Throwing - Default Workout

Here's this week's throwing workout, and this will be the throwing workout whenever I don't have time to make a new one for the week, which will be often. If you have a better throwing workout, then feel free to just laugh at mine.

• Warmup. Your body remembers how to throw, but you've got to turn it on.

• After your warmup, I'm envisioning a 30-minute throwing workout. Adjust to your own liking, of course. I can imagine 30 minutes being overkill for some of our seriously-A.D.D. players, while 30 minutes will just get me started.

• Wear cleats. Much of your throwing strength and balance comes from your legs and feet, which is also why you should warm up your whole body, not just your upper body by throwing.

• Less oxygen in your brain the better... to simulate a big moment in a big game, after you've run yourself to the max. So, put a paper bag over your head and ... or you can do the running workout first, so that you feel some exhaustion.

• Warm up your hands and brain by completing as many throws as possible in 60 seconds. Sometimes I say "only forehands," "only backhands," "any throw," or "throw a fake on the opposite side." Then put the watch away.

• Keep your eyes downfield towards your target. Especially focus on this during your backhand, where it's easy to twist your head/eyes back or down.

• Focus on one throw at a time, and throw at least ten in a row. Repetition, repetition, repetition, ...

• Throw to a moving target so that you're leading your receiver into space and away from their (imaginary) defender, even a walking target is better than a standing target. For this reason, and also to shift the wind's relative position, I like to walk/jog in a circle with one other person, and when I have time, I'll practice a throw 10 times in a small circle (5-10 yards), a medium circle (15-20 yards), large circle (30 yards), and maybe even an XL circle (55 yards or so). After throwing a clockwise throw, I'll switch to a counter-clockwise throw, so that I don't go crazy.

• Rather than throwing 10 forehands and 10 backhands, then moving straight into your hammers, push passes, scoobers, Wilson's, chicken wings of death, twirly-wirlys, etc., differentiate your core throws into lots of different throws. Ways you can differentiate each type of throw (most important/fundamental things in bold):

• circle diameter: short, medium, long, ... XL, pulls
• circle rotation: clockwise, counterclockwise (although the angle and throw will determine which rotation makes more sense)
• angle: I/O, flat, O/I, ... O/I-blade ... double helix
• power: soft, regular, hard
• vertical release point: low, middle, high
• horizontal release point: regular, extend out ... behind your back (is Daniel joking?)
• floaty-ness: none, floaty (like for a handler cutting up the line, or an away cutter), really floaty (like for Keggy/Steve vs. Annette)
• pop (flat-ish throws that have height, but not float, because they have little rotation or are upside down): no pop, over a close defender, over a wall of defenders
• fake a release point: (like normal-extension and middle height to far-extension and low height);
• fake a different throw: (like backhand/forehand, hammer/forehand, scoober/backhand)
• practice faking your huck on one side, stepping over to the other side, and throwing a "break"
• creating balance and torque, and throwing: after both feet are planted, before second (crossover) foot is planted

- There are over a million combinations for each throw... yeah! - Just one reason I like to throw.

Receiver: because there's so much repetition, these throwing workouts are a great chance for you to work on paying attention to which way the disc is spinning, and catching the disc appropriately (maximize friction!). I truly believe that at least 80% of drops come from players ignoring which way the disc is spinning. ... This matters most for one-handed catches, or pancake catches on the rim (as opposed to pancake catches where your underneath hand is completely inside the rim, which is usually the best way to catch, by the way).