La Salle’s free-throw woes continue

I have some concrete fundamentals about free throw shooting if the team cares to use them. These are some things that worked for me when I was still playing the game, even in a club or backyard level only. 1. Use your ELBOW and WRIST aligned as a sight or focal point (pang asinta). Point the elbow towards the basket or the square window, before you shoot the shot. This is where Maui Villanueva loses his shot. His elbow is not in proper position before release. He releases way before the alignment of the elbow towards the basket is fixed. He thus has a tendency to reach for the basket. Notice that he moves forward after his shot. He should be well balanced and in his place when the shot is finished, not egging the ball to go in. His misses are usually short aren't they? 2. Shoot UP INTO, not TOWARDS the basket. This prevents you from pushing the ball towards the basket and gives you a natural motion in releasing the ball, with minimum effort as you are not overpowering the ball to go to the basket, just feathering it up into it. Another advantage is that the angle of entry is better when you loop the shot up, that when you push it towards. (The cylinder hole becomes bigger). 3. Always fundamentally, bend your knees. The shot comes from the legs, not the arms. The arms and hands merely guide the ball up into the basket. 4. Certain people have strength issues in shooting free throws (they are too strong to feather the ball in from 15 feet). Have you ever wondered why Sam Marata is a dead shot from three point land, but has trouble hitting free throws? For Sam, I suggest standing a couple of inches or a foot beyond the free throw line. This will give him a little more freedom to loop his shot in. He pushes and babies his shot. Sometimes it's just physiscs. Have you ever seen Karl Malone when he first entered the league? He was less than a 50% free throw shooter. By the time he ended his career, he was the second all time scorer of the league and a huge part of that is his free throw shot. Funny looking free throw but he was able to find the angle to control the ball despite his strength. Another example is Patrick Ewing. Look at his form. He changed the angle of entry of his free throw by shooting STRAIGHT UP instead of towards the basket. 5. Gooseneck your wrist and follow through. Some hold it up there while others (like JV Casio), snaps back their arms like a sling shot or catapult. 6. Backspin the ball. Do not knuckle ball the shot in. This is Sam Marata's flaw. 7. About drills, do before and after practice drills. Before drills are designed para malamig pa yung player. After practice is para pagod na yung players. 8. Shoot a round robin one shot only. A shoot till you miss drill does not work. Why? Because the first shot is a range finder. The next shots are when you felt the shot already. That is why the boys seem to do well in free throw practice, but not in the game. Remember, there are only two shots awarded per free throw session. Therefore, the first shot is the more difficult one. Thus, always shoot one shot in round robin fashion and monitor the percentage of your shots. 9. Practice 100 free throws before and after drills. For those who are consistently good free throw shooters already, don't change anything. Just practice more. 200 shots. Guys, I am not a know-it-all. I am, however, very observant. I wanted to contributed in a technical and concrete way, not in ridicule or critical fashion. I wasn't strong enough to be a collegiate player, but I played shooting forward during my youth. I do have a feathery touch specially from the stripe. Ako yung laging designated player pag sa "miss" to gain possession dahil walang jumpball sa backyard games. Once you get your own rythms in free throw shooting, do it automatically. Do NOT think about the shot. It should be automatic even with your eyes closed. You may or may not follow my suggestions. That is up to you. My aim is to simply up the percentage of the team to around 70%. But at this point, what is there to lose? If we solve this, we're in the finals. I guarantee you. Animo!!!!!!

on a side note, if the opponents foul our team on purpose early and get in to penalty. I think the opponent would have a good chance to win, like hack-a-shaq or in our case, hack-an-archer.

If we know the problem then why is it still persisting, Mr. Coach?

May I just add that it's mental for most of these guyst but for Maui, it;s obviously technique. He has to arch his shot a bit more, bend a little more.

This is an obvious flaw that's somehow being taken for granted. I appreciate the way you posted these stats to emphasize a glaring problem which Im sure can be addressed immediately. There is still time to fix this. We make extra special freethrow sessions during practice, let's add punishments to make them execute their FT's with more consistency. Let's get everyone to shoot the same way (develop your own freethrow habit or ritual for consistency, etc.). Bend your knees, fingertip position, remember the ball rotation, arch the ball for better and that's it . There is no shame in going back to your fundamentals. For a lot of these guys it's really mental or even a case of nerves especially the shooting guards - Luigi, Oda, even Yuiten whom I know have great shooting touches. You just block everything else, like what Kobe said "I cant remember a single time that the noise ever blocked my shot".

I can live with our bigs taking 3pointers, since that's apparently part of the strategy of the coaches. However, missed free throws are inexcusable. The physical aspect can be addressed by practice and repetition, so it looks like it's now mental. The coaches have to address this area if the Archers are to go deep into the UAAP postseason. As seen in the stats above, we lost by single digits, but missed at least 10 fts in each of the 3 games we lost. The loss to San Beda was entirely preventable, but our team missed a whopping 14 fts, and we lost only by 2 points. Unless addressed properly, this single weakness will negate all the extensive training and preparation the team has undergone.

You don't deserve to win if you can;t make your free throws. I'm thinking Coach Dindo should know that by now. The secret to good free throw shooting - PRACTICE!!!

At last a sensible analysis of the team. We're sick and tired of excuses from the other support site saying "we are a young, rookie-laden team in a rebuilding stage forever and ever, amen...and winning 4 games each season is an over-achievement, amen..."

KABOOM!! there's our main problem right there..... let's get CHIP Engelland as our shooting coach, he did wonders for the Denver Nuggets' free throw shooting. I'm sure kayang kaya kunin ni Boss Danding si pareng Chip..