Foot Movement
Foot movement has a lot to do with the force of friction. Friction is the force resisting the motion of objects. Maybe the most clear example is when someone is attempting to take a charge. If you do not know what that means, it's when a player tries to keep their feet flat on the ground when the opposing player makes contact, resulting in an offensive foul. You want more friction between your shoes and the court, because that will better help bind the two materials together. Friction is also the reason why basketball players wear a certain type of shoes. They wear sneakers, with different patterns on the bottom. Frictions varies based on the shape of the shoe. However, patterns on the bottom have it built so that there are times where you can have more friction (when taking a charge) and times where you can have less (such as when running down the court). Running requires less friction between you and the ground, so that there is less resistance against you. The less friction, the higher speed to can run at. This is key for beating your man down the floor.
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Dribbling |
A ball with more air in it will bounce higher than a ball with no air. The more air pressure a basketball has inside of it, the less its surface will bend or deform during a bounce, and the more its original energy will be stored in the compressed air inside. You can also look at the energy the ball has. When the ball is in the air, it has potential energy, or stored energy. When it travels to the floor the kinetic energy gets higher, until it reaches its maximum point at the floor. The energy produced is enough to bounce the basketball back into the hands of the player. This is sort of like a roller coaster, where there has to be a hill at the beginning in order to give enough potential energy to keep the carts moving. |
Shooting
Similar to any other shot, a free throw has the best chance of going in the more arc it has. The rim seems larger with the ball dropping straight down compared to a shot of straight trajectory. Of course it really isn't bigger, but the ball is falling at the perfect angle where it should drop straight through. Players with a quick release also have great acceleration. This is mostly in part to the style of their shot, and the quickest releases come on jumpers. Stephen Curry for example has an extremely quick release. It takes 0.4 seconds for him to go from starting shooting motion to having the ball leave his hands. This is just 0.1 seconds slower than it takes for a human to blink. Don't believe me, check out this ESPN article: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10703246/golden-state-warriors-stephen-curry-reinventing-shooting-espn-magazine |
Dunking/Layups
Yes, I know layups are not a dunk, and definitely less exciting, but they are short range baskets, and it feels appropriate to add it in here. Layups, like dunks, are momentum carrying shots. You must have a great amount of horizontal velocity, but it cannot be to much. If you have an overwhelming amount of force driving to the hoop the strength of the layup will be too much, and it will simply slam off the backboard, and most likely miss the rim. Also, acceleration plays a huge role in dunking. As you run down the floor approaching the rim on a fast break, you start with a large speed. But then you begin decelerating in order to slow down. With too much acceleration, you will continue at a high velocity and most likely hurt yourself and miss the dunk. You must have the perfect accelerations and deceleration in order to become a great dunker. For smaller players, such as Spud Webb (5'7") and Nate Robinson (5'9"), they need to have more force in their jump. The force in their jump needs to be greater than that of typical centers. The more force you put in, the more you can oppose gravity. It creates two unbalanced forces acting against each other. You begin to fall back down when your force runs low, and gravity begins to overtake it. Then friction and gravity become balanced once again when you hit the floor.
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