Positive effect of a scaled ball on the free throw technique in under-12 basketball

Abstract

Problem Statement: Under-12 basketball is one of those youth sports that children can practice before going on to play basketball. However, the lack of shooting success is a common problem in under-12 basketball, which minimises their expectation to be physically active in the future. Purpose: The aim was to explore whether the (in general and successful) free throw technique was similar to the ideal technique proposed by the literature when using a lighter ball (440 g) in under-12 basketball. Participants were 45 players from five male teams. Method: Players were filmed performing a free throw test with the regular ball (490 g, 69-71 cm) and a lighter ball (440 g, 69-71 cm). They were tested midway through the season in the month of March. Each day, the test was performed by one team, so all the teams were tested in the two-week period. They performed 270 free throws with each ball, which were observed and later analysed as a group. The criteria analysed of each free throw were differentiated according to prior to ball release and at ball release. Results: The lighter ball allowed free throws (p < .05) with high style prior to ball release, supporting hand lateral and static, upper line, shooting hand orientated toward the basket, shooting arm very close to the vertical, and shooting wrist fully bent at ball release. In addition, this ball allowed successful free throws (p < .05) without jumping prior to ball release, in which the ball was released at the point of maximum height, upper line, and shooting wrist fully bent at ball release. The mean frequency of patterns was higher with the lighter ball at ball release. Conclusions: The lighter ball allowed a free throw technique similar to the ideal technique and a more regular free throw technique at ball release. This suggests that there was scope for improvement in scaling the regular ball because diminishing the ball mass could promote the execution of the free throw in conditions better tailored to the players.