An accidental arc change of 1 degree in either direction (a total range of 2 degrees) on a high arc shot can cause the ball to rim out. Noah Basketball needed to learn whether it was difficult for an athlete to keep his arcs within a 2 degree range.
After measuring thousands of Noah sessions, we learned that only 1 percent of the basketball playing athletes can control their arc to this level of accuracy. The rest of us have a large amount of variation in shot arcs which causes the ball to go short or long and often keeps the ball from scoring.
Noah Basketball has defined a term called Shooting Skill Level which measures how well a shooter can control their arc and distance. As shown in the table below, the Shooting Skill Levels range from Builder to Master, with the very highest performance at the top of the scale.
A Shooting Skill Level of Master IV is perfect and means that a shooter can shoot 25 shots in a row with exactly the same arc and distance. So far this perfect Shooting Skill Level has never been achieved. The best Shooting Skill Level measured to date is Master II and has been demonstrated by some of the very best professional and college athletes. On the other end of the scale, a skill level of Builder I demonstrates only minimal control.
Noah Shooting Skill Levels and Typical Skill Level Scores by League
