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    Many people think free throw is just a simple throwing of the basketball at the hoop from the foul line. However, after analyzing numerous articles, we find that free throws actually take into account many different factors. Many different areas of skills like body movements, positioning and mental preparation for the shooter are involved from the moment the shooter walks up to the foul shot line to the moment the ball enters the rim.

    From the study at Pennsylvania State University, it seems that the angular velocity differs between shooters. However, the joints below the shoulder are generally all lower in terms of velocity when compared to the wrist and elbow. On top of that, the peak angular velocities was much higher for the upper body joints like the wrist and the elbow when compared to those of hip, knee, and the ankle (Martin, n.d.).

    In terms of joint movement patterns, there was not a whole lot of differences between the angle of the joint at the point where the ball is released and the success rate of the ball being scored (Martin, n.d.). But some major dissimilarities did pop out that could possibly determine the scoring of the basketball. One of such dissimilarity was that of the peak angular velocity of the joints involved for the free throw. For those who made the shot, their lower body joints, which are the hip, knee and the ankle had a much higher peak angular velocity when compared to the one that misses the shot. On the other hand, successful shooter's upper body joints, which are elbow and the wrists, had lower peak angular velocity than those who misses the shot (Martin, n.d.). On top of that, joints that are more proximal to the centre of the body were used first when compared to the distal joints of the body for those who made the shot. In another way, the movement spread from the centre of the body and moves through the hip, knee and the ankle for the lower body, while for the upper body, the movement spread from the centre of the body and moves through the shoulder, the elbow and then finally the wrist (Martin, n.d.).

    In whole, the joint movement pattern between the best and worst free throw shooters had much differences. One of which was that the joint motion and release angle for the best shooter was lower and changed less. The best shooter had also much more controlled and consistent joint velocity when making the shot; their peak elbow and body angular velocity were much lower than those of the worst shooter (Martin, n.d.). On top of that, the advanced shooters also go through a set order of joint movements, where the proximal joint reaches peak angular velocity first; followed by the distal joints reaching peak angular velocity later.

That is a whole lot of information for this article, but what does that all mean?

    In much simpler terms, most of the experienced basketball players follow a basic pattern of joint motion, joint velocities and joint postures at the release of the basketball. Besides what was already mentioned, it seems that all these good basketball players followed a similar order of joint movement and motion in order to develop more power when making the shot. It is suggested that this power to make the shot was generated mainly under precise control from the core and lower body, and then transmitted to the limbs which is finally transmitted to the ball when the shot is made (Martin, n.d.). For those who do not make the shot, it doesn't mean they made a mistake at making their angular velocity higher or any of the factors stated above. It is actually much more complicated as it could involve much more factors than just the angular velocity; possible reasons as to why they cannot make the shot could be related to the joint structure and other physical factors such as flexibility and strength.

    A study done by University of Manitoba took a closer look to how to make a free throw in terms of body movement and motion. As it has been pointed out by the study, a typical free throw shot will require the bending of the knees at about ninety degrees and a trunk flexion close to fifty degrees. The flexion of the trunk is important because it allows for the loading of the legs, which gives more power and accuracy to the shot as the trunk is extended. When the player sets up for a free throw, the flexion of the trunk, knees and hips lower the center of gravity. The quadriceps and hamstring muscles are stretched and used to produce a powerful extension (Alexander, n.d.). When the ball is raised by shoulder flexion, the trunk will begin to extend and as this happens the knees will increase in their depth of flexion. Also during the shooting, the wrist is hyper extended when the ball is released which also contracts forcefully and produces backspin on the ball (Alexander, n.d.). Overall, the fluid motion of movements, from the hip extension, shoulder flexion, elbow extension and finally wrist flexion make up the basis of a free throw.

    The arc of a shot is also a big factor for free throw shooting. The amount of arc is related to the strength of the shooter. The higher the arch, the more strength it requires generating a maximum peak height and velocity. However some players may not be able to generate this strength and may result in the pushing of the basketball and instances where their wrist flexion and elbow extension happens at the same time (Alexander, n.d.).

    Unnecessary muscles that are not used in the free throw shot should not be contracted so as not to create tension and interfere with the form. The easiest way to control a shot is to use the least amount of energy and only use the muscles that are necessary for the shot.  

    Finally, for the last paper we have found an article analyzing the differences between the skillful shooters and the inexperienced in the terms of the elbow and the shoulder. It seems that the skillful shooter was able to control his mechanical techniques better when compared to the inexperienced shooter. To maintain this control, the shoulder angle of the skillful shooter seems to be the result of the momentum generated from his core and transferred throughout his upper body and out through the shoulder; on the other hand, the inexperienced shooter shot the ball with the force generated from the shoulder only. Inconsistency was also evident in the unskillful player's shot in terms of acceleration throughout the time they took the shot; this is due to the fact that the inexperienced shooter used up more shoulder joint in generating the same acceleration when looking at the elbow velocity difference. The Skillful player's velocity was well maximized before the release of the ball; this points to better involvement of the controlling the momentum that is transmitted through the elbow to the ball. By having control over the momentum throughout the shooting phase, the skillful player is able to have control over the displacement and the velocity of the ball after it leaves the shooter's hands (Westmark, Brondbo & Gatz, n.d.). After examining the video available. it is evident that the inexperienced player pushes the ball out, and thus result in a straight elbow by the time the ball leaves the hand. Conversely, the skillful shooter launches the ball in a projectile manner almost like a catapult firing, resulting in the ball leaving the hand before the elbow is straightened; this creates a more controlled arc when the ball is traveling in the air. This article had also stated that the more optimal angle of shooting for a free throw is between both the experienced and inexperienced is around fifty-two and fifty-five degrees (Westmark, Brondbo & Gatz, n.d.).