What really drew me to read the whole article was part of #4, "...get as low as my 6'9 frame will allow...." Too often, Carroll and nearly all of our opponents are lazy "loading" for the block.
This past season in August, we actually had a low stool that one of our middles had to touch with her rear end before jumping in our "bunny hop" blocking technique while we were in ISU movement drills. She stands stiff legged with hardly any flex in her knees and hips high in ready position, which is violation of the very first suggestion. There is nothing athletic in her stance. Then. then she compounds the problem as she develops little additional load prior to hopping (I refuse to call what she does jumping). The stool was of little help as that same player repeated failed to load missing the opportunity to score easy kills on a number of occasions this season, culminating in failing to finish off a key point against Knox.
Here is a real life example of what we are talking about. Get a retractable ball point pen. Take the top off. Push down ever so lightly on the top of the ink cartridge, which is inside the bottom of the ink pen. Do not push so hard that any of the tip of the pen is seen at the bottom of the tube. Remove your finger. The cartridge I have in front of me jumps out of the bottom of the pen by a number of inches. That is most of the girls I see blocking.
Take the same pen and push down harder on the ink cartridge so not only the tip but most of the end of the cartridge is exposed. You are "loading the spring". Remove your finger. The peninsula in our kitchen is three feet tall. The ink cartridge just hit the ceiling.
You know who does a good job of loading? P. Jones. She has to in order to play the front court as well as she does at her height. M. Moore was better than average. Combine dropping of her hips a little bit creating some load with great anticipation and it is no surprise she is our school record holder for total blocks in a season. An outside hitter from Rochester who is a sophomore beach player at Grand Canyon State in Arizona was another kid who would load. Notice, she was recruited to play beach where a player has to work hard to load in order to develop lift in the sand.
This is another reason we swing block to the outside. Too many girls (and to be fair - boys) are too lazy to load and jump. The footwork in the swing block forces the blocker to drop their hips (loading) along with the horizontal momentum that is built and can be applied to the jump.
The actual story is behind the read more break.