Improving free throw shooting percentages

Is NBA free-throw shooting so bad players should bank their free throws?

Free-throw shooting, and specifically its perceived lack of improvement, has been featured recently in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times with articles about new shooting techniques in Korea, in podcasts with scientists about perfect shooting techniques, and in peer-reviewed studies about audience effects on free-throw shooting. One consistency is the suggestion NBA free-throw shooting percentages have hovered around 75% for the last 30 years without any improvements.

The Wall State Journal highlighted advances in the game, such as a center being the game’s best passer, and added, “The exception is the free throw, stuck more or less where it’s always been.” A peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Motor Learning and Development concluded, “Free-throw shooting percentage has averaged around 75% for nearly five decades.” The New York Times got closer to the truth, writing “Other shots have evolved in pro basketball. But not the free throw, and over the past 30 years, its success rate in the NBA has barely budged from around 77.”

I use Basketball Reference for NBA stats, as do many others. According to Basketball Reference, the 2005-06 season was the last season league-wide free-throw percentages dipped below 75%. Until recently, 77.1% in the 1973-74 season was the highest league-wide shooting percentage, matched as far back as 2008-09. Free-throw percentages dipped as low as 72.8% as recently as the 1998-99 season (ironically, when many suggest fundamentals were near their peak).

The last season the league-wide free-throw percentage was in the 75% range was 2015-16 (75.7%). The last season the percentage was under 77% was 2018-19 (76.6%). Last season, the league-wide free-throw percentage hit an all-time high of 78.2%, and currently, the NBA is on pace to break the record, as the league-wide free-throw percentage is 78.4%. Free-throw shooting has improved in the 2020s over previous decades with fairly consistent year to year improvement over the last five seasons, reaching its current peak. The stagnation may have existed into the teens, but shooting is improving and has never been better, despite the articles.

The Korean Basketball League (KBL) gained acclaim because many players bank their free throws. “Experts say about half of the top 10 free-throw shooters regularly bank their free throws. Players who have exclusively banked them have pushed their free throw percentages into the 80s and 90s,” (Yoon, 2023). This sounds great, but the NBA’s current top 10 in free-throw shooting percentage shoot over 90% and 80 NBA players shoot over 80% (of those who qualify for official statistics). Reaching 80% from the free-throw line is a relatively low bar to set for articles about a fairly obscure league in multiple national publications.

The article added, “Some…even improved dramatically after switching to the bank shot, like Yoongi Ha, who jumped from 57 to 80%” (Yoon, 2023). This is interesting, as large improvements are rare once players reach the professional level. Another player added, “Psychologically, the bank shot is easier than the clean shot because I can see where I should aim,” (Yoon, 2023). Large improvements and enhanced psychology certainly are reasons to investigate a new shooting method.

Computer simulations suggest the bank shot is a better approach than a swish because the backboard softens the shot and creates a greater area on the rim for the ball to enter. “Despite its higher statistical success, Jeon said, the bank shot isn’t easy to master. Each backboard has a unique elasticity, so players need to adjust their technique in each new court” (Yoon, 2023). Adjusting to each basket every time one plays seems troublesome. The Korean league has 10 teams; the NBA has 30. Learning the backboards at 30 NBA arenas could be problematic.

Beyond the backboards and the difficulty mastering the banked free throw, underhand free-throw shooter Rick Barry, a career 89.3% free-throw shooter, added, “People are adopting this, but they’re not going to adopt the way that physicists have said is the most efficient way to shoot a free throw. It just shows you how crazy this world is” (O’Connell, 2023). The Spurs Jeremy Sochan adopted the one-hand free throw and currently shoots 79.1% from the free-throw line this season. Players will seem to try new things provided it looks similar, unlike the underhanded free-throw.

Personally, I do not find the banked free-throw to be an easier shot, but I always shot well from the free-throw line. I do not see banked free-throws as a solution to perceived free-throw shooting problems in the NBA, nor would I suggest banked free throws to most players. However, like Sochan’s one-handed free throw, the banked free throw may have a role in improving some players’ shooting and as a strategy for very poor free-throw shooters.

When we see Sochan’s free-throw percentages improve, we attribute the improvement to the specific style, as with the Korean banked free throws, but the real improvement may stem from changing the style and the practice goals. Sochan’s improved free-throw percentages do not mean every player should shoot one-handed; instead, it shows the power of change.

