Finding yourself.

In my down time (straight lines jogging after christmas!) I haven't really been able to do much except watch and throw and unfortunely I haven't been able to throw properly. The main down is that I can't pivot or use my left leg a lot meaning its harder to use my whole body to make the throws.

However, I have decided that I want to be significantly fitter and better at throwing by the time I do make a return to ultimate, which has left me a lot of time trying to find what throws I need to improve and what I want to focus on to get better.

In reality, this has just ended up being a lot of frustrated throwing sessions in the park with various different people. One thing which has been a good thing but also a bad thing for me when I was throwing was that I feel comfortable throwing forehands/backhands etc from any height, angle or point of release, which is good becuase it allows me a lot of flexibility and with the exception of hucks, I feel like I'm pretty confident I can almost any spot I want with any throw I want, fast or slow etc.

Recently I have been trying to get flat hard forehand hucks (mine are too high and loopy but I am happy with their speed and point of release low and wide), decent flat hard forehand throws (again too wide and loopy, I want more speed on a shorter throw) and low wide backhand hucks since I can only huck backhand comfortably from pretty close to my body, which is sort of useless when there is a mark.

When I started to really focus on one throw at a time I realised something. The people I used to think were no good becuase they only had 3 throws, one forehand, one backhand and one hammer, the sorts of people when you see them fake a low forehand you know if you just hold your hand at about their hip/waist on the forehand side they cannot throw a forehand even if they are faking that low one, have all the throws that I wanted. They have their bread and butter throws, they couldnt do some shoulder height outside in backhand, or throw a perfect blade over the wall into the receivers welcoming hands, but if they get that open forehand tehy can make that same perfect throw every single time. The point was they had the throw, the one throw they do better than me is the one throw I need the most.

This left me wondering, trying to find my own style of throw that I was really comfortable with, throwing with different people trying all sorts of different things, I still haven't found anything that just clicked. I'd throw with Mark, who since getting back from Europe has really improved his flat/inside out forehands, I look at it looks like he steps out but has his body over the disc when he throws, give it a try, that feels ok, so I keep throwing like that for a few days. I end up going to the Queenscliff manly beach pick up, throwing with Matt Oswald who does some little squat forehand balanced over his centre of gravity, thats working for him, so I try that too. That feels okay too, but its not right. Along comes Waz Shephard, he does a few pretty looking forehands, throwing from bit more of an upright stance elbow relatively close to the body, and what do you know thats not too bad either. What worked best? I don't know and I'm still looking for a throw that I'm really comfortable with. I'm still struggling.

Its weird, I saw that ultimate frisbee dvd (the one that comes with the frisbee ultimate disc) and then thats how I learned to forehand, there was no feedback, no real instructional guide or the guidance of a coach, even worse I became the one to teach most of my friends how to forehand without being able to throw all that well myself (but hey, nsb produced a few solid players that year).

It was a lot different to the way I learned how to shoot in waterpolo. In the first season we were given a book full of waterpolo and team sport wisdom (i made a couple of posts from the book on here) and in it was a sumamry of how to make a solid top shot, in front of the goals from say 5-7m away. It had 6 photos and a clear description of why each step was crucial I still remember it now, use your eggbeater to stay level in the water, ball behind you, left leg facing the goals hips facing 90 degrees away, leaning forwards using your legs and other arm to form a tripod in the water bend at the hips, kick hard, get up out of the water, twist from your core, to your shoulder, elbow and finally powerful wrist flick. Each photo was precise and perfect, offering the perfect guidance for you to know when you had the right throw. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA4uQxGlU-I&feature=related - Slo-mo mikasa ad showing most of the things I just said (except underwater))

So this affected the way I trained. I remember just throwing over and over again at a goal till finally it just clicked. There was a lot of ways to throw, I'd scored a lot of goals and a lot of things had worked, but when I knew what I was truly aiming for and what it was the moment the ball flicked out of my hand I knew I had found my throwing technique. The improvment was amzing, I remember the moment it clicked, trying to do bounce shots (shots that bounce off the water) in a pool. One particular throw I got up high, twisted my body, yanked my arm forwards and suddenly it just happened I added that bit of wrist snap I'd been missing and I could finally pull off that shot. Was it perfect? Not even close, but I knew I'd done it right.

Back to Frisbee. I still dont know how to throw a forehand or a backhand.

There is no uniformly accepted way to throw. We know all the things we need spin, speed, angle of release but everyone does it differently. Sometimes I feel like I have it, but then I try it again, see somethign else and wonder if thats even the right way to do it. It might have been the perfect technique for me 2 years ago throwing in the park with my friends, but I won't ever know.


I am still looking for my perfect throw.