A model for improving at throwing

"How can I improve my throws", "I want to be able to break the mark better", "The fast player wants me to huck to them more". You may have thought something along these lines before or maybe you asked a question similar prior to getting sent this blog. Either way in this article I am looking to outline some ways you can improve your learning process for throwing.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

The first concept I want to introduce is 'specificity'. I will demonstrate this with an example:

You are a brand new player and your first throwing goal is throwing backhands. After a little while you can throw standard backhands. You might then want to improve something more particular about your backhands, maybe to throw high releases or hucks. Again after a little bit you think to yourself, yes I can throw backhand hucks. But now you might want to take the next step and refine your hucks to specifically target a fast receiver fading to the breakside into an unwind breeze. And so on.

This example demonstrates an increasing level of specificity; try to stay self aware of where you are along this spectrum and cater your expectations accordingly.

The second concept is something I refer to as 'calibrating your risk threshold'. The following is a scale that you can adjust this to your own personal preferences and expectations depending on the level of ultimate you are playing. The percentages listed are the percent success rate of making this throw at the highest level Ultimate you play.

• Memeing - 0-20%

  • You know this throw is going to fail but its fun and you don't care about the turnover or the feelings of the open reset you ignored

• Exploring - 20-50%

  • This is the range where you're not going to use the throws in a serious environment such as team drills or scrimmages (unless exploring is the goal of the exercise which I think more coaches should reserve time for)

  • These are the throws you have started playing around with while throwing alone or with a partner

• Learning - 50-75%

  • The throw is not yet consistent but you might start using the throw in repetitive drills to get a feel for throwing it to a receiver at game pace

• Practising - 75-90%

  • This is where you want to level up a throw from training drills to training games and scrimmages

  • Maybe you are on stall 8 and you need a bail out option; you can reach into this bag

• Refining - 90-95%

  • You can do the throw and don't expect to make a turnover from it in any situation

• Perfecting - 95-99%

  • Perfection isn't possible but we can aim high

  • For important games throws should ideally all be in this range but good defence may be able to force weaker throwers out of this range

Now, making use of these concepts we can start talking about how we can structure some throwing sets to effectively use our time to get better at throwing. Two things to preface this next section with. Firstly it is often easier to go throwing with a partner but be aware that you will deviate from a plan nearly certainly. Secondly remember that having fun is a very important part of learning so as long as you are not getting distracted every time you throw having the odd set where you just muck about and play is important for even the best throwers.

To me a well rounded throwing set should consist of approximately the following:

1. 10% muck about time - this is where you can progress a throw through to the learning stage (or decide to reserve it just for memes)

2. 10% comfort throwing - to me this is the type of throwing you would do whilst having a conversation at the park.

3. 50% repetition - the process where we rep similar throws

4. 30% extension - the process where we acknowledge we will have bad throws purely for the purpose of pushing our limits. I like to put this in the middle of repetition sets so I don't start or end on a bad throw

To give a couple of examples to this we have the following.

10 minutes before you warm up for a game partner throwing:

• Shake out time, maybe just as you get from your bags to the spot on the field you are throwing followed by some comfort throws as you settling in to being focused

• A 'double disc' set, popular in New Zealand for this exact purpose, very efficient at getting lots of touches quickly. Both you and your partner have a disc, throwing in unison. 100 throws in in about 4 minutes.

  • 10 Outside-In (OI) Forehands

  • 10 Inside-Out (IO) Forehands

  • 10 OI Backhands

  • 10 IO Backhands

  • 10 Hammers/Scoobers

  • Swap sides and repeat

• A few minutes dedicated to extending, in the pre-game environment this to me is pushing the conditions and pushing your current state rather than pushing your ability.

  • Throw some hucks to figure out what your range will be today, the wind, rain and other factors such as maybe the sun direction for receivers or slipperiness of the disc

  • Push how quick your pivots/shimmys can be. Figure out how 'on' you feel today

• The last few minutes I would spend going through as many throws I can think of that might throw in the game. For example:

  • Rep your around and inside reset throws and pivot both open and breakside, can be done just with visualisation

  • Rep your pulls if you are a puller

  • Rep your hucks if you foresee yourself throwing hucks, you will know which ones are likely from above

  • Rep hammers/scoobers visualising a poached player on the breakside or over a zone.

30 Minute set alone with a stack of 20 discs (the bigger your stack the more efficient you can be here, a net can work too but I personally think seeing the tail end of your throw is a necessity when throwing for everything except for power generation and maybe pivoting)

• A few MTA (Throw the disc up trying to get as much air time as you can and then catching it)

• Jog around the field tossing the disc to yourself forehand backhand lefty righty

• Throw one disc to a medium distance, try to throw the rest of your stack to land as close to the first one as possible. Collect and repeat in the other wind directions. If no wind repeat but only do one throw each time, i.e. forehands, backhands, hammers, scoobers, offhands

  • This and the last two points are effectively a warm up as if you were doing a sprint set and warming up with some dynamic stretches or a jog

• Working on throws to undercuts ~10mins

  • 3 mins backhands and forehands ensuring they dont rise or fall early in the flight, you can set a cone 'gate' as a target if you struggle with visualising

  • 5 mins throwing the disc to yourself at different angles and turning to throw the under, could be under-under, upline-under, around-under etc

  • 2 mins doing the same as above but push your intensity and speed much faster than you are used to, there should be some turns here

• Working on throws to the breakside behind space (over a vert stack, hammer pocket in a zone or back of endzone etc) ~5mins

  • Spend this time visualising someone either static or cutting to the above space, throwing all the shots you might use to hit this space

• Hucking ~10mins

  • Huck your stack of discs in one direction, collect and huck them back

  • Broken down into different shapes to start but as you get more comfortable visualise a different option and shape every throw to keep your body adaptable

  • Do most of these at 80-90% power to train technique and consistency but make sure you do a good few at 100% to both extend your range and locate where the lapses in your technique is

Mix up pure repetition with variation of different physical attributes of each throw, then also vary the situations you are visualising throughout the sets.

Once your throws have progressed passed the stage where using them is frustratingly inconsistent for both you are teammates (this could be minutes or weeks depending on skill and the throw in question) I recommend making a conscious effort to introduce them to drills. Whether that be a 3-person drill (Everyone should be using this drill to become elite) or any sets you run at your team's training. The goal of this being that once you are in a game the correct decision and throw selection is second nature and all you need to think about is where and when to throw to disc, not how to do it.

Hopefully this is helpful for some people, I have tried to communicate ideas that I normally discuss in person with analogies and examples specific to the individual present. If you have any questions or want some ideas for practising a particular throw feel free to leave a comment and I will see what I can do.