How VR Free Throw Reps Helped Washington Wizards’ Ian Mahinmi


Virtual reality technology company STRIVR seems to have helped $64 million man Ian Mahinmi and his free throw woes last season.

Though his overall percentage fell from 58.7 percent in the 2015-16 season to 57.3 percent in his injury-riddled 2016-17 season, Mahinmi’s free throw percentage was more than 30 points higher during the weeks he used the program, according to STRIVR data scientist Joe Willage in a report released last month.

Over the course of this past season, there were 11 weeks where Mahinmi played and shot at least one free throw. In the eight weeks when he didn’t train with STRIVR, he averaged a free throw percentage of 41.9 percent — during the three weeks when he did use the program, he averaged 73.3 percent at the line. For context, Mahinmi has a 59.5 percent clip from the free throw line in his career.

STRIVR utilizes virtual reality technology to aid in player development. The Wizards — owned by Ted Leonsis — were among the first to implement the technology into the team’s training regimen.

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The technology allows for players to visualize, in three dimensions, using a headset, video replays from an on-court perspective, allowing for a visceral avenue to correct players’ real-time decision-making within the context of a real game. Additionally, players are able to see their shot from both a first- and third-person perspective, allowing for them to study their own shooting form and that of other players.

With Mahinmi, STRIVR had him watch videos of himself — on the virtual reality headset — repeatedly making free throws in order for him to actualize the motion and stroke necessary to consistently hit from the charity stripe. These virtual reps allowed Mahinmi to internalize those motions without even needing to be on an actual basketball court.

“It’s more like building muscle memory, but for your brain,” Mahinmi told ESPN. “Kind of like, OK, if you see it, your brain is going to register it. And then, when you shoot live, you’re going to think about it and see yourself shooting and making. You know you can do it.”

But, STRIVR found that there was no significant relationship between the number of virtual reps Mahinmi took and his free throw percentage — the most important factor was whether or not he trained with STRIVR that week.

In fact, Andre Drummond used the technology last season as well, helping to increase his free throw percentage by — an, albeit, marginal—three percentage points from the 2015-16 season.

Leonsis is still a staunch proponent, however, of the technology’s efficacy.

“We brought virtual reality in, and everyone laughed,” Leonsis said at Leaders’ Sport Business Summit in March. “Our young kids train with virtual reality, and they retain more information at 19 years old. It used to be we’d buy a team and draft a kid and we’d give them algebra homework. We’d give them like a playbook. Now we put these glasses on, and they experience it.
“And so everyone goes, ‘Boy you’ve really integrated your young players quickly.’ Well, yes we have because we used the technology to get them more comfortable and more productive.”