Study aim: The purpose of the current study was to determine whether existing pre-performance routines had an effect on free throw shooting accuracy in high school pupils as compared to shooting without a pre-performance routine.

Materials and methods: Participants were 34 freshman high school basketball players. Twenty male (n = 20) and fourteen female (n = 14) of various ethnic backgrounds were randomly assigned to a condition and were asked to implement a pre-performance routine in one condition and a non-pre-performance routine in another condition for free throw shooting. A within subjects crossover design was used to analyse the data based on a pre-performance routine and a non-pre-performance routine framework. The pre-performance routine conditions were considered the experimental conditions. A Missed-Made Shots table was used to track performance (miss-made shots) for the shots in both conditions.

Results: There were differences between the experimental condition (pre-performance routine) and the comparison condition (non-pre-performance routine) Z(22) = –4.61, p < 0.01 with the experimental condition’s median scores out-performing the comparison condition scores; however the differences were very small.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that there were differences between the experimental condition (pre-performance routine) and the comparison condition (non-pre-performance routine). Results suggest that there may be additional relevant factors in addition to pre-performance routines that should be considered in helping youth develop closed motor skills (e.g., mental imagery, physical exertion, outside factors – audience).