the plant foot

[deeds]

hey
just how important is it that the heel is planted instead of the toe when throwing?
scot

[Administrator]

There are a number of reasons why you shouldn't plant your toe as opposed to the heel first. I'm sure people can add others but here are some of my views.

1. If you plant on your toe it is very unlikely that your left leg (or right for lefties) will be fully extended in front of you and you will be throwing from a bent leg and a shorter stride.

2. If you plant on the toe it is very hard to maintain the left side of your body and if you are going at any kind of speed it is very likely that the left side will collapse.

3. From personal experience - Planting on the toe can give your left leg massive instability and if you run at the throw hard you can twist the knee and ankle and do lots of damage. I did this last time I threw and ended up needing 2 operations to sort it out after! 1 down and 1 to go!

[deeds]

many thanks james, will try this and let you know how i get on
scot
p.s hope ur leg is sorted out now!

[lasher2]

Well, I think the key thing is to land with a flat foot.

This isn't achieved by simply sticking the right leg out in front though. Basically, work hard on right hip extension (or left of course) and you will drive onto the left leg.

If you try and plant heel first, you could pick up a nasty heel injury as it is a very sensitive area and a bruised heel is not an easy injury to shake off. Particularly if you do a lot of impact based training and sports in general.

The orientation of the front foot is really a symptom of the orientation of the hips as you come in to strike. If like Andreas, you land with your right foot at 1 o clock he extends the right on to the left similar to Backley, hence he lands on the flat of his foot pointed out slightly. Tero on the other hand lands more side on and his front foot points in very slightly as he strikes.

It does appear that the heel hits the ground first as prior to the left hitting the ground, the heel is pointing down. This is how it should be though as the foot should be in a neutral position (i.e. Toes up). However, as the foot strikes the ground the flat of the foot comes down. Watch slow mo clips of most of the top throwers and you will see this.

I have watched some hight speed camera footage of throwers through the left leg due to my biomechanical background and because they are 1000 frames per second, and not 50 such as some of the standard cameras available, you can see every movement of the lower limb as the leg strikes. Very interesting. Its a bit like the bat moving as it strikes the ball on the slow mo they have with the cricket at the mo. You don't see it with the naked eye until it is really slowed down.

Just focus on striking the right hip and getting the left down as quick as poss, like Zelezny. He has a pretty good pb after all!!!

Cheers