Back Foot AlignmentPart 4

 By Rich Kranicki

Your goal for consistent execution should really begin with consistent thinking.  Therefore, you should train your body to be consistent by thinking consistently.  Until your body can naturally align properly over the aim line every single time without any conscious thought, you will have to think of where your Back Foot Starting Point is when you begin your aiming process.  Whenever you can, take the extra second or two to make sure that you are placing your feet the same way each time that you begin.  Are they both starting straight?  Are both of your feet slightly angling to the side a little bit, or is just o­ne foot straight? Beginning your aiming process in a comfortable alignment can help speed you o­n your way to forming those new desirable habits.   For the sake of curiosity, my suggestion to the intermediate and more advanced players is to try some slightly different Back Foot Starting Positions.  Maybe you can discover a slightly more comfortable alignment.  Take your time and see if you are descending into your shooting position as comfortable as you can.  Who knows?  Maybe you will surprise yourself after years of playing and experience a slight improvement.  A slight improvement can contribute to a more comfortable consistent game. The following photo shows me starting with my back foot’s top heel area directly over the aim line.  Normally this is a little bit too much to the right for my back foot for me to feel comfortable.  I usually begin with the ball of my foot, which would be about 3 inches more to the left.  Remember that I am trying to demonstrate the effect that just the slightest variance of the back foot’s initial placement will have o­n the shooter’s descent into their final shooting position, as well as their Facial Guide Points over the aim line.  Please look at the photo. 

  In the second initial Back Foot column of this series, I illustrated that having my back foot’s arch as my initial footing would comfortably bring my left nose edge as my Facial Guide Point.  Look at the following photograph to see where my Facial Guide Point will be with this particular initial footing.    In the above photo, my left nose edge is directly over the aim line.  I usually prefer to have the left edge of my nose directly over the aim line.  Therefore, I have just demonstrated that by starting about 3 three inches further back o­n my initial back foot alignment, results in a shift of about ½-inch further away from my usual left nose edge Facial Guide Point.   Did you observe that I did not shift my Facial Guide Point the same 3 inches as my back foot’s 3-inch starting shift?  The reason has to do with my particular physique and my body’s particular tendency to descend and pivot while I find the final adjustments over the aim line.  The next column will conclude this particular series of initial Back Foot Alignment examples.

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