A good three-point shot starts before the ball leaves your hands. It begins lower, with bent hips, knees and ankles, and with feet set wide enough to keep the body steady. That is the takeaway from new research at the University of Kansas, where scientists used markerless motion capture to study how basketball players shoot from beyond the arc. Their results point to a simple idea that many coaches have long taught: the preparatory phase matters most. The shot is shaped in the setup, not just at release. In the study, published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, researchers analyzed 24 male basketball players as each took 10 nonconsecutive three-point attempts from the top of the key. Eleven were classified as proficient shooters, meaning they made at least half their shots. Thirteen fell below that mark. On average, the proficient group shot 58.3%, while the nonproficient group shot 25.3%. The clearest differences appeared before the upward shooting motion really got going. Proficient shooters showed greater flexion in the hips, knees and ankles, which lowered …