Why More Players Should Shoot Free Throws UNDERHAND

So a few weeks ago, I was listening to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast about Wilt Chamberlain, one of the most dominant centers to ever play in the NBA, and an infamously, notoriously terrible free throw shooter. That is, except for one season, when Wilt switched techniques and tried shooting free throws underhand. In that season, Wilt shot 11% better from the free throw line, and played his record-setting 100-point game. Gladwell suggests that underhand shooting might be a more accurate way for many players to shoot free throws, but no one in today's NBA is willing to break the norm and give underhand foul shooting a try. I wanted to put Gladwell's theory to the test. So for the next month, I'm going to shoot 50 overhand and 50 underhand free throws every day to see which one is easier. I start with overhand foul shots first. My percentage is terrible. I finish with 18 out of 50, or 38%. Next I try underhand, and my first 10 go a little better. The case for underhand foul shooting is that it's a more natural motion. You have both feet even and square to the basket, two hands controlling the basketball, and supposedly less room for mistakes. I finish with 24 out of 50. Okay, so I just shot 24 for 50, which is 48%. I did not expect there to be that much of a difference on the first try, especially seeing as I've never shot that way before. If I really want to get good at shooting underhand though, I need to work on my technique. Fortunately, there's one other player from Wilts era who also shot free throws underhand. His name was Rick Barry. He shot a career average of almost 90% from the free throw line and holds the fourth highest percentage in NBA history, just behind Steph Curry. So what was Rick Barry's success to shooting the ball so well? Well, the first thing I try to do is get a good comfortable position with my feet spread and try to get as relaxed as possible. I think that's the big key to shooting free throws, so that you feel completely relaxed. Of course, with my two-handed underhanded free throw, it's a lot easier, I feel, to get in a relaxed situation. I like to bounce the ball three times, top of the wrist, bottle through. Okay, so it is day two and I've been examining my technique. I'm going to make a couple adjustments today and see how it goes. My goal is to model my underhand technique as close to Rick Barry's as possible. Meanwhile, my reference for overhand foul shooting is Klay Thompson. I managed to replicate their shooting forms with minimal success, but fortunately, I've still got 28 days left to practice. After 30 days of practice, I'm averaging an abysmal 62% shooting overhand versus 72% underhand, 10% better. In fact, it's almost the exact same difference Wilt Chamberlain saw when he switched techniques. But 72% still isn't great, and if underhand free throw shooting is ever going to make a comeback, I need to see how much work it would take to really master this technique. So I decide to keep practicing. This time, I'm only focusing on underhand shooting, and rather than just taking 50 shots a day, I'm going to shoot 250 for two more weeks of practice, and then I want to see how well underhand free throws stack up against some of the best players in the province. With two more weeks of practice under my belt, I head to Sudbury to have a best-of-20 shootout with Mitch and Chris of the Laurentian University Voyagers, and as it turns out, they're both very good foul shooters. And I lost. But I shot 75% after just six weeks of practice, and that makes me ask, why don't players who are constantly missing free throws just give underhand shooting a try? Players like Shinano Anaku. As a college rookie, Anaku was shooting just 46% from the foul line. He switched to underhand, and by his second year had improved his free throws to 59%. Still not great, but now he's an NBA rookie for the Houston Rockets, and he's sticking with underhand. But does that mean it can work for everyone? Should all players who start out be taught underhand foul shooting instead of overhand? I'll let Rick Barry give his answer. Well said, Rick. Well said.