The Left Foot

[Morgan]

Hi guys,
My coach says i should put my plant foot 33 degrees instead of facing forward im not sure which is best 33 degrees, or Forward,

Please reply and thanks everyone

MorganYoung

[slinger]

sounds very bizarre!

are you sure he was being serious!?

[Morgan]

yes, definately, i thought it was wierd but he IS a good coach, but i want to know what you all think? because i think its wierd too:) he said it would give the hips more energy as it stops them turning a little bit when you plant so you can get more power out of them,

but i am willing to go with what you think!
please post:)

cheers,

Morgan

[wez]

Hi Morgan,

I assume you mean 33 degrees as in 2 oclock if 12 oclock is facing forwards? and not the other way. Thork faces outward the other way a bit but its because he has wrecked his ankle and it won't go straight.

I've experimented with putting my plant foot at one oclock (as a right hander) before and indeed it did give me an earlier more solid block. On the other hand i tore the hell out of my ankle ligaments and by the 3rd ocassion of reinjury i decided that straight is a better option and to be honest i throw further like that now anyway and have found other ways to sort out the hip issues.

[slinger]

hey morgan!

can you explain this alittle better, it has me a tad confused...

"he said it would give the hips more energy as it stops them turning a little bit when you plant so you can get more power out of them,"

with regards to real specific left foot placement, no-one gets a pratracter out that i have seen mid throw ;D but the general consensus in any javelin literature i have ever seen is the left foot should be toes straight down the middle, at the end of the day it's not a conscious thing anyway, you just do it.

[Morgan]

Thanks Wez and yes i mean 2 oclock or 1 oclock

thanks guys

[wez]

To be honest i wouldn't really advise doing that, and certianly no where near as far as 33 degrees if you have to try it atall. ( i guess i used about 10-15 degrees) I think turning the foot is asking for ankle and knee injuries and may infact messup your delivery and follow through anyway. When i was doing it, its because i was over rotating the hips in the delivery and it seemed to me like a quick fix to stop that, noone advised me to do it and i stopped it after half a season because it was causing me injury and i found better ways to correct my problem.

You can get much better hip activation results and resultant energy into the jav by doing things better from your right foot and body alignment prior to the plant going down. We have whole sections about that on this site, just ask Slinger!

edit

I just noticed your age and pb on another thread. What i mentioned above about alignment of plant foot is absolutley not for young throwers its the kind of minor tweak you might try once you have been throwing for many years. You must first establish a strong consistent technique based on the accepted technical models already out there. There are a whole bunch of important basics that you have to master before even thinking about that kind of thing, and by the time you have done that the chances are that you will have already corrected the issue in another way.

Look at the international throwers like Thorkildsen and past masters like Backley and try to copy what they do/did. You were perfectly right to question your coach- put that left foot down stright and activate the hips better by rotating the right foot fast and turning it over before your left plant is fully in place.

Morgan, checkout this thread, this is some great practical stuff about setting up the plant and using the hips in the throw. The answer to your problems is almost certainly in there.

thejavelinclub.proboards23.com/index.cgi?board=Technique&action=display&thread=1079

have fun and refer your coach to us if he still disagrees