realskiers

Jim,

I played baseball, basketball, and soccer as a kid, and always heard the same as well, though did hear periodic corrections for kids who got too wide.  It wasn't until I got into full-contact martial arts that I learned about the usefulness of narrower stances and uneven weight distribution, and then later dancing that I learned about the mechanics behind it.  Fascinating stuff.  Maybe someday if I have kids I'll try coaching a team or two using my ideas on this and see what happens.



Todd,

The fingers wouldn't be my choice, but at least they can be used without much parallax.  Ever tried to look at the width of your own shoulders and then match your feet to them?  I used to help out with coaching kids' soccer, and have seen plenty of them halfway into a straddle, trying to line up their feet behind their shoulders from the perspective of their line of sight.