Thursday, September 6, 2007

Completing the Throw

So, I was reeding TrueHoop over on espn.com the other day and I realized something about teaching throwing in ultimate. The article of interest was about how LeBron has improved his jump shot over the summer. David Thorpe (an NBA trainer guy) was saying how in his new improved jump shot, LeBron lands where he took off from, and he is still when he lands (with his hand up, '98 Jordan style). In Basketball they call this "completing the shot." The reason this is important is that in order for the shooter to get to this point, they must have had proper mechanics all the way through their shooting motion. Now that's where it all applies to ultimate.

I've heard you should be able to be still after throwing a backhand or a forehand, but I never fully understood why. Now it's pretty obvious. In order to be still, your mechanics must have been correct all the way through your throw (another great side effect is that you won't travel when you throw, so they'll have to call you on pivoting). Basically, I think that one should emphasize the follow through, and that it should finish in the thrower being still, along with explaining this reasoning behind this when (re)teaching throwing.

I know this gives me something to work on.

4 comments:

Jay Schulkin said...

unrelated:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/09/we_just_heard_the_new_wutang_c.html#more

Joaq said...

"Not even Wu-Tang's ugly stepchild U-God can screw this one up."

Brilliant.

Unknown said...

That's an interesting though about throwing. Personally, I would say that might be able to do that with a flick, maybe maybe maybe, but probably not. A backhand, again maybe, but probably not, but I like to throw and go so much, I mean how else could I run 'games'?

-Shy

Drew said...

Interesting thoughts, Joaq, and some of the many I now internalize during focused throwing. My backhand and its follow-through are so effed, every little bit helps.