 Everyone, it's Coach Johnson, Airtay Throws Nation, and what we're gonna do in this quick video, this is what we're gonna call a short series called Thrower Problems. So for Throws Coaches and athletes, one of the things that we're looking at is what are the variables that are contributing to the slower technical development issues that are gonna be very, very common at the high school level? The truth is most high school and youth programs where we tend to see a lot of these issues and even with your collegiates in some cases and post-collegiates, the effectiveness of the strength training program is really has a massive impact on the throw. It's a very complex subject all in itself but one of the things we wanna look at here are some simple problems that you're most likely gonna address. So you're gonna have some various, obviously you're gonna have a range of talent levels of Thrower and what we wanna do is be very conscious of are the deficits and strength affecting the technical development? And in many cases, that's the case. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a peek at this video. Here we have a high school athlete, he's a freshman and so like a lot of kids that are around 15 years old, they're kinda growing fast and they're growing into their bodies and so they run into that period of development where strength doesn't quite match the jump up to the implement yet and that sort of thing and their growth, their physical growth. So here we're gonna do is we're gonna look at, so our pillar one, remember pillar one is the setup and one of the things we're gonna notice here is that this athlete, this is actually an incorrect windup. We're not getting the shoulder, hip separation the way we would most optimally want and so this athlete has very good general movement for a freshman but you can see some of the hitches in his throw. Now one of the things we're gonna be focusing on is that this athlete has three main strength issues who just overall strength needs to improve considerably because his strength is weak when he gets into the weight room, he feels compelled that he's gotta lift with the stronger guy so he's lifting weights that really he's not capable of lifting. Now there's a real clear clarification here. We're not trying to be overly concerned or too conservative, you definitely do have to push yourself in the weight room but you have to have the good fundamental technical positions first in order to maximize that. When you're lifting too much and your technique really can't handle the extra weight the gains are actually gonna plateau at a much lower point and so you're gonna run into efficiency especially when it comes to things like range of motion. So this athlete needs extensive lower body development. Good old fashioned back squats and front squats are gonna do a tremendous amount for this athlete. So because of that the strength issues the lower body strength, what we're gonna see is as he sets up and these are pretty good positions you're noticing for a freshman this foot is turning a little too much and that's gonna be because as he starts to load here this foot stops rotating and he can't get this knee pushed around and down into the throw. We refer to this as pillar three and this is where we're gonna apply speed. If you can't load the left leg in pillar three you can't create the most optimal speed into the center of the circle. So because he can't, one of the reasons he's under rotating continuously because if you go back here this is a fairly good position he could be a little more to the inside of the foot but that's a pretty strong entry position. Problem is as he starts to load right here he can't continue to drop and load and that extra few degrees of rotation and load in the right leg is something that his strength levels will not permit. So one of the core things that the suggestion for throwers and coaches is that if you're seeing issues like this with your thrower you have to understand that your strength development is vital but he should be lifting very specific ways and going through a specific program to help address these issues. So what you see is now when we look at our chain reaction when we hit the pillar four what we're seeing is the sink and you'll notice that the heel starts to drop it still rotates fairly well but you're gonna notice that his hip positions are really pointing kind of his hips are really pointing more of this way. So they're probably somewhere hips are really facing more of that 9.30, 10 o'clock range when in this position we should have those hips rotated a little more and this heel should definitely be higher and that's gonna create faster rotation of the lower body. Now because of the quad strength issues and when I had this athlete training we did some basic squat testing and he can't get his hips below his knees without his knees collapsing in he's got underdeveloped VMO, Vassus lateralis and so that you'll see that he literally has a hard time holding certain positions. So if we're looking at the throwing chain reaction again it goes back to this point right here he can't load that's gonna change the sequence in all the other remaining pillars of the throw and so his strength levels prohibit those more optimal positions. He has a very good feel for the disc this good stretch but some of these reaction points are coming from those lack of strength. So we have a two-fold prong he has to do drills and specific drills to address these weaknesses and forcing the body into those positions by itself is going to create strength. If you think of the concept of a gymnast who's moving their body in pretty extreme positions they get incredible strength development just moving their own body. So again, forcing the athlete to be aware of the problem and then working through the position issue will create a massive jump in just the specific strength and then coupled with the proper mechanics and the proper technique in the weight room he's gonna really accelerate this in the athlete like this could experience a really significant jump and that's gonna be the approach that we take with him and these would be the things you would be looking for as a coach or a thrower. You gotta have specific strength and you have to realize the role of strength deficits and how they create limitations in the technique in the throw.