0:00 calling all hookers if you need to improve your throw this video is for [Music] you hey I'm Ben John the rugby trainer and welcome back to another video from me really excited about today we have got a professional Ford specialist especially the hu ofth he's worked with Argentina he's worked with Chile Brazil he's worked with a lot of professional teams helping them improve their hooker throwing and also their scrum setup as well but P he's going to spend 30 minutes with me to improve my throat really excited about this he's going to give me tips insights advice and also three draws at the end that we can take
0:46 away so make sure you hang around also make sure you comment below and tag your team's hooker so we can improve their game as well so looking forward to this let's get into it so firstly D mate thanks for coming down and going to show me the ropes how to how to throw properly yeah mate yeah looking forward to it so uh what we're going to start with bit of a warmup so all I want you to do is throw the ball to me um get those shoulders warmed up American football style go I'm winning Green Light let's get it I just win win win win win I'm on 10 10 10 10 hello I'm himothy I got the recipe I got the flow I got I got the remedy I know they know I know they eny me feet
1:34 on the floow we're going to start to talk about your setup now if you show me how you were set setting up the ball hands towards the back of the ball okay um elbows tight and then back and I try to keep my chest up but yeah okay so if we look start with the feet you can see your right foot is turned out now the reason why that foot turns out is to create rotation through your hip cuz when we naturally throw we would throw with rotation yeah okay in a line out we want to take that rotation away we want everything to be linear towards the the target so feet pointing forward okay next point we want to have soft knees that doesn't mean bent knees that doesn't mean locked out legs okay
2:19 so just nice and athletic so you might want to just bounce up and down and then when you take the ball above your head into your ready position you show me that okay now feel that Flex in your lower back yeah okay so we're going to explore that position so what I want you to do I want you to stay in that position but I want you to put your hands by your side and when you've got that Flex in your lower back I want you to put your hands by your side take your hands above your head and tell me where you feel the tension yeah even though I probably got more range it just goes straight through my lower back there right okay so we want to take away that tension so you can have a fluid movement and the way we do that is we're going to put our pelvis in neutral so you want your waistband to be parallel with the ground so you use your lower abs to pull your waistband up
3:07 and use your glutes to help hold it in place now so we're going to retest pelvis and neutral Hands by your side have you got more range of movement have you got less tension yeah way less tension perfect okay so that's the feeling we want to produce when you throw because if your pelvis is in anterior tilt it affects your range of movement with your your upper body okay so it's so it's this this position so I'm nice and relaxing on my feet rather than this one that's it so taking away that curve so bring that lift that pelvis up now see how you've gone into a knee Bend we want to be nice and Tall So Soft knees and a great way to feel that if you just lie down on the ground now I want you to tilt your pelvis so that
3:53 there's a gap with your lower back in the ground and then I want you to change your pelvis angle so that lower back is flat against the ground so if you can put your hands underneath your back you can't get them in no you've set your pelvis in neutral okay so that's a great way to understand how to move your pelvis and get that okay that's that the shape I want that's the position we want when we thr so I've just wear my new pair of boots as well let me know your thoughts they're fresh today let me know the comments below if you like these oh good so to begin with getting you familiar with setting your pelvis whilst performing your throwing movement so the power transfers through the
4:44 ball so we're going to explore hand placement okay so show me where your hands are on the ball now the aim what we're trying to achieve with with the release is the hands coming off the ball together so we got to look at the position of the ball so that's that's how I would put my hand right okay so we want to think about your dominant hand which is your right hand we want to maximize the hand contact on the ball okay so it's like thing like a Formula One car those big wide tires on the back there so they can get all that horsepower through the road so you can go faster that's great there okay so good now your guide hand we want to direct the power so there's a a technique that we used in a pro game where we are going to measure
5:30 from the middle of the ball where your fingertips are here we're going to use the guide hand thumb to be the same distance and we're going to put the thumb underneath the ball so as this hand is rolling through the ball the thumb and index finger are pinching through the ball and that helps to guide the power and direct the ball to its Target right okay so instead of me pushing through the ball of this left thumb yep I'm pinching down that's it let's give it a try okay there you go too much more power so we're going to use a round ball to help you to find your Rhythm okay okay so all I want you to do is I want you to put your your power hand on the ball naturally where where we are and we're going to use that same measurement of
6:16 symmetry so this distance from the middle of the ball we're going to put our left thumb underneath the same distance okay so the distance between there and there should be the same there and there that's what we're looking for Okay so got it you've got three seconds to throw me the ball one two three okay let's try again one two three nice let's get in there let's get in there one two 3 now we want to um make sure it's going towards the target okay so real simple where your hands finish is where the
7:02 ball goes one two three ah to the left that's it that's getting there if the ball is going towards its Target with the spiral you've released the ball at the same time so that's the feeling we're trying to recreate and that's the visual feedback we're looking for as well okay good yeah I felt more to the right then so naturally most people with their dominant hand does the majority of the work and what we want to encourage is that balance that 50/50 um split so by bringing the guide Thum underneath the ball you're going to achieve more Force to balance the power so if your thumb is parallel
