No follow through on drives

[mdabbs]

I noticed that many players turn and look away from the basket on their reach back. I normally end my drive with my hand pointed directly at the basket. I normally reach back with my arm, but not much hips and then swing it around. My arm almost ends up like when a basketball player shoots a shot and keeps their arm in the air, only my arm is chest high and pointing at the basket. I basically get no follow through. I have been able to drive pretty well this way, getting over 400 on occassion and averaging over 300 on the golf course. I tried the follow through by rotating hips and turning my back to the basket and it worked well adding another 50-75 feet to my drives, only thing was I started feeling some tension in those joints (elbow, shoulder) after doing that a few times. I have read that follow through is necessary to not get hurt but it seems to me like now I have more pressure on my joints. Any ideas?

[Blake_T]

sounds like you are not getting a good/clean pivot and are probably with your weight behind your plant and jamming your pivot foot.

with your current form it sounds like you are strong arming the disc (quite effectively in your case) and probably rolling your wrist over with that throw.

adding the hip motion increases the whip speed of the arm which often leads to elbow hyper-extension (elbow pain) if you have that same kind of wrist behavior.

the shoulder pain is likely linked to an abrupt stop of the upper body (caused by weight back/jam) and your arm's continuation basically extending your arm behind your body and causing strain on the shoulder joint.

i basically teach people to finish their throw with their arm pointing 180 away from the target and their chest facing to the right side of the teepad (this requires a step through during the pivot).

[mdabbs]

So I need a 4th step after the 3 of the X, I need to end with my booty facing the basket, and I need to do something different with my wrist. I guess since I was using nearly all arm, I need to try as hard with the new technique. Maybe that is why I was feeling a strange feeling there was first because it was new and different and second because my old form required nearly all arm strength and I keep reading how distance is not all about strength but more about technique.

[mdabbs]

I meant I need to not try as hard with the new technique which will reduce the strain it is puttin on my joints. Thanks for the good information and quick response.

[Blake_T]

np. hope it works out.

the 4th step should not happen until after the pivot begins, and it's not so much a step as it is a balancing act.

what i meant about finishing is that your chest will be facing 90 degrees to the right of the target.

[NCSUphenom]

That's the one thing i need to work on to give me some distance. It seems that is the one thing that seperates me from being able to throw much further. And apparently it increases your accuracy a ton when you are comfortable with it

[TexasOutlaw]

Be careful if you are muscling your drives; you could strain something in your arm and injure yourself.

[Pagan]

I was wondering if I could get some hints from those of you that have recently fixd this problem? I had a couple of players watch my form and they both stated "just add follow through!" however they couldnt really help here. What I mean is when you step through and pull across your chest, do you swing your left leg around and pivot on the ball of your right foor or what? All the X-step diagrams I see only show the cross over with right step backwards with left and a plat with right. never a follow through step.

Any help is appreciated as I am still not clear here.
T.I.A.
Pagan

[Frank Delicious]

I let my arm whip through and continue after I release the disc. That makes me follow through due to the fact that if I don't, it will hurt my shoulder a lot. I Follow through by pivoting on ball of my right foot and usually end up facing towards the right of the teepad. I don't swing my left foot around, it more or less has to follow the rest of my body around. Don't just swing that foot around, make sure the momentum from your throw carries you through the throw.

Hope that helps, it early and I no explain well in the morning.

[Blake_T]

your upper body should continue rotating and your left leg should step through as the pivot happens (because the upper body continues moving).

a good rule of thumb for a big follow through is that you will finish with your chest pointed to the right.