Status Quo of Throwing Practices
Drills
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I’ve been involved in a few different practices up to this point. I have seen some where the structure does not seem effective, and is not working the way they would like it to.
An average discus practice seems to show best what everyone seems to do, but just isn’t working. An hour and a half practice usually starts with a warm up. This takes between 15 to 30 minutes for most teams I’ve been with. After the warm up everyone grabs a discus and does about 10 power throws. Depending on how far they throw it will take at least 15-20 minutes. Following this they head back in to do half turns (about 5-10), which is immediately followed by the South African drill. Between the two of these it’s going to be at least 20-40 minutes. Assuming everything goes smoothly, this means that 50 to 90 minutes of a 90 minute practice was used on just drills. They do not practice one full competition throw for over half or all of practice.
If a full throw is the best way to throw the discus as far as possible, why focus so much on drills which are meant to help that movement? I understand the purpose of drills is to work on phases of the throw. But, if you aren’t working on it as a whole, what good will the individual phases do?
For about a year I completely disliked all drills. I thought they had no use, but I know now that isn’t the case. Drills are like medication. They are prescribed to treat a problem and once the problem is fixed there’s no reason to continue taking them. If the drill and coach are doing what they should, the athlete should inevitably move on from the drill.
7 comments
Great post. Breaking the throw down can help sometime, but putting it back together is more difficult than it sounds. You not only have to have each part, but also the rhythm that binds it together. That's why the greatest portion of training should be spent with full throws. As you say, drills should be prescribed as necessary.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the first comment. The hatred of drills for me started when I had kids who didn't want to throw any other way. They didn't want to learn full because they threw better using SA. It got frustrating. I also realized that going from power throw to full throw was just a little too complicated for some people.
ReplyDeleteQualify slow motion drills should not be dropped. One problem is coaches think you need to throw far out of drills. This totally false. You want to hit and engrain proper positions when put together in the full are duplicated.
ReplyDeleteThe comment on prescribed only is the reason our US throwers are not getting better year to year. Making technical fixes in fulls is hit or miss at best. The athlete will just return to their computer program. The only way to un-program is with proper drills and LOTS of reps over and over done slowly and properly. Ever see someone teach Karate?
ReplyDeleteMartial arts are completely different those aren't drills they are learning that's the whole movement. Those aren't drills in the same sense of throwing drills. They learn that move to perfect it and it can stand alone as a movement. If they want to use it in a fight it's an added step that throwers don't have.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how can you say drills are why Americans aren't better? I haven't met a throws coach around here who doesn't do drills on a daily basis. My guys have made large gains year to year with minimal to no drills.
Try to get a 200 footer in high school to throw at least the same in college. PROPER drills. Not crap drills. Most coaches think the wheel drill with the thrower whipping his upper body around in front of the legs is a proper right pivot. There are a lot of coaches not doing drills. Or, they think it's just some pre-season thing. Or some medicine thing. Well, until someone has perfect tech or close to it, why would someone drop a drill that continues to engrain proper motor patterns? Go talk to Mac Wilkins. I hope you accesses his free offer when his web site was open.
ReplyDeleteJust like I said in the post I don't think drills are completely useless, they do serve a purpose. The problem is that people use them mindlessly and without focus. If you use the wheel drill there needs to come a time when you don't need it anymore. If you are doing it for 2-4 years something is wrong. Same idea with medicine, you take it until you don't need it anymore.
ReplyDelete