 Here's what we're going to talk about today. When you're learning to throw the discus, what's the most critical thing you need to learn how to do? If you don't know how to hold that discus properly, game over. This is where you're going to cause all kinds of problems and I would say it's a much higher percentage of athletes I see every year that are doing this wrong and we're going to show you in this video. Let's check it out. Buddy, it's Eric Johnson and again, what we're going to discuss today is how do we hold the discus. So now one of the things we're going to be focusing on is when people talk about it, they talk about all these random hand placements and different things. I'll teach people to do this and what we're going to do is we're always going to have the fingertips. Let's do this. So you're going to see the fingertips. See how they kind of have it on the edge. We want to avoid this type of a grip. You usually want to see that on the fingertips here because you're going to be able to apply more pressure to the disc. When you get here, you're going to tend to grip and you're going to tend to have that discus not flying right. The second thing we want to do is we want to understand hand position. Now, here's one of the big ahas for discus stores. The people talk about cupping the discus, right? So when you see this and you see somebody cupping the discus, that's not going to lend to dragging the discus real well. And that's one of the things we talk about in the throwing chain reaction. Watch, we're going to talk about this and this is something that I don't tend to see too often, but it's so, so critical for beginning throwers. So coaches, I've got information, man. Watch this is going to make it be a game changer and it's a very short implementation technique. This should take about a week maximum of two weeks, but you've got to get this down as you're working on footwork and your training positions and you're teaching kids about the throw and how to do it. You have to understand how to carry this thing, right? Otherwise, it's just a nightmare. You're entering a world of pain, son. So one of the core things that we talk about is that you have to drag, not carry the discus. This is the carry, right? So when you see, you see throwers and they've got the arm bent and they're doing this kind of thing and the discus creeps up and it becomes this arm throw. And what we want to be able to do is drag the discus. So as we move away from the discus, we have that stretch. We have stretch reflect and we have shoulder arm shoulder separation because in the discus we have shoulder hips and arm shoulder. So the second thing is how do we carry and why do we drag? So one of the core things that a lot of young throwers do without realizing it is they're told how to put the discus, they start to, and they hold the discus like this. So if you look, when I'm doing this, right, you're going to notice, so there's a couple of ways. So a lot of throwers are going to do more of this type of thing and they're going to move the hand and they're going to feel this so that they're always feeling that kind of drag position, right? So we're always in this drag position long. Notice how I'm taking the hand and notice I just did one very small variable and that's this. When I have the discus, it has to look like this. I have to tilt it, right? So you want me to see, you have to see this. So watch my hand, watch my thumb, see that? That's all the difference in the world. This is what makes the difference and you're going to see so many kids where they do this. They have to get used to feeling that slight cock of the wrist and when we're throwing, this is what it tends to look like. You're going to see that and you're going to see the throwers and you see this and as they come around into a throw, you're going to see that thumb is faced here. When that thumb's here, if it's tilted, it creates a little base and you can see how I can extend my arm and I can hold that discus in a nice position. Really simple. So let's take a look at that here. This is what it looks like. We want to see this. Now you see how my pinky's under there? This is a small subtle detail but when you see kids doing this, they're going to do the cup. This is how you learn to have the discus come off your finger. People who say this is a preference, I would disagree. I think it's something that you need to learn and if you can't spin that discus well, with two fingers, do three fingers. Got a buddy of mine who was a world champion and gave me that tip and it's a fantastic tip. Let me tell you, every single year, I have a chunk of athletes who come in and they cup the discus or they're dragging it or they're losing it and it's this little simple hand thing. So when you're learning how to carry the discus and you do this right, it takes a very short period of time. A lot of kids, though it makes a pure natural discus sore, they just do this kind of stuff automatically and they don't really have to think about it. Others need to be taught it. Everybody should be taught it no matter what.