7:48 with the center of the ball you're using zero force with your Thum if it's at 90° you're using maximum 100% so you've got to explore the right angle to allow you to for the amount of pinch to to guide the ball okay okay so this time I want you to explore that angle and a great way as you are now is just trying to spin it in that standing position so just get familiar we changing the angle of so this it's these two it's the the fir and the index finger of the guide hand I think I was using that one for some reason there you go we have to introduce an element of the skill okay and then observe so as you said there you were using the middle finger of your of your guide hand now
8:35 what I want you to focus on in the beginning is using the Thum okay so you start to use the Thum fantastic now we can then look at the next component and now we can bring the index finger in and that should feel a little bit more natural is this a type of drill so if I was working on my my clients with their pass in I would just tell them to get obsessed by in the house rolling that ball off the is this a type of drill that you can do in the house Y and again it's a very popular drill using like on Zoom calls and so on so um you can do it with a rugby ball with a round ball and exactly that we're trying to develop the the strength and the dynamic movement in this pining action there we go okay should we try one more time one two three a the pressure didn't get my
9:25 hands right then okay oh yes now one observation that I saw that we're going to deow the power hand for this exercise is the power hand fun okay okay so this is again that natural think about that holding the American Football F underneath you get that rotation yeah yes it produces lots of force but it can impact the balance of the release so in that position you're going to take the thumb off the ball okay hold it there Spin and we're going to see how that could affects your throw so remember your finish your hands towards the
10:15 target oh I felt good know to the left by taking the thumb away the index finger on your power hand has to work harder yeah oh excellent you get that one that was that was top the jump nice what we're just going to we're going to explore now is the position of your power hand on the ball how that impacts the direction of the throw so in the beginning I ask you to throw naturally you've got your power hand at the back of the ball and the thumb underneath so as you release the ball what would happen is this left hand would come off first and the power hand would come off second okay now what we want to try and Achieve is that symmetry or as close to
11:00 symmetrical as possible like on the round ball we took the thumb away to work the index finger more so when your hands at the back of the ball that creates that staggered release so we have to explore moving your hand down the ball now that then changes the angle of the thumb which becomes really unnatural for the players as a bridge to that we're going to use a size four slightly smaller ball mhm you've got greater hand contact and we can now start to explore the hand placement so all I'm going to ask you to do in this set is where you would naturally hold the ball just measure where that first finger that index finger is positioned on be the Rhino
11:49 ball or be a Gilbert ball okay and we want to if your first finger is at the back of the ball in front in front of the r we want you to start start to explore that adjustment okay so we're going to explore the hand placement now with the power hand and we and we're incorporating the guide hand fum to direct the power so one of the reasons Ben why I'm starting you on your knees is because it's going to help to develop the release point and the angle of your arms to finish so it's really important if you're going to stand and throw we always want to be thrown to Target hard than you to replicate those line out pods and if you haven't got a receiver to do that again being on your knees helps you to set your pelvis and develop the correct release Point okay okay so
12:36 back to the hand placement so we want that power hand we want all so do I want Thumb off the ball no you can put your thumb on the ball because you've so all Maximum hand contact with your power hand okay so that right hand the whole hand on the ball there you go okay let's give it a go did you practice the movement getting your devel in that connection in your brain oh excellent we in three throws that's great good and Target okay so what we're going to now look at is your rhythm of how you throw Okay so we've spoken about the pelvis that helps the range of movement in the arms we've spoken about the hand
13:21 placement that gives us that symmetry the release and we're now going to look at how you generate your power so we're going to continue with the round balls we've got a 2 kilo medicine ball which again is a great size to like match a rugby ball but also it's an ideal weight where you can be dynamic in your movement any heavier than that then you'll start to recruit other muscles and it'll become quite a robotic movement so all we're going to get you to do is kneel down again so we're we're focusing on that pelvis and that release point and we're going to ask you to try and produce a spiral with this ball then we're going to take it to the round ball and then onto the rugby ball now when you throw with this ball think about how you can produce maximum Force
14:09 cuz it's heavier than normal all right good good start okay can we get the ball to move any faster through the air excellent how how are you producing more power so felt like the control back just the momentum back and then have the ability to just transfer into that like little feels like a little bit of a bounce like explosion backwards yeah two one okay so generating the energy with control and then an explosion forward yeah okay perfect so I'm now going to ask you to do two more with the heavy ball and then you're going to go on to the round ball good okay on to the round ball oh
14:56 it feels light you're finishing your hands towards the [Music] Target or when you use the heavy ball obviously that's going to lengthen your recoil we want that full movement behind your head and because it's heavier you have to really be dynamic with your triceps and your fingers to push through the ball yeah so when we transferred to the RO to the light ball how did you achieve the control at the end what did you do differently um I was trying to focus more on that movement great and obviously I was aware that it's going to be a big difference in weight so I I wasn't going
