Asbjorn Midtgaard 7'0 C 2017 a Shocker!

[WuShock16]

Underhanded free throws. All big men, especially, should shoot underhanded. I know why players don't want to, but I don't know why coaches don't require it.

This. I know underhanded is considered to be a sissy look, but clanking free throws isn't macho either. In fact, clanking free throws is annoying and ridiculous.

[Dave Stalwart]

but clanking free throws isn't macho either. In fact, clanking free throws is annoying and ridiculous.

And it loses you national championships

[Cdizzle]

Between people bringing this and the Kemba thing all day, my blood pressure is going to kill me this week.

[Shock Top]

Went back to observe the two highlight tapes on page one. It appears that he catches the ball very well (soft hands) and rolls very well to the basket on pick & roll plays. Those are great positives. What I was most excited about was his body control & body awareness near the basket. He turns to give himself space without charging a lot. He also has a good awareness of where the basket is even though several shots were missed. Coordination & body control are very good and he will be more developed after another season of play.. Have a lot to look forward to when this young man reaches his potential. His passing vision was also developed for the short time of playing the sport. Do any of the faithful shockernet followers agree with me?

This is what I observed on the video back in November. I can not understand why so many of you want to write off people without letting them compete and beat someone out for a position. Here on shockernet, many feel the returning player gets the nod without hesitation. They are all shockers now and I feel this is a good prospect and I hope he is an outstanding prospect. He was highly recommended by a contact oversees, he obviously impressed Paul Sullentrop with his physique, then his film showed some promise in my opinion. He jumps fairly quickly and dunks the ball on the film I watched, soft hands are always a plus, and he set some high screens and rolled to the basket well. Orupke, had a role like that once on our team. Have not watched enough to really know how confident I am in this sample, but trust that this staff has had a high percentage of success with recruiting quality prospects (very few poor signings).

FTFY

[1972Shocker]

Underhanded free throws. All big men, especially, should shoot underhanded. I know why players don't want to, but I don't know why coaches don't require it.

We had a coach require that for my Freshman team in high school back when Rick Barry was doing his thing. It was a total, unmitigated disaster. I think we shot about 10% as a team. Needless to say the experiment was cancelled relatively early in the season. We were actually a decent free throw shooting team once we dumped the underhanded baloney.

Also Wilt Chamberlain tried the underhanded shot as well with no success. If it was the best way to shoot free throw everyone would be doing it. The bottom line is that very, very few players can make it work for them.

[ShockCrazy]

We had a coach require that for my Freshman team in high school back when Rick Barry was doing his thing. It was a total, unmitigated disaster. I think we shot about 10% as a team. Needless to say the experiment was cancelled relatively early in the season. We were actually a decent free throw shooting team once we dumped the underhanded baloney.

Also Wilt Chamberlain tried the underhanded shot as well with no success. If it was the best way to shoot free throw everyone would be doing it. The bottom line is that very, very few players can make it work for them.

The bit about Wilt is false. He quit entirely due to aesthetics. Good podcast on it http://revisionisthistory.com/episod...man-cant-shoot. In fact Wilt's 100 point game came in the season he tried it, he shot 28/32 in that game and 61% for the season, his highest mark. He was a career 51% free throw shooter and that includes his most prolific AND effective season at the line 61-62 with underhanded free throws.

[jdshock]

We had a coach require that for my Freshman team in high school back when Rick Barry was doing his thing. It was a total, unmitigated disaster. I think we shot about 10% as a team. Needless to say the experiment was cancelled relatively early in the season. We were actually a decent free throw shooting team once we dumped the underhanded baloney.

Also Wilt Chamberlain tried the underhanded shot as well with no success. If it was the best way to shoot free throw everyone would be doing it. The bottom line is that very, very few players can make it work for them.

@ShockCrazy: is right. It sounds like the science is pretty definitive. It could be that a bunch of freshmen boys were too embarrassed to commit fully or it could be that you didn't have enough reps. Underhand makes sense. There are fewer moving parts to screw up in an underhanded motion.

[Shoxthemonkey]

We are veering off the tracks but it isn't true that very few can make granny style work. Vanity makes youngsters reject it more than failure does. Here's a link to the science behind it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWf05FMAe4c

[Cdizzle]

I do not understand why the rocket-ball is not utilized by poor free throw shooters.

[WstateU]

The greatest "granny" shot ever... :)

[shockmonster]

@ShockCrazy: is right. It sounds like the science is pretty definitive. It could be that a bunch of freshmen boys were too embarrassed to commit fully or it could be that you didn't have enough reps. Underhand makes sense. There are fewer moving parts to screw up in an underhanded motion.

I'm not sure that I've seen any Science brought into this, but for it being such a done deal that underhanded free throwing is the way to go, we have an immense amount of very bad college coaches (including Gregg Marshall who is one of hundreds) who refuse to see the Science of this and make their players shoot throw underhanded. SMH

[Shoxthemonkey]

How bout that big Dane?

[1972Shocker]

@ShockCrazy is right. It sounds like the science is pretty definitive. It could be that a bunch of freshmen boys were too embarrassed to commit fully or it could be that you didn't have enough reps. Underhand makes sense. There are fewer moving parts to screw up in an underhanded motion.

Well I think there probably are several factors. Perhaps vanity is one but if you knock down 90% of your frees throws there isn't much to be embarrassed about. I think a bigger factor is simply a lack of confidence. I think the size of your hands have a lot to do with it as well. IIRC Rick Barry pretty much held the top half of the ball. Not real easy form to duplicate if you have smaller hands. The other thing is you have to be somewhat ambidextrous since it is a two-handed shot. A lot of players simply have a dominant had that will always try to take over. I suppose that can be overcome that with a lot of practice. Our trial including practice and games was about 3 months. Perhaps the biggest issue with the granny style is that there is reallly not many people around that can teach it properly.


Here are Red Auerbach's thoughts. Red indicated that Rick agrees with him on this and vice versa.

[Shoxthemonkey]

Watch the video I posted. It is Rick Barry explaining how it works and a scientist explaining the why.

[1972Shocker]

Here are the carreer free throw shooting rankings for NBA/ABA players. Rick Barry has been about as good as anyone else with his style. I thought he was great. I just coudln't do it. I was around 85% or so with my more traditional one-handed set shot. So it worked for Rick Barry and it has theoretical advantages but apparently practical application is a different story.