The change in young basketball players` free throws accuracy using intense development program

The study aimed to identify young players (13-14 and 17-18 year old) free throws accuracy change with intense free throws improvement program. The study group consisted of sixteen 13 – 14 year old and eighteen 17- 18 year old school basketball players. Research aim - to identify the change in young basketball players` free throws accuracy using intense development program. Research objectives: 1. to assess and evaluate the free throw accuracy of young basketball players before and after the research. 2. To establish the change in free throw accuracy using intense free throw development program. 3. To assess free throw accuracy during basketball matches before and after the research. The study was carried out in 2011 – 2012 season; the research took place in “Gintaras“ basketball school in London on January and February. Free throw tests were taken before and after every basketball practice. Duration – 5 weeks. To evaluate the effectiveness of the improvement program the control group and the research group was established. Free throw accuracy was also recorded during basketball matches. Arithmetic averages ( ), standard deviations (SD) and significance of the difference by Student's independent samples “t” test were calculated. The difference with a possible error of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant (p 0.05) but the free throw accuracy of the research group has significantly improved from 62.13% before the experiment to 73.37% after (p < 0.05). Conclusion. The intensive five-week free throw training program had a positive impact on the accuracy of different age groups basketball players’ free throw shots during practices as well as during matches