2018 Lucas Form

[lucasgg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtHhwF3A5k

[lucasgg]

Thinking my rear foot needs to be more open

[slowplastic]

Yeah rear foot may need to be more open. What I'm seeing though is your plant step is going a bit too much to the left, you aren't stacking the head and body on top of it enough. I think the reason why is you want some extra room to pre-open your lead hip a bit. I think you're trying to get a bit of the trebuchet/counter by opening up as you plant and having your right hip pull back a bit. You should be turning more closed/deeper as you plant and the front hip should be more stacked, and it should clear back/up after contact with the ground.

Basically what I'm seeing is the front leg/foot open slightly as you are planting, and the right hip is too far behind the front heel to the right side of the teepad, and it opens up before there is any weight on the leg rather than bracing your weight.

[lucasgg]

What am I doing right? Asking for a friend haha

[lucasgg]

Originally Posted by slowplastic

I think the reason why is you want some extra room to pre-open your lead hip a bit.

Can you please clarify this sentence too?

[sidewinder22]

You need to turn your butt to target and lead the stride instead of your front foot. Your balance is wonky on the rear leg from the Hershyzer position. Start with part 2 and hold the front back while you fall butt first targetward.

[slowplastic]

Originally Posted by lucasgg

What am I doing right? Asking for a friend haha

Really, you're close. Well, I'm close-ish too and I have been for a while...but we are closer to correct than before which is all to ask for.

I do a really similar thing to you with my front foot/leg, which is wrong. When we lift our leg in the X-step to bring it back over the left foot, we are thinking "closed plant" and turning the front foot in. This is NOT the closed plant way. Then when we plant the foot opens back up to 90 to the target. I don't open my pelvis as much as you, but we both open the foot from its pre-closed position during the step.

So you are loading back in the shift from behind type motion into the rear hip when you are striding with the plant foot. I think your pelvis should be turned more away from the target from the X-step, likely turning your rear foot more away from the target 130ish degrees will help this. Then you can load even more easily back into the rear hip.

The problem arises that as you are about to plant down you can see your right hip is like 8" behind your plant foot's heel and starts pulling back toward the rear of the tee. You are pulling "back" the butt/hips to act as the counterweight of the trebuchet...it's like the opposite motion of "shifting in front", or kind of going about counterweighting the throw incorrectly. You are using the entire pelvis to counterweight the throw, rather than the right hip countering back with left hip forward...each hip should go the opposite direction around the spine axis that is braced.

What I was saying about giving yourself that space...you are thinking about pulling the pelvis back as a counterweight, so I think that is why that space is there between your right hip and plant foot rather than stacking on top of it. If you set up for a one leg drill you should be on top of the leg, with the hip clearing back during the swing. Right now your butt would be way behind the heel and you'd pull the butt back during the throw rather than clearing it in order to throw.

The ways that may help correct it:
-one leg drill, feel being set up on top of the leg/foot and clearing the right side during the throw

-don't think about right hip during throw, think about loading deep into the rear hip, and then driving off the rear instep with the rear hip to a closed right hip

-the Crush the Can like Lizotte video on SW's youtube. He shows how to stride more straight then arced to the left of the teepad. The point is, your hips move forward at the same speed, down a line down the tee. The foot has to travel more distance, so it takes longer for the foot to catch up. It lets you feel like you are going to fall straight down until the foot ends up underneath of you...it delays you "catching" yourself so you feel more downward impact on the foot while still striding directly down the teepad. Essentially it lets you have a good delayed plant that you can get from striding way out front or way out left, but in a way that maintains your momentum down the teepad and with a shorter stride. Once you've felt it, it makes sense. Feels downward/dropping/sudden onto the plant.

-I am working on closing more into the plant, and what is helping me isn't thinking the front foot closing, it's thinking "shift the hips as I plant". And in order to shift the hips harder, that splitsecond before you turn back deeper. If I think to turn back deeper, it's so gradual. If I think about a forward motion, I inherently turn back further the second before and that closes my whole body off when I plant. The pro's don't just turn their plant foot back when it comes down, the whole body closes off the deepest at that instant.

