These days the basketball Copa del Rey is being played in Granada. We are seeing spectacular plays, incredible baskets and incredible dunks. What few people know is that many scientific disciplines hide behind a sport as exciting as basketball. What branches of science can basketball fans see these days in Granada?
My six favorite examples are:
• The chemistry of the materials with which the balls are made, where rubber, nylon, polyester and even the zinc and copper used to screen them play a major role;
• The geometry of the arrangement of the players on the court where the offensive triangulation systems designed by the legendary coach Tex Winter have prevailed since they made Michael Jordan’s Bulls champions;
• The importance of sports psychology in preparing for matches with as much pressure as those being played in the Copa del Rey de Granada;
• The second law of thermodynamics that explains why each successive bounce of a fumble is closer to the ground;
• The physical propagation of shock waves that justifies the breaking of a board after a player hangs with great force;
• The statistic that reflects that professional basketball players execute an average of forty-four jumps during a game, their average heart rate is close to 80-95% of maximum heart rate, they travel an average of one hundred and fifty-six meters per minute and receive eight impacts with forces greater than 5 g per minute (an acceleration of 1 g is generally considered to be equal to standard gravity).
But if there is a key play in basketball games and where science has a lot to say, it is the free throw, a shot that describes a curve determined by the same gravitational physics that specifies the flight of a ballistic missile or the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The parabolic trajectory of a free throw is made up of two classic movements: i) horizontal rectilinear movement of constant speed; ii) Rectilinear uniformly accelerated movement with initial speed upwards where the vertical advance speed varies linearly with time (first it is upwards, then it becomes zero and, finally, it goes downwards due to the action of gravity).
But science is not only used to describe a free kick but also to perfect it.
In a 1990 game between the New Jersey Nets and the Indiana Pacers, Nets center Chris Dudley broke the NBA record for missed free throws in a single game. Of 18 pitches he only converted one. In view of the disaster, scientists at the University of North Carolina decided to carry out an in-depth analysis to design the perfect free kick.
For more than five years, researchers studied the variables that affect the taking of a free kick and that are likely to improve with training. After analyzing thousands of throws, these were his six recommendations from the point of view of biomechanics, the discipline that studies the movements of the human body and whose objective in sports activities is the characterization and improvement of movement techniques based on knowledge scientists:
1. In the movements that characterize the free kick, speed plays a fundamental role. However, the scientists concluded that calculating an optimal launch speed is meaningless since a launch can be perfectly launched at both high and low speeds.
two. The height at which the free kick is taken is crucial. In the “perfect throw” the ball must be approximately 2.10 meters above the ground when it leaves the player’s hands. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see “short” players raise their hands a lot before shooting the ball to the basket in a free throw.
3. The exact force that must be applied to the ball is what makes it reach 3.95 m. at the highest point of its trajectory (then it starts to go down). This height coincides exactly with the highest part of the board.
Four. The frequency of the ball’s spin (the amount of backward rotation to give it, also known as ‘backspin’) should be three hertz per second. In other words: in the second it takes for the ball to reach the basket, it must make three complete turns on itself. It is not that difficult to achieve if you train correctly.
5. The exit angle of the ball from the player’s fingers must be 52 degrees.
6. Finally, the ideal place to aim the shooter is the part of the support that joins the hoop to the backboard. In case of lack of precision, the error “fixes itself” better with that type of error than if it is aimed at the front of the rim.
In addition to the biomechanics of the shot, there are other factors that greatly influence the success of a free kick: psychological aspects. That is why it is not surprising that, even knowing the theory perfectly, many NBA players miss a high number of free throws because they cannot withstand the pressure. The average success is ‘only’ 70% and only the best reach 90%. One of the best free throw shooters the NBA has ever had, Canadian Steve Nash has a 90.43% career percentage of him having made 3,060 of 3,384 free throws taken. Do you know what his main advice is? Learn the scientifically correct technique and then practice, practice… and practice.
Dear readers of THE TRUTH, I hope that after reading today’s article you not only see basketball through the eyes of fans of this wonderful sport, but also through the eyes of science. They will enjoy it even more.