A LITTLE NBSA HISTORY

By Jim “Makevery” Schatz

The NBSA, www.nbsashooters.com, was established in 2009 by a group of free throw mastery shooters and teachers.  Our goal was and still is to improve basketball shooting at all levels, be it shooting events or in game time.

For years, Fred Newman, free throw master and five time Guinness record holder, and I have practiced together.  We shoot sets of 25 and then shoot alternating shots, first to 25 with a sudden death, if tied. Many times we shoot best three out of five in the alternating shot practice competition.

I was convinced back in 2009 that this alternating shot format would be well received by the basketball shooting community. I felt it could produce a tournament champion by qualifying the top scores and then seeding the shooters into a single elimination draw sheet so we would end with an over all tournament champion.

In January of 2010, many of the NBSA founders and top shooting masters (Eddie Palubinskas, Fred Newman, Bob Owen, Ronn Wyckoff, Rick Rosser, Arnold Heilemann) and three students of mine came to Los Angeles to meet and to try this new championship competition format I created.  We shot two tournaments over two days, seeding the master shooters into our championship draw sheet according to their 25 shot set individual scores. Afterwards, it was unanimously agreed upon that this alternating shots, single elimination competition would be the NBSA championship format.

READY FOR COMPETITION, INSTRUCTION AND PRIME TIME TV
In 2010, I directed a few more NBSA events with the NBSA masters and a few events locally and we were now ready to bring this format to the masses.  We ran our first major NBSA shooting event in October at the Nevada State Senior Games, which is now our annual NBSA World Championship of Basketball Shooting (all ages in conjunction with the Nevada Senior Games event - Free Throw Mastery, Three Point Mastery and The Make Every Shot Challenge) and at the Huntsman World Senior Games where we now hold our annual NBSA/ Huntsman World Senior Free Throw Championship.

Unfortunately, in 2012, we only had our NBSA World Championship at the Nevada State Senior Games.

We are now back at the Huntsman World Senior Games and plan on continuing with both championship events annually.

SPONSORS

This year we were once again sponsored by Wilson Sporting Goods with the Wilson Evolution our official tournament basketball as it has been since 2011.  I personally selected the Wilson Evolution as our official tournament basketball because of its great quality and feel.

We welcome back our 2011 ball return sponsor, Quikshot USA.  The NBSA endorses this product as being the finest ball return system in its field.  The top ten in the NBSA world free throw ranking all endorse and practice with it.

A new product recently appeared on the basketball market called the Free Throw Trainer and I am happy to say they are now one of our major sponsors.

I am thrilled to be able to introduce this great practice tool.  The free throw trainer is extremely helpful and I am now using it every practice session.  I have never shot better.  The Free Throw Trainer could make Noah Basketball obsolete.  For just $19.95 you can shoot the perfect arc every time.  (Why spend nearly $7,000 for a Noah, when you could get much better results with this simple, inexpensive training device?)

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AS WE FEEL THEY ARE ALL THE LEADERS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE FIELDS.

The two October, 2013 NBSA basketball shooting championships ran smoothly and the shooters continue to praise the events, as their shooting improves every year.  If you haven't attended one of our October NBSA championship events in Las Vegas and St. George Utah please do and join the fun.