Where's The Best Spot to Shoot From?

Problem -

In the game of basketball, from which angle or place is it the easiest to make a jump shot from the same distance.

Hypothesis -

I hypothesize that shooting from a straight angle to the basket, around the free throw line, will be the easiest and most efficient place to shoot from.

Procedure -

• 1. Find an indoor basketball rim to shot on that is 10 feet.

  2. Find about three left-handed people and three right-handed people to shoot.

  3. Record how many shots they make out of 20 from each of the three positions.

  4. Make sure the all of the positions they are shooting from are the same distance from the hoop.

  5. Find an average percentage of each place they shot from for all the right handed people, left handed people, and overall.

Conclusion -

In this experiment, I had volunteers, both left handed and right handed, shot from different spots on the basketball court to see where it was the easiest to shoot from, but all shots were fifteen feet away from the rim. The places I had them shoot were the left baseline, right baseline, and foul line. I hypothesized that the most shots would be made from the foul line and after testing it turned that my belief was correct. Lefties averaged 68% from the foul line and Righties averaged 71% from the foul line. Where both shot clearly worse from the other two places on the court. My results in my opinion were both accurate and fascinating. Two things I could have done to enhance my project, would be to get more shooters and have them shoot from more spots on the court.

Abstract -

Where’s The Best Spot to Shoot from in Basketball?

Matthew Vogdes

I was very curious about which spot on the court is the easiest or most efficient to shoot from. So I decided I would take it under my own responsibility and find out myself. I’ve always loved the game of basketball and I thought it would be something different and exciting to do an experiment about it. Of course, many people assume that the shot from straight ahead to the basket would be the easiest, but I still want to find out what is true. I myself do think that the shot directly straight to the basketball, right around the foul line, will be the most efficient. Why I assumed this was because the foul shot in the game of basketball is directly straight to the basket, and the foul shot was designed in the game to be an easy shot after being fouled.

Six male subjects were asked to participate in this experiment. Three right handed and Three left handed. All had agreed. I was able to find an indoor court for the participants to shoot on which is important because of the weather. If you were to have the people shoot outside in say December, they may be bundled up which could definitely harm their shots. One the day came where all the shooters arrived at the court, I had them shoot 20 shots from each of the three places. The three places were the left baseline, right baseline, and foul line, every shot was fifteen feet away from the rim. I recorded each missed shot on my paper with an X and each made shot with a check.

After recording all of my data from all the shooters I made them into averages for each shot. However, from both left handed and right handed shooters the average for the foul shot was a good amount better than the other two shots. The average percentage in made shots at the foul line for righties was 71% and the average for lefties was 68%. The averages for the other shots weren’t extremely low, but were both lower than the foul shot. For the left handed participants they shot 50% from the right baseline and 57% from the left baseline, and for the right handed participants they shot an average of 43% from the left baseline and 46% from the right baseline. Overall, it is clear to say that the foul line shot was both the easiest and most efficient place to shoot from on a basketball court.

The evidence and data I had collected proved that my hypothesis was correct. I had assumed that the most shots would be made and the foul line and that was true after testing. I have learned that when shooting the ball straight on from the basket, or near the foul line, that it will more likely go in then on either sides of the baseline. Since now that I know this, maybe in games I will decide to shot from there more often. However, there are a few things I could have changed or adjusted to make the experiment more accurate. One being to have selected more righties and lefties to have more people shoot and two I could have set up more places on the court to shoot from, but still being 15 feet away from the rim. Although I could have made some changes I still believe my project was very accurate.

Data Tables -

Graphs -