Might be off on another tangent, but I believe her landing kills some of the intended energy transfer that a landing from a leg-drive should. I see her landing as overly dampening.
Doug, I’m not sure I follow. Are you meaning she’s not getting an explosive leg drive?
The other thing Liz is working on is keeping the front foot lower to the ground by not "reaching" out with her toes (not sure if that makes sense).
Explosive leg-drive is one thing (I see her as having a great thrust action in her right leg). An overly soft, possibly prolonged, landing with the foot is something different. I believe her tip-toeing down to landing somewhat compromizes/dampens the purpose of her explosive leg-drive. Java has, in the past, discussed the "mid-foot" strike at landing as being optimal. It's been a pet-peeve of mine ever since. The mid-foot strike would do away with most, if not all, of the dampenind effect I see in her current toe-first landing.
A mid-foot strike later than her tip-toe landing would be more abrupt, thus would transfer more of the ground-force energy that's there for the taking as a result of her explosive leg-drive.
Lizzy has always struggled with timing. Mainly front side timing. Meaning, where the landing foot is in relationship to the ball arm.
Leg/circle timing can be boiled down to enhancing front side resistance. IOW, the rate at which one can change direction. For this reason, there is no magic time (despite Ken's obsession with 10:55 pst ).
If we want to increase our speed, we need a way to accelerate the ball forward. FSR accomplishes this WITHOUT the need of trying to juice the ball with our arm, or with unnecessary/misdirected tension in the body. We need one moment where we allow for TRANSFER of energy... and 99.9% of young athletes are instead using release as an opportunity to CREATE.
To transfer EFFICIENTLY... our joints (stride ankle, stride knee, stride hip, spine crossover, throwing shoulder) need to be stacked against the force into the ground. In addition, the ball needs to be slightly beyond this diagonal line of stacked joints.
From there... we need to then have the ability to stabilize and resist. If the posture is good, the alignment of the joints do the Lion's share of the work (compressive) in stability... meaning that we are less likely to activate muscles (create energy) at a time of transfer.
Stability occurs from the ground up... ankle, knee, hip, spine, shoulder)... and as each area stabilizes, it comes to an inactive appearance... as the energy is sucked out of the preceding joint and passed into the next.
Total body stability is most efficient when it occurs JUST before brush contact. If this is the case, the stability allows for well-timed internal rotation... or the series of tightening rotations that occurs when we release the ball efficiently. Without stability, the angular corner that I/R creates is loosened... and less efficient.
So... as Ben suggests, it's been observed that if the athletes stride foot starts to descend back towards the ground (it first goes up and outward) no later than when the athlete reaches 3:00... this checkpoint allows the athlete plenty of time to make all of the above to happen. Otherwise, they run out of time, and lose energy transfer (speed) into the ball.
I added all these points because I know plenty of young ladies with decent frontside timing, but poor FSR. It's a chain of sequences... not just one. And Lizzy could have better FSR, too
Lastly, the Rate of Force Development when pushing from the rubber is a giant failure in young athletes these days. As noted in the DM thread, the rate at which the drive knee extends is most often MUCH SLOWER than the rate at which the stride leg comes out... making for very INEFFICIENT use of the lower half. Watch a single-leg bound... and note that the pushing knee straightens AS the striding knee flexes. This is Efficient... and what allows for one to disconnect from the rubber at 3, too. Angela Tinscher was one of the best I've watched with lower body organization, firing rate, and rate of FSR. Lizzy has improved here the most, Ben.
On the road right now, I'll toss some gifs up when I get home.