Long distance shots: precision bombing

An official sized ring has an inside diameter of 18 inches and is placed at 10 feet. A size 7 men's basketball has a diameter of 9.39 inches, approximately. There's a 19 feet, 9 inches gap between the three point line (NCAA and HS) and the ring. The FIBA (International competitions) uses 20 feet, 6 inches between three point line and the ring and the NBA even uses 23 feet, 9 inches between the arc and the ring. Some three point attempts are attempted from an even greater distance, usually in desperation.

Why these measurements? Because one of the most beautiful aspects of the game is the long distance shot. A player jumps up and let's the ball go with Swiss watch precision. All elements of his body work together to give the ball the right amount of speed, the proper direction and scientifically perfect arc. And don't forget the subtle rotation of the ball. It starts with the eyes and the brains which have to do a tremendous amount of calculation within a split second. The distance to the ring, the forward speed of the body, the arc the ball will need to have the best chance of going through the ring smoothly; if it's a very good basketball player, he or she will also take into account the position and movement of team players and the position and movement of the opponents. All this is necessary to calculate the probability of the success of the shot. Once all these calculations have been made, the results have to be analysed and judged, within the same split second if possible. If the player judges the shot to be a good one, the body will be set into motion to build up the proper amount of energy and channel it into the ball. The energy finds a way from the jump of his feet, through his abs into his arms, which perform a well-trained movement, which channels the energy through the arms into the hand, and from the hand through the fingers into the ball. At the same time, concentration is needed to get the ball off in the right direction. There's only a small margin of error, if you compare the diameters of the ball and the ring, and the further the player is from the ring, the smaller the margin will get. If the body, arm, hand or finger is just a tenth of an inch off, it will result in a much bigger deviation. To be more precisely, if the ball leaves the hand only one inch off, it will be 2 feet off when it comes near the ring, when shot from an international three point line. All in all, the perfection you see in the two shots in the video down here, both of them performed within a second, takes a whole lot of bodywork.



Isaac Newton would be a three point shot enthusiast, no doubt. There are so much scientific calculations that can be made. The degree of the arc, gravity, friction, all those things are variables when it comes to three point shooting. So far, I've only been talking about the normal distanced three pointer shot with the proper techniques, but what about off balanced shots? Or shots from half court and further away. For example, take a look at the video below.



Caron Butler is not properly balanced, nor anywhere near the three point line - well, except his own. Any decent basketball coach will immediatly take a player who is shooting these kind of shots out of the game. The probability of such a shot going in is terribly low. Off course, without even a complete second to play, everything is allowed, even the most desperate action. But take a good look at the video. How much time passes between Butler grabbing the ball, turning around, establishing his position, calculating and analysing all variables mentioned above, setting his body in motion to shoot the ball and the moment the ball leaves his hand? If you watch the replay, he grabs the ball with 1.5 seconds left. The ball leaves his hand at about 0.7 seconds left. In theory, he could almost have performed that action twice in 1.5 seconds. That's a true artist at work.

Concluding, it takes about 0.8 seconds to perform all the above mentioned actions to get a ball with 9.39 inches in diameter through a ring that's 18 inches in diameter from a 78 feet distance while being off balanced. To me, it only proves my point that basketball is true art. This kind of action is showing the amazing capabilities of the human body at work, which to me counts as art. The artist paints a picture in motion about the human body. If we consider paintings, ballet, poetry and theater to be art, this is all that rolled into one 0.8 second piece of sublime art. It's probably the shortest artperformance ever, but art nonetheless.

Think about it...