Basketball WorkoutsFree throw shooting is a very important part of playing winning basketball. If you disagree then look at all the close games that are lost and then look at the losing teams free throw percentage. If they could have have only made 2 or 3 more free throws then they could have won.
You hear the phrase "You have to learn how to win." Well one part of learning how to win is making your free throws. So lets talk about basketball shooting drills to improve your free throw shooting.
To be an excellent free throw shooter I believe that you need to have a routine at the foul line. Find a routine that you are comfortable with and will relax you. Do this routine every time you are shooting a free throw.
The second thing to remember is having good fundamentals when shooting the free throw. Make sure you bend your knees and get your legs into the shot. The legs are very important, especially late in a game when you are tired.
Have your shooting hand behind the ball on the fingertips and use your off hand as a guide. As you begin to shoot you will drop your off hand from the ball and then extend your shooting arm to the sky. Your hand will naturally wave good bye to the ball. Make sure you have arc and backspin on the ball. That will give you the shooters roll.
When practicing your free throws you can do these two things.
1. Stand at the foul line and shoot hundreds of foul shots a day. This will improve your foul shooting because of the repetition and hard work you are putting in. Please understand that you must be practicing the correct fundamentals of shooting and always do your routine. If you practice the wrong fundamentals, then you will not improve. You are just practicing the wrong way to shoot.
2. Put yourself in game time situations
Never shoot more than 2 foul shots at time or 3 if you are fouled taking a three pointer. The point is to put yourself in game time situations. Shoot one and one, 2 foul shots and 3 foul shots. After shooting your foul shots, you can:
• Run suicides - this will increase your endurance and also make you tired so you can practice what it feels like to take foul shots late in the game when you are tired.
• Shot 10 shots on floor where you normally shoot in the game. After the 10 shots, go the line and put yourself in a game time situation. For example, 2 shots, down by 2 with 30 seconds to play.
• Do ball handling drills - do these drills for about 5 minutes then go the foul line and make up a game time situation.
Repeat the drills until you have made 100 free throws.
I personally like the second method of practicing free throws. This way you are practicing the same thing that you will doing in a game. There will be less pressure on you because you have practiced this many times in the gym to prepare for this moment.
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