 So you're gonna do this way we're gonna turn and see how she's wanting to cup and where's that discus going? Hey it's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throws Nation and in today's video we are going to be talking about things that are critical for beginners, intermediates, and advanced. Now the difference is what we're going to be talking about specifically is how we hold and drag the discus. We don't want to be carrying the discus we want to drag the discus and the reason being is we want to be able to create that stretch against the discus. When you get kids that carry the discus incorrectly it can really plague their technical development because they're tending to create a different kinetic or kinesthetic feel and what we're going to do in this video is we talk about we just are in preparation for an online virtual camp and a lesson where we're teaching how critical this is for throwers and so we're just going to take some of that video today and show you. Now one of the key things we talked about is avoiding cupping and that is a natural thing when you get used to holding the discus for the first time young throwers will tend to cup and so what you're going to do is you're going to want to avoid the cupping so you're going to want to do a series of simple exercises that are going to teach you how to do that and that's what we're going to dive into now. I have this adorable young child that is going to be my demonstrator today which is my daughter and she has no real throwing experience so we're going to be using her as an example of how to hold the discus and we're going to go through a number of different drills and I have one of my athletes high school athlete he just started training with us this season Ethan and it's a good example of looking at a brand new beginning thrower and what we want to do to develop that thrower and then what we want to do with a thrower that's trying to push 140, 50, 60, 70 feet and how we want to make sure that we're really focusing on those details of how we're holding and carrying or we say dragging the discus because you don't want to carry the discus you want to drag the discus and so I'm going to have these guys try to do the same thing so you guys are going to take the discus we have it in our fingertips thumb kind of on the edge a lot of you guys don't have the thumb on there it's got to be closer to the edge so you kind of feel that and what we're going to do is we're going to turn the discus like this and we're going to point the discus down so we're like this so see how Ella yeah perfect example so watch what we're going to do we're going to everybody's going to hold start with their discus like this but Ella's holding it like this and it's not to be we're going to extend it out and then we're going to tilt it down but so you got to keep your arms straight and you got to keep the discus down don't I'm taller than you so your discus is going to be down there okay so you're going to do this way we're going to turn and see how she's wanting to cup and where's that discus going falling out so look at E so Ethan's got more experience he's done a nice job adjusting he feels how that and now he's creating a little ledge for his discus now let's look at Ella she's going to feel the same thing and she's got to get her thumb so look at me Ella what you want to feel is you want to hold the discus like this but see what she's doing she's got her thumb down instead of her thumb open and then you angle the wrist so you're going to hold it like this and then you're going to turn but see when I'm turning you got to keep your thumb up on the edge you got to keep your fingertips on the edge of the discus so you got to get comfortable and hold it in your hand so she's going to go to the automatic cup one of the things again we're just going to be working on that position and again here's that simple exercise here where you're bringing the discus up and you're getting comfortable and then you can just wind the athlete can wind back and forth and when they bring the discus try to focus on keeping the discus off the wrist so you're going to notice that when I'm doing this and I'm winding I'm keeping the discus off my wrist so go ahead give that a try and little e go ahead get your get a discus so as he winds he's going to wind back and forth and he's keeping the discus off of his wrist and he's going to wind like that he's going to keep his discus arm long and you're going to notice that Ethan tends to kind of do this when he brings it back and we got to get him used to being comfortable here okay and so again that discus can be like this but it wants to be near the edge on the edge or just near the edge and everything's going to be here so you're going to see that discus looking like this okay so go ahead and you guys are both and we're going to all face this way okay we're all facing this way Ella get your feet facing that way okay and what you guys are going to do is bring the discus over and we're going to keep that discus off of the wrist there you go so see when he brings it back he he turns the discus in again and what we want to do is we want to keep we're going to just practice keeping that discus off the wrist so we're getting used to how to hold it in the hand properly okay so we're going to keep that arm longer and when we hold the discus we're going to hold the discus out like this Ella hold your discus up and turn your hand like that there you go and so so again she's got to get used to this and she's holding her hand soft you got to open the hand wide okay there you go let's go E all right so you're going to open that hand wide and get the fingers here so she's doing this and the thumbs up and so the discus is going to want to fall out so if I basically make sure I hold the discus and I turn the hand like this now the discus I can kind of hold it see I don't even need my thumb and I don't even and you're going to see how the discus is sitting in my hand okay so get you this finger on that discus so the discus is of course always going to be coming off of this finger so that's why it's important to feel this wide grip so hopefully you guys enjoyed today's video kind of looking at how critical it is and how easy it is to learn how to carry the discus but the problem is oftentimes people aren't getting comfortable now depending on your hand size and all that kind of stuff that can definitely have an influence but it just means a little bit more practicing finding your comfort spots and as we pointed out things in the video the idea is to get comfortable with that discus so that it's something that you don't think about so then you could actually work on technical development like your six pillars of the throwing chain reaction so thanks so much for watching if you like today's video give us a thumbs up hit that subscribe button for us and we will see you on the next video