i have a girl that continues to shoot at the top of her jump, which really makes her shot flat and with little range. i have talked with her and demonstrated shooting earlier in the jump, but cannot seem to get this across to her--do you have any suggestions?
Again, the first two things to establish are (1) does she know she does it [know experientially, not just from you telling her], and does she want to change it? If the answer to both questions is ìyes,î then learning can happen.
Ask her when in her shot she shoots? I like to give a percentage to how much Up Force (leg drive) Ask her if she is catching all of it, just some of it, or none of it. She could even be shooting on the way down and catching negative percent, but thatís usually for the really strong and big guys.
When she can accurately report that sheís shooting with 50% or 75% or 60% (or whatever) of the available leg energy, then ask her to ask her body to ìupî the percentage. You might even, without telling her, ask her what is the secret to catching a high percentage. She should be able to answer that it is simply shooting right away, shooting on the way up. Once she knows that, she should easily be able to figure out how to shoot earlier and her shots will start to soar, as will her percentage of makes.
If, as she starts to shoot earlier and get all that power, she starts to shoot everything long, then itís simply a matter of learning to vary the arch appropriately with each shot. You can play with that by having her shoot from one distance and vary the leg action all over the place and develop her ability to alter the arch to control distance.