 Who wants to go from 42 feet to 62 feet from your junior year to your senior year? We're going to talk about it in this video, so check it out. What's up, guys? It's Eric Johnson from Airtate Throsation. In today's video, we are going to talk about the glide versus the rotational shot put. Check it out. Okay, guys. So in this video, we are going to talk about switching from the glide to the rotational shot. Now, why do we do that? And why do we recommend the rotational shot? And why is that our first go-to when it comes to teaching? Now, here's the thing and how I used to teach the glide. I used to start out and teach the glide. And the idea was learn the glide, then learn the rotation because you learn how to hit the shot. However, I've coached gliders. I've had multiple rotational throwers. I've had that have been very successful. We've had national champions, state record holders, all that kind of good stuff. They all used our throwing chain reaction, our six pillars. And we had two, we had a 69-7 thrower and a 72-3 thrower that were gliders when they began, who converted the rotation. And we had another thrower was a 71-8 who had never glided. So you've got this thing where do you need to start with the glider? Do you not? Good question. So one of the things we now teach at our throwing camps, we teach day one, is discus day two, is rotational shot where we build on the principles that you learn about the six pillars in the second day. Now, there are key differences. And when we look at this and we look at the glide, well, what are we looking at? It's really simple. It's a very simple linear line. And you only have, you have a shorter path that the shot put travels on. So when you go to learning about how to like rotate into your finish or how to finish, there's always a little bit of the degree of rotation in the glide, right? You have to move in a line, you're facing this way and you're going to throw that way. So there's 180 degrees of rotation. When you're a rotational thrower, you're going to be rotating through and it should in some ways allow you to create even better extension over the board. So this thrower was again, not quite connecting on his glide. He was kind of rotating it out. And so when we see that and in right here, I kind of explained to him, here's the difference in your glide strike and here's the difference in your rotational strike. So you're going to come through the next big difference in the rotation is creating the wrap. So this really starts to distinguish differences between like the rotational shot and the disc is, whereas, you know, the glide, again, you're already facing back and you're trying to maintain that separation as long as possible. But in the rotation, you have to rotate into it. So as we kind of run through a basic progression in our six pillars, we go from the stand, we do a half turn or a wheel, and then we did the step down, which you just saw. And now we kind of show how do we move into the throw? Not bad, a little off balance. But here's the same thrower picking up just months later. He came in, did some training. Again, we could explain it was in COVID, he lived in a state where they didn't have as many restrictions and it went come fall of 2020. They went back to fall sports. He went and played football and then he came in and this workout was literally just a couple weeks after the football season. So this was like November and he was just picking up and he was already, you could see way more comfortable. So look at the difference between when he was kind of coming in season, then he's coming out, you could see how the difference is, how much more comfortable is still coming off the ground a little bit, you want to stay on the ground longer. And again, this is a developing thrower. How did this thrower go from 42 feet as a glider to 60 foot? That was because he switched the rotational shot. So this guy had an 18 foot PR in a year. And we talked about that, but here you can see, you know, look at the difference in the comfort factor. So we'll go back and we'll just kind of compare. And this is basically, as he's had time to work, you can just see how he's getting more comfortable being able to come through, look at the direction of the shot, everything is pulling around and he's coming through. So watch as he sets up, he's getting comfortable with his entry. And again, you can see the distances we're improving in the throw. So when you look at the difference between where he was with the glide, how much he has to learn and how much time he needs to spend learning the rotational throw, learning the right way is the key. Not everybody's going to improve 18 feet, especially if you're not learning the right things. So this thrower actually, which we find with our system, yes, it's a plug for the system. Of course it is because structure is everything and every little detail that you put into every training session matters so much. So you don't want to spend time on things that are not yielding better results. Recently, I just came back from a camp that we had done in the Midwest, really great, you know, great turnout. We had an athlete who had glided, spent a year on the rotation, only improved literally like two feet or threw around the same distance actually. So he spent all this time, went back to the glide and then jumped up his PR improved three feet, which is still not a whole lot. But he came to the camp and we showed him in how our six pillars work and how we break everything down, how we work throwing progressions. And now this athlete who has a really good nice punch on the shot was feeling much more comfortable in his rotation, moving very slow in throwing pretty good distances, still shorter than he was able to throw in his glide, but he was fatigued from two days of camp and positions were really good. Okay, so here's the thing. What did we do and why would we change? A couple of tips for you guys. One of the things if you kind of naturally turn out of your glide, you kind of are suited more like you might be more comfortable for the rotational shot. Now one of the things that we talk about all the time is at our camp specifically, we say, why are we going to spend the day and go to the rotation because it offers you greater potential. You know on the men's side at the world level, there's basically like one glider on and that's it. There's other gliders in other countries, but the top 30 guys in the world, they're all pretty much rotational throwers. There's one glider left in the world and he's one of the greatest of all time, Dave Storal, but he's also an older athlete now. He's not throwing the same distances and