SECOND EYE CONSULTING · DAVE WOLLMAN · DALLAS, TEXAS
FROM THE LAB TO THE FIELD · ARTICLE 1 OF 6
How to Read a Biomechanics Report as a Coach
The Question This Article Answers
Kipp and Babbitt have given us excellent research and coaching language. But how does a coach actually use a biomechanics report? What should we take from it, what should we set aside, and how do we turn measurements into a teaching plan?
WHAT THE RESEARCH GIVES US
Kristof Kipp’s 2026 study in Sports Biomechanics is one of the most comprehensive analyses of elite discus throwing ever conducted. Examining 115 throws from 39 world-class athletes, the study identified that longer throws were associated with a longer entry phase, faster horizontal center-of-mass velocity during flight, higher peak horizontal discus velocity at delivery, slower pelvis rotation during transition, and faster torso rotation during delivery.
Don Babbitt’s companion study in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching took this a powerful step further. By analyzing Mykolas Alekna’s world record series and interviewing his coach Mohamad Saatara, Babbitt translated those kinematic measurements into language coaches actually use on the field. Phrases like “rushing the throw,” “being patient,” “leaving room to work with,” “expanding the orbit,” and “closing the door around a hinge” were matched directly to biomechanical variables.
This is genuinely important work. It builds a bridge between the laboratory and the throwing circle that our event has needed for decades.
But there is another bridge still to be built.
WHAT THE RESEARCH CANNOT GIVE US
Kipp’s study, by its own design, examined elite performers. As the authors note in their limitations, the sample consisted exclusively of world-class throwers, which restricts variability and may limit generalizability to developing athletes. This is not a criticism. It is simply the nature of the research design.
But it raises the most important question a coach can ask:
If biomechanics tells us what elite athletes do, how do we help a 13-year-old, a high school freshman, or a college beginner learn to do it?
Babbitt’s article gives coaches the language to describe what they are observing. What it cannot provide — and was never designed to provide — is a developmental sequence for teaching athletes to produce those observations in the first place. That is the coach’s responsibility. And that is what this series of articles is designed to address.
THREE LEVELS EVERY COACH MUST UNDERSTAND
When reading any biomechanics report, a coach should mentally organize the information into three distinct levels:
1. Observation. What does the research tell us elite athletes do? Longer entry phases. Faster horizontal momentum into flight. Coordinated pelvis-to-torso rotational sequencing. These are observations of performance.
2. Mechanism. What underlying movement organization produces those observations? Patience in the entry produces a longer entry phase. Leaving room to work with preserves horizontal momentum. Closing the door around a hinge reflects efficient rotational transfer.
3. Pedagogy. How do we teach an athlete to acquire that movement organization? This is the level that most coaching discussions never reach — and it is the most important level of all for the coach standing in front of a beginner.
A coaching cue is not a teaching method. It is a description of a destination. The athlete still needs a road map to get there.
WHAT BIOMECHANICS REPORTS ARE GOOD FOR
Use it to confirm what you already see.
If you observe an athlete rushing through the entry, the Kipp data confirms that a longer, more patient entry phase is associated with better performance. The research validates your observation and gives you confidence to address it.
Use it to prioritize — but know your athlete’s developmental stage first.
Kipp’s research tells us that among elite throwers, timing and velocity regulation across phases are more strongly associated with performance than isolated body positions. For a coach working with world-class athletes who have already spent years building their movement foundation, this is a valuable and actionable finding.
But here is what that finding cannot tell us: how those elite athletes arrived there.
Before an athlete can regulate velocity across phases, they must first know where they are going. Before timing can emerge, destinations must exist in the nervous system. Before rhythm can develop, the brain must have something to be rhythmic about.
This is what I call motor mapping — and for beginning athletes it is not a preliminary step. It is the most important work we do.
When a young athlete stands repeatedly in a correct power position — weight distributed properly, angles organized, a genuine connection to the ground beneath them — the nervous system is not waiting. It is working. It is building an internal reference point that will later become a landmark in a dynamic movement. The brain is cataloguing what balance feels like at that location, what force production feels like from that foundation, what the relationship between the ground and the body feels like when everything is organized correctly.
