My legs were real sore from yesterday's stair portion of the speed and power workout so I didn't go to the gym and instead returned late night to the hill to shake out my muscles and work on my hucks.
Google analytics tells me I have a decent following again and I know a bunch of you are decent ultimate players so I have a question. Let's see if we can get 5 responses.
How often do you practice your throws? When you practice them how often do you think of mechanics? Do you just grip it and rip it? I've been having golf swing type problems with my backhand and in the past have had similar problems with my flick huck where the throw just wasn't going where I wanted it to with the angle and speed that I wanted. So I would get creative with wrist angles, arm positions, arm speed to see if something clicked. I even studied tape from time to time so I could visualize some guys with great backhand hucks. Take for instance Bailey Russells backhand huck. I want to marry it. Make it mine forever. I'd treat it to a nice dinner, well maybe the first night would just be tacos or something as I figured out if it was reliable, and then eventually just hope that it would be ok with just being seen with me on a pretty consistent basis. I highly suggest taking a look at it in the 2004 nationals video.
So that is what I have been working at on the hill. What is my most consistent backhand huck form when I am a: standing with the disc in the middle of the field; b: going from catcher to thrower near the backhand sideline and c: pumping the flick on the flick sideline and then tossing the backhand while the cutter turns the page
So anyone else think about mechanics? I'll share some ideas if anyone is interested cause I have been through a shit load of different forms especially on the backhand.
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7 comments:
Working at NUTC and Coaching really helps me with thinking about mechanics... each time you teach someone new you have to break things down, which means I really evaluate my own stuff too. I also try and focus on form during warm-up drills, it helps to prevent me from just "going through the motions" at the beginning of the day.
My favorite backhand is Cobbett's, I'd steal that shit in a second.
Feel free to email me with more thoughts if you want to really get into it.
Sadly, Bailey Russel hasn't seen that backhand huck since 2004 either...
(Hope you're reading this Bailey :))
When I was in college, I was never taught the mechanics of hucking. Thanks, Faust.
To this day, in club, I rarely --- very rarely --- throw deep. Its a sad state
I find it very hard to teach hucks. Nobody has the same flick cause everyone learns differently. And the environment, which you learn may not be that conducive to hucking (more on this at the end). Maybe eventually there will be a uniform way to learn to throw a frisbee, but there are so many intricacies to a flick and again I am reminded of a golf swing. Some people throw down and get air underneath it, which creates wonderful short throws, but messes with deep throws. Some people can throw the hell out of a flick, but have no touch short and really all this is determined by those first couple months as you figure out what form works best for you. I think it best to try and get kids hucking as soon as possible. If not they get locked in on developing 5-20 yard throws as soon as possible, which often has them sacrificing long term quality for short term fixes.
Just because you want five posts.
Favorite backhand huck: Ben Jammin.
Have you read that famous 70s book about tennis (art of something or other)? Idea is that you can do all the mechanics you want and you should do them, but what the most talented athletes trust and lean on the most is their internal improvisation and relying on what feels right to guide them (side note: this was also one of the interesting parts of why Rafael Nadal's coach told him to play lefty...see the New York Times Magazine piece on him, totally fascinating). Anyway, I've found that to be really true in ultimate and personally, has to led to quicker, deeper and more reliable improvements.
Jammin's might be the purest. Such a smooth and easy rock and release. But that is a lefty backhand so I'm gonna call that a flick. I guess I have to mention Forch's backhand cause it made us all look so good last year.
I'm actually passionate about mechanics..and that's why I became a biomechanical engineer! Good post Faust. Form is the first step to power.
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