So far this season, Dwight Howard is still struggling from the free throw line.  In fact, Howard is shooting the worst he has ever shot from the free throw line, only hitting on 57.9% of his foul shots this year (his previous worse 58.6% in ’06/’07).  However, this year Dwight Howard seems to less consistant when it comes to missing free throws.  Instead of just being bad game in and game out, Howard has put together some solid Free Throw shooting games.  72% on 1/17 against Boston (13-18), 75% on 1/28 against Chicago (12-16), and most recently yesterday against Boston Howard shot 80% from the foul line (8-10).  If Howard has had some good games, then why is his Free Throw percentage so low?  Well, because he seems to match every good game with a terrible one.

I decided to look at Howard’s free throw form from a very good game (his 8-10 performance yesterday) and a very bad game (his 3-13 performance against Miami on 2/3), and wouldn’t you know, I found a small, but in my opinion, important difference.’

During games where Howard struggles from the line, everything is the same in his form except for one thing.  He tends to short-arm his shots and the result is a little hitch in his release.  When he is shooting well, everything is smooth from the set up to the follow through.

Instead of showing a video each of Howard’s release, I decided to put it together in one video side by side.  He is wearing his black jersey on the miss clip and his blue jersey on the make clip.  You want to focus on Howard’s strong hand from when he releases the ball to his follow through:

When Howard short arms his shot, he isn’t snapping his wrist, he isn’t getting a proper follow through, and this means he isn’t getting proper rotation on the basketball.  If you watch the make, you notice there is no hitch and he gets a very good snap of the wrist.  That means he is going to get proper rotation on the basketball and give himself a chance to get the make.

What should be comforting to Magic fans is that Howard does seem conscious of this. You should notice that after he short-arms his shot, he’ll then complete the follow through, as if he knows that is where his hand is supposed to end up.

This also explains the inconsistency.  You can see that a coach has got him working on his form, and when he is making it, he continues to snap the wrist and he gets into a nice rhythm (explaining the good games).  However, once he misses two or three in a row, Howard struggles to get in the flow and struggles to consistently get that smooth follow through.  The hitch where he short-arms it and then completes his follow through then appears, and that is when you start seeing him miss four, five, or six free throws in a row.

Once the smooth follow through becomes second nature for Dwight, you should start seeing improvement in his numbers.  But that is only if it becomes second nature.