Does listening to music while practicing make for better jump shots among NAIA Division I College Basketball players? That’s what Clarkson Assistant Physical Therapy Professor Ali Boolani and John LaRue, ’15, ’18, Physical Therapy, along with researchers from other universities, set to find out with their recent study on the effects of positive feedback, negative feedback, and music on jump shot efficiency among the players.
“I think it’s safe to say we all enjoy listening to music while exercising,” said LaRue. “We wanted to seek out whether music had an actual influence on shooting efficiency. In addition, all athletes are constantly being coached, not only during shooting in practice, but as part of a game competition environment, We wanted to understand whether males and females would respond well to supportive/positive feedback, or whether they would actually perform better under more negative criticism.”
Ten men and ten women participated. Each participant shot from five different locations 15-feet from the basket and five locations from the three-point distance. In the end, “both male and female collegiate basketball players had a greater shooting efficiency in silence or music when compared to either positive or negative feedback,” LaRue said. “We thought this was an interesting finding, as basketball players will often never play in a competitive environment where there isn’t noise, including both positive and negative feedback.”
LaRue felt this research was more than just about basketball. “I believe in sports performance as well as rehabilitation,” LaRue said. “ We need to better understand ways in which we can influence the people we treat. Whether this is facilitated through music, positive feedback, or more ‘tough love,’ is critical for the development of that individual.”
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