Washington State Interpretation Mtg.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by zebraman

P.S. to Rainmaker. Coaches are constantly telling their players to get lower and wider. A defender that has their feet shoulder width apart is pretty much standing straight up and is going to get beat every time.

He won't get beat, if he's moving his feet (rhyme unintentional!). I certainly can't see that going wider when standing straight up helps much. It seems to me that if someone is standing straight up and then keeps spreading the legs wider and wider, it's going to get harder and harder to move. It's the bending of the legs that gives the lower, more effective, more mobile stance, not the spreading of the legs. Coaches yell at their kids, "Sit down!" not "Spread out!"

But then, too, perhaps we're defining shoulder width differently. I'm 6 feet tall with a "solid" build. When I stand as wide as I think legal, I've got about 2 or 2-1/2 feet of space between my feet, maybe 3, if I'm moving. Going wider than that wouldn't even be useful, I wouldn't think, except to trip or illegally impede the dribbler.