Blocking is a Crucial Skill for Throwing Effectively
What is a block?
“Blocking” or “bracing” refers to the point at which the thrower is in their delivery stance and the non-throwing side of the body comes to a halt and is locked in place. This then acts as a pivot point around which the throwing side of the body can accelerate to release the implement. (i.e. A right-handed thrower will block the left side of their body as their right arm comes through). Think of the left side of the body acting like a hinge on a gate. To slam the gate shut, the pivot point must be fixed in place. Also useful is the analogy of a catapult, which relies on a fixed pivot point for its power.
Blocking the left side of the body in the shot put
A good block will speed up the delivery of an implement as one part of the body stops to accelerate another part. A throw with a good block will look “snappy”, like a whip cracking.
An athlete who is unbalanced, falling away, over-rotating or lifting their back foot as they throw is usually not achieving a good block.
An article about discus throwing at: http://www.coachr.org/discus_step_by_step.htm, states that:
“Biomechanically, at the finish we have a rotating line across the shoulders. If we decelerate the left end of this line (the left shoulder), we accelerate the right end (the discus). This can be explained to young throwers by comparing it to a skateboard rider riding 10 miles an hour. If he hits a curb, his feet and the skateboard decelerate immediately to 0 mph causing his head to accelerate beyond 10 mph”
What is needed for a good block?
To achieve a good block, a right-handed thrower will require:
- A balanced delivery position – you can’t block on an unstable base.
- A braced left leg in the delivery stance – a bent or buckled leg will not be effective.
- A tall delivery position – not bent forward at hips.
- Control of the non-throwing side – the athlete shouldn’t “throw the arm away” behind them.
- Both feet in contact with the ground – you can’t block off one foot.
- A forceful stopping motion of the non-throwing side – you cant’t block softly.
- Speed of movement leading up to the block – you can’t block slowly.
How to teach a block?
Very young athletes will struggle to understand and apply the concept of blocking. It is not among the first things that I would try to teach to a beginner. Novice throwers often struggle to control and release the implement correctly, let alone achieve a forceful stopping of their left side.
Eventually, however, a young athlete will need to develop the ability to block as part of their throwing action. Some athletes develop the action naturally or discover it themselves; others will require rigorous instruction.
Some tips to teach a good block include:
A wide range of throwing experiences
Allow athletes to experience throwing a wide range of implements across a wide range of throwing movements. A broad exposure to throwing skills will often see good throwing fundamentals developed, including a basic block, without the need for a lot of direct instruction. Use various sized balls, including medicine balls, and other objects. Throw for distance, accuracy, from various stances and a range of starting positions.
Standing throws
I believe a block is best first developed during a standing throw, without the complication of stepping, gliding, turning , running up, etc.
Non-throwing arm action
The action of the non-throwing arm is important to the execution of a block. Ideally a thrower should forcefully pull their non-throwing arm from an extended position in towards their body to assist in a blocking action. Tell the athletes that it is like they are pulling a handle in towards their ribs.
Hip Drive
Teaching young athletes to drive their hips around to the front can assist them to develop a sound blocking action. Telling athletes to “throw the coins out of their back pocket” can be a good coaching cue.
Do you have any ideas about how to best explain or teach a blocking action?
I would love to hear your ideas. Let me now by leaving a reply/comment.
Further reading
E-Books:
How To Teach Shot Put To Young Athletes E-Book (plus bonus cheat sheet) by Coaching Young Athletes
How To Teach Discus To Young Athletes E-Book (plus bonus cheat) by Coaching Young Athletes
How To Introduce Javelin to Young Athletes (plus bonus cheat sheet) by Coaching Young Athletes
Articles:
10 Biggest Mistakes Young Athletes Make in the Shot Put
How to Teach Young Throwers to Drive Their Hips To The Front
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Darren Wensor is a sports development professional, coach educator, specialist coach of young athletes, and founder of the blog coachingyoungathletes.com. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or via email. Check out Coaching Young Athletes on YouTube, the Coaching Young Athletes podcast, and the Coaching Young Athletes E-Book Series.
