Bob Fisher has been a basketball coach at the youth and high school levels for over 20 years, and is a member of the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association (KBCA) and NBSA. His technical approach to shooting is based on recent research, and incorporates a studied physics-based approach to aid players in developing a “shooter’s touch”. More from Coach Fisher…
The information I have learned is deriv
ed from a number of sources. Through the years, I have studied every book and video about basketball shooting that I could get my hands on. For example, the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, Pub Med, and other scientific journals have published articles, which provide valuable insight into bio-mechanics. There have also been numerous basketball experiments conducted by Dr. Joan Vickers of the University of Calgary, Dr. Raoul Oudejans, and R.F.de Oliveira of the Netherlands, among others. These experiments prove that perception awareness can be improved, resulting in better performance. “Brain Training for Runners” , “The Talent Code”, “In Pursuit of Excellence”, “Perception, Cognition, and Decision Training”, and the “Physics of Basketball” are recent books which provided me with a great deal of pertinent information. In particular, Dr.John Fontanella’s “THE PHYSICS OF BASKETBALL” had a profound influence on my thinking. Professor Fontanella applied physics to the flight of the ball and calculated the exact launch angle of the free throw for players of different height. His approach changed my perspective on shooting. From then on, I approached shooting as a problem to be solved…i.e., ‘how do we consistently send a symmetrical sphere in a straight line’? I struggled with this question for over a year before discovering the answer. It came down to some simple physics. To send the ball straight we need to apply an even force to the curvature of the ball. The real key is matching the force applied with the appropriate release method. Once I learned this, my free throw percentage went from 80% to over 90%…using four different shooting methods! I was (and continue to be) amazed at how well this information works. Everyone is skeptical at first…but once they shoot using these techniques and see the results they become instant believers. People can miss the importance of this information if they simply watch my video. You must try it out yourself to grasp how dramatically it can improve your shot. Martin and Dr. Tom Amberry were two of the all-time best free throw shooters in the world. Since the video, I have been blessed with their friendship and counsel. They have been invaluable with their encouragement and direction while I was practicing to break the record for most free throws in one minute. They are both outstanding role models and great people. I am very thankful that I have been provided the opportunity to get to know them. Both of these men encouraged me to go for a record. When they suggested it, my first reaction was surprise…it did not seem possible. I was 52 years old and was never a star player (11 points per game in high school). In track, I was always right in front of the guy who finished dead last. In other words, athletically I am on the bottom side of average. However, in September 2009, I started hitting the gym for an hour or two almost every day to see how good I could become. After a month, I was making over 100 free throws in a row. After two months, I hit 246. At this point, I set a goal to break the record for most free throws in one minute and started going for speed. There is definitely a speed-accuracy tradeoff as it took another month before I was ready. We set the attempt for Jan. 9, 2010 and with the help of the Valley Heights girls’ basketball team, I made 50 out of 59 free throws in one minute. Shooting is difficult. It is very easy to miss shots. It has been my experience that repetition does not lead to better shooting. Knowledge of the variables involved in shooting does. Maximum improvement comes when you combine the two. A working knowledge of how fundamental variables interact and experimenting with multiple methods accelerate the learning curve. Best of all, shooting becomes more enjoyable! So, 'Shoot 4 the Stars'.
