Doctor holds Guiness World Record for free throws

It took Dr. Tom Amberry 22 months to be the best free throw shooter in the history of the world

Dr. Tom Amberry, the world's best free throw shooter,  had a sit down with CNC Live Monday.  Amberry promotes his “Seven Step Approach.”

Amberry holds the Guinness World Record of 2,740 free throws made in a row in 1994. He was a Podiatrist out of college, putting basketball on hold until he retired.

Basketball became his medicine and his next career after leaving the medical field. Because of his amazing talent to shoot free-throws, he now teaches the art of free-throwing to others, including the Chicago Bulls from 2000-2003.    
Dr. Amberry didn't become the free throw champion over night. Although he played basketball early in his life, he was leading collegiate scorer at Long BeachCityCollege in 1946-47, it took a mid-life crisis to turn him to free throws.

A doctor told him it would be a way of relieving stress, and slowly, free-throws became his therapy. Shooting the basketball was his way of getting away and being able just to concentrate on just one thing. Now he has the philosophy: "If you want to feel better turn of the news" and to only watch and listen to things that are positive.
Discontent with just merely shooting as stress relief, Dr. Amberry saw the previous record holder shoot and said, "I saw the guy who broke the record and said if he could do it, so could I."

And this was beginning of his trek to become the world record holder, and just 22 months later he was in position to be the champion.

After reading and studying every piece of literature he could get his hands on, Amberry incorporated all studied techniques into his own to fine tune his shot. He started of slow in increments of 25 free-throws, making only ten of 25 at first. Amberry just increased his chances each shot he made until he reached 100 free-throws made, and would move on from there.
Ten Guinness judges and three official referees came to judge Amberry at Rossmoor Athletic Club for his fate with destiny. For good part of twelve hours, with only one five minute break an hour, Dr. Amberry shot free-throws without ever missing a shot.

He said he felt "pretty good" and "even better the next day," but, "the day after on Wednesday I felt like I was run over by Mack Truck." This record beat the old record by 740 free-throws and still stands today.
Ever since setting the world record, many have tried to beat his record; The Discovery Channel even had robots made to try and beat him, but they failed.

Other Dr. Amberry accomplishments include, the most free throws made (not consecutively) in an hour. And he has made 500 in a row more than 450 times. He also received a two year contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers, but turned it down to go to school.
Dr. Amberry travels around teaching his technique and his “Seven Step Approach,” to ones that will listen.  The hardest thing to do is to get people to listen long enough for the method to start working he said. It is the mental part of the game that no one takes time to master even though it has a factor in 23 percent of the games outcome.

Part off the problem is practice time constraints, coaches don't have time to relax the players and get them in the mind set needed to make free throws, which he says are 90 percent mental Amberry said.

Look around town for Dr. Amberry who takes the time every morning to work on his shot, maybe you can pick up a few points.