 Hey, it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation. In today's YouTube video, what we're gonna talk about is something that is so simple and it's so overlooked. And we're gonna talk about how do we fly the discus. It's so, so critical. It's something you need to learn to do. And it makes a massive difference on your throwing performance super fast. So we're gonna go through a couple of simple tips. We're gonna show you how to make sure that you're carrying the discus right, especially in the fingers, so that you can generate more velocity, more rotations per second. And the faster that happens, or the more that happens, the more you can get benefit from higher rim weight discs and you're going to be able to spin the discus, which is gonna keep it in the air and you're gonna throw farther. And if you can't fly that discus right, it's costing you distance. So at any rate, let's take it out. We're gonna go through it. All right, so for today's YouTube video, what we're gonna do is get a little more up close and personal. And I'm gonna show you some different things on how we are going to be holding that discus. So now one of the things that we do is when we hold that, and you're gonna notice when I'm gonna show you this. Notice where the fingertips are. So the tendency is to basically get the fingertips to gripped over. So you're gonna see a couple of things. And again, a lot of people talk about how do you grip the discus and whatnot. And I think they're all pretty much accurate. But the one thing that we're gonna talk about is really where the discus placement goes. It doesn't go gripped over. And this is one of the mistakes I see. So we'll teach people to go two fingers together and then what they'll do is they'll get the pinkies kind of here. So what that does is that tends to create this kind of pulling effect instead of a clean finish where it's gonna come off of the release finger. The index finger is the one we want. We don't want that finger. So here's what we're gonna focus on. We've gotta get that nice spin. And so what we're gonna do is again, we gotta be in the fingertips, not in the knuckle joints. And we certainly don't want the pinkies over. This is what I tend to see a lot of throwers doing. Back in the day, I got to be part of a biomechanical analysis with USA track and field back when I was throwing back in the 90s. And they had some of the best throwers that time. Adam Sedliff, Anthony Washington, John Godina. And I was lucky enough to be in that studies that stood out. And what they pointed out was that the use of wind was how much of a factor. It's a very big factor in throwing. Now recently here in our club in Arizona, I have an athlete who's transitioning from the one six to the two K. And one of the things we had kind of been, you know, assuming he was 180 foot discus thrower in high school. And so he knew how to spin the disc. And now we're moving to the two K, the thickness of the rim, the weight. Obviously those things are different. And so it was really important. And we started to do that. We started noticing, you know, he's in competition. We had two competitions under a belt. And by that third competition, we're like, he's not flying the discus right. And so we had to go back. We made some adjustments in training. And within two training sessions, it was amazing the difference in the distance. One of the things we talk about for beginners, but this is also really good for intermediate advanced throwers. You have to learn how to fly that discus. So again, one of the things we're gonna do is we wanna make sure we're doing this. So as we do this, we wanna make sure that we're gonna be learning how to tilt the thumb. And we're gonna notice how that we get the edge of the fingers here up on the disc here. This is where we're seeing more and more kids do this. They're getting that finger, they're getting into the joint. And so when you get the fingers kind of here, you might have a good finger position, but you're gonna be, when they come to release, you're gonna be more prone to getting, having the discus come off of those fingers as well. It kind of comes off of here and it's, this is too much. And so then you get that big wobble. The discus wobbles, it's not spinning like super efficiently. And so that means you can't fly, right? You see discus is doing this, the fluttering throw. Jason Harrell, when he started with me coming out of college, he had some definite aerodynamic issues with his disc. And that was a very early on focus for us was to get his training dialed in for that. So one of the things we wanna make sure we're doing, again, as we look at it and we're discussing where we're holding the ring, we wanna see this. We really want those two fingers together because this teaches you and forces you to get this finger to come off the index finger. When you're like this, it can be prone to be this, but here's the trick. You gotta make sure that you don't have the thumb here, the thumb has to be here. So when you're looking at a thrower and they have the hand, they have to have the hand here and the fingers together, and that pretty much ensures that it's gonna be coming off of the tip of the discus this way. Now, you'll notice when we get too much here or we have the finger spread apart and we're in the knuckles, that's when we get that inconsistency. And one of the things that you're gonna be doing is you're not allowing that discus to sit optimally with centrifugal force when you're winding. So when we're here and we're winding the discus and we're having that discus come out and around, the discus is pushing against the fingertips and that's why when we have this hand turned like this and the discus is pushing against this, it's gonna be more prone to be coming off of this finger and not so much with the pinky. When that pinky's curled around a little bit like this, that's when you're gonna really run into some problems. So, one of the things we wanna do is just make sure that we're really understanding how to properly hold that discus because when you do this, that also lends to more cupping. Now, there's a point when the discus should be down a touch, but when it's cupped, that's gonna be a problem. So watch that you're not cupping the discus, watch that you don't hold the discus because that leads to the carry versus the drag and check out that video, that's another video. But flying the discus is one of those simple things and if you're looking to pick up easy distance fast, messing with your release is a tricky thing. It should only take maybe two practices to start timing up just that change in carry and that's gonna lead to that big, that next 10, 15 foot jump super fast. So thanks so much for watching. If you like this video and you find it helpful, hit the subscribe button, comment, give us a thumbs up, check that notification so you don't miss our upcoming videos and we will see you on the next video. Be sure to check out our next videos, be sure to subscribe, visit our website for free videos, click the links below. We have links to our free mini course. Check out our websites for camps and different detailed information. Throw farther faster by understanding the science with the Throwing Chain Reaction System. Thanks so much for watching.