Coaching Young Athletes 
Hi Coach, Re; Discus; Many of my young athletes lift their right foot too early (they are all right handed). Blocking could be an issue as per your article. I will focus on this and see if this helps, Are there any other reasons why they might be lifting their right foot too soon at release? and what methods might help them keep their foot grounded at release? Thank you
John Bristol
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Hi John. I often find that a lot of kids don’t drive or pivot enough off their back foot. They simply lift it up. Also check to see if they are putting their weight back on that foot during a standing throw wind-up or as they contact the middle of the circle during a rotational throw. Darren
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“Very young athletes will struggle to understand and apply the concept of blocking”. Kids will often naturally resist something that doesn’t make sense, and blocking is surely one of those things that doesn’t make a great deal of sense.
For right handed throwers, the left leg should be used to drive upwards and forward, with the hamstrings and glutes very active. Blocking effectively (I’ve seen it done to the severe impairment of the throw) plays a part in preventing proper separation – particularly evident in the case of the shot. The left side of the body is very tightly attached to the right, obviously, and the whole must move in unison as an effective flowing process.
I’ve had coaches describe the benefit of blocking as being epitomised by the action of a motor vehicle hitting a solid object at speed and sending the driver through the windscreen, which was pretty unhelpful, given that such a scenario doesn’t accelerate the driver (or any object propelled through the window). (That would be like the thrower stopping suddenly at the front and allowing the shot to fly forward from the shoulder without added acceleration by the arm). The object /human travels on, briefly, at the same speed as that of the impact.
A more telling analogy would be that of a driver in an ejector seat who, when the car suddenly halts against a solid object, is accelerated out through the windscreen by the ejector seat (similar to the arm strike/thrust as it accelerates the shot at the end of the throw). But, when the ejector seat fires, Newton’s third law should be remembered: equal and opposite forces etc. Whatever the force applied by the arm/ejector seat, an equal and opposite force applies, tending to force the car/thrower backwards. In the case of the thrower this is momentarily countered, as it should be, by both the right AND the left legs, and the forward momentum of the body, which explains the amount of work the left hamstrings and glutes do when doing separation drills (leg/hip/shoulder/arm) as any dedicated thrower will confirm.
Blocking by the left side, in whatever form is likely to – in most cases at least, if not all – reduce the scope for applying force to the implement. The only effective blocking should be against the forward movement of the thrower by the force exerted by the arm through the shot. If all of the force generated, dynamically and by momentum, is focussed through the arm, it should be exactly the amount needed to keep the thrower from fouling at the front.
Blocking as portrayed normally is, imv an unhelpful principle that at best offers nothing of value and only confuses those who we hope to develop as athletes. And a careful look at elite level throwers demonstrates that blocking – in the sense described by too many coaches – is not something they do. That’s especially clear at the highest levels in the discus in particular, and thought it all happens so fast in the final split second of the throw many coaches are somehow able to see something that’s not happening. What they are doing is something that is basic to good throwing, driving up and forward with the left leg.
I keep reading and hearing comments by coaches when they analyse a top level throw about how good, how powerful the block was – when there wasn’t the slight amount of blocking going on in the sense they are imagining. But, humans believe many things every day that have little basis in reality.
Or maybe blocking is simply the wrong term and somehow conjures up ideas that are not quite as intended. Language can be tricky. The left side should never, imv, prevent the right hip from getting through effectively, but when the idea of blocking is emphasised then this tends to be the result. And, imv, the left leg should be driving upwards and forward against the backward force exerted by the shot through the right shoulder and then arm as they are driven forward. Anything that obstructs/blocks, with the exception of the arm, will have a detrimental effect on the throw.
As a modern coach explained it “slamming the right side into the left side will give you a lot more distance”. No it won’t. This is the idea of using the left side effectively misrepresented to a ridiculous and detrimental degree. Both sides necessarily work together as a flowing process/unity. And yes, the left side works hard to contribute to the throw but does not block as if it’s separate from the right side in any meaningful sense. The kind of description as quoted is very far from helpful to the throw and to the budding athlete.
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