Introduction

Basketball is a heavily popular sport worldwide. Although it is a well sort after event in the Olympics the pinnacle of the sport can be found in America, and it is known as the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA league is a dream for many basketball players across the world, it being deemed where all the high-end talent of the world competes.

Basketball is an energetic fast paced sport with a multitude of variabilities that can impact any shooter on any given day (Penner, 2021). The objective is to outscore the opposition through a range of shooting techniques including lay up’s, free throws and jump shots.

There’s much debate about who is the greatest player Basketball has ever seen. Michael Jordan 1984-2003 or Lebron James 2003-24 feature heavily in this discussion, both great shooters of the ball and have the ability to nail a buzzer beater for the win on their day. What makes them so great is the ability to perform the basic skills over and over again without fail.

In recent years with the growth of women’s sport, the NBA has developed its sister competition, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Much like the men’s competition the WNBA attracts the top end female talent. One of the most prolific players in the WNBA is young American athlete Caitlin Clark who went Pick 1, Round 1 in the 2024 draft (WNBA). Caitlin is an excellent exponent of the jump shot, one of the more common forms of scoring in basketball (Knudson, 1993; Gryko et al., 2018; Okazaki and Rodacki, 2018). Consistently knocking down long range shots with her technique.

There are many factors that effect the overall outcome of sinking an effective basket. Individual factors such as player height, jump height, their depth of experience and player fatigue.  Then there’s the variables for angle of realise (projection angle), height of ball realise, magnus effect (back spin), velocity of the ball and ground reaction forces. All these combined forming a smooth pattern of movement have an influence on an effective jump shot. (Ref, Image 1)

Here we look to examine these variables to answer the question, how does the optimal trajectory of a basketball jump shot effect shooting accuracy?