The Sport Psychology of Shooting a Free-Throw
To celebrate my new podcast release, The Sport Psychology Of, where I (with the help of a different guest each episode) break down the mental side of everything in sports, I’d like to make a written version of one episode coming out: shooting a free-throw.
What is the sport psychology of shooting a free-throw? The questions worth asking, and answering, are the following:
What mental obstacles is the athlete vulnerable to before shooting?
What mental skills do shooters use at the line so their mind works with them, not against them?
How can you start training these skills right away?
Before we get into it, there’s one caveat worth noting that is relevant throughout this article:
Stress is a good thing for performance, it helps you jump higher and think quicker. It starts to hurt performance, however, when this stress becomes excessive. I call this the stress response going into overdrive. Too much stress creates physical symptoms that can derail your performance. The most relevant symptom you’d prefer not to experience, in this case, is shaky hands - not ideal for shooting accurately!
Many mental skills we’ll discuss manage your stress response and improve the quality of your focus.
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What mental obstacles are basketball players vulnerable to as they approach their free-throw?
Mental obstacles can come from outside the mind and within the mind. First, let’s discuss what may happen outside the mind, in the physical world, that creates mental obstacles.
The crowd or opponents trying to distract you or make you nervous.
This is a common occurrence in the NBA where spectators are numerous and energetic. Fans or opponents can cause the shooter to overthink and focus on irrelevant cues instead of relevant cues, like their pre-shot routine.
The scoreboard - who’s winning and how much time is left?
There’s no question that players feel differently approaching the line based on the state of the game. Up by 20 points with a few minutes left? No sweat. Down by 2 with 10 seconds left? Potential panic! And, as mentioned before, the shaky hands start to come in, along with other symptoms, hurting your chances of success.
What about internal mental obstacles?
The narrative you tell yourself in your mind, your chatter, is usually all over the place. When left unchecked, it often defaults to worry and negativity, which is another way your stress response is kicked into overdrive.
One example of this is self-doubt creeping into your mind; “I’m not a clutch player, no way this goes in,” or “what if I miss in front of everyone?” Many thoughts a player with a weak mental game has is rooted in self-doubt and fear of failure. Players with a strong mental game still have these thoughts come up, but it’s less frequently and they respond to them effectively. We’ll get to concrete tools later on so you can respond effectively too.
A shooter might also find their mind creating obstacles by dwelling on the past or jumping to the future.
Examples include “I’ve been shooting poorly all game, why would that change now?” and “if I miss this, coach is going to be pissed and my teammates will think less of me.” The common link between these thoughts is their irrelevancy. While it’s normal to have these thoughts pop up, they are not relevant to the task at hand. Plus, they actively hurt your game because you’re no longer focused on productive thoughts, and the ones you are focused on turn up your stress response.
What mental skills can shooters use to counteract these mental obstacles?
It always starts with awareness. Don’t expect to overcome any mental obstacles if you’re not aware of them! Training yourself to “check in” with your mind is an essential skill to cultivate so you can be in a productive mindset more often.
Relaxation techniques: there’s a lot of reasons you see NBA players go through a deep inhale and exhale at the line right before their shot. The most important part? It counters that stress response which may be going into overdrive. We’ll get into the details in the next section.
Mental Rehearsal (imagery/visualization): imagining your shot right before you do the real thing is an excellent tool. It helps shooters feel more confident because it puts productive cues in the spotlight of your attention. It also takes a lot of “brain power,” which makes it more difficult for the mind to become an enemy and entertain thoughts that feed into self-doubt and fear of failure narratives.
Pre-shot routine: the way I teach pre-shot routines, they’re usually comprised of other mental skills. The pre-shot routine is an important non-negotiable you have as part of your system to play near your potential. It creates familiarity, productive focus, and ultimately, confidence and consistency.
How do you recommend athletes train these mental skills?
Awareness. There are few mental skills I recommend as essential to include in your pre-shot routine, but awareness is definitely one of them. This is because everyone is different and will prefer different mental skills to make them feel confident. Awareness, however, is something you don’t want to skip out on. Awareness is the gate you must enter before boosting your mental game. It might be a quick and easy process, but that doesn’t discount its importance. This awareness will give you the space to figure out what you need in the moment.
An excellent example of forming a mental skill around awareness is using the stoplight tool. I wrote a whole article on this mental skill, which you can read by clicking here. In short, though, you check in with your mind by asking yourself, “what light am I at?” Green light means confident, yellow light represents typical nerves, and red light signals panic or temper tantrums. Once you decide where you’re at, you can then take action by reaching into your mental game toolkit to get closer to green. You might not end up at green, but you’re at least closer to it, meaning you’ve increased your chances of success.
Another option to trigger your awareness once fouled is based on a different question. Ask yourself “what’s important now?” Or, as Jon mentions in our podcast episode on this topic, “what am I going to do about it?” Where “it” could be ineffective thinking you catch yourself in. From there, it’s answering with a simple, but productive, action that will help you feel more confident. This could be reminding yourself about technique, or talking yourself down the self-doubt ledge and reminding yourself that even pro’s miss free-throws, and you’ve made plenty leading up to this shot.
Relaxation techniques. In the podcast episode, Jon and I discuss three different relaxation techniques: belly breathing, ratio breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). Let’s go over belly breathing and ratio breathing, two of the most common techniques athletes use to enhance their breath.
