Study on eye movement characteristics and intervention of basketball shooting skill

BACKGROUND: The shooting aiming point is very important in basketball because it may affect the field goal percentage (FG%). The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of shooting aiming point practice on FG% and to search for new training methods for shooting improvement in basketball. METHODS: A total of 24 expert basketball players and 24 amateur basketball players participated in the shooting task of Experiment 1. The participants in the two groups wore an eye movement instrument while shooting the ball. The shooting techniques included free throws, 45° direct shots and 45° bank shots to verify the differences in shooting aiming points between expert basketball players and amateur basketball players. Forty-eight amateur basketball players participated in the teaching experiment of Experiment 2. Twenty-four participants participated in routine teaching, and 24 participants had shooting aiming point practice for nine weeks to verify the difference in FG% between the two groups. The shooting aiming points of the participants were assessed immediately after shooting. RESULTS: Experiment 1 found that expert basketball players used shorter fixation duration, fewer fixation numbers and more reasonable (simple and efficient) fixation distributions than amateur players. Moreover, expert basketball players took the front edge of the hoop as the aiming point, and amateur players took the central or back edge of the hoop as the aiming point; the FG% of the expert group (83.47%) was significantly higher than that of the amateur group (34.86%) (P < 0.01). Experiment 2 found that for the total FG% of the three tests, the intervention group (30.19%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (27.27%) (P < 0.05). After five weeks of aiming point training, it can be found that was no significant difference in the FG% between the intervention group (28.19%) and the control group (26.53%) (P > 0.05). After 9 weeks of shooting aiming point training, the FG% of the intervention group (36.39%) was significantly higher than that of the control group (30.14%) (P < 0.05), and the FG% of the intervention group increased faster than that of the control group. Additionally, the aiming point of the intervention players changed from the center and back edge of the hoop to the front. CONCLUSION: (1) There was a correlation between basketball shooting aiming point and FG%. FG% with the front edge of the hoop as the aiming point was higher than the back edge hoop or center. (2) The FG% could be more quickly improved by shooting aiming point practice; it will not be affected in a short time (5 weeks); however, 9 weeks of practice can significantly improve the FG%.