Star Athletes and Their Signature Moves

Every great athlete, no matter how well-rounded they are, has a go-to move or signature move that they rely on to dominant their sport. Before Kobe could make his pantented "mamba face", he has to hit his undefendable, signature, fadeaway jump shot. If a defensive player tried to lunges forward to block the fadeaway, Kobe could just pump fake and pivot towards the bucket as the helpless defensive player flies by to give Kobe the easy bucket. Sometimes watching star athletes play could be mezmorizing, the array of moves they have could seem sublime, but with almost every great athlete they have one or two moves that they have absolutely perfected that they can always go to when they need it. With these signature moves, athletes develop counter moves in case defenders overplay their signature moves.

The assingment must be done on a word document and E-mailed to me at Tednguyen07@gmail.com

Pick a star player from any sport, identify their signature move and talk about how it is used in a game, what kind of counter-moves the athlete uses when opponents over play it, and the technique required to make the move work.

1. Pick a player.

2. Study him/her using highlights or even full games from youtube or any streaming website.

3. Find their signature move.

4. Describe the move, talk about the technique used to make the move work, study how that player uses that move in a game, identify counters that that player may use vs. a defender that may overplay that move.

5. List out information like so:

Athlete: 

Sport: 

Signature Move: 

Counter Moves: 

Media:

Description: <-- Write 2-3 paragraphs using the information in step 4

First, pick an athelte, preferbly from a major sport like soccer, football, baseball, or soccer. Study their moves using streaming websites like youtube. After watching for a while, you should pick up on what their signature move is and their highlights should have plenty of examples for you to study. You can even research their moves further on google.

Heres an example:

Athlete: Kobe Bryant

Sport: Basketball

Signature Move: Fadeaway Jumper

Counter Moves: Pump fake and pivot, dribble hesistation, back to the basket shoulder fake

Media:

Youtube video in which Kobe talks about fadeaway and counter moves:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H6z5OZ6jAM]

Fadeaway highlight tape:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV_JpwFp9jA]

Kobe talking about how he used video of a cheetah to perfect his fadeaway:

http://www.lakersnation.com/kobe-bryant-perfected-fadeaway-jumper-watch…

Description: Kobe Bryant's signature move has always been the fadeaway jumper in which he jumps away from the bucket or fades away from the bucket to create space between him and the defender, so that he could have room for an accurate shot. He does this in several ways. Mainly, he takes one or two dribble towards the bucket and plants his inside foot to seperate. By going hard to the bucket the defender is forced to chase him towards the bucket. Once he plants, the defenders momentum is going to make it difficult for him to recover towards kobe to challenge his shot, which makes it very difficult to defend. In the article listed above, Kobe even talks about how he was inspired to keep his legs at a certain position during his jump by watching a cheetah use his tail for balance on TV.

If a defender over plays this shot by lunging towards Kobe when he plants his inside foot, Kobe can pump fake (fake shot) and then pivot towards the bucket as the defender flies by him. Also, he can dribble fast, slow his dribble to act like he's going to fadeaway and then speed up his dribble towards the bucket again. He also uses his fadeaway from a post position (back towards teh bucket) when he does this he can give a shoulder fake like he's going to fade away one way and spin to the other. These moves are all predicated on his fadeaway and the defender's fear of it.

I hope that through this assignment you learn a key component to being successful in athletics and that is to find out what you can do well and enhance it by finding a signature move that fits your game and perfecting it. Often times, there seems to be so much to focus on improving in in athletics that it could be overwhelming, but if you focus on getting better at one component, you can always find a nice role for yourself in whatever sport you play.

Also, you can see that if you develop a strategic system, you can potentially be unstoppable. Develop a signature move and when opponents overcompensate to stop that move, you have to have counter strategies that well fustrate them!

Here are some other examples of athletes and other resources you can use to research:

List of great soccer players and their signature moves:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/998004-15-best-signature-moves-in-fo…

Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson

Move: Backshoulder Fade

Link: http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11735230/how-green-bay-packe…

Michelle Kwan (American Figure Skater)

Move: Spiral

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Kwan

Images were all found on Google Images and the links to their respective sources are below:

Kobe Images in Introduction:

http://www.gopixpic.com/640/kobe-bryant-with-the-corner-fadeaway/http:%…

http://sports.163.com/photoview/0AI90005/43390_24.html

Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson Image in Conclusion:

http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Aaron+Rodgers/Jordy+Nelson/Super+Bowl+XLV/…

Michelle Kwan Image in Conclusion:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/30962316162294453/

California State Standards for Physical Education that is being covered:

1.5  Explain the use of the principles of biomechanics (leverage, force, inertia, rotary motion, opposition, and buoyancy); apply the principles to achieve advanced performance in aquatic, rhythms/dance, and individual and dual activities; and evaluate the performance based on the use of the principles