Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Stance

General Instructions:  Spread your legs/feet shoulder width apart. Split your stance where your dominant foot is slightly in front of your nondominant foot. Your feet want to be approximately 5-10 inches away from the foul line. Bend your knees, keeping them soft and drop your butt where most of your weight is driving through the heels of your feet.  The ball will be given to you when your feet/legs are in the ready position.  Hold the ball while remaining relaxed.  Basically fundamental positioning.

Shoulder Girdle:  Slightly adducted (retracted) using your rhomboids and middle/lower fibers of trapezius muscles to maintain the shoulders back/proper posture, and straight back.  Also might be have depression using your trapezius and pectoralis minor.
Shoulder Joint:  No movement.  Your shoulder joint in this phase are more relaxed and waiting for the next phase of the movement.
Elbow/ Radioulnar Joint:  Concentrically contract triceps brachii and anconeus to allow for relaxed flexion of bilateral elbow joints.  Neutral grip of your bilateral radioulnar joint will cause activation of your brachioradialis.
Hip Joint/Pelvic Girdle:  No movement.
Knee Joint:  Slight flexion of your knee will cause little eccentric contraction of your quadireps muscles.

Routine and Set

General Instructions:  Foul shots are important in basketball because it is a time where there is no defender and it takes extreme concentration.  Everyone has their own game routine for their preparation before making the shot. A simple technique to warm you put prior to shooting is the following- Dribble ball in front of you three times. While dribbling move/shake your legs to get warmed up.

Shoulder Girdle:  While dribbling the basketball your dominant abduct(protraction) using your serratus anterior and pectoralis minor as you push the ball towards the ground and adduction (reaction) using your rhomboids and middle and lower fibers of your trapezius as your shoulder/arm recoil to recieve the ball from the bounce.
Shoulder Joint: Concentric and eccentric contractions will allow for horizontal abduction and adduction of the shoulder joint to dribble the basketball.  These contractions will be caused as by the pushing and recieving of the ball.
Elbow/ Radioulnar:  Concentric contraction of biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis to flex the elbow as you recieve the ball from the bounce and concentric contraction of the triceps brachii and anconeus muscles.
Hip Joint/ Pelvic Girdle:  Slight flexion of the pelvic girdle allows that shoulder width stance, sitting back in the heels of your feet position.
Knee Joint:  When dribbling your knees will be warming up as well therefore you will have multiple flexion and extension of the knee joints to warm up those muscles for the actual shot.  When flexing your knee on the lowering phase you will be using your rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and vastus lateralis.  When extended you will need the same muscles however it'll be a concentric contraction.

Preparation

General Instructions:  After the third dribble maintain that initial stance position, drop down where your knees are flexed and your weight is going through the heels of your feet. Think of your lower body as if you were attempting to do a squat. Bring the ball up to be ready for the shot. The hand placement on the ball with your dominant hand behind the front of the ball and the non-dominant hand on the side with light grip to guide you through the follow through. Your dominant elbow will be flexed approximately 90 degrees with will also flex your shoulder. The non-dominant arm will be relaxed to allow that hand to guide.

Shoulder Girdle:  When returning to stance position your shoulder girdle will maintain that posture/straight back adduction using your rhomboids and middle/lower fibers of your trapezius. As you bring the ball up in front of your head, you will have bilateral upward rotation using your middle/lower trapezius  and serratus anterior muscles of your shoulder girdles.  These will be concentric contractions.
Shoulder Joint:  When returning to your set position your bilateral shoulder joints will be flexed to about 90 degrees.  The muscles you will be using to flex your shoulder joint at approximately 90 degrees are the pectoralis major upper fibers and deltoid anterior fibers.
Elbow/ Radioulnar Joints:  Flexion of your elbow will activate biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachradialis.  Since you will be holding the ball towards the basket this will be radiounlar pronation which will be activating your pronator teres and pronator quadratus of your dominant hand.  The non dominate hand (shown as the Left in the picture) will be in the neutral position and this will be using the brachioradialis.
Hip Joint/ Pelvic Girdle:  Flexion of your hip to get that mid squat position will cause eccentric contraction of your gluteus maximus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris.
Knee  Joint:  Flexion of the knee causes eccentric contraction of the rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and vastus lateralis which all comprised your quadriceps.