Ratio Breathing: I mentioned earlier how breathing can combat the stress response. The way this happens is by changing the ratio of your breath to have a longer exhale than your inhale. A 1:1 ratio means your inhale and exhale are equal duration, like 3 seconds in, 3 seconds out. Change the ratio by lengthening your exhale. A great ratio to start off trying is 3:5. This means you go through 3 seconds of inhaling, and 5 seconds of exhaling. This manages the stress response because the exhale activates a part of your nervous system that triggers a sense of calm throughout your body, including your heart rate. It’s like stepping on the brakes in your car, while your inhale is like stepping on the gas. More exhaling = more braking. Over the course of a few minutes, you can really feel this effect. Once fouled, however, you don’t have that much time. Still, you’re doing your body a favor by managing its stress response. And, better yet, you have something to do and focus on. It’ll be more difficult to become distracted when you have something to focus on, like your breathing.
Belly Breathing: Make your ratio breathing more effective by using the right breathing mechanics. To do this, you want to become comfortable belly breathing. This is when you use your diaphragm muscle, located right below the lungs, during the breathing process. By doing this, you give your lungs more room to expand and, essentially, they perform their job more effectively. If you’re reading this, you probably understand the importance of your lungs in sports and how they deliver oxygen to your brain and muscles. So it’s worth practicing! To know if you’re using your diaphragm, try this while sitting or lying down: rest one hand on your belly, right below your rib cage above your bellybutton. Then, rest the other hand on your chest where your sternum is. Inhale through your nose and try to push that bottom hand out. If it moves out, you’re engaging the diaphragm. If not, you’re doing chest breathing. This is worth practicing often, either on the court or randomly throughout the day. Since you’re training yourself to use a muscle differently than you were before, this is not something you’ll easily do right away.
Again, become comfortable using these breathing techniques before the stakes are high!
Now, let’s talk about mental rehearsal, aka visualization and imagery. Similar to breathing techniques, it’s very common to see professional basketball players engage in a quick visualization exercise as they hone their focus before their shot. Click here to read my quick tips on this mental skill. Below are two ways you can include mental rehearsal in your pre-shot routine.
Ghost shot - some players prefer to take a ghost shot before they’re handed the ball. This is simply a practice shot without the ball. It can help shooters get a better feel for the body mechanics necessary to sink their shot. While doing this ghost shot, you can engage in some mental rehearsal too (even with your eyes open!). Imagine there’s a ball in your hands as you release your shot; see the arch of the ball that you’re trying to execute, and see the ball go in. This is yet another way you can tip the scales of success in your favor.
Combine it with your breath - the benefits of your mental rehearsal are enhanced in a relaxed state. Although you won’t necessarily feel relaxed at the line, you move in that direction with the breathing techniques described above. Try a process that looks like this:
While at the line, close your eyes and inhale. Then imagine the shot you’re about to take. Release your breath in a slow, controlled exhale. Then, open your eyes and prepare to shoot.
Pre-shot routine. To start molding your pre-shot routine, decide what mental skills you’d like to try out. The list above is not an exhaustive list of mental skills, but they’re a great starting point. There are also elements of your pre-shot routine that won’t necessarily be mental skills - like how many times you bounce the ball before your shot. If you try and include too many pieces, however, you might stress yourself out and end up hurting your chances of success, not helping them. Below are a few caveats are worth noting about your pre-shot routine as you start to train it.
It will take time. NBA players have a go-to routine they use for every free-throw, but that didn’t happen overnight. It took months, even years for them to be completely confident in their pre-shot routine. And even then, they still might continue to tweak it. One reason it can take this long is because of how important trial and error is in figuring this out.
Trial and error. Imagine you try out one mental skill, like mental rehearsal, and think, “that felt good, I’ll stick with this.” Great! But…what if a different mental skill, like breathing, suited you better and lead to even more confidence? You want to try different combinations and potential pre-shot routines so you feel confident in the one you consistently use. Although this will take time, it will be worth it when you know you how confident you are in your pre-shot routine creating consistency and better performances for you.
Be consistent. Lastly, practice your pre-shot routine consistently, and do it before every shot in every game. The best way I can explain why this is important is this: picture that scenario I briefly mentioned earlier - you’re stepping up to the line when you’re down 2 with 10 seconds left. This could be the game right here. If you step up to the line and engage in a pre-shot routine that you rarely do, you signal to your brain that something is different. You’re hoping this routine will quiet all of the nerves. It won’t work because you won’t have the confidence in it that you would have if you were practicing it everyday at practice, and every game throughout your season. Don’t wait until the stakes are at its highest to try something out!
There you have it - the sport psychology of shooting a free-throw!
Now, a little bit about the podcast, The Sport Psychology Of.
Click here to access the podcast’s homepage.
Or click here to see the podcast on Spotify.
Many sport-specific episodes will be in a similar format - what mental obstacles is the athlete vulnerable to? What mental skills should the athlete train for this situation, and how?
Other episodes, for now, will be based on sport psychology specific topics, like confidence, momentum, and focus. These are more of a deep dive into a single topic. Future episodes will tackle sport generalities, coveted sport achievements, and mental health topics.
Unique guests will be featured on each episode, including sport psychologists, athletes, and coaches.
You can also find the podcast on social media, including Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, and Youtube - see hour long episodes broken down into shorter clips with video on all of these platforms!
I hope you’ll follow this podcast’s journey to see where we end up!
And if you’re interested in taking your mental game to the next level with specialized 1 on 1 coaching, great news! Book a free introductory call with me to discuss your own mental obstacles, how we can tackle them, and see if we’d be a good fit for training by clicking here.
