Great set of tips on shooting. Sent them to my daughter who is a bball junkie. On her varsity team there is a girl that shoots the ball with an arc that is almost comical (probably 25 percent higher than average). She doesn't have terrible results with this method, but like you mention in one of your tips, a higher arc than normal makes it much harder to judge distance. I would also deduct that the ball travels so much higher that the extra weight of the gravity force built up from a longer drop keeps most rimmed shots from falling soft enough to drop through. I have taken a video of her from 4 sides. Along with this I want to make a case for reducing her shot with videos, instructional reference, physics, etc. because it ultimately should improve her results, help her confidence and help the team.
Thanks, Bob

Bob, being 5' 10" I almost always had a higher release point and a higher arc on my shoots. It amazed me that my accuracy was better with the higher arc than what I would consider "normal".

Watching youth players from 4th grade to 8th grade, from free throws to three pointers, I'd say that 80% or more of the misses are flat shots. The flater the shot, the more room for error. I would never tell a player to reduce their arc, well, almost never. I haven't seen your players shot. The rate of acceration on the downward flight will not be a significate factor. Not as much as the angle that the ball hits the rim.

I was a classmate of Wilt Chamberlain at Kansas. he held the ball about 10 feet above the floor and tried to shoot free throws on a nearly straight line to the basket. His percentage was awful.

This is some information I found from Noah Basketball:

Height of Player & Optimal Arc

5'0 - 5'9
41 degrees - 45 degrees

5'9 - 6'3
42 degrees - 46 degrees

6'3 - 6'6
43 degrees - 47 degrees

6'6 - 6'9
44 degrees - 48 degrees

6'9 - 7'0
45 degrees - 49 degrees

* Data for this came from www.noahbasketball.com

You can also find more information from their website here:
http://noahbasketball.com/make_shots.php

This seems like overkill for us guys in short pants. I have an engineering degree from KU and know something about angles, but telling the difference between 42* and 41* is not something I could do on the court. I guess you could do it with pictures. OK we'll aim for something less than 45*.

Yeah. I agree. It'd be very hard to judge without some sort of device.

Noah basketball has a pretty cool machine that will tell you verbally whether your shot is too low or too high based on the angle of the shot.

Joe,

Thanks for the link to the NOAH site and the detailed info that is covered.
With this information in hand and videos I've taken of the girl, I would expect her to be open to change.

Although very technical, the underlining principles are important messages and should help some that are willing to affect their shots in a positive way.

Players with the lower arcs seem to be in the majority and could stand to benefit the most. This one girl with the extremely high arc is really an aberration.

Don't think at the high school level we could afford the machine, but it certainly seems like a great tool.

Thanks.

Some archived stuff of mine on shooting arc and angles...unfortunately diagrams not included....hope it helps.

Height of Release
Stuart Miller Leeds Metropolitan University, England, UK
Three factors determine whether a shot will be successful. These are the speed of ball release, the angle of ball release and the height of ball release. It has been shown mathematically by Brancazio (1981) that shots that are released further from the ground are more likely to go through the basket. This is because a higher release increases the size of the arc through which the ball can travel and still go through the basket. Brancazio (1981) gave the example of changing the release height of a shot from 2.13om (7 feet) to 2.74om (9 feet), for which the width of the arc that would result in a successful shot increases by 17%!
In the diagram below, the blue 'scoring band' associated with a release height of 2.74 m (9 feet) gives a margin for error 18% greater than the red scoring band.
How can this information be utilized? The obvious answer is that players should be encouraged to develop a shooting technique that has a high release point. There are two elements to this. The first of these is to release the high with respect to the body i.e. above the head. This can be achieved by flexing the shoulder, which raises the elbow. The second way to increase release height is to raise the body as high as possible - usually by jumping from the floor - and releasing the ball close to (but not after) the top of the jump.

Release Angles for Shooting
Stuart Miller Leeds Metropolitan University, England, UK
It would be sensible to teach players to release the ball at the angle that is most likely to result in a goal. The relationship between ball release angle and the chances of the ball going through the hoop is complex. The main factors to be considered are the effort required to get the ball to the basket, and the margin for error that the ball has when it gets to the basket.
When the ball approaches the basket, the shape of the hoop it 'sees' depends on the angle of approach, i.e. if it's from directly above, then it 'sees' a circle. As the approach becomes shallower, then the circle becomes flatter (more elliptical). Try it - hold up a hoop in front of you (or draw a circle on a piece of paper) and tilt it away from you. See how the diameter from front to back seems to become smaller?
As the ball approach gets shallower, then at some point the diameter of the hoop (as 'seen' by the ball) becomes smaller than the ball, and it can't pass through cleanly. When a shooter releases the ball at a lower angle, the approach angle into the basket becomes shallower, and so there is a lower margin for error for the ball to pass through the hoop cleanly. This is shown in the diagram below