you have experienced “muscle memory.” Get back on a bike, even if it’s been a long time since you have ridden, and your brain and the neurological connections that run through you body will naturally recall how to ride a bike. You will repeat the same balancing and pedaling motions necessary to stay upright, to move forward, and to brake appropriately. Fortunately, you won’t have to learn how to ride a bike all over again. Riding a bike is locked into your muscle memory.
When it comes to shooting free throws or shooting a basketball from any spot on the court, developing muscle memory is not just a mental recollection about how to shoot the ball. Shooting accurately is about allowing your muscle memory to take over the shot so that you just shoot with ease. However, remember that it is just like riding a bike. Practice it over and over, and shooting will become locked into your muscle memory so that when you go to shoot, your natural shot is right there to be taken.
Clearly, teaching solid mechanics in youth basketball is necessary for developing muscle memory from the free throw line. Remember, practice makes permanent, not perfect! Practicing well and developing good body mechanics is critical right from the start. Youth basketball coaches can help their your players with the basics of mechanics by teaching these techniques: setting up feet and shoulders square to the basket, keeping elbow in, developing a fluid motion starting with your legs flexed, and most importantly a follow through that moves the hand on the ball straight to the middle of the basket at the release point.
The FREE THROW TRAINER that I’ve invented helps to develop muscle memory for both distance and especially direction. There are three important aspects to ball movement when shooting free throws: arc, distance and direction (shooting the ball straight). Of these three, direction is most important. To develop good muscle memory, practice shooting free throws over and over, with solid mechanics, and shoot utilizing the FREE THROW TRAINER. Doing so will significantly reinforce the critical importance of shooting the ball straight.
Activating muscle memory is what players do when warming up. Watch the great players and you will see them taking many shots from the free throw line and from other spots on the floor in pre-game practice. College and Professional players have practiced these shots thousands of times, and yet they warm up to activate the muscle memory in preparation for a game.
I believe there are two phases of activating the muscle memory when coaching youth basketball and free throw shooting. One is the pregame warm up described above. The second is the activation a player does just before taking the shot. Remember, shooting a free throw is not like any other shot in that you have plenty of time to prepare. Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Richard Hamilton and JJ Redic all make the motion of the free throw with their shooting arm prior to actually shooting the free throw in a game.
Professional baseball players take batting practice before game time. When they are in the on deck circle waiting their turn to hit, they take practice swings (activating muscle memory). And when they get up to bat most hitters take a practice swing or two prior to getting in the batter’s box.
It’s the same idea, yet most basketball players don’t make this motion of the free throw just before shooting. It it’s good enough for Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Richard Hamilton and JJ Redic, then it makes sense to me to teach our youth basketball players to do the same thing.
Coach Al Heystek
www.FREETHROWTRAINER.com
al@freethrowtrainer.com