An Open Letter From Ed Palubinskas, Inviting You To Become An NBSA Member

/ by / Eddiepusa / on / February 02, 2010 @ 8:35 pm

Thanks from all of us at NBSA for your interest and consideration in our new venture or quest to seek shooting excellence and ultimate perfection. Excellence and perfection are feats that are able to be attained but more difficult to be maintained. You will learn that this quest for shooting perfection also will teach you more about self-mastery and life itself. (Just remember the words spoken by my favorite philosopher, Socrates, whose slogan, “ know thyself” could be paraphrased here to become,“ know thy shot”.

Those interested in the NBSA, whether it be to learn more about shooting, enter contests, win prize money, learn more to help others, self-mastery, or whatever, you have come to the right place.  NBSA is focused on nothing but improvement of self and improvement of others.

There are about a thousand years of shooting experience amongst the NBSA founding members and I would estimate that about 1.3 trillion free throws have been attempted by us :>). (That figure comes to mind from our national debt.) Anyway, that’s a whole lotta’ shots taken in the last millennium by our silver haired staff.  This is just a way of saying that we have a lot of experience.

I wish I knew the answer about why so many of the great shooters we’re bringing on board seem to be long in the tooth. I don’t believe it is just because of the years of practice we have had. I really believe it is because we’ve become more scientific in our application and possibly because we apply more mental gymnastics to the whys, whats and how comes of the shooting process.  We're also tired of watching players at all levels step up to the free throw line - and miss!

For many shooters, they feel ‘pain’ when they miss free throws, especially when the pressure to perform is on - missing free throws is ‘painful’.  When missing too many free throws brings enough ‘pain’, the smart shooter seeks out information from any respected source to improve his/her skills and percentages. The natural tendency is to practice more, which is not necessarily the answer. Everyone in the world does this and you can see from stats that this is not really the solution.

It seems that first there has to be ‘pain’ which creates the necessary motivation to act or do something about relieving the ‘pain’. The best ‘pain’ is the personal recognition that one’s level of free throw accuracy is unacceptable. 75% shooting may be fantastic to an 8th grade girl, yet 75% will not be a quite so good to a professional player (though the way most pros shoot, they’d be happy with this percentage).

It is the premise of the NBSA that every single free throw is the most important shot in the game. Don’t be like some players who say “they can make them when they need to”. That’s hogwash and a sad excuse. (If that’s the case then, maybe the player needs to open his/her eyes when they shoot.)

Shooters must get to the level when they absolutely KNOW that they will make the shot. There is no room for ‘hope’ or ‘faith’ here. There must be a complete knowledge of the scientific methodology involved in controlling all body parts down to the fingerprints and the stamp of approval left on each shot. Herein lies what we call confidence. No guesswork, but complete self-mastery and domination of each shot.

Another analogy is like being a parent.  Parents who give little attention and spend no quality time with their children will find that the kids go astray a lot. Raising children properly takes quality and quantity effort with time focused in that direction. That’s what  basketball shooting needs: Complete and focused effort and respect with dedicated mental application to the finer muscles in the shot delivery, so the ball becomes a well behaved projectile finding its target all the time.

Shooters are not born. We all have the capacity to become great shooters but we must apply the natural laws and scientific principles to each shot, because no one ever shoots a shot hoping to miss. We all shoot at a basket with the expectation that we will make it. Otherwise why shoot?

Anyway, the NBSA hopes that we can provide all the knowledge and help needed to reduce or close the gap of shooting imperfection that seems to be a constant thorn in the side of all basketball players, coaches and fans worldwide.

Ed Palubinskas,
NBSA Vice President and a Founding Member

About Eddie P.

“The Surgeon General of Free Throw”, Eddie P. is widely known as the best active free throw shooter on the planet.  Still competing today, Ed continues shooting at over 99% in competition and exhibitions. 

*Guinness world record in 2005- 1206/1265 free throws in one hour.
*99% free throw shooter for 25 years.
 *Invented Smartball Shooting System to dramatically improve shooting skills. *NBA draft 1975.
*Olympic scoring champ 1976.
*2nd leading scorer in 1972 Olympics.
*College All- American at LSU.
*Led all Colleges, Pros and High Schools In free throw % in 1972 with 92.4%. *Selected All- World in '78.
*LA Lakers Shooting coach 2000-1. NBA champs.