How Cutting-Edge Technology Helps Basketball Players Shoot

As a freshman last season at Michigan, Isaiah Livers shot 36 percent from 3-point range. Decent, but t great.

In offseason, he went to work.

“I was shooting at like 37 to 40 on angle, and that’s t good,” Livers said. “w I’m at probably 45 to 48.”

Livers was referring to arc on his shots, an area he’s tried to improve using an invative system from data-service provider ah Basketball. high-tech setup at Michigan’s practice facility can give immediate verbal responses, so a player can hear how much arc was on most recent shot. This season, Livers is shooting 45 percent from 3-point range, top mark in Big Ten.

As teams compete in NCAA Tournament over next few weeks, games will be won and lost from 3-point line and foul line. ah system is an attempt to blend old-fashioned repetition with analytics and techlogy as players strive to improve ir shooting.

John Carter, CEO of ah Basketball, says re are 45 NBA and college customers that have new version of system. ah system, so named because of company’s focus on arc of shots, can actually measure a lot more than that .

Teams can access seemingly endless amounts of data, tracking t only arc, but where a shot was taken from and where it ended up in relation to basket. system can measure if a shot is too far to left or right — or if it’s too short or long.

best shots, according to folks at ah, enter basket at a 45-degree angle, 11 inches beyond front of rim.

“w that our database has grown to over 180 million shots, what we’ve found is number one indicator of a great shooter is left-right consistency,” Carter said. “But a close second is arc consistency.”

11-inch figure may seem surprising, since it puts shot closer to back of hoop than front.

“Most people still think that ideal depth in hoop is 9 inches, because hoop’s an 18-inch hoop. It’s t. It’s 11,” said Alan Marty, ah’s founder and chairman. “If you hit front of rim, a lot of m miss, but if you hit back of rim and it goes down, y all score.”

All this information might seem overwhelming to a college basketball player. Who has time to calculate exact depth of a shot when lining up a crucial 3-pointer? But a player using ah system can take shot after shot — and use system’s instant verbal feedback to make corrections and build muscle memory.

Virginia is ar school that uses system. Cavaliers are one of nation’s top teams in 3-point accuracy. Associate he coach Jason Williford says aside from all precise measurements, system can be useful just for counting shots for each player.

“We monitor how many shots y’re taking a day or a week,” Williford said. “Are y in re getting up extra ones on ir own? It’s been good for that.”

Williford said sensory overlo hasn’t been too much of a problem.

“Some guys don’t like to hear feedback,” he said. “Like, it’ll say ’45′ or whatever arc was on a shot, and some guys don’t like to hear that feedback, but y like it because it’s keeping total shots.”

One player who is more lukewarm on system is former Virginia star Malcolm Brogdon, who w plays for Milwaukee Bucks.

“I used it for a little bit and n fell off it,” he said. “ more I watch game, more I watch old film, everybody shoots differently. Everybody has different arcs. You’ve got to find what works for you. I’m a firm believer in that and I don’t believe in perfect shot. You’ve got to learn how to play game your way, your style. If you perfect what you do, it’ll work.”

In that sense, shooting a basketball can be like hitting a golf ball. It’s certainly possible for a highly skilled player to succeed using urthodox methods. Each team can make its own decisions about what information from ah system is most useful.

That information will continue to flow. Last week, ah Basketball and Pac-12 anunced a partnership for league to use system at its conference tournaments this year, collecting data that could be useful for teams or brocasters.

It probably went unticed to fans in arena, but that was ar significant step — using system to track shots for an entire tournament, inste of on a practice court.

“We have a couple real small sensors that’s attached to top of shot clock. sensor’s literally about size of my thumb,” Carter said. “And from that, we can track all information.”

It’s all part of ongoing effort to help teams learn more about game’s most basic objective — shooting ball into basket.

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