In the previous post I used the strange styles of Dominic Hasek and Fred Fosbury to illustrate that there may be something interesting about how the ideas of "bad habits" and "styles" interact. And, I made, but neglected to defend the claim that bad habits, in some circumstances can constitute a "style" that actually creates an advantage.
Now it is time to defend that claim.
To start, let's think of a bad habit as some behavior, or more commonly when considering movement skills, some aspect of a behavior that is a deviation from the ideal version of a skill. But, who is to say what the ideal version of a skill is? To deal with that issue, let's say that it is a bad habit when this deviation limits the efficiency of that skill in producing the characteristics that we believe are desired for that skill.
In other words, the bad habit keeps the performer from reaching an optimal version of the skill which is a version that creates the best set of results for a given amount of effort put in. Some bad habits can be highly limiting. These keep the athlete from getting anywhere close high performance relative to competitors. Some are only a little bit limiting and don't make a huge difference.
This race car has the "bad habit" of also being a dump truck. Or, in a more normal way of describing it, it has a compromised design for either the race car task or the dump truck task. Movement skills with bad habits can be thought of sort of like this. They have a compromised design for their purpose.
When could being kept away from optimal performance on a skill be an advantage? This can happen when you are being watched by an opponent.
Think of a unique type of pitcher in baseball.
The most aggressive of arm-slot-manipulating baseball pitchers are those called "submariners". They tip their upper bodies over roughly parallel to the ground and release the ball not far off the ground.
In baseball pitching, there has been a lot of thought and study around creating a high velocity throw with great accuracy all without giving away to the batter what is coming. And, partially just from the design of the game, but also partially due to all this work on pitching technique, the batter has an immense challenge to make good contact with the ball. So, they try to find the ball as soon as possible after (or, actually, even before) the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.
For most pitcher's that ball leaves the pitcher's hand in roughly the same "arm slot" relative to the pitcher's body. But, some pitchers have different arm slots and some even vary the arm slot a bit from pitch to pitch. This makes the batter's visual challenge even more difficult and gives the pitcher an advantage.
Why then do most pitchers use roughly the same slot? Well, that arm slot works well with human biomechanics to give the best results for velocity and accuracy (and maybe reduction of injury risk).
Then, considering the cases of a sidearm or submarine pitcher (extreme examples of different arm slots) we have the following elements.
1. There is a certain way of pitching that gives any individual the best chance for excellence at key measurables such as accuracy and velocity.
2. Some folks deviate significantly from that normal way such that you could all their version a "style".
3. The plausible rationale for their style is that it makes it harder for the opponent to react to what they are doing.
This is exactly the situation where having a "bad habit" can be to a player's advantage. If the habit is bad enough then nothing I am getting at here can make sense. It just won't work against capable opponents. But, if it only hurts performance measurables a little bit (especially if the player can practice with that non-normal technique enough to get pretty good with it) and it doesn't match up with what an opponent is used to seeing, it can be a big advantage. Delaying opponent reaction times only slightly can be a huge gain in the highest levels of our major sports.
In baseball, nobody I am aware of considers sidearm or submarine styles to be bad habits, but according to the criteria I laid out above, they make a good example of types of pitches which fit the mold. However, in most cases, these sorts of deviations are only described as bad habits if they are not somewhat commonly chosen by athletes at the highest levels. With that said, they fit our pattern, it doesn't matter if they aren't labeled as bad habits.
In any case, I believe these types of effects can be seen in puckhandling where defenders are often thrown off by players' styles. In skating where defenders may read the feet to know where players are going, unique skating styles can create confusion.
But, I think the most obvious example in hockey comes from shooting. In this case, the shooter plays the role of the baseball pitcher and the goalie plays the role of the batter. The goalie sees the puck on the blade and tries to use cues about how it is coming off to understand where it will go. If your shooting style is a bit weird these cues can be misleading and a goalie can look confused.
Maybe the best examples in the modern game are Alexander Ovechkin, his extreme toe curve, and his aggressive pull snap (when he's not one-timing it from the left dot) and Connor Bedard who has taken the pull snap to an even more extreme level with his 90 degree (or more) change of direction of the puck during the shot release.
As indicated by the last post, goalies can fight back with unique styles of their own that affect how shooters see their scoring opportunities. This can keep shooters off balance. Hasek's weird style fits this mold even though a lot of it only came out during scrambling situations.
The upshot of all of this is that, yes, it is possible for a bad habit to constitute an advantageous style. This depends on defining a bad habit as anything that deviates from the biomechanically optimal form for a given technique or for the whole skill set of a sport or a role within a sport. Normally we try to fight those deviations to get to the most efficient technique we can. But, we should also appreciate when players do deviate and make it work. Most bad habits in movement skills are not advisable, but some can be a player's signature style and can propel them further in the game then they may otherwise get!
The movie Top Gun is one that, in my opinion, provides a good example of both a "technical wizard" and a "genius" type who has his own style and gains an advantage of being hard to read and hard to predict. Iceman is said to never make a mistake. Maverick's methods, on the other hand, don't match up perfectly with fighter theory, but he's very effective in combat because his differences from that theory give him an advantage.