says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Yeah, doing shadow stroke/footwork drills is a way of working on some of this stuff when you don't have someone highly skilled, like a coach, to feed you these drills. Any, or really, all of the drills in this video would be good to practice. It is worth starting with the one step.
There are two things that I feel are left out in this video that you should practice. They are both stepping stones to make it so you are able to do the Falkenberg which is the second drill. This video shows the one step with FH and BH back and forth. It is good to practice that.
But you should also practice:
1) A 2 point drill: it would be a one step with the FH from two different spots. For example, one from the middle and one from near the FH end line. The two spots could be 1.5 - 2 feet apart. (a little less than half a meter is a good distance). So it would be FH, FH, FH, FH over and over and you are imagining two spots rather than one.
2) BH - FH imagining the ball is going to the same spot. This could be called a step around. So, from FH to BH it would be the first step in the Falkenberg. Except you would also be learning to go from FH back to BH on the same spot.
These are good footage of several footwork drills worth practicing but you would be practicing drills without the ball.
If you can practice in front of a mirror, it is worth it because it helps you self correct. If you practice these as shadow drills, it is not the same as the real thing. But it helps your body know the coordination of the drill.
Part of why is, the lower body and the upper body are doing very different coordination movements and they counter each other. So, in some sense they are opposites. Like how, when you walk, if you are not thinking, when your left foot goes forward your right arm will swing forward and your upper body will turn slightly counter to the leg movement. It is just a more complicated version of that kind of counterbalancing.
Here is me doing the first drill I described that is not shown in the Killerspin video. Towards the end I start doing a one step switching FH - BH instead.
Just practice. No judgements. Have fun.
There are two things that I feel are left out in this video that you should practice. They are both stepping stones to make it so you are able to do the Falkenberg which is the second drill. This video shows the one step with FH and BH back and forth. It is good to practice that.
But you should also practice:
1) A 2 point drill: it would be a one step with the FH from two different spots. For example, one from the middle and one from near the FH end line. The two spots could be 1.5 - 2 feet apart. (a little less than half a meter is a good distance). So it would be FH, FH, FH, FH over and over and you are imagining two spots rather than one.
2) BH - FH imagining the ball is going to the same spot. This could be called a step around. So, from FH to BH it would be the first step in the Falkenberg. Except you would also be learning to go from FH back to BH on the same spot.
These are good footage of several footwork drills worth practicing but you would be practicing drills without the ball.
If you can practice in front of a mirror, it is worth it because it helps you self correct. If you practice these as shadow drills, it is not the same as the real thing. But it helps your body know the coordination of the drill.
Part of why is, the lower body and the upper body are doing very different coordination movements and they counter each other. So, in some sense they are opposites. Like how, when you walk, if you are not thinking, when your left foot goes forward your right arm will swing forward and your upper body will turn slightly counter to the leg movement. It is just a more complicated version of that kind of counterbalancing.
Here is me doing the first drill I described that is not shown in the Killerspin video. Towards the end I start doing a one step switching FH - BH instead.
Just practice. No judgements. Have fun.
