Playing THEIR Ace : Ace Hoffstein Is the Man Area Coaches Turn to for Help When Their Team Goes Through a Shooting Slump

When a sportswriter gave Jules David Hoffstein the nickname Ace in the late 1940s, it was meant to reflect Hoffstein’s slick play as a point guard for the University of Delaware.

The name stuck, and five decades later it still applies. Ace Hoffstein, 70, remains a crowd pleaser on the basketball court.

Coaches and players from around the country seek Hoffstein’s expertise as a shooting instructor. He has worked with several high school teams in the South Bay this season, helping players correct problems in their free-throw shooting and jump shooting with his step-by-step method.

“It’s not revolutionary, but he points out little things that the kids can correct themselves,” Peninsula girls’ Coach Wendell Yoshida said. “I’ve seen results.”

Hoffstein, one of the nation’s leading shot doctors, has made several house calls to Peninsula the past two seasons. This week he flew to Los Angeles from his home in Tucson to work with the Lady Panthers. The defending State Division I and mythical national champions will begin defense of their Southern Section Division I-AA title Saturday night in a playoff opener.

“Ace works with us at least six times a year, including summers,” Yoshida said. “He put in our zone defense and some of the things we do on offense.”

Mostly, though, Hoffstein works on poor shooting mechanics. His corrective method, which incorporates footwork, body position, grip, arm angle, sighting and shot release, is detailed in his book, “(H)oops . . . I Missed!”

“In the end, I make kids think they can shoot,” Hoffstein said. “That’s the whole thing.”

Hoffstein’s instructional sessions last about two hours. He generally charges $300 a day for college teams and $200 a day for high school teams. Individual instruction is $80 an hour in most cases.

“To me, it’s like stealing,” he said. “Who has the kind of job I have? I work my own schedule and I’m doing something I really like to do.”

Of course, if Hoffstein’s methods didn’t produce results, he wouldn’t be in demand.

Yoshida said Hoffstein has helped improve the free-throw shooting of most of Peninsula’s players. Senior forward Ashley Burt has made the biggest strides, going from 29% foul shooting as a junior to 59% this season.

Redondo girls’ Coach Stephen Brown said he noticed a marked improvement in several of his players’ foul shooting after Hoffstein worked with the Sea Hawks for two days during Christmas break.

“Three players in particular made tremendous improvement,” said Brown, whose team finished second behind Morningside in the Ocean League. “Their technique was so poor, they really needed something to help them.”

Brown said one player improved her free-throw shooting from 30% to 50% after working with Hoffstein.

“I’ve asked all my players to develop the system that Ace is teaching,” Brown said.

Before the season, Hoffstein worked with several players on the South Torrance boys’ team, which is 23-2 and won the Pioneer League championship with a 10-0 record.

“He worked with kids on all four levels,” South Coach LaMont Henry said. “Some of the older kids are set in their ways, but the younger kids learned quite a bit from him.

“He has a way of teaching kids certain shooting skills, and they’re simple. They’re things the kids can go home and do.”

Hoffstein has also worked with several individual players this season, including Harbor College guard Frank White and Santa Monica High sophomore Jamie Goodrich, daughter of former UCLA and Laker guard Gail Goodrich.

Three summers ago, Hoffstein helped New Jersey Net center Chris Dudley, the NBA’s worst free-throw shooter the two previous seasons, improve his foul shooting from 36% to 54% in 1990-91.

“He didn’t tell me anything earth-shattering,” Dudley told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1990. “I’m not doing anything different. I’m just taking my time and doing the same thing every time.”

The idea to offer shooting instruction came to Hoffstein during the 1989-90 season. Before USC’s game at Arizona, Trojan Coach George Raveling was quoted in a Tucson newspaper as saying that he would “invest” in someone who could teach his players how to shoot free throws. USC made only 65.7% of its foul shots that season, including a 13-for-30 effort against San Diego State.

Hoffstein saw the article and decided to answer Raveling’s want ad. Living less than a block from where the Trojans were staying, Hoffstein walked to the hotel and called Raveling from the lobby. They had met in the late 1960s when Hoffstein was the men’s basketball coach at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Raveling was an assistant at Villanova.

Hoffstein said Raveling invited him to Los Angeles, where he worked with USC’s players for 20 minutes a day for three days. The assignment earned him $500, on top of having his air fare and hotel accommodations paid for.

It turned out to be a good investment. USC finished the season making 36 of 50 free throws (72%) in two Pacific 10 Conference tournament games.

News of Hoffstein’s shooting method spread. Soon he was working with dozens of NCAA Division I schools, including Arizona and the Tennessee women’s team.

But most of Hoffstein’s college jobs have dried up because of an NCAA rule that prohibits Division I teams with four-person coaching staffs from using outside consultants. The rule was adopted after coaches complained when Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went to Louisiana State University two years ago to work with former Tiger center Shaquille O’Neal.

“The only thing I can do is teach the (coaching) staff or work with players who pay out of their own pocket,” Hoffstein said. “(The rule) has cost me at least 38 jobs in the last year.”

Unable to work with upper-level college teams, Hoffstein has concentrated more on high school and community college teams in the past year.

He has worked with the men’s and women’s teams at Santa Monica College. Avie Bridges, the Corsair women’s basketball coach and athletic director, met Hoffstein at a women’s basketball game three years ago.

“At the (community college) level, we are still teaching fundamentals to a great extent,” Bridges said. “I find (Hoffstein) to have a very simplified approach to shooting that is real easy for athletes to understand. He’s really improved our program, not only from the free-throw line, but in our jump shooting.”

Santa Monica point guard Aja Sanzone, a sophomore from New Orleans who did not play basketball in high school, leads the Western State South Conference in foul shooting. As of Tuesday, she had made 82% of her free throws.

“This young lady started with (Hoffstein’s) technique,” Bridges said.

The Santa Monica College men’s team also has benefited from Hoffstein’s instruction. After the Corsairs made only 12 of 37 in a 63-60 loss at Santa Barbara last month, Bridges suggested to Coach John McMullen that Hoffstein might be able to help.

“He worked with our guys for one day,” said McMullen, whose team leads the Western State South Conference. “It was very effective.”

McMullen said Hoffstein was of particular help to guard James Gray, the Corsairs’ leading scorer. The freshman from Westchester High, a good shooter, had struggled from the foul line in several games. But after a session with Hoffstein, Gray regained his free-throw touch.

The shot doctor had cured another patient.