Movement

General Instruction:  When you have completed your preparation to shoot your foul shot, you will drop your body down slightly in your preparation stance and come up using the power in your legs to shoot the ball up and arched to get that basketball toward the basket. You may use a jump in this step if your legs do not have the power you need to properly get the ball at the basket. As you shoot the ball you will need to extend your (bilateral) arms, and snap your wrists to maintain that arch and push toward the basket.

Shoulder Girdle:  Since your shoulder joints are bilaterally flexed with flexion of your elbows your shoulder girdle is what is holding those arms in the air.  Your shoulder girdle will elevate as you extend the arms to push the ball toward the basket and stablize and keep those arms in the air.  To elevate your shoulder girdle your rhomboids, upper/middle trapezius, and your levator scapulae will be activated.
Shoulder Joint:  As your shoulder girdle elevates your arms for the shot your shoulder joint will be flexed as you are pushing and releasing the ball up and towards the basket.  If right handed, your dexter shoulder joint will be fully flexed with elbow extension and your sinster shoulder joint will be flexed with elbow flexion but more relaxed beacause this is your "guide" arm.  The muscles used in flexion will be pectoralis major upper fibers and deltoid anterior fibers.
Elbow/ Radioulnar Joint:  While shooting the basketball your shoulders will flex as your elbows extend to push the ball toward the basket.  This extension is caused by the activation of the triceps brachii and anconeus muscles.   Your radioulnar joint will still be pronated so your pronator teres and pronator quadartus is still activating.
Hip Joint/ Pelvic Girdle:  Flexion and slight anterior pelvic rotation will allow for that good base support before making the jump.  During hip flexion you will eccentrically contract your gluteus maximus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris.  As you jump, you will use those same muscles concentrically to accelerate throughout the jump.
Knee Joint:  Flexion of the knee pre jump, causes eccentric contraction of the rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and vastus lateralis which all comprised your quadriceps.  When jumping to make the shot you will be extended the knee while using the same muscles but concentrically contracting them.

Follow Through

General Instructions:  Once you have released the ball and the ball continues to move in an upward arch to the basket your dominant arm (shoulder gridle) will flex completely upward and toward the basket as your non-dominant arm is still relaxed.

Shoulder Girdle:  To flex your dominant arm 180 degrees on the release of the ball you will continue to upwardly rotate using your middle/lower trapeizus and serratus anterior muscles.  Your non-dominant arm will be in a relaxed flexed position therefore you will also have slight upward rotation.
Shoulder Joint:  Concentrically contract pectoralis major upper fibers and eccentrically contract deltoid anterior fibers to push the ball towards the basket.
Elbow/Radioulnar Joint:  Flexion to extension of elbow while shooting the ball will activate biceps, brachioradialis, and brachialis concentrically.  To extend your elbow at the end of the shot you will activate triceps brachii and anconeus muscles to finish the shot.  Your hands will be pronated as you push the ball therefore pronation of your forearms will activate pronator teres and pronator quadratus.
Hip Joint/ Pelvic Girdle:  After landing the jump your hip joint will be slightly flexed with a isometric contraction of the gluteus maximus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris.
Knee Joint:  After landing the jump the contraction of the muscles are eccentrically contracting with slight flexion using your quadriceps muscles.

Recovery

General Instructions:  Your body might come forward as well due to the balance factor in which then you just step slightly forward being mindful of the fact that you can not step over that line before the ball hits the rim of the basket (standard basketball rules). Once the ball has hit the rim of the basket you can return to your stance and await to recieve the ball to prepare for your second foul shot.

Shoulder Girdle:  Return to fundamental position, from follow through to recovery- downward rotation using rhomboids and pectoralis minor.
Shoulder Joint:  Since your shoulder joint is flexed from releasing the ball to shoot in the movement stage, you will bring your arms back down to approximately 90 degrees and ready position for the rebound.  Because you are forcing your arm to the extended position you will be using pectoralis major lower fibers, subscapularis, latissimus dorsi, teres major, infrapsinatus, and teres minor.
Elbow/ Radioulnar Joint:  Concentrically contract triceps brachii and anconeus to allow for relaxed flexion of bilateral elbow joints.  Neutral grip of your bilateral radioulnar joint will cause activation of your brachioradialis.
Hip Joint/Pelvic Girdle:  No movement.
Knee Joint:  Slight flexion of your knee will cause little eccentric contraction of your quadireps muscles.