Jalisha Willis
Berryman
Basketball is a sport that is played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court.
Basketball is one of the many sports that has been around for years. The object of playing
basketball is to shoot a ball through a hoop which is high mounted to a backboard at each end.
Each point that you make is worth two points. The object is to score more baskets than the
opposing teams. Sound simple? The points doesn’t come as easy as they sound at this point.
While one team is on offense, the opposing team has to play defense to make it very difficult for
the offensive team to score.
The two most common shots that are used are the set-shot and the jump-shot. The set-
shot is taken from a standing position, with neither foot leaving the floor, typically used for free
throws, and in other circumstances while the jump-shot is taken in mid-air, the ball released
when you’re about to land. If the player fails to release the ball before their feet return to the
floor is considered a traveling violation. “Once the basketball leaves the shooter’s hand, it travels
in an unchanging parabolic path that can be calculated using Newton’s laws of motion. At that
moment, the player isn’t moving — his velocity is zero. Releasing the ball at the top gives the
player better control of the ball and making it more likely that he will make the shot”
[ CITATION fon07 \l 1033 ]. The most common shot is called the lay-up. This shot requires the
player to be in motion toward the basket, and to “lay the ball up” and into the basket, typically
off the backboard. .” The lay-up, can be an easy shot to make by hitting the backboard at just the
right spot. But putting a backspin on the ball can help you make more free throws. When a
spinning ball bounces, it bounces back in the direction of the spin. If the ball hits the backboard
or back of the rim, it will be directed toward into the basket. That’s because when the ball makes
contact with the rim or backboard, the backspin causes a change in velocity opposite to the spin
direction, making it more likely that the ball will drop into the net softly” [ CITATION fon07 \l
1033 ]. The most crowd-pleasing and typically highest-percentage accuracy shot is the slam