[lucasgg]

Originally Posted by slowplastic

Really, you're close. Well, I'm close-ish too and I have been for a while...but we are closer to correct than before which is all to ask for.

I do a really similar thing to you with my front foot/leg, which is wrong. When we lift our leg in the X-step to bring it back over the left foot, we are thinking "closed plant" and turning the front foot in. This is NOT the closed plant way. Then when we plant the foot opens back up to 90 to the target. I don't open my pelvis as much as you, but we both open the foot from its pre-closed position during the step.

So you are loading back in the shift from behind type motion into the rear hip when you are striding with the plant foot. I think your pelvis should be turned more away from the target from the X-step, likely turning your rear foot more away from the target 130ish degrees will help this. Then you can load even more easily back into the rear hip.

The problem arises that as you are about to plant down you can see your right hip is like 8" behind your plant foot's heel and starts pulling back toward the rear of the tee. You are pulling "back" the butt/hips to act as the counterweight of the trebuchet...it's like the opposite motion of "shifting in front", or kind of going about counterweighting the throw incorrectly. You are using the entire pelvis to counterweight the throw, rather than the right hip countering back with left hip forward...each hip should go the opposite direction around the spine axis that is braced.

What I was saying about giving yourself that space...you are thinking about pulling the pelvis back as a counterweight, so I think that is why that space is there between your right hip and plant foot rather than stacking on top of it. If you set up for a one leg drill you should be on top of the leg, with the hip clearing back during the swing. Right now your butt would be way behind the heel and you'd pull the butt back during the throw rather than clearing it in order to throw.

The ways that may help correct it:
-one leg drill, feel being set up on top of the leg/foot and clearing the right side during the throw

-don't think about right hip during throw, think about loading deep into the rear hip, and then driving off the rear instep with the rear hip to a closed right hip

-the Crush the Can like Lizotte video on SW's youtube. He shows how to stride more straight then arced to the left of the teepad. The point is, your hips move forward at the same speed, down a line down the tee. The foot has to travel more distance, so it takes longer for the foot to catch up. It lets you feel like you are going to fall straight down until the foot ends up underneath of you...it delays you "catching" yourself so you feel more downward impact on the foot while still striding directly down the teepad. Essentially it lets you have a good delayed plant that you can get from striding way out front or way out left, but in a way that maintains your momentum down the teepad and with a shorter stride. Once you've felt it, it makes sense. Feels downward/dropping/sudden onto the plant.

-I am working on closing more into the plant, and what is helping me isn't thinking the front foot closing, it's thinking "shift the hips as I plant". And in order to shift the hips harder, that splitsecond before you turn back deeper. If I think to turn back deeper, it's so gradual. If I think about a forward motion, I inherently turn back further the second before and that closes my whole body off when I plant. The pro's don't just turn their plant foot back when it comes down, the whole body closes off the deepest at that instant.

That helped a lot. I'll be focusing on turning deep into the rear hip and pushing off rear instep while leading w/ butt

[slowplastic]

Originally Posted by lucasgg

That helped a lot. I'll be focusing on turning deep into the rear hip and pushing off rear instep while leading w/ butt

That sounds right.

The best I can describe what I think you're doing now, is when you are on the plant foot you have an invisible axis form the plant foot up to your chin. Your butt/pelvis is on the back side of this axis, and your arm and shoulders are on the other. So you are counterweighted but it's way out wide/far from this axis, and you don't have really any body on this axis. It looks and feels balanced, but it is wide and not quick, and it is about pre-opening rather than transferring weight.

You should have the axis through your spine and through the brace leg. The axis is directly through your body. Equal and opposite...right arm swings, left arm does the swim move/leverage back. Plant foot's hip clears back on one side of the spine, left hip will have to swivel forward. Left leg will end up counterweighting on the opposite side of the spine to your throwing arm.

[lucasgg]