Years ago, I worked with a player who broke his left wrist in the preseason and decided to dedicate his time while he could not play to becoming an expert shooter. He shot one-handed for weeks because of the cast on his left hand, and when he returned to games, he continued to shoot free throws with one hand. In the final game of the season, shooting one-handed, he made 15/16 free throws. Despite this success, he did not continue to shoot one-handed free throws, but he maintained his success, shooting over 85% from the free-throw line in each of his final three seasons, and becoming a 180 Shooter and D3 All-American (see 180 Shooter). The one-handed shooting was a constraint introduced by his injury and a step on the path to great shooting; it was not an end.

The problem with free-throw shooting practice once players reach an automatic shooting style (non-beginners) is the reliance on repetitions to do the work. Miss an important shot? More reps. Bad game? More reps. Bad season? More reps. Grind. More always becomes the answer when we are otherwise out of solutions. As an NCAA Division 1 Head Coach said last season after a bad game, “I don’t know how you can consistently miss free throws when they’re asked to make 100 before they leave practice. Make 100, not shoot 100” (see Fake Fundamentals, Volume 2). Reps, reps, reps, but these reps replicate the same practice and techniques that led to the bad games and season. Why expect more of something that led to failure will lead to future success?

The banked free throw and Sochan’s one-handed free throw perturb the players’ normal shooting style. The players do not fall back into their normal habits during practice and performance because of the drastic change. Shooting one-handed forces Sochan to shoot differently, to adopt a style that works with only one hand; banking free throws forces players to use more legs or a higher arc to shoot over the rim. These are distinct changes to the normal shooting style and differ from simple instructions or tweaks, which often do not persist as change feels weird. The habitual style feels comfortable, despite its lack of success. K. Anders Ericsson identified this as a problem with practice, which caused him to differentiate and define deliberate practice. The challenge is to resist the comfortable habitual style, and these perturbations — banking free throws or shooting one-handed — prevent players from reverting to their habitual style.

The change in target (hitting the glass) could reduce some performance pressure or anxiety and potentially change shooting techniques to create sufficient change to make more shots. Changing the goal could lead to improved performance more quickly than relying on more repetitions or cuing technique-related changes (arm here, knee there) that may lead to the player internalizing his or her technique. This change may be the easiest way to fix a player’s free-throw shooting for players struggling to move above 60% from the free-throw line, even if mastering the banked free throw is not an easy shot or an easier or better way to shoot.

Growth often requires change. Change requires concentration. Changing the goal from a swish to a bank may perturb their shooting style sufficiently to force more concentration on the practice task. In the end, the banked free-throw style may not cause the improvement; it may be the change in practice concentration and habits. The change in the goal may change the shooting style (shooting higher, using more legs, quicker release, etc), which was needed regardless of shooting swishes or banks.

I am unconvinced, despite the physics, that banked shots are the absolute best way to shoot free throws, primarily because the best shooters tend to be the best free-throw shooters, and nobody is advocating for shooting off the glass on ALL shots. However, from a learning and skill acquisition standpoint, the shift to banked shots could improve shooting by pushing players away from their current, unsuccessful style in the same way I use other instructions as constraints to change or modify a player’s habitual shooting style.

My biggest question is whether or not players can transition back to swishes with greater overall success or if their improved shooting is specific only to the banked shots. Is the banked free throw an especial skill, which is a unique skill that results from massive amounts of practice at a specific distance (Breslin et al., 2010)? Also, is the improved free-throw shooting through banked shots accompanied by improved shooting on other game shots? Essentially, can banked free throws improve the shooting of unsuccessful shooters or do players have to adopt banked free-throw shooting permanently as the way to improve only their free-throw shooting percentages? Are the improvements generalizable or specific to an especial skill?

NBA free-throw shooting is better, on average, than people believe, likely because the failures receive more attention as we expect players to make their free throws. Nobody remembers the 8/8 second quarter, but everyone remembers the miss in the last second or two that leads to a loss. There are easier ways to improve free-throw shooting than banking shots: First, adopt the Steve Nash pre-shot routine; second, improve the free-throw practice rather than shooting blocks of free throws (Evolution of 180 Shooter). For bad shooters, who need to change their style or technique, the banked free throw (or one-handed) is a good constraint to perturb their habitual style and force changes to their technique.

References

Yoon, J. (2023). Nothing but Backboard: Why some Korean basketball players love the bank shot. New York Times, November 30.

O’Connell, R. (2023). NBA stars, fix your free throws with one easy trick. Wall Street Journal, November 27.

Markwell, L.T., Singh, H., Strick, A.J., & Porter, J.M. (2023). The effects of spectators on National Basketball Association free throw performance. Journal of Motor Learning and Development, 1(aop), 1-12.

Breslin, G., Hodges, N.J., Kennedy, R., Hanlon, M., & Williams, A.M. (2010). An especial skill: Support for a learned parameters hypothesis. Acta Psychologica, 134(1), 55-60.