Comments on: Andre Drummond shoots his free throws backward

By: deffe

deffe — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:43:45 +0000

That article is spot on. Forcing some prototypical stroke on a 7 foot man with monstrous muscles ignores the fact that his relation to the basketball is geometrically different than someone of average height, and the mechanical advantage of giant muscles on long bones complicates things even further. The absolute best thing is to let them find a form that works, and help them stay with that form and not drift toward what people with entirely different body types are doing

By: Crispus

Crispus — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:17:24 +0000

There are a lot of interesting comments on the source article too.

I play basketball a couple times a week and despite the dangers of overthinking I tend to shoot better when I remind myself to do at least one ‘technique’ thing when shooting the ball. It can be getting my elbow under the ball, or shooting off my fingertips etc. Of course it’s difficult to focus on technique during the heat of a game, and shooting free throws without the benefit of jumping or shooting in rhythm is tough too.

I do agree with the author that when you watch a lot of woeful highly coached free throw shooters they tend to focus way too much on snapping the wrist and the ball just goes flying. Joakim Noah would be a good example of a free throw shooter who flouts conventional form for his natural (or homemade) one and is a pretty effective FT shooting center because of it.

By: vic

vic — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:13:26 +0000

these big guys shoot free throws with their arms not with their legs.
When they shoot naturally in rhythym, (like Dre’s step back jumper) it flows through their legs and it goes in a lot more.

By: Vince

Vince — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:09:49 +0000

As long as he does better then Biedrins’ dreadfull excuse of a FT% (0.111) I’m happy.

By: Tony J

Tony J — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 05:30:56 +0000

Noticed that in the summer league games. He often times “guided” the ball with his non-dominant left hand. Coach Frank is a guy that trust his players so I wouldn’t be suprised to see Drummond in the game during late-game situations. As long as he works on them and show some signs of improvement.