Thursday, February 09, 2006
It is not hard to change your throwing motion.
And now, I begin my deep thoughts about ultimate. I have a few different thoughts about throwing, so this topic seems like a good place to start.
Like the title says, it is not hard to change your throwing motion. Seriously. It's not. People get so hung up about this. If you don't like something about your throws, change it. Think about the change during some time off, implement it in practices and league play, and before long it will be instinctive.
I had utterly terrible mechanics on my forehand for a long time. A long time. I toyed a lot with it my first two years playing, but then I sort of let it be for a while. I made an effort to change my fourth year playing, but didn't stick with it (mistake*). It wasn’t until my seventh year that I finally decided to break the motion down completely and build it again. Within a few months I had a better forehand than I ever had before.
Just this summer, I made the decision to re-work the way I gripped and released the disc on both my backhand and my forehand. I felt I was getting lazy with my backhand grip, letting the fingertips slip to the middle of the disc too often, so I made the commitment to throw all my throws except short high-releases with a pure power grip, and on my forehand side, I had switched to a power grip a while before, but I rotated my grip so that the pads of my fingers were more forward, so that I could use a finger snap to add spin on the release. I immediately lost a lot of control on both throws, but within a few months, I got it back, along with more power.
At the most fundamental physiological/mechanical level, the throwing motion is not all that complicated. (Compared to, for example, a golf shot, or even writing in cursive.) What really makes throwing difficult is decisions, timing, and precision in a fast-paced game. But these things are not as tied to your mechanics as you might think. Once you are comfortable with a new motion, your brain will make the adjustments to throw it at the right times without too much difficulty. It’s just a matter of a few weeks of practice.
* of course, part of the reason I gave up fixing my forehand in my fourth year was that I didn't really understand HOW a good forehand is produced. But once you know, you can change.
Like the title says, it is not hard to change your throwing motion. Seriously. It's not. People get so hung up about this. If you don't like something about your throws, change it. Think about the change during some time off, implement it in practices and league play, and before long it will be instinctive.
I had utterly terrible mechanics on my forehand for a long time. A long time. I toyed a lot with it my first two years playing, but then I sort of let it be for a while. I made an effort to change my fourth year playing, but didn't stick with it (mistake*). It wasn’t until my seventh year that I finally decided to break the motion down completely and build it again. Within a few months I had a better forehand than I ever had before.
Just this summer, I made the decision to re-work the way I gripped and released the disc on both my backhand and my forehand. I felt I was getting lazy with my backhand grip, letting the fingertips slip to the middle of the disc too often, so I made the commitment to throw all my throws except short high-releases with a pure power grip, and on my forehand side, I had switched to a power grip a while before, but I rotated my grip so that the pads of my fingers were more forward, so that I could use a finger snap to add spin on the release. I immediately lost a lot of control on both throws, but within a few months, I got it back, along with more power.
At the most fundamental physiological/mechanical level, the throwing motion is not all that complicated. (Compared to, for example, a golf shot, or even writing in cursive.) What really makes throwing difficult is decisions, timing, and precision in a fast-paced game. But these things are not as tied to your mechanics as you might think. Once you are comfortable with a new motion, your brain will make the adjustments to throw it at the right times without too much difficulty. It’s just a matter of a few weeks of practice.
* of course, part of the reason I gave up fixing my forehand in my fourth year was that I didn't really understand HOW a good forehand is produced. But once you know, you can change.
# posted by Tarr : 2/09/2006 09:08:00 AM
