Winter Throwing

[Matt Snow]

Hey Academy,

I have received a few questions about what throws to work on during the offseason. One of the constraining factors for throwing in the offseason is usually space; for example, it's difficult/impossible for most players to find space to work on hucks indoors on a regular basis in the winter. That said, there is a huge variety of throws you can work on at 10-20 yards that will get you well on your way to improving your abilities.

I have been working on a 60 minute throwing routine called the Iceman Throwing Routine. It's still in developmental stages, and it may be difficult to keep the workout under an hour. The times in the headers are a guideline. I suspect as you get more familiar with the routine you will start to work on whatever you feel you need to work on. Please try the routine and give me feedback on what worked, what didn't, and what needs greater explanation (or possibly video).

Regardless of whether you use this routine or not, if you're serious about improving your throws over the off-season, you should be trying to find 1-4 hours of throwing practice (league not included) a week.

Here we go:

• All throws are performed 10-20 yards apart.
  
• Begin each throw from an open stance (ie normal relaxed flick stance).
  
• Maintain balance throughout your pivots/throws.
• Don’t over-commit your body to a particular throwing position, with the exception of Ex-Mark where we’ve ideally already found a kink in the mark’s armor.
• Shift your weight through the pivot foot when pivoting. See Nick Vance’s RiseUp Season 3 lesson for more info.
• Up until Ex-Mark, throw in pairs. Ex-Mark onwards, 4 per group (ex mark can be done in pairs if you've got a couple tall pylons). If there's only two of you, skip triangle and choose something to repeat for the remainder of the session.
  

Warm Up Throwing - 5 mins
Variety of throws. Focus on crisp wrist snap with efficient arm movement (e.g. minimal wind-up).

Offhands - 5 mins (10 mins running total)
Offhand backhands. Make sure to use your normal pivot. Focus on wrist snap and keeping the disc flat.

Open stance backhand - 3 (13)
Normal backhand, but from a flick stance. Useful for dumps and dishies and no-step breaks.

Scoober - 4 (17)
Lead with your elbow, snap your wrist and flick your fingers. The further away you are, and the more wind you are against, the steeper the release angle.

Elevator Releases - 5 (22)
Keep the edge flat and nose flat. Do flicks and bh's.
Floor 1- Ankle
Fl 2 - knee
3 - hip
4 - chest
5 - head

Edges - 5 (27)
Flicks and bh's. Numbers (30, 45, 60) indicate degrees.
1 - extreme IO
2 - slight IO
3 - flat
4 - slight OI
5 - extreme OI
6 - blade OI

Nose - 4 (31)
Use a flat edge (see above). By changing the nose angle, you put more or less touch on the disc.
1 - flat
2 - nose up
3 - extreme nose up

Edge+Nose - 4 (35)
This is tricky but once you can master combining these two planes, your break options greatly increase.
Examples:
IO nose up
extreme OI nose up

Shimmy - 3 (38)
Most flick breaks (at least for me) have a quick shimmy before execution, to freeze the defender and/or give the throw more breathing room. Also effective against straight up and aggressive marks.

Shimmy to backhand - 2 (40)
This emulates the situation where the mark lunges for your flick after not completely falling for your shimmy. Execute this as follows: Shimmy and step out for the flick, but then push off over to your backhand.

Snap fake - 2 (42)
Always start from open stance. The snap is a fast wrist action that has two functions - 1 helps sell the fake and 2 switches your grip (from flick to bh or vice versa).
1-Step out out and snap your wrist from the flick position, while quickly pivoting to the backhand.
2-step out for backhand, but snap your wrist, while quickly pivoting back to the flick.

Ex mark - 5 (47)
Aka 3 man with extended mark. Mark does not try to d, they are just an object the thrower must throw around. Each successful throw should result in the mark inching farther from the thrower's pivot. Once the mark is at or beyond the thrower's physical ability to throw a flat throw, the thrower should use an OI edge with a 15 nose up to work on the around break.

Ex mark w/ fake - 3 (50)
Snap fake or shimmy first, then ex mark.

Pepper - 5 (55)
2 discs, 4 players in a rough diamond. One player is the focal point (FP), without a disc. A disc is thrown to FP, who catches and throws to the player without a disc (and who didn't initially throw). During the throwing motion, the second disc is thrown to the FP. FP catches and throws to open player. Continue pattern. Quick catch and release, minimum footwork and arm motion on throws. You're looking to be smooth and efficient.

If there's just two of you, work on quick catch and release back and forth using the same principles as above.

Triangle - 5 (60)
Normal 3 man, but with 4 players...