Rhythmicity, ritual, and motor performance: a study of free throw shooting in basketball

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of timing during an auto-communicative ritual to successful performance. Eight members of a university varsity basketball team served as subjects for this study. Each subject performed 15 free throws in each of four different conditions. Condition 1 required subjects to use their standard free throw ritual prior to shooting. Condition 2 required subjects to maintain the relative timing of ritual behaviors but reduce the absolute time of the ritual by one-half. Condition 3 required that relative timing be maintained but that the absolute time of the ritual be doubled. Condition 4 required the same behaviors and the same absolute time as the standard ritual but that the relative time of the ritual be altered. Data were collected with a 16-mm high-speed camera. Types of behaviors, timing aspects of the ritual, successful attempts, and shot mechanics were dependent measures. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of dependent measures and Fisher's scores from correlation coefficients of dependent measures indicate that relative timing of behaviors (rhythmicity) is more important to success than the absolute time of rituals. Behaviors most important to free throw success are those that may be totally controlled by the subject and yet remain stable with changing conditions.