Beyond Measurement…what did he say?

SECOND EYE CONSULTING
Movement Education for Throwers
Dallas, Texas
June 17, 2026
Author: Dave Wollman
Former Director of Men’s amd women’s Track and Field, SMU
Founder, Second Eye Consulting
A place where elite ideas are presented in a practical form!
Olympic, NCAA, and International Throws Coach
All questions , comments are welcome.
Cheers!
Coach
⸻
Beyond Measurement:
Helping Coaches Develop What Biomechanics Reveals
By Dave Wollman
Recent biomechanics research by Kristof Kipp and the practical coaching translation provided by Don Babbitt represent important contributions to the discus community.
Kipp’s research helps us better understand the characteristics associated with elite performance. Babbitt’s follow-up article takes an important next step by translating those measurements into language coaches can recognize and discuss on the throwing field.
This is valuable work.
Coaches understand phrases such as:

Don’t rush the throw.

Be patient.

Expand the orbit.

Leave room to work with.

These descriptions create a bridge between the laboratory and the throwing field.
However, another bridge remains to be built.
The coach standing in front of a seventh grader, a high school athlete, a college freshman, or an elite thrower is not simply trying to describe movement.
The coach is trying to develop movement.
This distinction is important.
Biomechanics measures performance.
Coaching develops performance.
Those are not the same thing.
If biomechanics tells us that elite throwers often demonstrate a larger orbit, the practical question immediately becomes:
How is that orbit developed?
A larger orbit is not a skill.
It is an outcome.
Likewise:
Patience is an outcome.
Balance is an outcome.
Rhythm is an outcome.
Velocity transfer is an outcome.
These qualities emerge from underlying movement competencies developed over months and years of training.
For example, telling a young athlete to “expand the orbit” may produce very little improvement.
Teaching balance, posture, turning radius, connection, segment organization, timing, and acceleration patterns may eventually produce an expanded orbit naturally.
The orbit becomes evidence of successful development rather than the direct object of instruction.
This distinction is important because coaching is fundamentally a pedagogical process.
Biomechanics identifies what elite athletes do.
Coaching identifies how athletes learn to do it.
Universal Principles and Individual Solutions
One of the challenges in interpreting studies involving elite athletes is that we often observe many different technical solutions.
If we analyze thirty-nine elite throwers, we may observe thirty-nine slightly different methods of moving through the ring.
Some initiate movement differently.
Some carry the discus differently.
Some demonstrate different rhythms, postures, and movement signatures.
Does this mean there is no preferred way to teach?
Not necessarily.
Nor does it mean that all techniques are equally effective.
What it may mean is that elite athletes arrive at performance through different individual solutions while still operating under the same fundamental movement principles.
The mistake is often assuming that because elite athletes look different, there are no universal truths.
I believe there are.
Principle One: Balance Precedes Force
Before an athlete can create force efficiently, the athlete must first organize balance.
The nervous system’s primary responsibility is survival.
When balance is threatened, the brain immediately begins making automatic corrections to prevent a fall.
These corrections occur long before conscious movement decisions.
As coaches, this means an athlete struggling to maintain balance cannot fully devote attention to force production, sequencing, rhythm, or acceleration.
The body always solves balance before it solves performance.
Balance is not merely another technical component.
Balance is the environment in which all technical components operate.
Principle Two: Force Begins with the Ground
Every throw begins with an interaction between the athlete and the ground.
Ground reaction forces provide the foundation for acceleration.
Without stable interaction with the ground, force production becomes limited and inefficient.
Regardless of technical model, force must ultimately be generated through interaction with the ground.
The appearance may vary.
The principle does not.
Principle Three: The Lower Body Organizes the System
Because the lower body is closest to the source of force production, it becomes responsible for organizing the movement that follows.
This does not mean the legs simply move first.
It means the lower body provides the foundation from which force can be transferred through the trunk, shoulders, arm, and ultimately into the implement.
The goal is coordinated transfer.
Elite athletes may demonstrate different visual solutions while still expressing this same underlying principle.
From Observation to Development
A common mistake is to observe an elite athlete and attempt to copy visible positions.
For example, we may notice that a world-class thrower creates a larger orbit and immediately begin teaching athletes to create a larger orbit.
But the orbit itself may simply be an outcome.
A larger orbit may emerge because the athlete has developed balance, posture, timing, coordination, force application, and efficient movement relationships.
The orbit is evidence.
It is not necessarily the lesson.
Likewise:
Patience is an outcome.
Rhythm is an outcome.
Velocity transfer is an outcome.
These qualities emerge from underlying movement competencies developed over years.
The coach’s responsibility is not simply to identify elite outcomes.
The coach’s responsibility is to create the conditions that allow those outcomes to emerge.
A Developmental Framework for Coaches
Observation
↓
Measurement
↓
Diagnosis
↓
Intervention
↓
Development
↓
Performance
At each stage, athletes may express individual solutions according to their body type, mobility, strength, coordination, experience, and neurological characteristics.
The progression remains similar.
The expression remains individual.
Final Thoughts
Biomechanics has given us powerful tools to understand performance.
Coaching must answer a different question:
How do athletes learn to create that performance?
The next great challenge for our event is not simply measuring elite movement.
It is understanding how to systematically develop the conditions that allow efficient movement to emerge.
When we focus on balance, ground interaction, and lower-body organization, we begin building a foundation upon which every athlete can discover his or her most efficient solution.
The goal is not to create thirty-nine identical throwers.
The goal is to create an environment where thirty-nine athletes can each discover their best throw.
— Dave Wollman

• • Second Eye Consulting