I actually took part in my friend’s study for his statistics fair project back in high school. It wasn’t the most well conducted study but I had to help my friend out. He wanted to know if wearing a shooting sleeve helped with shooting. So he made me shoot some free throws with a sleeve and without one. I bricked almost every free throw without the sleeve. But when I put one on, I saw improved results. It felt comfortable and snug on my arm. This raises the question: Do shooting sleeves actually help to make you a better shooter?
According to this article, shooting sleeves help to regulate temperature in the arm, improve flexibility, add compression to increase circulation which results in reducing soreness, and improve shooting form. Shooting sleeves help to keep the elbow straight while shooting.
Some speculate that the shooting sleeve has psychological benefits (Levy). The shooting sleeve was first worn and popularized by Allen Iverson on January 21, 2001. Iverson wore it because he had bursitis on his elbow, and then proceeded to score 51 points that night. He never took it off and took his team to the Finals that year. He kept on wearing it well after his surgery on the bursitis to prevent future injuries. Carmelo Anthony continues to wear shooting sleeves well after his surgery. Stephen Kotler of Psychology Today, proposed the question: “Could sleeves be functioning in the same way as placebos in medicine? (Kotler)”.
Another article explains that two studies were done in regards to compression sleeves. A 1987 study in the American Journal of Medicine found that “compression garments lowered blood-lactate levels and blood pooling. Both blood lactates and blood pooling can cause swelling and reduce performance (Albagdadi)”. A 2007 study in the Journal of Sports Science had males wear compression garments during a 10k and the results showed significantly reduced muscle soreness (Albagdadi).
To be able to become a good shooter, one must put in the time and practice instead of relying on a sleeve to do the work. Maybe the benefits that come along with wearing a sleeve (reduced swelling, flexibility, reduced risk of injury) help to improve one’s ability to shoot. But I can’t see sleeves helping people that just cannot shoot to save their lives, including me. Maybe it is superstitious and people use sleeves whenever they play because they had one good game with it or they suffered an injury without it. What do you guys think? 
Picture source:
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/do-it-for-the-culture/#W5w4tkq5ZpLicFkB.97
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I think most people have no idea that wearing shooting sleeves can practically help them shooting. Most people wear those because the NBA stars wear them. It is like why we wear our favorite star’s jersey. Jerseys and accessories a lot of times make people feel more confident. I do not believe in superstitions so I never wear those things. However, your article changed my attitude. I can shoot and I can shoot well, but sometimes my shooting seems to be not consistent, and I hope shooting sleeve can do something on this issue. Thanks to your post.
I thought people wearing shooting sleeves are just pretending they are cool and I did not realize they may actually have some functions as regulating temperature in the arm or lowering blood-lactate levels and blood pooling. I think based on the observations or anecdotes of yourself, we should proceed to some experiments to further test the theory like we talked about in class. To test whether shoot sleeves impact our body physically, we can devise an experiment of randomly allocating people to two groups and let one of these two groups shoot with the same brand of sleeves while another group shoot without sleeves. Measure the temperature in their arms, the blood- lactate levels, and the extent of blood pooling with appropriate medical technology. Then compare the data between the two groups. I assume there are some technical difficulties to conduct measurement and this may be the reason why this kind of experiments haven’t come out yet. However, we are progressing, and we should be believe in the power of science– some day we will be able to address the problem more successfully.
Stephen Kotler of Psychology Today, proposed the question: “Could sleeves be functioning in the same way as placebos in medicine? (Kotler)”. This quotation is the real answer in my opinion. I played a little basketball and it seemed like I managed to make a couple more shots here and there while wearing the sleeve versus not having it on. I began to think that maybe it was the sleeve, but then I referred back to my AP Psych class and remembered the placebo effect. So in my opinion, these sleeves are really just for looks despite the fact that they may increase circulation and what have you.
“Maybe it is superstitious and people use sleeves whenever they play because they had one good game with it or they suffered an injury without it”, that is exactly what I want to say. I do not think shooting sleeves helps a lot while some of my friends can not play without it and some of my friends may hard to get use to the shooting sleeves and have a bad game who used to plays really well. It might most likely be a personal perspective than a casual.