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It is often claimed that many basketball players would be more successful shooting free-throws underhanded but choose not to do so for fear of being made fun of. (A famous example of this is Wilt Chamberlain, who thought doing "granny" shots made him look silly, even though when he did use them his normally poor free throw percentage shot up.)

Are there other examples where athletes in a sport don't use possibly better techniques for fear of looking silly?

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  • Citation needed. Can you provide modern examples (with data, not anecdotes) of professional basketball players who are more successful shooting underhand free throws, and what percentage of the NBA population does that group make up?
    – Philip Kendall ♦
    Commented Oct 29, 2023 at 18:48
  • @Philip-Kendall I reworded the question to make it clear that I am not asking whether granny shots are always the best way to shoot free throws for all players. (Some players may do better with their regular method, but they won't even try the granny shot for fear of looking silly, which may make it hard to gather the statistics you ask for.) I mentioned the "granny shot" issue as just an example. I am just curious if there are similar examples in other sports.
    – David Bailey
    Commented Oct 29, 2023 at 19:06
  • Counter-example: Dick Fosbury
    – OldPadawan
    Commented Nov 4, 2023 at 7:00
  • @OldPadawan Yes, innovations such as the "Fosbury Flop" were quickly accepted because athletes that didn't switch to the new method started losing every time. This is different from basketball where you can still win even when your free throw percentage is somewhat worse than it could be.
    – David Bailey
    Commented Nov 5, 2023 at 6:03

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