DOI 10.26773/smj.201014 Sport Mont 18 (2020) 3: 41–44 41 Decreasing the Effectiveness for Shooting the Basket: A Basic Problem for the U16, U18, and U20 European Women’s Basketball Mariana Aleksieva Borukova 1 1 National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski”, Faculty of Pedagogy, Department of Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract The view of experts regarding women basketball in Europe is that in recent years the efectiveness of shooting baskets is slowly diminishing, which impacts the game negatively. The purpose of our research is to efect studies related to the efectiveness of shooting the basket in women basketball for various age groups: U16, U18, and U20. For the research, we have studied specialized literature and analysed game efectiveness statistic data from the Genius Sport ofcial system for registering the game indicators of the European Basketball Federation (FIBA). The initial data are processed mathematically-statistically by variation analysis, relative share for establishing the efectiveness of shooting baskets from various distances, and comparative analysis. We have researched shooting efectiveness data from the last European championships for the three age groups. The results show a decrease in the competitors’ skills for efecting baskets by the growth of age. We can conclude that women’s basketball is a dynamic sport with many elements, but the efectiveness of shooting baskets is at its core, which is something that is often forgotten. Coaches working at each level should use at least 30% of the training and training process for specifc shooting exercises for the basket; this is the minimum that can stop this process so that the game of basketball does not go into an existential crisis. Keywords: European championships, women’s basketball, shooting Introduction Te development of women’s basketball has been in re- gression at the global level in recent years. Te technical and tactical skills of good players are so well perfected that ag- gression and speed when playing is simply routine for them. To a greater degree, that is due to the changes in the rules of playing, stimulating the spectacular and active game, both in ofence and defence. Tat fact requires the optimization of the basketball school and training process for the upcoming gen- eration but in relation to increasing the efciency (Borukova, 2018). Following a deep analysis of the European and World championships for the period of 2017–2019 (11 total), we have established that four teams only pass over the average limit of 70 points per match and only one of the teams is from Europe; these are the teams of the USA, China, Hungary, and Japan. We think that part of the reasons for that state is the insuf- fcient efective school and training work with the upcoming women basketball players in relation to scoring baskets. Modern women’s basketball requires from the players a game of dynamic, varied, and simply better play than the op- ponent has. At the same time, the players should have high levels of precision when shooting baskets, which infuences the presentation in basketball considerably but, during a com- petition, are performed in more difcult conditions. In order to shoot baskets correctly, the player should have good motor abilities, which are diferent for men and women. One of the most obvious and important diferences in sex- es for the presentation in many kinds of sports is the correla- Correspondence: M.A. Borukova National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski”, Faculty of Pedagogy, Department of Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, 1700 Sofa, Bulgaria E-mail: marianaborukova@gmail.com ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER