I got thinking about this again after reading an article on the Thinkulti blog. It looks at the plane of release of a forehand. It's interesting enough. Read that, and an older post on the same blog more specifically about teaching a beginner to throw a forehand.
Given it's university recruiting season, I guess this is quite relevant right now. If you have a university team, you're probably teaching a new batch of beginners how to throw. If you get it right, you'll be laughing. If you're not so good at it, your club might be known for its lack of disc skills for years to come!
Of course the reason I care so much about it, is that there's a good chance that this seasons new college players make up plenty of next seasons Irish juniors teams. (With which I may or may not be involved). Every year I have been involved, there are plenty of players that come to the try-outs with really dodgy forehands.
Having talked it over with the other Irish junior open coach from this year, its not just elbow in ribcage throws we see, (see my previous piece about this), but more generally forehand throws released with the wrist much higher than the elbow. (and not able to throw any other way). Which makes it incredibly hard to learn inside break flicks and very low release flicks.
I think the forehand grip angles discussed on that piece on the Thinkulti blog, could be a related issue.
Anyway, best of luck to anyone teaching any beginners.
After watching "how to throw like a pro" advertise not using any wrist snap, and using the elbow goes forwards first and lower arm follows thing, I liked that for a while.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm liking the wrist snap again and making sure that beginners start off throwing very small distance first, and not get into any mad windup habits. A way of lowering their wrist and getting it below or in line with the elbow, is to tell them to lean to the throwing side slightly. As its very awkward for a beginner to get their arm into that position, so this slight lean helps a lot, as well as helping them get their weight behind the throw when they move up to throwing further.
I think the main thing is to not let them get into bad habits, and keep at them until they stop. Don't let them have a huge windup or crazy follow through, don't let them pivot with the wrong leg. Don't let them stand with their pivot foot forward, and their body facing the opposite way to their backhand, instead of facing the receiver. Make sure disc is in line with lower forehand, and not hand way above elbow with a big angle there, learning to throw high release flick style with just fingers.