Every player on our team must shoot 100 free throws every day

[StillAWarrior]

Yes, but that is an offseason type of switch.  By no means will you want to do significant mechanic change to a players shot midseason.  From experience working with players, when you change the mechanics of a player, to start they are going to be god awful shooters, because they are getting use to the way it feels shooting that way. 

I don't disagree.

Some people on this board act as though these guys aren't told/aren't practicing free throws... they are, its absurd to think otherwise.  This is a absolute pointless topic in which sparks us just yelling at each other, it serves no purpose on this board.  It sickens me that everytime I make a stop at scoop, this is the top topic.

As I've said before, I really don't have much of a problem with how the team is shooting FTs.  They're average.  Would I like them to be above average?  Sure.  Am I troubled by the fact that they're average?  Not really.

And I agree with you and I'm sure that they are practicing.  I got involved in this thread when I read the absurd argument that practicing a mechanical skill wouldn't lead to improvement and that the concept of muscle memory is a joke.

And if this is the top topic whenever you visit, you must not come around here too often.  Perhaps you didn't hear:  Indiana sucks; Bo likes "traditional" players; Chicos and Ners hate each other; Christopherson has had a couple of good games; we either have a terrible problem with transfers or no problem at all; and Pitt is evil and must be destroyed.

[GGGG]

I have never heard such ridiculous arguments against the value of practice and repetition as means to getting better at something.

That's not what people are saying.  What people are saying is that players at this level are supposed to do this on their own time, not during the limited time when they have official practice.

[chren21]

I don't disagree.

As I've said before, I really don't have much of a problem with how the team is shooting FTs.  They're average.  Would I like them to be above average?  Sure.  Am I troubled by the fact that they're average?  Not really.

And I agree with you and I'm sure that they are practicing.  I got involved in this thread when I read the absurd argument that practicing a mechanical skill wouldn't lead to improvement and that the concept of muscle memory is a joke.

+1

[Mayor McCheese]

How on Earth can anyone argue against the importance of high-level basketball players being able to make free throws?

Or that practicing anything makes most people better at it, whatever “it” is?

This debate ignores the obvious: Marquette misses too many free throws, especially in key situations.

Perhaps this can be improved upon by having our players shoot a lot more free throws in non-game situations.

I have never heard such ridiculous arguments against the value of practice and repetition as means to getting better at something.

The problem is when you shoot in "non game situations" it doesn't amount for the in-game aspect.  The crowd noise, the pressure, the tiredness (and someone brought up the doing windsprints before shooting FT in practice... its similar, but still not that same type of fatigue that players see in games, you are losing the getting hit, grabbed, pushed, lateral movement constantly in games), when shooting ft in practice and non-game situations, it doesn't take into account how the player has been shooting in the game that day.



FT's is an odd commoditity, much like putting in golf, and reading a pitcher's mechanics on releasing different types of pitches.  It is such a tiny change that can take you from and average to proficiant at the skill, and I don't know if the skill can be taught.  Understand that the tiny change in the skill doesn't always have to be physical.

[StillAWarrior]

That's not what people are saying.  What people are saying is that players at this level are supposed to do this on their own time, not during the limited time when they have official practice.

Actually that is exactly what AnotherMU84 was saying.  He started by saying the concept of practicing a physical activity to develop muscle memory is "junk" and then has repeatedly argued that the reason FT shooting percentages haven't improved over the last 50 years is because practicing free throws won't improve performance.

If the only question being discussed here is whether Buzz should spend practice time on free throws, I think we're all in agreement (with the possible exception of MU Avenue - not sure).  But I think some of the players should do this on their own time (with the clarification that 100/day likely would have little or no discernible effect -- more like 1000+), and unlike Ners, I think a 5% increase would be very significant.

[StillAWarrior]

The problem is when you shoot in "non game situations" it doesn't amount for the in-game aspect.  The crowd noise, the pressure, the tiredness (and someone brought up the doing windsprints before shooting FT in practice... its similar, but still not that same type of fatigue that players see in games, you are losing the getting hit, grabbed, pushed, lateral movement constantly in games), when shooting ft in practice and non-game situations, it doesn't take into account how the player has been shooting in the game that day.

Absolutely agree.  I thought the most interesting thing in the article posted by AnotherMU84 was when it said, "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."  So, if a guy hits 75% in practice, you can expect him to hit 65% in games.  But, presumably if he hits 82% in practice, he's going to get 72% in games.

Obviously, this is a general rule , isn't exact, and doesn't apply in every case (unless, of course, Novak really did hit 107% in practice).  I'd be interested to see more study/data on this.

[GGGG]

Actually that is exactly what AnotherMU84 was saying.  He started by saying the concept of practicing a physical activity to develop muscle memory is "junk" and then has repeatedly argued that the reason FT shooting percentages haven't improved over the last 50 years is because practicing free throws won't improve performance.

I should have read the whole thread then because that is inherently stupid.

[Stretchdeltsig]

I took a class my senior year, "Theory of Coaching Basketball" by Hank Raymonds.  Hank showed us how he taught the players to shoot free throws in practice.  Al and Hank would make the players shoot free throws at the end of practice and at the end of drills when they were worn out and it worked.  Most of the players made their free throws when it mattered most.

[leever]

Good Grief!  Did you ever see Ric Cobb shoot free throws?

[Doctor J]

I posted two weeks ago that we needed to practice free throws/Those that responded were mostly negative and implied that D-One teams did not practice free throws.  If you count the back end of missed one and ones, free thows represent almost one third of the total points scored in a game/  When you lose a game by three or four points, you can usually look at missed free throws as the culprit.

[Pakuni]

It's probably worth noting that in 2006-07 and 2007-08, the two seasons prior to Buzz taking over, the team shot .669 and .706 from the line, respectively.

In the two years since Buzz became coach - and stopped shooting free throws as a part of organized practice time - the team has shot .728 and .741, respectively.

Obviously there are more factors at play here than whether or not the team is  shooting free throws as part of organized practice time, but it at least seems apparent that it hasn't had much of a detrimental effect on the results.

[MARQKC]

Do you people have lives?

The only metric in this category that counts is that you make more free throws than the other team takes.

[willie warrior]

Good Grief!  Did you ever see Ric Cobb shoot free throws?

Yes I did. It was not pretty, but I believe it was better than Abel Joseph or Faisal Abraham. I wonder who has the MU record for lowest career FT%? It would probably need to be a minimum of 40 attempts for the career. 
That would certainly bring back some fond memories/nightmares.