The Value of Anchored Throws

May 21
6 min read

When looking to shape movement patterns through a constraints-led approach, one of the fine balances to manage as a coach is specificity. Throughout training, the goal is to bring an athlete through the full scope of environments: ones that provide an athlete with the tools to explore new movement patterns, ones that encourage problem solving through specific constraints, and ones that allow for the use of newfound movement solutions in the context of their actual delivery.

Depending on the athlete, the balance of general to specific work may look a lot different. When programming more general patterning work, one of the constraints we love to use with athletes is anchored throws. An anchored throw would be any variation of a throw where the back foot remains in contact with the ground. These variations can include a full leg lift or a lead leg hover and are normally paired with other constraints. There are a number of reasons we like to use these variations, but here are a few of the ways that this constraint can manipulate movement patterns.

Teaches the Back Leg to Anchor into Rotation

One of the biggest misconceptions about the throw is that the back leg is responsible for creating linear momentum and driving rotation. When you look at videos of the best in the world, what you start to see is that the back leg actually does the opposite.

As mound descent happens and rotation is initiated by the pelvis, we actually see the back leg work behind the body and maintain length as ball launch occurs. This is one of the indications that the role of the back leg isn’t to drive linear momentum but to stabilize it.

This is where we must think through the role of the slope itself and understand that movement patterns on flat ground will and should look different. The second you transition out of peak leg lift on a slope and find any type of hinge or squat, gravity is going to take you forward toward the plate. If an athlete is getting to the same stride length on flat ground that they are on the slope, they’re likely doing too much.

This moment of transition down the mound is where, by far, the most mechanical issues stem from. When an athlete pushes forward, they add even more momentum that must be managed during this transition. Some are able to coordinate this well, but many are unable to.

Now, does this mean that the back leg doesn’t play a role in the expression of velocity? Of course not. But its role in helping an athlete express velocity is by stabilizing the pelvis as linear momentum is built and during rotation so that the athlete can rotate fast and pull slack out at the right time.

So, anchored throw variations can allow for different movement patterns to emerge because they change the role of the back leg.

Restriction of Space & Time

The primary reason that these variations create different patterns is because of the constraint of space the athlete has available and, as a result, the lack of time the athlete has.

When we introduce an anchored drill, the rule we start with is simple: the back foot must stay on the ground the entire time. What often happens is the athlete will default to pushing off the back foot and flipping it over completely. The majority of the time (with some exceptions), this feels really awkward for the athlete, and they can feel how it can be more difficult to sync things up and throw the ball where they want to. If that’s the case, we give the athlete the rule of keeping the back foot sideways, meaning they can pronate and evert the back foot but can’t let it flip all the way over.

Essentially, what we’re doing here is continuing to take available space away from the athlete on the back leg so that they can find a way to drive the throw with the middle of the body. Because there is no longer space to push forward (if they do, the back leg will come off the ground or turn), the rotation of the trunk and pelvis now have to drive the throw in a more connected fashion.

For many athletes who get past their adductor length on the back leg, this is a valuable learning experience of what connected rotation can actually feel like when the back leg isn’t overextended. Because there is less length and space, it also forces the upper body to work within less time, as a tighter window of rotation means the arm has less time to disconnect and work independently.

Timing of Pelvic & Torso Decel

The other thing that happens when the window of rotation is forced to get tight like this is that the timing of deceleration also happens earlier. Because the pelvis physically has less space to move through, it rotates and stops sooner, meaning torso deceleration also ends up happening sooner in sequence. This can give the athlete a “feel” for what proper timing is and how it affects the direction of their throw. The ball’s flight indicates whether they are able to sync up rotation and deceleration in a way that transfers force efficiently or whether they need to make an adjustment to do so.

This is where the athlete can explore how much they need to counter with the upper body, whether an open or closed stride position better fits their needs, or whether an arm angle change allows things to time up more appropriately. Because things are so constrained, there is a freedom to explore those modifications and see their true impact independently, without having to coordinate them within a full throw. Smart minds in the field, like the coaches over at 108 Performance, have been doing things similar to this for years.

This is a valuable tool for loose and tight movers alike. For loose movers, they must find a way within the constraints to pull their length out by release, and for tight movers, this works as a way for them to explore what length is best for them from a more constrained position that likely fits their anatomy.

Back Foot Function

Lastly, anchored throws can also be a really valuable tool in getting an athlete to anchor their back foot more efficiently, especially in variations where we have athletes use a full leg lift or modified leg lift. Essentially, what this challenges is the ability for the back foot to hold its anchor as the lead leg approaches the ground for landing.

For athletes with flat feet, this forces them to find some sort of stability at the foot and ankle from that more pronated and/or everted position of the foot. Whereas for athletes with high arches, they are forced to find a way to either hold supination until the very last second or progressively flatten the arch of the back leg without losing stability.

Why is this important? The back foot and its movements help keep the lower and upper leg in a length-tension relationship to continue stabilizing the pelvis into landing and, ultimately, deceleration. If the back foot lacks dynamic options, or at least a viable strategy given the athlete’s makeup, it can lead to a late push into rotation that can have some effect upstream.

For example, if someone has really high arches and no ability to pronate the back foot, this isn’t inherently an issue, but the athlete has to find a way to delay the rotation of the back foot until the very last moment. The second that foot turns, the lead leg is going to have to land because there’s such a short window that the foot has available to move through as it rotates.

Anchored drills are constrained enough to give an athlete the ability to naturally organize into better patterns with how they anchor the back foot — either learning to flatten the arch and maintain stability or maintaining the arch and finding a way to delay the foot from flipping over until the last moment.

Conclusion

Anchored drill variations have become a staple for us in constraining athletes into more connected movement patterns and giving them the tools and “feel” to progress into our more specific mound work. There are a number of ways to implement these variations, but we have most commonly programmed them into plyo routines and catch play work.