Week 3 Throwing - Low-Release Backhands

Here's the general plan for throwing practices:

• 2:00-2:29pm - Unstructured throwing
• 2:29-2:45pm - Dynamic warmup
• 2:45-3:30pm - Throwing drills
• 3:30-4:00pm - 3-on-3 games (keep-away, mini, box, double box, etc.)

Drills for this week are:

• 3-man marking drill, open side low-release backhands, passive mark (10 min)
• Come-to cutting drill, open side low-release backhands, passive mark (10 min)
• Lines, open side low-release backhands to 45 degree in cut, passive mark (10 min)
• 2-on-2 dump drill (10 minutes)

How to Throw a Backhand:

Again, I strongly suggest you download the video (that means you need to register for a free Vimeo account). There are a lot of things you can see more clearly when you watch frame-by-frame.

I don't have a whole lot to add to the video, but here are a couple things I'd like to emphasize.

The Step

Step out and forward and plant hard on your heel.  Shin points towards your body, point your toe towards your target.

As you complete your throw and follow-through, your lower body should stay almost motionless.

Throwing with a Mark

You can create space to throw your backhand with the threat of a big pivot to the forehand side.  The farther away from neutral you go, the longer it's going to take you to get across to throw the backhand (i.e. I like what I'm doing more than what Gspence is doing).

Again, I suggest going through these frame-by-frame to get a better idea of what's going on.