Rhythmicity, Ritual, and Motor Performance: A Study of Free Throw Shooting in Basketball

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of timing during an auto-communicative ritual to successful performance. Eight members of a university varsity basketball team served as subjects for this study. Each subject performed 15 free throws in each of four different conditions. Condition 1 required subjects to use their standard free throw ritual prior to shooting. Condition 2 required subjects to maintain the relative timing of ritual behaviors but reduce the absolute time of the ritual by one-half. Condition 3 required that relative timing be maintained but that the absolute time of the ritual be doubled. Condition 4 required the same behaviors and the same absolute time as the standard ritual but that the relative time of the ritual be altered. Data were collected with a 16-mm high-speed camera. Types of behaviors, timing aspects of the ritual, successful attempts, and shot mechanics were dependent measures. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of dependent measures and Fisher's scores from correlation coefficients of dependent measures indicate that relative timing of behaviors (rhythmicity) is more important to success than the absolute time of rituals. Behaviors most important to free throw success are those that may be totally controlled by the subject and yet remain stable with changing conditions.

A review on the basketball jump shot

“…getting open to receive a pass) may be used. Using additional skills and player movements have been shown to affect shooting performance (Lorenzo & Aragó n, 2003;Southard & Miracle, 1993). For example, Lorenzo and Aragón (2003) reported that performance of skills prior to shooting, such as catching a pass, making a cut, and offensive rebounding, decreased shooting effectiveness.…”

“…They found that relative timing of the pre-shooting ritual behaviours (i.e. the rhythmicity with which the players performed their ritual behaviours) had a greater impact on success of the free throw than the absolute time allowed to perform the pre-free throw shooting ritual behaviours (Southard & Miracle, 1993). The collective findings of these studies suggest that future research should consider the effect that actions occurring prior to basketball players taking a shot may have on their shooting performance (i.e.…”

“…For example, Lorenzo and Aragón (2003) reported that performance of skills prior to shooting, such as catching a pass, making a cut, and offensive rebounding, decreased shooting effectiveness. Southard and Miracle (1993) reported that shooting accuracy decreased when the timing and rhythmicity of the rituals performed before shooting a free throw were changed under the following four conditions: (a) players performed their standard pre-free throw shooting ritual, (b) the absolute time to complete the same pre-free throw shooting ritual behaviours was reduced by one-half, (c) the absolute time to complete the same ritual behaviours was doubled, and (d) the relative timing of performing the pre-free throw shooting ritual behaviours was altered but performed during the same absolute time period. They found that relative timing of the pre-shooting ritual behaviours (i.e.…”

“…Jump Shot (Men) Elliott (1992) 4 8 8-508 Jump Shot (Women) Miller and Bartlett (1993) 4 7 8-528 Jump Shot (Men) Knudson (1993) ,528 Theory Southard and Miracle (1993) ,588 Free Throw (Women) Miller and Bartlett (1996) 4 8 8-558 Jump Shot (Men) Hamilton and Reinschmidt (1997) 5 5 8-638 Free Throw (Theory) Rojas et al (2000) 4 4 8-478…”

Performance following a first professional concussion among National Basketball Association players

“…It is possible that offensive baseball metrics are more sensitive to the effects of concussion on reaction time and visual processing [34], while basketball shooting has a more substantial muscle preprogramming component in addition to reliance on visual processing [35][36][37]. Additionally, game frequency and intervening rest periods may be other relevant variables.…”