Learning to Throw Both Ways

In most sports, there are obvious benefits to being ambidextrous. Baseball has switch hitters. Basketball teaches you to do layups with both hands, attacking the basket from both sides. Lacrosse players cradle, pass, and shoot with both hands. The same is true for Ultimate, and it is not put into practice nearly enough by young players.

Throwers who can throw both ways are a significantly larger threat to the defense because there are so many different release points that the mark needs to try and take away. It is easy to get your mark to bite on a low inside flick break (standard throw), and then quickly switch hands as you rise up and throw the lefty backhand right over top of the mark to the break side. It is so easy to do this and hit the front of the stack, who can simply run onto the disc after it is thrown and start attacking up the break side. Very few marks at the college level are trained to take away off hand throws, which makes them much easier to utilize when breaking the mark.

Injuries Are Opportunities to Learn New Throws

I pulled my groin at College Sectionals with Georgetown in April 2012, and it has been a nagging injury for the past 6 months. There was a three-month period this summer where it was so bad that I was unable to throw a flick without stepping out and tweaking my groin. Freddie Tsai taught me how he views injuries as a blessing in disguise, because they force him to work on throwing the disc in new ways that are unhindered by his current physical condition. As such, this will go down in history as my (first?) left-handed summer.

No flick, no problem – especially when you focus on developing your lefty backhands as a primary throw. While living at the beach this summer, I would spend 1-2 hours, 4-5 days a week working on my throws, especially my lefty backhands, because stepping out with the opposite pivot foot did not put any strain on my injured groin. I played countless hours of Laws-el-toss (one person catch throwing the disc as high in the air as possible), focusing on getting as much torque, rotation, and power on my lefty backhands as I threw the disc high into the wind and would practice reading it as it came back down.

When I realized stepping out with the opposite pivot foot didn’t stress my groin and also helped strengthen my other leg muscles, I started doing something even more out of the ordinary – I no longer set a pivot foot when I catch the disc on an in cut. If a standard mark is forcing you flick, and they know you are right handed, then there is absolutely no way they will be able to reach all the way over and affect your step out lefty backhand. Additionally, when I make a strike cut on a flick force, my instinct is to now wind up for a big lefty-backhand huck instead of throwing a standard flick huck.

When I explain this to some people, they have brought up issues with travel calls. It did take some time to get the footwork down and prevent pivoting unnecessarily, but I was only called for one legitimate travel this summer because of double pivoting. And even if people do call travels, you can always just say, “Hey, I’m left handed. We never travel.” However, I encourage you to focus first on perfecting (or at least strengthening) your lefty throws before you think about pivoting ambidextrously, which adds another level of complexity into your throwing arsenal. When you first start doing it, there is a lot of mental effort that goes into fully hashing out the throw in your head and putting all the pieces together to know which side to step out on, which grip to use, what angle to release the disc, etc.

Lefty Backhand Basics

Learning to throw an off-hand backhand is not incredibly difficult if you already know how to throw a backhand. Check out that article from Ultimate Rob for backhand tips, and here is a great video from Brodie Smith. To start practicing a lefty backhand, I recommend standing 10-15 yards away from a friend with your legs stationary. At first, you want to focus on using your hips and core to generate enough torque to get the disc to your teammate. The disc will probably be pretty wobbily for a while, so using your index finger to stabilize the disc is good for starters and shorter throws. As you get more comfortable with the disc in your left hand, you will be able to go use a standard power grip with either hand.

Once you start completing passes, start with a righty flick fake and practice the smooth transfer of rigthy flick fake to lefty backhand over the mark. You should be aiming to hit your receiver on the outside shoulder away from where his defender at the front of the stack (it’s okay if your partner has to take a couple steps to the break side to catch each throw). The next twist you can add is to start looking 90 degrees away from your partner (i.e., engaging the imaginary reset), and then turn and throw the lefty backhand “upfield” simulating a strike cut. This throw in particular can be great for rookies who struggle mightily with their upfield flick throw to strike cuts. There is a TON of value that can added to your game by focusing on just these two lefty backhand throws: 1) break throw to the front of the stack and 2) strike cut against a flick force.

When working out with Brendan Nichols in summer 2012, he encouraged me to change my “rest” position to a balanced stance with both hands on the disc with the disc at chest height. This has had a great impact on my game. From this position, you are now able to throw almost any fake and/or release the disc quickly from almost any position…in either hand. This is very useful, getting you more comfortable with the disc in both of my hands and easily transferring it between hands. Having this central rest position makes it much easier for you to not set a pivot foot because you can throw realistic, stationary fakes, and then only step out (to either side) when the throw you want to make was finally open and you already moved the mark out of the way.

Expert Throwing Routines

Throwing workouts can come in any shape or size, and I want to share a couple well-known ones with you. I recommend taking your favorite parts from each throwing workout and creating your own remix workout that best suits your current development needs. In addition, you are highly encourage you to throw with cleats on whenever possible – this is much closer to simulating in-game situations than just lazily throwing the disc barefoot on the front the lawn.

Ben Wiggins’ Zen Throwing Routine focuses on being balanced and incorporating deliberate, focused practice of in-game throws. One of my favorite aspects of the routine is #10 for research and development. This is where your lefty backhand work begins and should follow the logical progression of:

1) Throw occasionally in non-practice throwing

2) Throw in pre-practice warm-ups

3) Throw in practices

4) Throw in game warmups

5) Throw in meaningless games

6) Throw in practice scrimmages

7) Throw in games.

Following this model, I practiced throwing lefty scoobers approximately 1,000 times at the beach during 2012 summer in various wind conditions. I threw one lefty scoober at club sectionals against a force flick zone. It was a completion over the cup back to the center handler, and it was absolutely worth all of the time I spent practicing that throw to know that it was game ready when the situation presented itself. It is also useful to have a lefty scoober in your arsenal to trick French Canadian teams on end zone plays.

Lou Burruss teaches us about Kung Fu Throwing. This workout improves the thrower in three specific ways: repetition, challenging the thrower to throw outside their comfort zone, and articulating the different components of a throw (which many throwers have never thought of). Part of the warmup for this workout includes full sets of lefty throws. A series of lefty throws can go a long way to help with the balance discussed in Wiggins’ workout. It also helps to create an equilibrium between the muscles in your left and right legs because you get reps stepping out to both sides – you can relate this to doing lunges on both sides with a twist (aka throwing the disc).

Hope you enjoyed this post, which was originally written in 2012 for a friend at JMU who got injured and wanted to learn how to throw lefty. It was published by Skyd.