Throwing, Part 2

There’s a whole “school of thought” out there that any disc that the receiver can get their hands on is a catchable disc. At the pro and elite levels, I completely agree with this. At the mid levels, this is ridiculous.

I mean, I’m happy to try it. Let’s play guts. You stand 20 feet away from me, and I throw it as hard as I can. Last time I was throwing into the radar gun, I was throwing about 62 MPH (100 km/hr), or about 90 feet per second. That disc is gonna get to you in 220ms. If you have a 200ms reaction time (which is about right for mid-level amateur athletes), you’ll have a bonus 20ms to gauge where the disc is. Now imagine running at me at full speed.

Now, I know no one is taking a full wind-up to throw at 20 feet (6 meters). But that suggests the aphorism doesn’t work, at least not as an absolute truth.

So, what about a throw that travels at 30 MPH, or 45 ft/sec? That disc will reach you in 440ms. That’s a bit more human. But, how often are you practicing these catches? And, what if you’re running in at 12 MPH (17-second 100m time, which is fairly pathetic)? You’re moving at over 15 ft/sec. In that half second to reach you, you’ll have moved 5 feet. So, prob something like 100ms to react. Not great.

But, if you need strong evidence that throws with touch work, just peep this. This is San Francisco Revolver, the strongest club team in the world, throwing what flikulti.com calls a “dad backhand”:

Now, you know I say not to make horizontal cuts. But, when the thrower can throw you open with a “dad backhand”, then it doesn’t matter how you move.