Like most people who start coaching, I didn’t have a clue where to start.  When your head is filled with common mistakes and their fixes, you’re anxious to prove to others around you what you know.

“Ahh, he’s not using his right leg at the release.  Oh, he’s not blocking with his left arm either.  Well, he seems to be dropping his elbow too.  Let’s not forget him throwing at too high of an angle.  Geez, he’s not gliding off his right heel.  Really, you can’t glide without throwing your shoulders up?  Ok, shouldn’t take more than one practice to solve all this, just do these 20 drills, take these 40 prompts and make sure you don’t make those mistakes tomorrow”

I swear my first year of coaching wasn’t even coaching.  It was just proving to a bunch of high school kids that I know more about throwing than they do.

“Ya, you didn’t know you did that wrong because you are stupid.  I’m smart listen to me, this is correct.  Why aren’t you doing it right?  Must be that my knowledge overwhelms your feeble mind.”

As I grew up and stop being a jerk (who am I kidding) I learned that most mistakes are a response to other mistakes. Also that 90% of all mistakes are caused from the entry.

When Mac Wilkins started his website The Wilkins Review I signed up instantly.  It seemed every video he had up then dealt with some issue at the back of the circle.  Being the asshole I am I dismissed it as my guys were having problems at the front of the circle, not the back.

The big thing he stressed was, as he calls it, getting on balance. This is getting the left arm pit over the left foot.  I started doing this with a rotational shot putter I was working with and suddenly he had a wealth of control at the front of the circle and was quickly improving.

I started coaching the mistakes at the back of the circle I noticed that they all have major effects on the rest of the throw.  After a while I realized that everything that happens at the back of the circle only gets worse at the throw goes on.

Bad balance at the back, the front they are trying not to fall over. Rushed the back, the front they have no time to push at all.

The other thing I realized coaching the back of the circle there’s time.  Everything is in slow motion compared to the rest of the throw.  Telling someone to get left at the beginning of a throw is much easier than trying to get someone to put their left foot “in the bucket” sooner at the front of the circle.  (Both need to be addressed but the latter is much tougher to coach than the previous)

The reason is that getting left when they begin throwing is an action.  They have to actively put their body into that position.  Putting your left foot into the bucket at the front is mostly a reaction to the rest of the throw.  In order to continue the throw they NEED to put that foot down and where it goes is dependent on their center of gravity and muscle memory.

Adjusting a thrower’s center of gravity during a throw or their muscle memory is a very time consuming and drawn out process. You are trying to rewire their system.  It can be done but fixing something that they actively do rather than a reaction is much easier and gets quicker results.

Lastly fixing the actions creates new reactions which you can adjust before they get used to throwing that way.