▲█▬►defending Your Contact PointThe diagonal coil, whether open stanced or not, gives greater kinetic path way to snap back into the shot so you can put more on it during contact. Some hit with arm bar, some with double bend. At contact, the height of the incoming ball determines how far away you should time the shot. Lower balls are allowed into the middle of the body, way farther in than higher balls for several reasons:
1. Place your arm out front with the frame as if you are contacting the shot. Now drop it down as if you are about to hit a low ball. There is an arc formed, and the further out front the incoming height of the shot, the further out front your contact should be: If you want to attain the most potential. When the arm is barred whether in double bend bar or straight arm bar, your wrist is locked back so that it can't move back much, that is the point at which you can put the most into the shot kinetically. When the wrist is locked back it applies more solid contact due to the fact it can't move back as much as when it's floppy foward.
2. If you go out after a low ball too early, you will be on top of it and will tend to net it. If you go out after a high ball too late, you will be under the ball and tend to lift it out long. These are often wrist errors as well as distance out front errors in timing.
3. A medium height incoming shot will either go long or net depending on whether you are under or on top of the shot. Very often, the distance of that contact point out in front will determine that effect.
So there is a "gladiator" shaped curved shield in front of you, with its edge curving into you on lower shots. But there is more to the contact point than how far out the shot is hit. It's also where in the string bed, and at what angle the frame strikes. Most good players notch their main strings the most at the 3rd-7th cross down from the top, and that's where most contact occurs, due to the increased leverage and lower power out in front of the frame. The strings are shorter there, and there is less trampoline, and more length of frame, so you have more leverage/lever arm distance on the shot from wrist and more leveraged "control", due to the shorter length of string there, yet further out from wrist. Most top players also strike in the middle third, not the top/bottom thirds of that area, very precisely and don't shank/mis hit much. Most also close the frame off at approach, yet at contact, even though the frame feels closed, it's actually level or perpendicular to the ground. So look at the bed and see where you are notching mains the most. Notch depth/location does not lie.
Conscious thought at first will slow you down when changing things, so practice with intention that it will become automatic and unconscious.
Learn to unit turn very fast and "wait" very fast for that exact contact point, and the best defender, is the best attacker. The only difference between elite players and those who don't quite make it is their speed of unit turn, and their speed of uncoiling their core. The elite do it faster, "wait" faster, strike faster.
Defending this core speed, no matter what the speed of the incoming shot, will also make you invulnerable to being jammed by changes in rhythm. Learn to use fast feet and fast core no matter what, and that is where it starts: the foot work to position your self for the best "shielded" defense of contact. Fast feet no matter what, will put an end to those types of ue. Vision speed is also key. Seeing the ball come off the opponents frame and its spin/speed, angle and deciding how high it will be when it gets into contact zone is vision speed.
The leading hip opens up first, and the rest of the shot "lags" behind. Core speed is really leading hip opening speed.
1. Place your arm out front with the frame as if you are contacting the shot. Now drop it down as if you are about to hit a low ball. There is an arc formed, and the further out front the incoming height of the shot, the further out front your contact should be: If you want to attain the most potential. When the arm is barred whether in double bend bar or straight arm bar, your wrist is locked back so that it can't move back much, that is the point at which you can put the most into the shot kinetically. When the wrist is locked back it applies more solid contact due to the fact it can't move back as much as when it's floppy foward.
2. If you go out after a low ball too early, you will be on top of it and will tend to net it. If you go out after a high ball too late, you will be under the ball and tend to lift it out long. These are often wrist errors as well as distance out front errors in timing.
3. A medium height incoming shot will either go long or net depending on whether you are under or on top of the shot. Very often, the distance of that contact point out in front will determine that effect.
So there is a "gladiator" shaped curved shield in front of you, with its edge curving into you on lower shots. But there is more to the contact point than how far out the shot is hit. It's also where in the string bed, and at what angle the frame strikes. Most good players notch their main strings the most at the 3rd-7th cross down from the top, and that's where most contact occurs, due to the increased leverage and lower power out in front of the frame. The strings are shorter there, and there is less trampoline, and more length of frame, so you have more leverage/lever arm distance on the shot from wrist and more leveraged "control", due to the shorter length of string there, yet further out from wrist. Most top players also strike in the middle third, not the top/bottom thirds of that area, very precisely and don't shank/mis hit much. Most also close the frame off at approach, yet at contact, even though the frame feels closed, it's actually level or perpendicular to the ground. So look at the bed and see where you are notching mains the most. Notch depth/location does not lie.
Conscious thought at first will slow you down when changing things, so practice with intention that it will become automatic and unconscious.
Learn to unit turn very fast and "wait" very fast for that exact contact point, and the best defender, is the best attacker. The only difference between elite players and those who don't quite make it is their speed of unit turn, and their speed of uncoiling their core. The elite do it faster, "wait" faster, strike faster.
Defending this core speed, no matter what the speed of the incoming shot, will also make you invulnerable to being jammed by changes in rhythm. Learn to use fast feet and fast core no matter what, and that is where it starts: the foot work to position your self for the best "shielded" defense of contact. Fast feet no matter what, will put an end to those types of ue. Vision speed is also key. Seeing the ball come off the opponents frame and its spin/speed, angle and deciding how high it will be when it gets into contact zone is vision speed.
The leading hip opens up first, and the rest of the shot "lags" behind. Core speed is really leading hip opening speed.
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