Main Movement Stages

Stage 1:

Preparation Phase

The first stage of the basketball free throw involves getting the body into the correct stance and positioning to prepare for the shot, holding the ball slightly above the head. In this stage it involves the athlete having the knees slightly bent and having the feet shoulder width apart.

Stage 2:

Flexion phase

The second stage is where the knee flexion is angled at almost 90 degrees, and flexion of the elbows and wrist is used to prepare to score (Gómez, M. Á., Kreivyte, R., & Sampaio, J, 2017). This phase involves the lower body angling towards the basketball ring, flexing the knees, hips and shoulders (the upper arm is raised upward) to the horizontal position so that the upper arm is almost parallel to the floor (Gómez, M. Á., Kreivyte, R., & Sampaio, J, 2017).

Stage 3a:

Lower Body Extension Phase

Trunk extension is used for loading the legs by increasing knee and hip flexion just prior to the extension for the shot. As trunk extension occurs while standing, associated postural adjustments include hip extension and knee flexion to help maintain balance (Oddsson, 1988). The legs store potential energy ready to be transferred to kinetic energy in the next phase.

Stage 3b:

Upper Body Extension Phase

This stage also involves the transfer of potential energy to kinetic energy. It transfers the potential energy in the arms when they move from flexion to extension, where the potential energy changes to kinetic energy. This happens where potential energy is stored as elastic energy in the tendons waiting to be released and transferred into kinetic energy to make the free throw.

Stage 4:

Release Phase

This stage of the skill involves the release of the ball with a push-like movement. A push-like movement is defined as extending all of the joints simultaneously in a single movement (Blazevich, 2017). This leads to the follow through of the arm once the ball has been thrown and also creates a backspin on the ball to assist in scoring.

Stage 5:

Landing Phase

The soft landing technique is essential for basketball players to prevent injuries, the ideal landing for basketball players is have their knees and hip slightly bent; this is to softly absorb the load, keeping their knees behind the toes, striking the ground toe to heel with ‘‘…the knee in a neutral position; the centre of the kneecap should be aligned with the second toe.” (Brizuela et al., 1997).