15:42 to try and throw it too hard and just try and just go through the proces that you've given me really yeah slow fantastic so with the round ball because you had a full recoil dep you you moved with control you generated the power that allows your fingers and thumbs to direct the power so when we go back to the rugby ball I now want you to focus once the ball's above your head just think about that Rhythm that almost like Smooth back and explosion forward as you said so smooth explode okay oh that was pretty good great stuff feel much better so let's set our pelvis so go for your process pelvis hands
16:33 well done yeah I can see my hand going over there yeah okay if your recoil is slow yeah okay then your release becomes off balance so a great way to demonstrate that what I'd like you to do is um your hand placement on the ball okay if we've got a slow Movement we have to compensate with with our release now also the pressure we hold the ball impacts the fluidity of the movement so what I'd like you to do I'm going to put my hand up I want you to make a fist okay I want you really tense all your muscles I want you to punch my hand fast okay make it
17:18 make a fist really fast it's okay faster faster make a real tight fist real tight fist okay now relax now this time you're going to be nice and relaxed and loose and from that position you're then going to punch my hand okay what's quicker relax your hands relax it Loose fingers loose fingers now punch okay loose okay so that tension in your hands in your arms affects the speed of the movement so if we grip the ball with too much tension we create a restricted robotic movement so we want to be nice and fluid in our movements and the pressure on the ball impacts that nice nice yeah good point yeah just everything cuz I was keep my elbows tight I think that is just
18:04 tensing me up should I can feel it there now as you said and and a a a common um observation is that players have been told to have a tight setup with their elbows forward in this position okay and that tension can affect their head where we want you to be elbows poin towards the target but we want to keep your head in neutral nice and relaxed so no tension for some players their elbows might have to be open slightly wider okay but again it's never coming in into that tight position sick okay so to begin with if you just position your hands on the ball where you've been um developing that hand placement excellent so want you to be aware of that feeling on the ball now as we go to the next size up the size five
18:50 I want you to position your hands on the ball to replicate that feeling obviously it's a bigger ball your hands are going to be in a slightly different position but the feeling is the key to the hand placement okay okay so what we're going to do you're going to kneel down again you're GNA throw with the size five if we need to go back to the size four to refine uh that feeling on the ball then we'll go back to four and back to fight great stuff oh nice so in a game obviously there's not going to be a Target there so you're m imagining where you're going to put that ball yeah so great question so we've got a couple of options we can either look
19:36 at where the jumper is going to be or we can use a tracking with our eyes so your eyes would look along the horizon at the jumper as the jumper goes into the air your eyes will track them so a great way of developing that skill is you're going to watch my hands here when my hands go up your eyes are going to tr back as you're recoiling and releasing the ball's follow the hands light let's get it I just win win win win win I'm a 10 10 10 10 10 amazing session but what can I do obviously in about 10 minutes I'm going to forget most of it so what can I do in my house couple of three drills that I can do in
20:22 my house or in my garden or after a session that's going to help me improve these skills yeah perfect so number one is developing that hand placement on the ball so like most people when they practice their spin passing we can do the same with our line out throwing so power hand on the ball getting the guide hand fir underneath that symmetry turn the ball over practice rolling with the power hand and pinching with the guide hand if you get a wobble you've got to refine your hand placement to try and find that balance okay so there's there's number one [Music]
21:07 okay so to develop The Recoil we can use a round ball which is a great way of developing the feeling of a symmetrical release so first of all you want to position your hands on the ball symmetrically okay and then we're going to lay down on the ball set our pelvis in neutral and we're going to practice our recoil River so we're going to go smooth back and then accelerate forward so smooth and accelerate okay we can also do that with a rugby ball once we're happy with our hand placement great stuff and then we can go so this is a size four we then transfer to a size five okay get that symmetry of the hand placement smooth
21:54 recoil and release the thir drill is tracking so we're going to use a Target the reason why I like the target is we want to make it more challenging so something harder than the game so getting a small Target so the key to this exercise is head still eyes follow the target into the air as you go through your throwing movement and your hands finish towards the target okay let's give it a go then oh yes completed feet hips and yellow soft knees nice and
22:40 Tall Ah that's for one session Dan three in a row job done completed it nice man cheers thanks so much there we have it that's a 20 25 30 minutes whever it was session with Daniel and I learned so much from that from the hand placement to being relaxed and all the triggers if there's any hookers watching what oh where where can they uh where can they find you and get more information I know you do programs you have one to one and and whatnot so where that's right yeah so uh my website the scrum.com and I've produced um an ebook of the five steps of line out throwing and a home training program amazing and Dan's also on Instagram where can they find you on there yeah D Richmond 2 um there's loads
23:26 of content around um set and skills for front rowers and I'll put all the information of you can just click on the links in the description below where you can find D get in touch with him again that's 10 minutes and I've improved so much 20 minutes improv so much so cheers again for coming down and uh yeah catch again man nice
