Post created by: Christian
Last night, after a long night of learning and doing a million physics problems I decided that it was time to call it and go to sleep. So, I did my every night routine. Showered, brushed my teeth, rubbed on a light coat of lotion, grabbed my snuggle buddy, and turned on the only thing worthy of falling asleep. That’s right “dadada dadada”, (ESPN for those of you who didn't quite catch on), and just as I expected Scott Van Pelt was providing a rundown of all things sports that I missed during the day. “Yankees lost…” who cares, “Odell Beckham wore a Richard Mille…” NEXT. He then, finally started breaking down the Men's USA basketball, finally a sport worthy of any attention, not surprising our Men’s team was eliminated by France. A France team that had only 3 NBA players compared to the 16 on team USA. That wasn’t what interested me, as I was watching the highlights, I couldn't help but notice that the players were shooting further and further from the 3-point line. That got me thinking about the physics behind shooting a basketball and if there were areas that can be manipulated in order to shoot from further and further out.
When it comes to shooting the ball the size of your arm, the strength of your arms and anything related to being a “muscle head” is not the only factor. The smallest, skinniest, most scrawny guys are usually the best shooters. Perfect examples would be guys like Stephen Curry, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, Dirk Nowitzki. These are some of the best shooters in the history of the game and all of them have very thin, slim, slender, undernourished builds. On the opposite end of the spectrum, guys who are known for their muscular builds like Shaquille O’Neal, Ben Wallace, and even Russell Westbrook are also known poor shooters from behind the arc. From this observation alone it's pretty safe to eliminate muscle or the lack thereof as the reason for being an exceptional long-distance threat. After reading through a couple of articles I came to the conclusion that there are 2 main things that consistently determined rather or not you were a good shooter. The first being the angle at which a player launches the ball aka the releasing arc. According to Dr. Gintaras Duda, a physics professor at Creighton University, if you would like to shoot a perfect three pointer, the ball must be released at least at 33 degrees from your hand a slight chance to hit a shot. 33 degrees was the minimum degree, that I was able to find, and 45 degrees was also acceptable. The second factor is the velocity at which the ball is released. From what I read anything from 18 mph to 20 mph should be sufficient in getting the ball to the hoop. However, it is dependent on the distance you’re shooting from.
That’s it, the secret is out. Those are the two factors that you need to make it on to one of the NU basketball teams. So, once you’ve mastered your ability to shoot the ball at least at 33 degrees, and at a velocity of 18-20 mph, you can be the long-distance threat we’ve so desperately needed.
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