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View Full Version : NYT: For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help



gotham devil
03-04-2009, 03:31 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/sports/basketball/04freethrow.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Coaches admit to baselines of acceptability for their players and teams. The average, apparently, is about 75 percent in the N.B.A. and 69 percent in college basketball. When numbers slip, time is devoted to improvement. When they rebound, the game’s other facets take precedence.
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But even practice has never made perfect. The general rule is that players, in games, shoot 10 percentage points below their practice average. The difference is pressure and fatigue, hard to replicate in an empty arena.

CDu
03-04-2009, 05:13 PM
Makes sense. Repetition undoubtedly helps with free throw shooting. But free throws percentage is not highly correlated with winning percentage (according to the article). So it's only worth spending so much time working on free throw shooting in practice, since hitting 2-3 more free throws per game will only get you so far.

gotham devil
03-04-2009, 05:48 PM
Makes sense. Repetition undoubtedly helps with free throw shooting. But free throws percentage is not highly correlated with winning percentage (according to the article). So it's only worth spending so much time working on free throw shooting in practice, since hitting 2-3 more free throws per game will only get you so far.

In fairness to the college coaches, they are limited by the NCAA in the time they can allocate to FT shooting...now, of course, they can, well, suggest that players work on FT shooting during their individual workouts.

FWIW, this Duke team is curremtly shooting 72.4%, which is 64th in the country.

CDu
03-04-2009, 06:14 PM
In fairness to the college coaches, they are limited by the NCAA in the time they can allocate to FT shooting...now, of course, they can, well, suggest that players work on FT shooting during their individual workouts.

FWIW, this Duke team is curremtly shooting 72.4%, which is 64th in the country.

Agreed. If they had unlimited time, they'd work more on free throws. But given the time constraints they have, they focus on the more important aspects of the game. Not that free throws aren't important - just that working on game situations (offensive/defensive sets, etc) winds up taking priority.

rsvman
03-04-2009, 06:21 PM
It's bogus to say that free throws don't matter because only one of the top free-throw shooting teams in in the top 10, or whatever. There are too many other factors to consider. It would be more fair to compare outcomes of close games (i.e., games against well matched opponents) based on numbers/percentages of free throws and deviations from standard percentages, etc.

I happen to think that free throw shooting is much more important than the article's author thinks.

As for improving free throw stats, it has not only been shown that practicing free throws improves percentages, it has also been shown that IMAGINING making free throws improves shooting percentages.

But what teams REALLY need is a way to practice free throws under pressure, and ways to learn how to make pressure not effect free-throw percentages.

blueprofessor
03-04-2009, 06:28 PM
how much easier it is to make a basket with the same shot compared to the larger men's ball?
Very good article.
Best regards---Blueprofessor:)

-jk
03-04-2009, 07:42 PM
I recall a drill K used (I can't say if he still does) at the end of practice. Everyone takes a couple free throws, and if you miss one, the rest of the team has to run suicides while you watch them suffer.

Diabolical.

-jk

CameronCrazy'11
03-04-2009, 10:41 PM
Maybe they should do a drill where one guy shoots a three throw while the rest of the team just yells at the top of their lungs.

godukerocks
03-04-2009, 11:53 PM
I recall a drill K used (I can't say if he still does) at the end of practice. Everyone takes a couple free throws, and if you miss one, the rest of the team has to run suicides while you watch them suffer.

Diabolical.

-jk

The JV team I was on this year took a page from K's book doing that. But instead of the one who missed watching, he runs too. I actually liked this particular drill though.