Basketball is a sport I have been playing my whole life. It is something that I was raised with and have always had a fascination towards. As a player I have put countless hours into practicing and improving my individual game. As a fan I have sat on a great amount of bleachers and couches in order to watch this wonderful sport. I have always known that there are many areas in the game that could be observed by science if someone ever took the time to look at them. As a child learning about angles and motion I imagined that this could be applied to my favorite game in many ways but never took the time to fully explore it.
For this unit I took the opportunity to explore some of the physics involved in the game that I have loved and admired for so many years. I decided to learn about the physics involved in the basketball shot. I know that skilled players are masters at their shot but what I was wondering most was how much of it was learned skill and how much of it could be explained by implementing good physics in their technique. There are three areas in a shot that are most important when shooting a basketball. The release, the spin on the ball, and the arch of the ball as it drops into the hoop.
The release is important because it is the beginning part of the shot, critical because this is where force is applied to the ball. In shooting a ball we are in fact doing work on the ball in order to make it move. The amount of work done is figured by the applied force multiplied by the distance through which that force is going to act; therefore, the amount of force that the shooter applies to the ball is directly proportional to the distance that the ball will travel. The correct force has to be applied to an object in order to get the desired arch and speed to reach the hoop at the correct time and make a shot.
Spin on the ball is created by the follow through on the wrist as the ball is released from the hand. This will create a back spin on the ball that is beneficial when the ball reaches the rim or backboard. Good backspin on a ball will increase the accuracy of a shot because it increases the margin of error in angle and force applied. With good backspin a shooter can be off on angle and force and still make a basket due to how the ball interacts with the rim or backboard. My coach called this ?shooter?s touch? in practice. The backspin on the ball will create friction with the rim that may give it a bigger chance of rebounding into the rim instead of outside. When the ball hits the rim it will change the velocity of the ball to that opposite of the spin, so that the velocity will lean toward the net instead of the rim therefore making a basket instead of missing. This is also what happens as the ball glances off the backboard and into the rim.
We have all heard the basic phrase to describe gravity as ?what goes up must come down.? This basic law of physics is apparent in the basketball shot. When a ball is shot upward the effect of gravity is at first to reduce the ball?s upward speed until it finally reaches zero. The ball then begins to fall at an increasing speed downwards creating a curved path or arc. A successful shot will land the arc of the basketball created by the shooter in the hoop. This is why coaches always say that having good arch is a key component to shooting with accuracy. A flat shot will lead to less room or window for the basketball to travel and go into the hoop. An extremely high arch will do the same in a different end of the spectrum. It will take away the use of spin or ?shooters touch? in the shot as at the angle that the ball is coming from when the ball hits the rim the spin will have less of an effect on the shot. An intermediate angle of arc is the most desired as it takes advantage of the spin of your shot and the force needed to be applied to get it there is less.
Practice is always the most important factor in becoming a good basketball player. However, it is interesting that there is so much physics involved in the shot that I have practiced for most of my life. Maybe learning about the different way physics is involved will improve my shot the next time I play. It could help show what I need to work on and practice and if I?m practicing with the right physics it should improve the overall outcome of my ability to play.
Our physics book that we are using for a class resource was a big help to me for information. After finding a basic understanding of what I wanted to talk about I referenced the physics book for a better understanding so I would be able to explain it in a better way. Using the chapter on motion and energy I was able to apply the physics we have learned in class to that of a basketball shot.
I found this article to be a great read. It is simple and yet gave a lot of basics and good starting points for all of my information. It included all three parts of a shot that I used as being important aspects. The information was valid and made sense with a good, simple explanation of the physics involved.
This article was great for basic information. There isn’t a lot and it covers all the physics in basketball not just the shot itself. I focused mostly on the description of backspin in the shot and how physics is involved in this. I started here to gather a starting point for my information in this part of the shot and it was helpful in this regard.