Hucking & Pulling

Light warm-up to ensure muscles are loose and body is ready to work.

10 backhands/10 forehands with emphasis on snaping the wrist and not using only your arm.

Began hucking with upper body only. Lower body was put into a strong, comfortable and balanced position so that the wrist and arm positioning and mechanics could be investiagated.

Since the flight path of the disc is so often governed by the angle of release, special attention was paid to this and how that could be altered by bending your wrist, elbow or shoulder.

(The following is for right handed back hand throws)

Problem: Disc flies from left to right.
Solution: Lower the disc edge furthest from your arm so as to increase the angle between disc and ground.

Problem: Disc flies from right to left.
Soultion: Raise the disc edge furthest from your arm so as to decrease the angle between disc and ground.

The mechanics of the upper body huck involved keeping your body upright and bringing your arm across your body in a straight line. Attention was paid to snapping your wrist on release to ensure spin and also snapping your arm across your body (instead of gently swinging your arm forward) to generate power. Both are necessary to make the disc travel far and through the air.

A variety of body mechanic issues were address, including:

• Releaseing too high (in an attempt to help it go rather)
• Shoulders hunched over or pushed back either before or during throw
• Snapping arm from elbow instead of from shoulder

With a large collection of discs everybody was able to make a number of throws in a row and everybody was challenged to think about what was and wasn't working in their throws: Was the release angle good? Did I snap my arm or swing it? Did I release at a good height?

Once everybody was comfortable with their upperbody, we added the lower body so as to put more power into the throw. It was stressed how the upper body would continue to do the same thing regardless of what the lower body does.

This lower body movement was to twist their hips around in conjunction with snapping their arm across so as to increase the power being put in the throw (remember to keep snapping your wrist so as to put spin on it. No spin = no throw).

(The following is all for a right handed forehand)

As before, addressed the upper body first so as to establish good mechanics and technique. Also as before we looked at angle of release, including angle of arm and of disc.

Problems addressed included:

• Curve of flight due to angle of release
• Elbow bent up so disc was very high
• Arm was swung forward and/or up to help disc go further rather than snapping the wrist and arm forward in a straight line
• Thrower was leaning sideways and/or backwards rather than standing up straight and facing the target

Participants complained of how awkward it felt trying to change these things but they were repeatedly pushed to get into a more upright and balanced body position.

When the lower body was added it was simply a step so as to add some body momentum to the throw.

When starting from a triple-threat position (feet and shoulders facing forward, disc flat in front of body at about waist height. In a position to quickly throw a forehand, a backhand or a hammer), it was noticed that some people were bringing their arm back in a circular motion thus altering the angle of the disc prior to release. Since an aim was to have our throwing technique replicable under any conditions of wind or fatigue, we tried to remove this circular motion so as to keep the disc in the plane of release we desire for as long as possible.

Time unfortunately got away from us and so pulling wasn't address. At its most basic level, a pull is simpley a huck with a run up to add momentum to the throw and without any restriction of pivot feet. As explained above, the upper body and hips will do the same thing, it is only the legs that are now doing something different. Just make sure you finish your run up in your usual balanced position and ready to snap your hips, arm and wrist.