Does Practice Make Perfect?
Will Bancroft have a varsity basketball team next year? We have lost a lot of good players so are there enough good players left? The JV team isn’t too good so how can we get better?
Introduction
Does practicing 3 point shot form increase the amount of shots that go in? For this experiment, two people were used to see if practicing a specific form and taking 40 shots each time from the top of the 3 point line improves the percentage of shots made for a month. If the percentage improves this proves that practicing does make you better. This could help people get better and improve their 3 point shots to use in games and create a better varsity team. It was hypothesized that by practicing this specific form the percentage of shots made would increase over time .
Materials
- Men’s Basketball
- Hoop
Procedure
- get a basketball
- stand at the top of the key
- dribble once in your right hand
- hold the basketball with left hand and shoot with right hand. While shooting, bend knees and move from heel to toe and bring your elbow to your eye, in the shape of an L, according to Klay Thompson, NBA player. Lastly, flick your wrist and release the ball towards the hoop.
- Get rebound and repeat 39 more times
- Record data in data chart
- Repeat experiment for one month
Data Charts:
| Student 1 | Date | Days Practiced | Shots Made | # Shots Taken | % Shots Made |
| 4/4/22 | 1 | 10 | 40 | 25 | |
| 4/5/22 | 2 | 20 | 40 | 50 | |
| 4/7/22 | 3 | 16 | 40 | 40 | |
| 4/11/22 | 4 | 22 | 40 | 55 | |
| 4/13/22 | 5 | 21 | 40 | 52.5 | |
| 4/14/22 | 6 | 20 | 40 | 50 | |
| 4/19/22 | 7 | 15 | 40 | 37.5 | |
| 4/21/22 | 8 | 16 | 40 | 40 | |
| 4/25/22 | 9 | 22 | 40 | 55 | |
| 4/26/22 | 10 | 23 | 40 | 57.5 | |
| 4/28/22 | 11 | 25 | 40 | 62.5 | |
| 5/2/22 | 12 | 27 | 40 | 67.5 |
| Student 2 | Date | Days Practiced | Shots Made | # Shots Taken | % Shots Made |
| 4/4/22 | 1 | 15 | 40 | 37.5 | |
| 4/5/22 | 2 | 17 | 40 | 42.5 | |
| 4/7/22 | 3 | 10 | 40 | 25 | |
| 4/11/22 | 4 | 20 | 40 | 50 | |
| 4/13/22 | 5 | 17 | 40 | 42.5 | |
| 4/14/22 | 6 | 19 | 40 | 47.5 | |
| 4/19/22 | 7 | 17 | 40 | 42.5 | |
| 4/21 | 8 | 18 | 40 | 45 | |
| 4/25 | 9 | 23 | 40 | 57.5 | |
| 4/26 | 10 | 21 | 40 | 52.5 | |
| 4/28 | 11 | 27 | 40 | 67.5 | |
| 5/2 | 12 | 24 | 40 | 60 |
Graph:
Data Analyses:
Practicing shot and form does increase the percentage of shots made from the 3 point line. In the beginning the percentage of shots made for both players 1 and 2 increased and decreased depending on the day but there was an increasing trend overall. On some days the percentage difference between two people was a 15 percent difference and some days much closer with a 2.5 percent difference but there was an increasing trend. The first day of the project the percentage was 25 percent and 37.5 percent. At the end of the project the percentages were 67.5 and 60 percent. The goal of this project was to see if practicing your shot and form more made the percentage of shots made go up which the data confirmed.
Conclusion:
If there are not a lot of good players next year we won’t win games. If people put in the effort and work to practice they will get better for the upcoming season. As we move into summer it is also important to continue to practice so we can win games next year!
