Free Throw Shooting Tips to Increase Shooting Percentage
If you’re not making your free throws, you’re giving your opponent another chance to score (which could be the game-winning shot). Being able to make free throws consistently can be the difference between winning and losing in basketball, so you need to find ways to get better at them. Here are three tips on how to shoot fifty percent from the free-throw line in basketball.
Visualize
You can easily visualize yourself sinking free throws, with no hesitation and on-target shots. Before going onto the court or before taking a practice shot, close your eyes and picture yourself shooting without hesitation. Imagine yourself making all of your free throws, even before you take a single shot in real life. This technique will help prepare you mentally for your big game. And once you’re up on that court, keep that image in mind! Visualizing success makes it more likely to happen in real life.
Practice Makes Perfect
The most common mistake shooters make is the lack of attention paid to proper technique. In order to increase your shooting percentage, you have to shoot the same shot every single time you shoot a free throw. It might feel as though you’re taking too much time, but that’s the point. Proper repetition and focus will quickly turn into muscle memory, which will help get you on track towards reaching your goal of shooting 50% from the free-throw line. Do ten free throws at home a day and it won’t be long before you notice results!
Ball Handling
One of the best shooting drills is to simply use your own basketball and go through the motions of your set shot. As you shoot, focus on dribbling the ball with each hand individually as well as switching hands when necessary. While practicing your form in front of a mirror may seem goofy, it’s incredibly helpful—shooting the ball with proper technique can lead to an increase in free throw percentage by as much as 50 percent! If you don’t have a mirror handy, practice passing and catching the ball between two chairs or another object that forces you to hold onto it for longer than usual—the extra time will help increase your touch.
Nerves Are Natural
As with any activity, there’s an element of nervousness. We tend to think that those who are confident will always shoot at the highest percentage, but the reality is sometimes athletes perform better when they let themselves feel a little nervous. While it may seem counterintuitive to want to feel nervous before a free throw attempt, having that kind of body awareness will allow you to relax more and allow your body to become used to shooting with nerves and still perform up to par. That said, if you can take every game as if it were the biggest one on the line and treat every free throw like it’s game seven of the NBA finals, so much the better.
Overcome Pressure, Anxiety, And Doubt
Do you know what makes for a great shooter? Not someone who shoots fifty percent from the free-throw line. Nope, it’s someone who shoots fifty percent when there’s pressure, anxiety and doubt. When you hear a roaring crowd chanting your name (or booing), you want to be at your best. Whether you win or lose, you’ll have haters and doubters watching and judging. Fight through it and shoot!
Watch and Learn From The Pros
In order to figure out the best free-throw shooting tips and drills, it’s important that you watch and learn from the pros. The best free-throw shooters have mastered the art of staying focused on the goal and following through with their shots with consistent form. So rather than trying new things at game time, study how they do what they do and mimic them. Free throw percentage is a reflection of personal discipline and persistence, so if you want to get better you need to be willing to put in some extra work during practice sessions away from your teammates. If you want to be successful as a basketball player, mastering your free throws is one area where simple repetition can pay off big time!
Have Confidence in Your Set-Up
The key to a good free-throw shooting routine is consistency. If you’ve never practiced your routine before, you may be surprised by how much confidence it gives you when you’re in the game and shooting. The routine doesn’t need to take more than ten minutes and can be practiced with any ball on any basketball court. Just by doing the same thing over and over again, you’ll start becoming more familiar with the mechanics of your shot—especially during pressure situations where it’s easy to fall into bad habits or forget your set-up.
Choose A Spot, Not A Target!
A good free throw shooter needs one thing above all else: focus. To become a better free-throw shooter, your mind and body must both be working together on the court, not against each other. One of the easiest ways to improve your free throw shooting percentage is to learn how to zone out everything else except for one spot on the court—it will increase your concentration level and give you more control over your movements, which in turn will make you a better free-throw shooter. It’s counterintuitive but it works!
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