THOUGHTS FROM THE SWING CLINIC
interosseus muscle). If the muscle is tense and tight then the player is gripping incorrectly. JUMP SHOT TECHNIQUE The technique which I coach for jump shots, is to get the right body shape, take a big swing, and hit the ball with a forward tilting mallet. This is a different mental concept from the one which is usually coached, which is to hit down on the ball. I find that this latter method tends to get players into a constricted body position, with an overly steep swing, and this is not conducive to executing big jump shots. The correct body position is the standard dynamic sports posture, with slightly bent knees and ankles, and whatever flexion of the hips is needed for the swing you want to take. Your lower back is set with a slight arch forwards (avoid slumping). Your body weight should never be over the heels, and it helps to have it slightly forward of normal. At address, the mallet is tilted forwards, and therefore you have to stand closer to the ball so that your upper arms hang down vertically from the shoulders. You can hold the mallet shaft in your normal place, or maybe an inch or two lower. There’s no need to go halfway down the shaft! From this position you take a big backswing, drop the mallet into the shot, and swing through with good rhythm. It’s really important to maintain the tilt angle of the mallet through the strike, so the wrists have to be firm. It’s therefore best to set your grip strength (using the correct fingers) during setup, and not to change this through the entire stroke. When starting out avoid using a lot of muscle in the swing, just concentrate on good rhythm and timing. This swing is as flat at the bottom as a normal swing, so you need good posture so that you can extend through the shot (with a tilted mallet!). Most players can execute a 2-3 yard jump shot easily after trying this a few times. HOW TO PRACTISE THE JUMP SHOT Obviously, being taught this technique doesn’t immediately make you great at jump shots, so you need some sort of practice routine. I advise players to first learn how to jump over something set at three yards, such as a ball carrier tube, or a boundary tube. The main emphasis of this practice is to develop a jump stroke which always jumps – this sounds really obvious but what you’re trying to do is to make the jumping as automatic as possible, so that you no longer have to think about it. Once you’ve got an automatic jump stroke, then you should learn to point it with more precision; I recommend a mixture of shooting at distant targets, as well as jumping over balls in hoops.
RAOUF ALLIM Grade 3 AC/grade 3 GC coach
JUMP SHOTS I recently had the pleasure of doing a day’s coaching with the Golf Croquet International Development Squad. For those who don’t know this is a coaching programme run by the inestimable Lionel Tibble, aimed at helping promising players improve their game to a high standard. My role on the day was to help players with their jump shots, particularly with respect to doing 7 yard jump shots. I think coaching jump shots is as much fun as a coach can have, so this was right up my street. I usually recommend using the Solomon grip for jump shots, as it makes it easy to handle the wrists correctly. For some of the players this was a new grip, and I noticed a grip fault which some of them automatically adopted, which was gripping with the wrong fingers. HURTY HANDS If you grip with the wrong fingers you can develop pain in your hands, especially at the end of a day’s play. It’s not uncommon for players to consult me about a pain at the base of the thumb, or in the space between the thumb and the index finger, in the top hand of a standard grip, or either hand of a Solomon grip. This can be first dorsal interosseous pain (yes, you may have to Google this) and it’s caused by overusing a pinching action between thumb and index finger. If you keep doing it eventually you may get myofascial trigger points in the muscle, and that is literally a real pain. The way to avoid this is to grip with the correct fingers. As an exercise, hold your hands up in front of you, palms towards you, and make a fist. Note the direction in which the fingers fold. The ring finger is the one that points down the middle of the forearm, and the index finger points outside the forearm line. What this means is that you should be gripping the mallet shaft with the ring finger, assisted by the middle finger, and the thumb and index finger should be relatively relaxed. If you’re the coach, and someone consults you about this type of pain you can get the player to grip the mallet shaft firmly, and with their permission you can touch the muscle between the thumb and index finger (the first
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