Sidearm technique with shoulder mobility problems?

[Dan Ensor]

Everything has to fire as one piece, back foot, back knee, right hip, elbow, throwing hand. Simplifies the mechanics and brings in the larger muscle groups.

Elbow in is not a myth. McBeth's elbow is relatively close to his body in that throw.

Am I completely misunderstanding, or are you advocating a lack of Separation in a swing?

I view "elbow in" like getting the disc close to the right pec. Something that happens in passing, and is forced.



If your worry is injury, I'm not sure I'd risk it. Even if you're using all the right muscles, your shoulder is still connecting the disc to those big muscles. I think we underestimate the amount of energy we load in our shoulders, even with basically zero shoulder rotation.

If your worry is soreness, just take it easy. Also, stretch.

 

[sidewinder22]

Only time my shoulder hurt on FH is by trying to keep the elbow in.

 

[eegor]

I've had work related shoulder problems and if I tried to throw my forehand like McBeth, I wouldn't be able to raise my arm above shoulder level for 2 weeks. I pretty much have to hold the disc with my elbow in, right in front of me, "cock" the disc straight back and use my legs and wrist for power. If I use much movement in my shoulder at all, there's a lot of pain. I suppose it's the specific nature of your injury.

 

[hipster]

Learn to backhand with the other side.

 

[Pbmercil]

Focus on leading with your shoulder instead of your elbow. You are probably getting your elbow ahead of your shoulder and over-torquing your shoulder tendons. Avery is leading with his elbow but it never gets ahead of his shoulder.

Thank you!! That is exactly what I was missing. For some reason I though I was supposed to be leading with a tucked elbow, and it was miserable. That piece of information just saved my butt. Now it makes sense when someone else earlier in the thread compared sidearm drives to swinging a baseball bat. I couldn't figure out what they meant, now it makes sense.

you only need to go like 80 degrees. I cant go 90 degrees because of my shoulder repair, but I don't need to.

That's good to hear. I can do 80. 90 is pushing it.

This thread has been really helpful, thank you all for the suggestions. Now I just need the temperature to come up so I can actually try some of these things out.

For what its worth, I basically have no cartilage left in my shoulder, so when I rotate it you can audibly hear bone on bone grinding. Swimming is a low impact sport my ass.... Anyway. Not a problem with any other part of my game, or life in general, but it definitely makes for some considerations with a sidearm. This is great stuff guys!

 

[sidewinder22]

For what its worth, I basically have no cartilage left in my shoulder, so when I rotate it you can audibly hear bone on bone grinding. Swimming is a low impact sport my ass....

Is your shoulder injury from swimming?

 

[Pbmercil]

Is your shoulder injury from swimming?

Yup. 8 years of competitive swimming year round from ages 14-22 completely wore my shoulders out. There just isn't much left in there.

 

[sidewinder22]

Yup. 8 years of competitive swimming year round from ages 14-22 completely wore my shoulders out. There just isn't much left in there.

I also swam HS through college. I just starting swimming again 10 plus years later and had to stop doing fly recently because it was hurting my shoulder, not sure if it's just because I'm so out of shape now and technique was slacking, or it's just worn down from all the repetitive motion over the years, but I'm ok with freestyle still.

 

[Monocacy]

Yup. 8 years of competitive swimming year round from ages 14-22 completely wore my shoulders out. There just isn't much left in there.

Yes, for me 13 years of swimming followed by 14 years of water polo took a toll on my shoulders. I seem to have figure out how to throw backhand without strain, and I am hoping to figure out something similar with sidearm.

I did have a blast, though, especially with the water polo.

Sidewinder - where did you swim? My specialty was backstroke and IM, and I had to give up fly and IM after high school.

 

[sidewinder22]

Yes, for me 13 years of swimming followed by 14 years of water polo took a toll on my shoulders. I seem to have figure out how to throw backhand without strain, and I am hoping to figure out something similar with sidearm.

I did have a blast, though, especially with the water polo.

Sidewinder - where did you swim? My specialty was backstroke and IM, and I had to give up fly and IM after high school.

Water polo is terrible on the shoulders. I dislocated my hip playing soccer in HS sophomore yr which ended that career, then I starting swimming year round. I swam for Good Counsel HS, RMSC/FAST USS, and Towson U. Jerk coach from Udel said I wouldn't make his team when I was looking at schools. I beat them every year.

 

[Monocacy]

. . . I starting swimming year round. I swam for Good Counsel HS, RMSC/FAST USS, and Towson U. Jerk coach from Udel said I wouldn't make his team when I was looking at schools. I beat them every year.

Interesting - nice 200 fly. Good Counsel was close to home and a bunch of my friends went there, and of course we completed against RMSC every meet. I swam at Silver Spring YMCA and University of Maryland, but my shoulders were pretty much done by college.

I played for NoVa in water polo. We had some good games against RMSC, and sent a combined team to indoor nationals one year (got stomped).

Water polo balls are heavy, and I eventually tore up my shoulder shooting. Turns out that throwing muscles from water polo also come into play on a disc golf sidearm, which is why I had to modify my throw (to bring this back OT ).

 

[formerwrestler]

Thank you!! That is exactly what I was missing. For some reason I though I was supposed to be leading with a tucked elbow, and it was miserable. That piece of information just saved my butt. Now it makes sense when someone else earlier in the thread compared sidearm drives to swinging a baseball bat. I couldn't figure out what they meant, now it makes sense.



That's good to hear. I can do 80. 90 is pushing it.

This thread has been really helpful, thank you all for the suggestions. Now I just need the temperature to come up so I can actually try some of these things out.

For what its worth, I basically have no cartilage left in my shoulder, so when I rotate it you can audibly hear bone on bone grinding. Swimming is a low impact sport my ass.... Anyway. Not a problem with any other part of my game, or life in general, but it definitely makes for some considerations with a sidearm. This is great stuff guys!

Good stuff and am interested in learning more about leading with the shoulder technique. Is it possible to keep the palm up while leading with the shoulder? Shoulder has been killing me, but still like the sidearm throw. If I can learn to do it with no pain, it would be awesome!

Thanks ,