Ask Cael: Hi Cael on your penetration step video you don’t say much about a level change, some videos i have been watching lately teach a deep level change stagger and an almost dipping to lead knee.I was always taught more of a step like your to cover ground,could you possibly expand on the difference in philosophy here.

Story Published Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Question from Kevin: Hi Cael on your penetration step video you don\’t say much about a level change,some videos i have been watching lately teach a deep level change stagger and an almost dipping to lead knee.I was always taught more of a step like your to cover ground,could you possibly expand on the difference in philosophy here.Thanks Kevin

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The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  Instead of dropping and then shooting it’s faster to descend in a straight line to the leg.  Being in a good stance and moving your feet into the attack position without coming out of your stance is important.  Being able to move your opponent, or set them up for an attack and staying in an attack stance is a big advantage.

When you watch the technique video look how I shoot my lead leg up as far as I can and my knee doesn’t go down until it absolutely has to.  When you knee hits the ground, your penetration stops.  So I want to cover a lot of ground and get my lead leg knee as close to my opponent’s hips as possible.  Then my trail leg is sort of being dragged until my lead leg knee goes down and then I swing my back leg up for balance and so I can drive off it, and drive through my opponent’s hips for the takedown.  It’s common to see kids trying to rush bringing the back leg up and they come up off balance.

There are shots that you drop to your knees but it’s important to get your head up and to run on your knees to get your hips in to finish the shot.

Also if you note how I shoot my hands to the leg, that’s a trick to increase your speed.  When you shoot your hands to the leg you can pull yourself into the shot to be more effective.

If a kid is taught to shoot a penetration shot by first lowering their level, it is easy to defend.  As soon as your opponent sees or feels you trying to lower your level so you can shoot, they know your shot is coming.  Lowering you level indicates that a shot is coming.  An opponent with good defense will know the shot is coming and it will be tough to score.

I hope those quick thoughts help.

I do think a good penetration step is one of the first things a kid should learn.  It’s tough to correct once they get to college.

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