Another stance question

[Looter]

I've started to adopt a square on stance but I've got a problem with it....my head goes totally off the line of shot as I'm placing my right leg (I'm left handed) down. In my old stance I had no such problem. Does anyone else have the same problem or know the best way to rectify it? Maybe I just need to get into stance before making sure my head is going straight down onto the line of shot? It's starting to drive me a bit crazy, it feels like I'm missing a lot of aiming as I'm a lot lower down before my head can go straight down onto the shot.

Thanks for any replies!

[howardlax]

Hi Looter,

Me same here. However, I got same problem when I tried to adopt wider box stance and I felt my aiming has lost during the drop down to address position(I am rightie BTW).
Basically, it is a problem of how to DROP STRAIGHT DOWN. In my opinion, no matter you will try to do square or boxer, fundamentally the alignment/LOA should NOT be pulled away by your assistance leg(not cueing leg, which is the right leg in your case) at your weight distribution process, either dropping assistance hips or roll over your body weight by somehow.
I am with you on this problem all the time. When things went wrong, I found most of time it starts with this alignment issue due to that assistance leg positioning, either I leaned forward too much or cueing hips being dragged off, hence totally off the line.
To be honest, I haven't found good solution for this. But some feeling I have does help a little bit sometimes:
1. I try to lock my cueing hip(left hip in your case) WHILE dropping your assistance hip(right hip) once down to address position. NO PULL AWAY of your cueing hip by dropping your assistance hip.
2. You can do whatever to your upper body, including stretch whole arm as further as you can, but keep lower body(both hips) as it is once both feel is on the ground. The feeling I got is once assistance left leg on the ground(I start with my cueing leg, which is right), this left leg stops me from going forward by momentum and DROP STRAIGHT DOWN. Here , you have to feel the cueing hip sticks out and keep that way when you assistance hip is dropping.

I am still experimenting a lot of way to drop straight down. Really it is THE most important part for alignment IMO.

[Looter]

Hi Looter,

Me same here. However, I got same problem when I tried to adopt wider box stance and I felt my aiming has lost during the drop down to address position(I am rightie BTW).
Basically, it is a problem of how to DROP STRAIGHT DOWN. In my opinion, no matter you will try to do square or boxer, fundamentally the alignment/LOA should NOT be pulled away by your assistance leg(not cueing leg, which is the right leg in your case) at your weight distribution process, either dropping assistance hips or roll over your body weight by somehow.
I am with you on this problem all the time. When things went wrong, I found most of time it starts with this alignment issue due to that assistance leg positioning, either I leaned forward too much or cueing hips being dragged off, hence totally off the line.
To be honest, I haven't found good solution for this. But some feeling I have does help a little bit sometimes:
1. I try to lock my cueing hip(left hip in your case) WHILE dropping your assistance hip(right hip) once down to address position. NO PULL AWAY of your cueing hip by dropping your assistance hip.
2. You can do whatever to your upper body, including stretch whole arm as further as you can, but keep lower body(both hips) as it is once both feel is on the ground. The feeling I got is once assistance left leg on the ground(I start with my cueing leg, which is right), this left leg stops me from going forward by momentum and DROP STRAIGHT DOWN. Here , you have to feel the cueing hip sticks out and keep that way when you assistance hip is dropping.

I am still experimenting a lot of way to drop straight down. Really it is THE most important part for alignment IMO.

That's good advice, thanks Howard, I will certainly give it a try. I'm surprised it's not a common problem. In my old stance I had no problem at all maintaining LOA but I lacked stability which is why I'm trying this square on stance.

[howardlax]

That's good advice, thanks Howard, I will certainly give it a try. I'm surprised it's not a common problem. In my old stance I had no problem at all maintaining LOA but I lacked stability which is why I'm trying this square on stance.

No problem Looter. Some good feelings come and go all the time. But I always think good consistence needs great stability, good stability always comes from legs which are our biggest limbs and base. And hip/leg decides my aim direction in most case. Keeping them comfortably locked only do stance good. So in a bad day, if you can't feel your leg and its firm feeling rooting into the ground, probably you would find struggle to string 4 balls in a row...