Latissimus dorsi the king of mass, brace and dingle arms.

This still holds true but I belive this should be worded differently. My rewrite would say static arm vs dynamic arm. Static is how we basically use our arms in most of our daily activities. Brushing teeth, writing, drawing, eating etc. This only activates half of our arm and thus bigger muscles do not get involved. This is pretty much the definition how people get chicken arm in golf. When you have static arms your body stays still, so you can be accurate in whatever you are doing. Dynamic arms is something I would describe as using the whole arm, like in any other sport. Since our pecs/lats are connected in to our arm from the arm pit they automatically activate when you are using your whole arm. When the arm is connected your whole body reacts in the movement of the arms. Very clear examples of this is the windmill drill or freestyle swimming, heck any sport really.

Something how you can try it out yourself is to take a sideways stance and imitate a sidearm throw. Start with t-rexing or static arm, how you would write, eat etc. This moves only your forearm and wrist. Your body should be pretty still and only your arm moves. Then imitate the same move but think about using your whole arm. Your leading shoulder will turn and your hips start to work as well. It is impossible to throw well with an disconnected arm.
 
A little explanation of the function of the latissimus dorsi. I didn't realize how large the muscle was and that the attachments were from the back of the humorous to the spine and pelvis. Interesting to see the use of the side bending for stretching (3:59) and how it is really similar to the "hips to the sky" with the bonus of a muscle stretch reflex.

 
A little explanation of the function of the latissimus dorsi. I didn't realize how large the muscle was and that the attachments were from the back of the humorous to the spine and pelvis. Interesting to see the use of the side bending for stretching (3:59) and how it is really similar to the "hips to the sky" with the bonus of a muscle stretch reflex.

Man he's doing an extreme version of Door Frame Drill, also very similar to Windmill Drill and Reciprocating Dingle Arm.
 
Glad you bumped this thread. I was thinking about this the other day and realize that I have a tendency to neglect my lats in my throw. I notice a difference when I actively engage them.
 
I used to obsess over grip pressure until I learned to push the disc out wide with the thumb.

Can you please elaborate on what is meant by pushing the disc out wide with the thumb? Is this an active movement during the hit or something you do before throwing to set your grip? How is it done?
 
Bumping this because of how much it helped me. If you dont get this down for both throws everything else is in vain. Some obviously never had to tackle this issue.
 


I've been looking into how to avoid the elbow dipping in the throw, and found this video claim its because of we're using the lats, and then I found this thread about how we should use our lats. Does anyone have any clarifications/thoughts on this? From just going over the arm movement without a disc it feels kind of impossible not using the lats at all
 


I've been looking into how to avoid the elbow dipping in the throw, and found this video claim its because of we're using the lats, and then I found this thread about how we should use our lats. Does anyone have any clarifications/thoughts on this? From just going over the arm movement without a disc it feels kind of impossible not using the lats at all


Hehe, this video is fun to watch.
Cause it's from a discussion Jaani and I had.

There is this theory out there that you need to pull your back muscles together like an archer to achieve some higher power in your throw. All you're going to do is tense your body up and cause it not to flow.

Everyone wants to have the "magic" pill for distance on their youtube to get subscribers and a following.

I just want people to stop doing dumb shit and making dumb video's that try and click bait you in information that isn't accurate.

If you're feeling like its impossible to not use the lats, that is because you're "pulling" the disc, vs driving your arm with the body.

I wouldn't say we "don't" use them, but we don't want to actively try and tighten our back muscles up to "throw harder."
It just makes you rigid and stiff.

I would say we want to make sure were relaxed.
Our body and back is relaxed.

But we also dont wanna hunch out to much either. we wanna be athletic. which means engaging the body fully. When we post up in basketball, we dont just hunch forward and let our arms and shoulders droop. We set them to essentially "active mode" or what I'd call a "good posture mode." Which allows for high activity, vs rigid movement.
 
