Open Stance = Less Power?
I was wrong about something. Remember, when I recommended using an open stance for accuracy alignment and power? Well, I feel like I was accurate about it’s benefit towards acccuracy alignment, but I feel like I was definitely wrong (and misinformed) about it increasing power and range in shooting! Why? Well, I’ll let you read an email that I sent, as a reply, to one of my consistent followers. He brought to my attention, what I’ve learned very recently that will help you learn how you might be powering your shots.
PS: Name of receiver in email is blanked, for privacy reasons.
Hey XYZ,.Thanks for the update!.In regards to stance, what I’ve found out now is that opening more doesn’t actually give power, as funny as that may sound (Please try to read the entire post, as it is long but super important!)..In fact, shooting in an inverted stance (shooting shoulder behind opposite foot) gives more power because it allow your body to turn and twist during the release. It’s kind of like how a baseball pitcher would throw and TWIST the body to give more power. Anyways, I just recently noticed this with my own shooting. I was shooting in this inverted stance and I began twisting and torquing my body to supply most of my power that way. As you can imagine, this really made my shot less accurate. As I began to force myself to learn to open my body for every shot, I notice that I began losing power. My shots were shorter and flatter..That’s when I realized that that power I got from twisting and turning, was gone, and that I needed to FIND AND SUPPLY my body with power elsewhere. Hopefully I’m not confusing you too much, XYZ, but this was an incredible discovery that can change you and everybody else into better shooters. I hope you are finding my honesty compelling, as I know most coaches would not admit their downfalls. My current downfall was that I was shooting in such a detrimental stance!.Tom Nordland was right and wrong on this topic, XYZ. He mentioned that opening up was ideal for accuracy. I agree, because that way, you can align the ball with the eye and basket, making it simple. HOWEVER, he mentioned that opening up would also supply more power, “like a boxer would open up for a jab”. This stuck with me for awhile. So, I assumed he was right. However, if you can imagine, when a boxer jabs with his forward fist, he gets less force and power with it. When he jabs with his back hand, he gets more force and power. Why? Because the activation of the boxer’s core (int. and ext. obliques and rectus abdominus) is engaged and supplies greater power. If what Nordland said was right, then jabbing with the forward fist would be more powerful. But, with your imagination and intuition, that’s obviously not the case!.Anyways, my newly learned open stance gave me LESS power, not more. As I began to airball my shots with this stance, I notice that I eventually began to utilize my leg drive for my main source of power. As you know, I use a pushing release mostly, so that doesn’t supply enough power. And the open stance, again, doens’t supply any power. So, my body began to utilize power from my LEGS. If it hadn’t, I would continue to airball and miss short again..Hopefully, you found this informative and useful, XYZ. Feel free to shoot me another email if you like..PS. Don’t make it out to be that the open stance was detrimental. It’s beneficial, in fact! Constant alignment is supplied by the open stance. It’s just that you will learn that you must find power elsewhere and not in the stance, if you want accurate and consistent shooting..Michael
