The Effect of Shooting Training Using a Modified Size 7 Basketball on the Shooting Skills of the Women’s Basketball Team

Basketball is a team sport in which shooting skill is a critical determinant of game outcomes, as points are primarily obtained through successful shots. However, shooting mastery among junior high school athletes, particularly female players, often remains limited due to insufficient strength, coordination, and self-confidence. One instructional strategy to address this limitation is equipment modification. This study examined the effect of shooting training using a modified size 7 basketball on the shooting skills of the women’s basketball extracurricular team at SMP Negeri 1 Indralaya. The use of a larger and heavier ball was intended to stimulate physical adaptation and enhance confidence when athletes returned to shooting with the standard size 6 ball. This study employed a quantitative experimental method using a one-group pretest–posttest design. The participants were 20 female students, selected through total sampling. Shooting performance was assessed using a free-throw shooting test administered before and after a six-week training program utilizing a size 7 basketball. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired-sample t-test at a 95% confidence level (α = 0.05). The pretest results showed a highest score of 6, a lowest score of 0, a mean of 2.95, and a standard deviation of 1.669. Posttest results demonstrated improvement, with a highest score of 7, a lowest score of 1, a mean of 3.85, and a standard deviation of 1.599. The t-test yielded a value of −4.158, exceeding the critical value of 2.100, indicating a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest scores. It can be concluded that shooting training using a modified size 7 basketball significantly improves the accuracy and consistency of shooting skills among female junior high school players, supporting equipment modification based on overload principles as an effective strategy in school-based basketball programs.