If you're feeling like its impossible to not use the lats, that is because you're "pulling" the disc, vs driving your arm with the body.
Hmm, I don't think this thread is trying to say you use your lats in the same way you use them to do a pullup.

I have always interpreted this as one of the better attempts to describe the taut sling feeling. That there is MASS in your lats that you are channeling all of the momentum generated by the weight shift through.

I definitely still vibe with the concept that I personally took from this thread.

I also wonder how much of an impact my own lats have lol. I was a very high level boulderer and my lats are probably 3x larger than even relatively strong people with my frame lol. Buying shirts is such a pain because of it.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, I don't think this thread is trying to say you use your lats in the same way you use them to do a pullup.

I have always interpreted this as one of the better attempts to describe the taut sling feeling. That there is MASS in your lats that you are channeling all of the momentum generated by the weight shift through.

I definitely still vibe with the concept that I personally took from this thread.

I also wonder how much of an impact my own lats have lol. I was a very high level boulderer and my lats are probably 3x larger than even relatively strong people with my frame lol. Buying shirts is such a pain because of it.

It's hard to really talk about this topic to be honest.
Because .. like i said, everyone trying to find secret sauce stuff. but I specifically gave examples of doing actions like pulling a bow back, you squeeze your back together.
This is mainly what Jaani is talking about. This idea that if you wanna throw far you gotta snap your back muscles into each other or whatever.

I'm not sure how pull ups are anything to do with that.


I put it down to this either way.

Passive muscles vs active muscles.

That group needs to be used as a "passive" or "support" set during the throw. Our body will make the necessary changes as needed when we let them work as a passive set. The idea of trying to use them as an active muscle group in the throw is what is going to cause you to do what Jaani is talking about.
 
It's all about having your spine in flexion vs being extended. If you lean forward by hinging at the hips, at some point your arms will fall forward and just dangle in front of you. That's your spine going into flexion and that's what allows you to swing your whole arm with the lats. The key is to get in that position while still keeping the lower body in an athletic position. Posterior pelvic tilt heps with that.
 
It's all about having your spine in flexion vs being extended. If you lean forward by hinging at the hips, at some point your arms will fall forward and just dangle in front of you. That's your spine going into flexion and that's what allows you to swing your whole arm with the lats. The key is to get in that position while still keeping the lower body in an athletic position. Posterior pelvic tilt heps with that.

I think I can mostly agree with that.
Though I duno about the "swing the arm with the lats" part, but... on the track of how I think about it.
 
It's hard to really talk about this topic to be honest.
Because .. like i said, everyone trying to find secret sauce stuff. but I specifically gave examples of doing actions like pulling a bow back, you squeeze your back together.
This is mainly what Jaani is talking about. This idea that if you wanna throw far you gotta snap your back muscles into each other or whatever.

I'm not sure how pull ups are anything to do with that.


I put it down to this either way.

Passive muscles vs active muscles.

That group needs to be used as a "passive" or "support" set during the throw. Our body will make the necessary changes as needed when we let them work as a passive set. The idea of trying to use them as an active muscle group in the throw is what is going to cause you to do what Jaani is talking about.
Maybe we just interpret the initial post of this topic differently. I never took this as a prescription to use your lats like you are rowing a boat (or doing proper pullups).

This is probably a really complex topic if you wanted to really dig into it hard, but to me the video is far more about the kinetic chain moving through the lats instead of skipping them and manually flapping your arm.
 
Maybe we just interpret the initial post of this topic differently. I never took this as a prescription to use your lats like you are rowing a boat (or doing proper pullups).

This is probably a really complex topic if you wanted to really dig into it hard, but to me the video is far more about the kinetic chain moving through the lats instead of skipping them and manually flapping your arm.
Ahhh.

Yeah, I might have been over attributing based on all the other stuff i've seen/read.

Because there was this thing for a while there where the magic was basically taking your back and all these muscles and just crunching them together.

Ehh its wahtever.

I stand by my other statement though, making sure to keep passive muscle groups passive and letting them do their thing naturally to help you achieve.
 
Top