During this unit, the basketball technique I would like to improve is my shooting, more

specifically the jump shot. As I am a beginner, I will not set restrictions on the distance or
use (of the) backboard.
Self Expert Comparison

In the image shown, I have a very good back

position (similar to the expert). But my feet
(not shown) are shoulder width apart, and my
arms and hands are positioned at a much
higher angle. However, the arm positioning
could be due to the fact that I already had
position of the basketball, while the expert
has just caught it and immediately jumped
into the shot. This is another difference
between the two of us. The expert executes
the shot much swifter, whereas my muscles
are more relaxed and I complete the jump at
a lower intensity.

Again, I have a very good back position,

similar to that of the exper. However, my feet
are still shoulder width apart. My hands are
place in a “w” shape, bringing the ball
towards my chest, and my arms have bent
outwards, instead of down. The expert’s
hands are positioned in a way that clearly
shows the guide/balance hand, and the arm
of her shooting hand is at a 90 degree angle
downwards. The ball is not tucked into her
chest. Unlike the expert, my fingers are not
spread far apart, which gives me less grip.

As shown in the image, my back posture is

very good, and similar to that of the expert.
Although not shown, my feet have also lifted
off the ground. Again, my arms are bent
outwards, and unlike the expert, I am
pushing equally with both of my arms, my
fingers still not spread apart. However, the
expert’s shooting arm (closest) is now at a
(almost) 90 degree angle from her shoulder,
and the ball is just over her elbow. The
support/balance hands is only slightly holding
the ball in place, and does not contribute to
the shot, unlike mine.
 Once again, I have an accurate back
posture. Although not in the frame, my feet
have lifted off the ground, and I have jumped
to complete the shot. However, unlike the
expert I do not have a significant jump, that
powers my shot. As shown in the image, my
arms are extended forwards, and my
dominant hand has extorted slightly more
power, resulting in a slight flick. In the
diagram, the expert has her arms extended
upwards, and (although hidden from view)
her balance/support hand retaining it’s
original position, while the shooting hand has
flicked the ball, propelling it upwards. Unlike
me, the expert uses a combination of both
the jump and the flick for momentum.

In the final diagram, after landing from the

jump shot, you can see that my back posture
is still very similar to that of the expert, and
during the land, my legs are now together.
During the jump, shot, and landing, the
expert has maintained the shown position (of
the flick) and carried out the moment. Her
arm, although no longer as tense, is still
extended above her. However, my posture
changed immediately after I let go of the ball.
Like the expert, I kept my eye on the ball,
and my hands above waist level, prepared to
catch a potential rebound.

In order to test my skill development during the unit, I devised a test. I tested my success
rate out of 10 jump shots from the green line. In my first, initial test, I got 5/10 shots into the
hoop. To improve, I researched some techniques to improve my accuracy.

1. Shooting from the same position, to better understand the technique:

a. This was a method I used the most throughout the practices. However, an
issue with this technique that I found was that it was very hard to implement
into the games we played, as it was the most ideal and controlled situation,
and I could take as much time as I wanted.
b. The benefit of this technique is that because it was so slow paced, it allowed
me to familiarize myself with the shot and better access where I had failed (or
succeeded) for the next shot, and allowed me to make consecutive shots into
the hoop.
2. Shooting around the keyhole, varying the angle:
a. I found this method to be very difficult, because in many of the angles, I didn’t
know how to continue on, or what to aim for (some required a specific area of
 the backboard whereas others did not). I quickly discovered that I would need
to go back to better understanding the process in general.
3. Shooting immediately after being passed the ball:
a. I think this method was the most effective overall, because it allowed me to
immediately jump into a “game sense” situation, which did decrease my
accuracy momentarily, but overall made me more comfortable around the ball
during the practice games.
4. Improving technique:
a. Although a lot of my research suggested doing this, I found it hard to
implement the correct technique, and required some assistance. Using the
correct technique decreased my accuracy, because of how much later I
started practicing with it, as it was like restarting worse off. At many stages, it
was very frustrating, and I wanted to revert back to my old technique. Many
times, I would find that I had subconsciously reverted back.

After the practice sessions, I retested myself to see my improvement, and I got 6/10 shots.
Although this seems to be a very minimal improvement, I believe that it can be justified, as
not only did I improve my techniques significantly, but I also shot from a further distance.
From the green line to the blue line (one line away from the free throw line). I think that
despite my goal being to make more shots and improve my accuracy, I succeeded, because
I learnt skills that were more long term and useful in actual games.

During the entire process, I think I found the correction of technique to be the most stressful
and difficult, mainly because I started rather later on in the process which often lead to me
feeling frustrated and feeling like I had taken a step back rather than a step forwards. The
goal I set was not necessarily to get the ball in, but rather to get the ball in, circle the hoop,
or bounce of the hoop. This was because I felt as though there was a certain aspect of luck
in getting the ball into the hoop, and that most of the times if I hit the rim, I was unlucky. It
was also a more comforting goal to set.

There were many forms of feedback that I looked to throughout the process, including
teacher feedback, peer feedback, video feedback, self feedback and statistic feedback. I
think that out of the five, teacher feedback and self feedback (learning) were the most
effective. This is because teacher feedback was the most reliable source I had access too,
and also the most observant. Although I could learn what I was doing wrong through videos
and peer feedback, and I knew how to improve, I just couldn’t do it properly. Self feedback
was usefull because I could imitate the movements of other people to see what they were
doing, and because many people were shooting from the same line this was much easier.

** slightly more than the page limit, as formatting won’t let me fit into one page.