http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=335160
Freethrows, completely unguarded and unchanged for years, have been made at a steady percentage for decades. Female and male players scoring at the same levels, and the nba consistently outscoring college by only the tiniest margin.
That said, the author seemed to undercut his own argument that more practice doesn't raise freethrow percentages in his discussion of college teams that focus on freethrows. By showing that these teams have a higher ft percentage, didn't he say practice does make perfect...
Reminds me of when they said the mile couldn't be run in under 4min... And then it was, I dunno. Feels like with enough athletes, unless a change in equipment or revolutionary shooting style appears, maybe we should't expect any major change averaged across all players...
Still, found this article interesting!
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Sounds like a major factor is most coaches figure once players hit a certain level they want to concentrate on improving other skills. If every coach aims for a certain percentage as he suggests then its not surprising that performance over time wouldn't change. Actually, there may have been improvements, but instead of improving the percentage it may be that players just don't have to practice free throws as much. A better metric might be something like free throw percentage divided by hours of practice.
ReplyDeleteHis comparisons are also a bit questionable. If someone runs faster than they win the race. But if someone hits more free throws they may or may not do better since it probably means sacrificing practicing something else.