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JOIN NOWWhen is it a good idea to step in to shoot a goal?
My year 6 girls are experimenting with stepping in to shoot a goal. I'm finding this to be a disadvantage as they are unbalanced on one foot and therefore inaccurate. The defender is not required to step back, keeping 3 feet from the grounded foot so the shot is put up into the defenders hand. I am a centre court player so I'm not sure what advice to give.
Jodie MartinCoach, Australia
ANSWERS
Janet Coach, Australia
Hi Jodie. My advice would be ask your players to stop stepping in asap with punishment threatened for repeat offending i.e. taken out of goals or benched for a quarter. Try to get your shooters to understand that stepping in towards a defender is placing them at a disadvantage as the primary goal of the step to shoot is to gain distance from the hand over the ball. Some inexperienced players have trouble landing on two feet or recovering to a two footed balanced position from a one, two land and as their weight is generally over the front foot they may lift the back grounded foot for balance rather than pulling weight and front foot back to the grounded foot. It would be a good idea to encourage correct shooting technique (covered elsewhere in Sportplan discussions) from a two footed balanced position and explain that this is the starting point to master before moving on to step ins/outs/sideways etc. If your shooters are already skilled in two feet shots you could practice shots from one foot to build up to step ins etc. and show them how to use them to get distance from hands over.
