Phase Six - Follow through

The follow through

The Follow through is the final phase of the basketball free throw. It is the motion of the body once the ball has left the hands and there is nothing more for the player to do which will affect shot success. A skilled follow through should consist of the legs at full extension, ankles plantar flexed. The trunk should be vertical and the shooting hip lined up vertically with the knee and ankle, as well as the joints of the shooting arm (Kelbick, 2007). 

Fig1. In this figure you can see the ball has been released and the player is in his follow through phase. His legs are fully extended and ankles plantar flexed, the trunk is at full extension along with shoulder and elbow, with the wrist been flexed to provide ball spin.

Fig 2. In this figure you can see the follow through phase of my free throw my legs and trunk are fully extended, ankle is plantar flexed. Shoulder and elbow are extended, however the angle of my shoulder could be higher to improve arc of shot.

Design of session

• Practice shot without ball in hand and work on extending the body to its full potential
• Repeat exercise with ball this time and work on shot extension and follow through
• Use video analysis to assess where improvements can be made

Statistics

Shooting 5 sets of 10 free throws from the line this is how I went:

Set one: 4 from 10

Set two: 5 from 10

Set three: 4 from 10

Set four: 6 from 10

Set five: 7 from 10

Shooting 26 out of 50 gives me shooting percentage of 52%

Reflection

It is hard to change the free through follow through as it is such a natural action and every individual performs it differently. Having not worked on my free throw follow through my original video assessment was very pleasing. Technique did not seem to be an issue and altering my follow through will not affect my shot performance.

References

Kelbick, D. (2007, September 10). Basketball Fundamentals - Free Throw Shooting. Breakthrough Basketball - Hundreds of FREE Basketball Coaching Drills, Plays, Tips, Offenses, Defenses & Resources. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/foulshooting.html