I had a major re-breakthrough today. A little background, I had been a good distance thrower but lost my form, going from 500' to sub 400' purely from a mechanical loss of skill during one offseason. Today I think I regained some of what I had lost and it was purely from realizing a key part of the mental game with distance driving.
Most athletes grow up with two types of training, aerobic and "strength" training. The "strength" training we did was basically focused on hypertrophying muscle groups by lifting heavy stuff and putting it down. To achieve hypertrophy, the important thing is to put maximum force load on the muscle, which we did by lifting really heavy stuff against gravity which produced a steady and ever present force load. This trains a person to think force load on muscles = power. The more you feel that resistance from gravity, the more work your muscles are doing. Which is technically true.
With throwing a disc this mentality is counterintuitive and for me lead to negative training loops. I was looking to feel that force load on my muscles as the evidence that my muscles were doing good work on the disc. Of course in reality, when you feel force load during the second half of your swing, what you are really feeling is the resistance generated by your poor form. You are actively inhibiting the acceleration of the disc. My failure to realize this caused me to spend hours in the field trying to increase the resistance, suffering from the illusion that this resistance was power.
The thing that lead to this realization was doing a kettlebell snatch. If you were to swing a kettlebell with even muscle pressure throughout the swing, you would be hard pressed to snatch much weight at all. But with proper form, I can easily snatch a 50lb bell over multiple sets. The key is that all the force is generated by my core and legs in the first moments of the move, and the rest is simply me guiding the bell up above my head. Look at this random video; the bell actually floats in the grip for the last third of the snatch.
Today I went to the field with the goal of feeling zero resistance through the second half of my swing. I didn't get back to 500' but cleared 430' on a couple throws. I hadn't touched 400' in months so that was a solid victory for me. I bet that this idea of resistance equaling power can explain many of you out there that have visually okay form but fail to generate any power. Also it may sound like I am talking about strong arming, but I am not. Strong arming is accelerating the disc with your arm muscles. I am more talking about requiring your arm muscles to resist early release of the disc, and equating that strain as evidence of disc velocity and power. Curious to hear other thoughts on this.
Most athletes grow up with two types of training, aerobic and "strength" training. The "strength" training we did was basically focused on hypertrophying muscle groups by lifting heavy stuff and putting it down. To achieve hypertrophy, the important thing is to put maximum force load on the muscle, which we did by lifting really heavy stuff against gravity which produced a steady and ever present force load. This trains a person to think force load on muscles = power. The more you feel that resistance from gravity, the more work your muscles are doing. Which is technically true.
With throwing a disc this mentality is counterintuitive and for me lead to negative training loops. I was looking to feel that force load on my muscles as the evidence that my muscles were doing good work on the disc. Of course in reality, when you feel force load during the second half of your swing, what you are really feeling is the resistance generated by your poor form. You are actively inhibiting the acceleration of the disc. My failure to realize this caused me to spend hours in the field trying to increase the resistance, suffering from the illusion that this resistance was power.
The thing that lead to this realization was doing a kettlebell snatch. If you were to swing a kettlebell with even muscle pressure throughout the swing, you would be hard pressed to snatch much weight at all. But with proper form, I can easily snatch a 50lb bell over multiple sets. The key is that all the force is generated by my core and legs in the first moments of the move, and the rest is simply me guiding the bell up above my head. Look at this random video; the bell actually floats in the grip for the last third of the snatch.
Today I went to the field with the goal of feeling zero resistance through the second half of my swing. I didn't get back to 500' but cleared 430' on a couple throws. I hadn't touched 400' in months so that was a solid victory for me. I bet that this idea of resistance equaling power can explain many of you out there that have visually okay form but fail to generate any power. Also it may sound like I am talking about strong arming, but I am not. Strong arming is accelerating the disc with your arm muscles. I am more talking about requiring your arm muscles to resist early release of the disc, and equating that strain as evidence of disc velocity and power. Curious to hear other thoughts on this.