Ryan Martin, 35, is looking to set a Guinness World Record in 3-pointers made in an hour. The Lake Region boys’ basketball coach will attempt the record on Aug. 9. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
NAPLES – Ryan Martin was, in his words, “just messing around.”
The Bridgton resident and Lake Region boys’ basketball coach was shooting with friend Nick Beauchesne in late May when they started counting how many 3-pointers Martin could make without missing.
Shot after shot went up. Shot after shot sailed through the net – an incredible 104 in a row, to be exact.
“It was ridiculous,” Beauchesne said. “That day was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I don’t think I could make 100 layups in a row, and I’m a basketball trainer.”
Beauchesne had an idea. And Martin went for it.
“He was like ‘You should go for some world records,’ ” Martin said. “Me being who I am, I was all for it. I love the challenge.”
Martin, a former high school standout and state champion who went on to carve out a professional basketball career, will be taking his shot at making a bit of history when he attempts to set a Guinness World Record for most 3-pointers made in an hour. He will try to set the mark Aug. 9 at 5 p.m. at Lake Region High School, looking to top the record of 1,077 set in June 2012 by Daniel Loriaux of Oregon.
Guinness has rules for the attempt. Martin will need two witnesses, and he’ll need to provide video that shows every shot being taken, every shot going in, and a scoreboard counting down the time and keeping track of his made shots. He’ll have six people on the court helping during his attempt, along with friends doing the announcing, operating the scoreboard and shooting video.
It’s not a far-fetched endeavor: Martin did a practice session Wednesday with that same setup and hit 1,056 3-pointers, which is just off the pace he’ll need to break the record.
“Probably most of the people I’ve talked to think I’m nuts for doing this,” he said. “(But) I’m loving this whole thing. I feel like this is me going back 10 years, back to my glory days. This is great.”
It’s a challenge that the Wayne native is suited for. He starred at Maranacook Community High School and won Mr. Maine Basketball as the state’s top senior while leading the Black Bears to two Class B championships, and then went on to play collegiately at the University of Maine and Keene State College. He was drafted into Canadian professional basketball from there, playing from 2013-15 with the Prince Edward Island Storm, the Brampton A’s and the Providence Sky Chiefs.
Hip surgery derailed his playing career in 2015, and Martin has played only sporadically since. The shooting touch that allowed him to become the country’s best free throw shooter two straight years in college, however, hasn’t left him. It’s a permanent fixture of his basketball form, a quick, consistent release honed by hours spent every day in gyms starting when he was 10 years old.
Martin started shooting on 8-foot high hoops, then 9, then the regulation 10 so he could perfect his form as his strength came along. At 15, he developed a stress fracture in his back. He was shooting too much.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone that shot more than me, and that was 15 years of my life,” he said. “It was every single day where I was pushing myself. I was obsessed. It was almost too much. It’s all I cared about, all I thought about.”
MORE GRUELING THAN ANTICIPATED
The injuries have forced him to wind down how much he plays. He plays just once a week in men’s league games – he scored 70 points in one game – but still feels the pounding in his hip for days afterward.
The shooting record, however, provided a less demanding way to return to the court. Or so he thought.
“This shooting thing … I’m hardly jumping as it is,” he said. “It’s low impact, compared to playing a basketball game.”
He’s found out, however, that even this record will be a grueling endeavor. Martin’s setup when he tries for the record will be geared for efficiency, so all he’ll have to do is stand at the top of the 3-point line without moving. He’ll have two friends at a time rebounding, they’ll pass to a third friend who will put the balls in a rack, and a fourth friend will pass him the ball.
It’s all about speed – making 1,080 shots, which would break the record by only three, would require 18 makes per minute, or one make every 3.3 seconds. Martin said his ideal pace is about 22 shots attempted per minute, meaning he’d have to make 82% of his shots over the course of the hour.
Mike MacDonald, passes a basketball to Ryan Martin on Tuesday at Lake Region High in Naples. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
It’s a demanding pace, and it’s hard on the body. When he did his first session last Wednesday, he didn’t warm up beforehand, and 25 minutes in he felt cramping in his left calf, then his right. Soon after came the burning in the quads. He figured his arms would be sore, but it was his legs that had him sprawled out in the Lake Region parking lot for an hour and a half afterward, with crew members using foam rollers to try to ease the pain.
“It was so much harder than I ever could have imagined,” he said. “It’s an absolute mental game. … It was brutal. It was me telling myself I could do this, I was in shape, I could get through this. I had to almost trick my body into saying I could do it.”
LEARNING SOME LESSONS
He’s learned his lesson. Martin said he’s making sure to rest, eat and stretch appropriately going into his next attempt. As for cramping, he’s got that covered as well.
“I’m going to have coconut water, I’m going to have liquid IV, I’m going to have avocado, I’m going to have anything I can,” he said. “Salt tablets, whatever I can to be the most hydrated going into that attempt.”
He won’t have to wonder if he has the shooting ability to beat the record. Since hitting 104 in a row, Martin also has hit 97, 87 and 72 straight. In just under seven minutes Tuesday, Martin took 100 shots and made 82 of them, at one point swishing 27 straight.
“I would have to imagine he’s one of the greatest shooters on earth, honestly, in terms of his ability to consistently shoot so accurately,” Beauchesne said. “The shots all look almost exactly the same, and they go through the hoop in the same spot, with the same arc.”
Lake Region assistant coach Mike MacDonald, who will rebound for Martin, said he’s seen him break out that shot in men’s league games and Lakers practices, and always been impressed.
“They say it takes 10,000 hours to be a master at what you do,” MacDonald said. “I think Ryan has exceeded those 10,000 hours.”
Martin’s looking forward to a good crowd when he goes for the record. Admission will be free, but he’s hoping fans will make donations for the Lake Region basketball team. His record attempt will be live on his YouTube channel.
“I’ve taken so many shots in my driveway where I’ve counted down and made a shot to win the NBA Finals,” Martin said. “You want to shoot with pressure, you want to shoot with a lot of people in the building. Maybe I’ll have the ball in my hands with 1,077 makes and 2 seconds left, and I have one chance left to get a world record. I hope that comes out of that.”
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