Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Horizon Horizon Horizon

First Glimpse
Try throwing blind folded sometime and see how successful you are. There is a good chance that you would kill your coach, an innocent bystander, or yourself. Unless you are sure about what you are doing, I would not recommend it because I wouldn't even try it. Although I have heard of athletes incorporating that into their training, unless there is some substantial scientific study out there that proves it is effective, I do not think it is very beneficial.
keeping your head up throughout the whole throw is very important. In fact it is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of a good technique. Have you ever found yourself looking at your feet when you get to the middle of the circle? Now think about how this affects your body position in the circle. Some examples of what might occur while looking down include loss of balance, having too high of an angle with the discus from the back, and improper timing.
On the other end of the spectrum, focusing on the horizon forces you to focus on good habits such as an erect torso, balance, and a level angle of the discus which discourages scooping (throwing from a very low angle during your penultimate power position). The next time you throw, try it! try focusing on the flat horizon as you move through your motions. What you will find is that you start to focus more on the important things such as your rhythm and timing, which go a long way in helping you throw far. I told one of the undergrad discus throwers I was helping to, "Stop looking at your legs, they know what to do!" It is that simple folks. Looking at your legs while throwing will do nothing for your distance, trust your positions and focus on your rhythm instead.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! or email me at 0a4w@virginia.edu

3 comments:

william lammers said...

your right, keeping your head up makes you perform at a whole new level.

Matt Marcoccia said...

I've done this before and I've found this works for me. But when I do it right when I'm about to throw I open my eyes so I don't kill anyone. I usually get great drive to the front of the circle and I'm on balance. My best doing this was around 50m with the 1.6k.

Y. Ayeni said...

Thats great Will. It is a simple concept but it works. When you stop focusing on the other things and just keep the horizon in focus it all seems to come together. Matt, you are a mad man! Please don't kill anybody ha-ha.