Newtons three laws of motion

Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion – Relevance to the Jump Shot:

Before applying these laws to the jump shot in basketball, it is important to note the definition of a jump shot; A shot in basketball made by jumping into the air and releasing the ball with one or both hands at the peak of the jump (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). Newton’s 3 Laws of motion, and the relevance that each of them hold to the human body for a Jump Shot in Basketball are as follows:

1: An object will remain at rest or continue to move with a constant velocity as long as the net force equals zero. (Blazevich, 2007).

Otherwise known as the Law of Inertia, Newton’s First Law is applied to the jump shot in the ‘jumping’ phase of the skill. Any object with mass has inertia (Blazevich, 2007), and in the case of the Jump shot, the inertia of the human body needs to change from grounded to upward vertical motion. The shooter needs to jump as high as they can in order to release the ball at its highest point, as this is the optimal shooting technique in terms of projection angle, and in order to shoot over a defender with an arm up. Once the player is in the air, and reaches the peak of their jump, the force of gravity will begin to pull them back down to the ground.

2: The acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to the mass of the object (Force = Mass x Acceleration). (Blazevich, 2007).

In order for the ball to gain momentum towards the basket, the shooter must apply force through the hand. By doing this, the balls state of motion is changed. In terms of acceleration, the technique of the skill can be manipulated in order to generate a greater force. An example of this is stated in Okazaki et al., (2015), where it was found that players who had to take a jump shot in the presence of an opponent used five different technical changes, including a lower ball release height in order to get a faster shot off. Similarly, when the distance of the shot increased, greater velocity on the ball had to be produced in order to score (Okazaki et al., 2015). This is a clear example of Newton’s Second Law of motion in play with the Jump shot.

3: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Blazevich, 2007).

Perhaps the most relevant out of the three laws when it comes to the jump shot, Newton’s third law applies to the actual force generated by the jump of the shooter. By applying force through the legs against the ground, the ground responds by applying the force back against the shooter, which allows the shooter to gain vertical momentum. The force from the ground is greater than the force produced by the shooter, due to the overwhelming difference in mass that the ground has in comparison to the human body. This same equation is in play when we consider the force applied from the body against the ball. Due to the ball having a much smaller mass than the human body, the ball is propelled forward, as stated in Newton’s Second law (Blazevich, 2007).

It is clear that Newton’s 3 Laws of motion have a role to play in the jump shot, often overlapping with the application of their theories at times. By understanding how these laws impact the basic concept of the jump shot, there is a better understanding of what the human body has to do in order to generate the optimal technique for the skill.