The Three-Pointer

Know how far your line is. NBA: an arc 23 ft 9 in from the middle of the basket, with straight sections 3 ft in from the sidelines and 22 ft in the corners. FIBA: an arc of 6.75 m, with straight sections 0.90 m in from the sidelines. NCAA women's rules: 22 ft 1¾ in, and 21 ft 7⅞ in in the corners. For other leagues, check your rule book. The corner is the shortest three on courts that have one.

Know your spot before the ball comes.

Keep both feet off the line when you go up. NBA rules: at least one foot on the floor outside the line before the shot, and no contact with the line or the floor inside it. FIBA counts 3 points only if you release from the 3-point area, and the line itself belongs to the 2-point area. Under both, you can land on or inside the line after the ball is gone.

Toes behind the line, not on it.

Catch in a balanced base: feet about shoulder-width, toes toward the basket, knees bent and ready, head over your feet.

Ready to go up the moment the ball arrives.

Load with your knees, not by folding at the hips. Keep your chest tall. In a study of 29 recreational players shooting from 6.75 m, the better 3-point shooters kept their trunk more upright and the ball higher at the start of the upward motion.

Sit down a little, chest stays up.

Keep the ball high on the shooting side of your head, elbow bent and in under the ball. Don't drop it to your waist for momentum: lowering or throwing the ball is the fault that shows up when the legs aren't doing their job.

Ball stays up; the legs supply the rhythm.

Use one smooth down-and-up: the ball and your shooting arm rise as your legs extend, in one motion. A shot that falls short is usually missing legs, a full follow-through, or a steady rhythm.

Legs start it, the arm finishes it.

Don't chase jump height on deep shots. On long jumpers you don't need to jump as high, so more of the leg force goes into the shot. In a lab study of 10 expert players, jump height was lower at mid-range than close in, release height dropped as distance grew, and the leg joint motion didn't change.

A quick, compact lift, not a max jump.

Go straight up, or slightly forward toward the rim. A little forward carry is normal at range: two lab studies found players' body moved faster toward the basket as distance grew. Drifting sideways or fading back is the fault.

Up and a touch toward the rim.

Release on the way up, just before the top of your jump. In two lab studies, players released earlier as distance grew, and mid- and long-range shots left the hand before the peak. Waiting for the top, or shooting on the way down, wastes the upward push of the jump.

Shoot on the rise.

Keep the same arm path, and let it work faster. In three lab studies, shoulder and elbow speed rose with distance, and in the two that measured it, so did ball speed (in one, from about 4.4 to 6.9 m/s between the closest and farthest spots). A faster arm is normal. Changing the path is the fault: no slinging from behind your head, no shoving from your chest, no pushing with the guide hand.

Same shot, more snap.

Extend up at about 45 to 60 degrees, don't flatten out. The ball's launch angle does drop a little with distance (about 52 to 55 degrees on the two shorter shots and 48 to 50 degrees at 6.4 m in one study). But the better 3-point shooters in another study kept their extended arm at about 53 degrees, against about 44 degrees for the weaker shooters.

Reach up and over the front of the rim.

Keep your head and shoulders moving forward and up toward the rim as you follow through. Leaning back to find distance is a miss waiting to happen.

Chest goes toward the target.

Hold the follow-through until the ball reaches the basket: elbow straight, wrist snapped, index and middle fingers pointing at the target.

Freeze the finish.

Land softly near your takeoff spot or a little forward: bend your knees and hips, keep your knees over your toes, never land on straight legs.

Quiet feet.