the number of young throwers all around the world that are throwing big distances and the kind of jumps guys are making, you're seeing that with the rotation. Guys that are not the biggest dudes ever like Zane Weir of Italy, the guys pound for pound probably one of the best throwers in the world and so it just goes to show you that, you know, 64, 246 pounds and you throw 71 feet at the Olympics, could he do that as a glider? I don't think so and I don't think and I think Zane would be one of the first people to tell you absolutely not. So the rotation offers you the most potential. There's really key differences on how you go through the middle, like I said, compared to the discus or even the glide itself and so as you go through and you learn key movement points, you learn how to line up and strike that shot. So here again, when we talk a step down, this is what we would call a pillar 3, 4, 5, 6 movement there. He did a little bit more of a South African, so we trained him up on how to do things here and then here we teach pillar 1, 2 into 3, the start makes all the difference in the world. So when we go through a basic progression, we're showing him how to set up, get over the right leg. When we go through the wheel progression here, we're showing how to move onto the axis and on a full throw, we're showing how to come through that with more control and more balance and you can see the difference. Look at the path, look at how much longer the time is on the ball. This is why the rotational shot is a much, has a much greater potential for greater distance. So if you're considering making the switch, understand that when you get an 18-foot PR, the odds of getting an 18-foot PR as a glider, I would say are slim to none. I would say as a rotational thrower, our personal club record is 17 feet. We had a kid go from 45 to 62-6 and here's Peyton who went from 42 to 60 feet even as from a junior year to the senior year. Now granted, he did have COVID. It was the COVID year that kind of stopped his season, so I'm inclined to think he might have thrown another two or three feet. So he still would have gone from even you say 45 or 46 feet to 60 feet. It's still a massive jump. Are you going to do that in the glide? Are you chances of going from 42 feet to 60 feet, 42 feet to maybe 52 feet would be exceptional, but to go to do something like that in your rotational shot, that's going to be a much more likely thing that's going to happen when you make that switch. So how do we go from 42 feet to 60 feet? That's going to be through the rotation. So one of the options that you want to think about is one, if you come to a camp, we tell everybody, give, learn the rotational throw the right way. Again, we just had a camp like I'd mentioned, somebody went to somebody else. They went to the training sessions, they spent time and they just didn't have any success with it. I will tell you confidently that most people that come in feel how this works because with our system we always have drills and progressions that are meant to adjust per the athlete and find your individual formula. That's what the throwing chain reaction system. Learn the throw, see the throw, find your individual formula. So when you see that, this is how this athlete specifically who had good tools was able to come around and then you could see the comfort factor change because the same things he's working here on the video on the left and the same things that he starts to apply on the right. So this athlete, he came into the indoor season and through like 45 or 46 feet, then he opened up outdoor at about 49 and then it just kind of kept ticking up, ticking up, ticking up 52, 53, 49, 51, you know, just kind of those things and just steadily creeping up. His discus also increased tremendously. And again, great job. I mean, he has a school coach and they did a lot of good stuff, but what put him on the track was getting him here, doing the training and having him work on those six pillars and work on a specific progression. Now I'm jumping around a touch, but remember, start out much greater potential, longer path of the shot gives you a greater opportunity to create more speed, more distance to create momentum behind the ball. That's why the rotational shot tends to offer more overall potential as he again went through, you know, again, working the right things, he got more comfortable. Other athletes are going to want to work both. I have athletes, we just recently did this. How many have you throw your glide? I'm going to have you throw rotation so that he maintains the feeling of the connection he has and he can try to find that same connection in the rotational throw. And then sometimes I would say you give it a good four to six weeks. And if at that point you're not throwing pretty close or further than your glide PR and you just don't feel comfortable, it's more than okay to go back. And the last option is if you lose a huge amount of distance, let's say you're a 50 foot shot putter and now when you pick up and you start, you know, as a glider and you start rotating and you throw 40 feet with the rotation and you're consistently 10 feet less. Chances are you're not going to be really, you're not real comfortable with the rotational shot. So stick with it. This applies to girls as well. We had an athlete that coaches had sent in a video now. She could throw 38 on a glide, 38 and a half as a freshman, but it could only throw about 31 or two on the rotation. So I said, well, name it a game as a throw further. Continue to work both because ultimately that rotational shot is probably going to offer the best potential. But right now she's much more comfortable in throwing distances that are much more competitive as a freshman. So continue with the glide. Continue to work on the rotation and this is going to be a good way to keep her mentally pumped and engaged and everything else. So any rate, this is how you go from 42 to 60 feet. I would say always go with the rotational shot, give it the right amount of time, do the right things and those two combos usually lead to big results. Remember if you have questions about the throwing chain reaction system and how to better train and get more out of every training session, check the link in the description below. Do all that fun YouTube stuff for us. If you like the channel, support us, likes, thumbs up, turn on notifications, comment. All that stuff helps us out to be able to keep bringing you guys videos to help give you good information to put you on the right track and be sure to check out our camp events, links also in the bio and we'll see you guys on the next video. Take care.