It’s the time of year when K-ville is bustling with excitement and students readily sacrifice the comfort of their rooms in exchange for cold and often wet tents in an effort to support their blue devils.  Duke basketball becomes the current student obsession during these months.  While we obsess about our players making jump shots, there are scientists who obsess about how the shots are made.  Most recently, scientists conducted research to determine the visual information necessary to maintain accurate aim in the basketball shot (Oudejans et al., 2002).  Can we finally understand the science behind our blue devil stars?

            The science behind basketball is illustrated in the shooters’ ability to precisely and accurately aim the jump shot which requires full body movement.  Don’t we all wonder how J.J Redick seems to effortlessly drain three pointers or sink quick jump shots?  The shooter must respond to quick moving distractions as well as pressure.  Researchers who have studied the history of basketball have found the overhand push shot to be the most accurate.  With this style, the ball is propelled with a high curved trajectory towards the basket by the dominant hand while the other hand guides the ball.  Shooters can approach this shot in two different ways.  Some shooters view the basket from under the shooting position, while others view the target from above the shooting position.  Oudejans, van de Langenberg, and Hutter focused on the higher shooting position in male players (2002).

            This recent research aimed to clarify and answer questions from past studies in order to draw the connection between vision and accuracy in the jump shot more plainly.  Only few studies in the past note the correlation between head-eye stabilization towards the target and length of time.  These studies suggest that the duration of eye contact is the critical factor in aim, additionally noting late vision to decrease accuracy of the shot due to interference with the motor control program (Oudejans et al., 2002).

The latest research differs greatly from past findings.  Ten experienced male professional basketball players participated in experimental trials under four viewing conditions: no vision, full vision, early vision, and late vision.  Specialized goggles, that could be open or closed with precision based upon the position of the ball and the line of sight of the player, allowed for the change in viewing conditions (Oudejans et al., 2002).  Shooters with the high shooting style maintained accuracy in their jump shots under both full vision and late vision conditions.  So how does Dahntay Jones make critical jumps shots after defenders originally block and skew his view of the hoop? Late vision allows these types of shooters to have “final-error-correction movement control”, so they can compensate and maintain accuracy (Oudejans et al., 2002).  Shooters made significantly less shots under no vision and early vision conditions.  The study suggests that visual information required correlates to the style of the shot.  High style shooters are just as effective with late vision and low style shooters are almost as effective with early vision.  These results contradict previous studies that did not account for varying shooting styles.  Additionally, the results discourage theories of pre-programmed motor control, such as muscle memory, in which “final-error-correction movement control” would not be feasible (Oudejans et al., 2002). 

Drilling shots for technique and ability have helped Duke Basketball success, but the overlying factor is the last second alterations to maintain accuracy.  The experiment provides evidence supporting the possibility of continuous detection and movement change in the last stages of the shot.  Duration of eye contact is not more critical than visual timing for the jump shot.    Contradicting previous findings, this data indicates that visual data a small time before and until ball release is sufficient as well as necessary for target aim (Oudejans et al., 2002).

What does this mean for our Blue Devils?  This new research indicates that long term set-up for a jump shot is less important than making sure the hoop is in sight during release and follow-through.  So no need to worry about long set-up for the high pressured shots when playoff time comes, just make sure we are the team seeing the basket in the end!

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