By Boak Ferris, WPH Certified Coach and Sports-Psychologist
Have you ever tried to solve a match, and had the following command jolt through your brain! “Think! Darn it! Think!” But no thinking happens? Next, you hear, “C’mon! Think!” But all you can hear in your head is “You gotta think! How come I’m not thinking?” ‘I can hear this word ‘think.'”
It’s kind of like finding a key to a lock: how can you convert the subvocalized command ‘to think’ into proactive problem-solving?
One (1) way you can trigger competition-thinking is by selecting ONE smooth foot-driven biomechanic that works on any specific court you’re on. You might have to arrive to the venue early, as Brady does, and walk around the courts, throwing the ball, and watching it, and judging the speeds, the floor boards, the wall-humidity or -elasticity, as each competition-court differs. For your home court, for example, you may have learned to move your feet to hit the ball on the rise, since the floors and walls are kind of dead, and you’ve learned you may not have a better place to strike the ball, than near the bounce. Players tell me, for example, that at Los Cabs in Fountain Valley, they have to move their feet to where they can let the ball drop more, since the floors and walls and ceiling are lively, or they need to move their feet to where they can fly the ball if it arcs low enough; and then address the ball with more of an adjusted finish, maintaining the palm of the hand square to the front-wall, and the forearm parallel to the floor. If moving too far will take them out of position, they may need to adjust their feet so as to go to the ceiling, or hit a wrap, and then move their feet to return to center while the opponent hits.
Once the key turns the lock, and you can repeat court-specific-biomechanical feet-driven motions, you can relax more, maybe, and begin to mentally “stretch out.”
Stretching out means getting real thinking going (2). Make or enact a mandatory rule you must follow in every game: for example, you can go for the kill, or gamble on converting a pet scoring-shot, but only when serving, perhaps. Catriona Casey is an elite practitioner of this mentality. Similarly, Luis Cordova is a master of this thought-process, which must be a part of his dominance lately! You could add a second rule, to make the opponent run to hit one more shot from as far away from where the opponent is now as possible, when you hit it, when you’re receiving serve. When receiving serve, instead of “think, darn it!”, you can subvocalize, “Yeah! Go get this ball way over there! Great! Ya got it! OK! Go get this next one, way over there!” This mindset on defense is a dominator’s mindset. It was also Chapman’s mindset. And a mindset, when well-practiced, becomes automatic thinking! (By the way, if your scouting told you that your opponent moves great forward, you might want to hit defensive shots to force that opponent to back-up or back-pedal. Or, if your opponent doesn’t move so great forward, you can send the ball to any farthest corner to displace the opponent.)
Next, thinking (3) can mean selecting one programmed shot from each floor position you find yourself in, while always reminding yourself at the beginning of each rally: “Am I serving?!?” “Am I receiving serve?” No Free Points!!
So, to achieve real thinking, experiment with the following biomechanics, and please report to me what happens to your thought-processes! Let your feet teach your mind!
Whenever opponent X is in front of you, and you can see X, move your feet in such a way that you hit only a V-pass, caroming the ball off the part of wall X is closest to (or adjacent to). If you cannot see the opponent, but know that X is behind you, move your feet in such a way as to hit only a bounce-pass up the same side as the arm you’re hitting with. You need to make the ball bounce on the floor as close to the wall as you can, without allowing the ball to go to the back and around. But you must hit the floor first with the ball, even if it is farther from a wall than you would like. (You will need to drill this shot with your off-hand, as the natural tendency for all players is to pull or hit shots across to the opposite side of the court, allowing most opponents to predict and to cheat the return.) After you strike a same-side bounce-pass, always calmly move your feet to return to center and place one foot down on the dotted line, just as the opponent strikes the next shot. This gliding return-to-center is a mandatory part of every shot.
And last, but not least, if you are jammed for time, and/or do not know where the opponent is, you must move your feet in such a way as to somehow get the ball up to the ceiling, visualizing just the right speed, to leave no backwall setup. You can punch-push the ball directly to the ceiling, (follow-through your fist to your front bicep); or even push the ball, open-handed, up with over-spin high to the front wall, rising it up to the ceiling as it drifts to the back. This will kill its speed so it doesn’t become a back-wall setup. Or move your feet so you can loft an overhand up to the ceiling, if you can, cantilevering your elbow, forearm, and rolling it through your fingers. And next, make sure you move your feet to return to the restraining line, as part of every follow-through, as long as you do not obstruct your opponent’s path to the ball.
And, if you will, here’s an extra mental tip! Remember this. Whenever, and I mean whenever: whenever you miss an intended shot, at your level, you must remedy your feet. Why? Perhaps thinking, “I need to think” is a personal code for “I need to move my feet.”?
Boak Ferris Bio
Boak is a top-tier, certified WPH handball coach and published researcher in sports-psychology, diet, biomechanics, and human neurodevelopment. Originally recruited as a faculty mentor into CSULB’s TEAMWIN Project to help university athletes excel in sports and academics, he coached members of the university’s tennis, water-polo, baseball, basketball, softball, golf, and volleyball teams. In 1992, Boak joined David Chapman’s team as first, part of the entourage, and later, as a bona-fide coach. He traveled with David’s team until about the year 2000. Today, Boak has twelve handball clients, of all experience levels, ranging from 16 up to 70 years of age. Some of these are distance learners, and others are onsite at his local clubs. Boak welcomes questions and coaches free of charge.