This happens regardless of whether the athlete can yet reproduce that position in a full throw. That is the point.
A single position, repeated correctly in stillness, is not a simplified version of the throw. It is the neurological infrastructure upon which the throw will be built.
So when reading a biomechanics report as a coach working with developing athletes, use the velocity and timing data to understand where your athlete is eventually going. Use the positional data — the balance points, the weight distribution, the segment organization — to understand where your athlete needs to start. The research describes the destination. Your job is to build the road one mapped position at a time.
Use it to communicate with athletes and parents.
Having peer-reviewed research that supports your coaching philosophy is a powerful tool. When you explain to an athlete why you are spending three weeks on standing throws before they ever move through the circle, you can point to research showing that momentum is built across phases — not manufactured at the end. Parents and athletes who understand the why behind a teaching progression are far more patient with the process.
Use it to evaluate, not prescribe.
The measurements in Kipp’s study describe what elite athletes produce. They do not describe the drills, progressions, or learning sequences that developed those qualities. A coach who reads that elite throwers show a longer entry phase and immediately drills athletes to slow down their entry has confused a measurement with an instruction. The measurement tells you what to look for. Your pedagogy tells you how to develop it.
WHAT BIOMECHANICS REPORTS CANNOT DO
A biomechanics report cannot tell you how fast any individual athlete should progress. It cannot tell you whether your athlete needs more strength, more balance, more mobility, or more neurological mapping before a movement pattern becomes available to them. It cannot replace the observational judgment that comes from watching the same athlete throw hundreds of times across months and years.
The greatest mistake a coach can make when reading research is to take a description of elite performance and hand it directly to a beginner as an instruction. That is not coaching. That is skipping the entire developmental journey and hoping the athlete finds their own way.
A FRAMEWORK FOR USING RESEARCH IN YOUR COACHING
When you read a biomechanics report, ask yourself these four questions in order:
1. What is being observed? Identify the specific variable. Entry phase duration. Flight phase COM velocity. Pelvis rotational velocity during transition. Be precise about what the measurement actually describes.
2. What movement behavior produces that observation? Translate the measurement back into movement. A longer entry phase reflects patience and controlled momentum building. Higher flight phase COM velocity reflects a vigorous forward drive completing the entry.
3. What underlying competency does that movement behavior require? Balance? Ground force production? Timing? Segment connection? This is the coaching question.
4. What is the earliest teachable version of that competency for this athlete? This is where pedagogy begins. Before an athlete can be patient in the entry, they must know where they are going.
BEGINNING DRILLS: BUILDING THE FOUNDATION
The following drills represent the earliest teachable versions of the competencies that elite technique eventually expresses. They are not discus-specific drills in the traditional sense. They are neurological preparation — the building of movement maps that later phases of learning will connect.
Drill 1 · The Balance Inventory
Before any throwing movement, have the athlete stand in each of the four key positions: the finish, the power position, the middle, and the back of the circle. In each position, ask them to close their eyes and find stillness. The purpose is not to memorize a shape. The purpose is to help the nervous system recognize what balance feels like at each destination. A coach cannot teach a good entry to an athlete who has never experienced a good finish. Motor mapping always precedes dynamic movement.
Drill 2 · The Finish-First Standing Throw
Begin every session with standing throws that emphasize the finish position as the primary objective. The athlete is not trying to throw far. The athlete is learning to recognize the finish as a destination. When the finish becomes a known location, the power position becomes a meaningful place to leave from. Sequence understanding begins here.
Drill 3 · The Slow-Motion Connection Walk
Have the athlete walk slowly from the back of the circle through to the finish, pausing at each key position. No implement initially. The purpose is to establish the sequence of destinations in the nervous system before speed is introduced. An athlete who understands where each phase ends and the next begins will naturally develop better phase-specific timing than one who simply moves and hopes.
Drill 4 · The Weighted Pole or PVC Carry
Introduce a long implement — a PVC pipe, a weighted pole, or even a hammer — and ask the athlete to carry it through the standing throw position. The length of the implement exaggerates the timing relationship between the body and the implement, allowing the nervous system to feel what early connection and late separation actually produce. This is not about strength. It is about feel. When the body organizes correctly, the long implement rewards the athlete immediately with a sense of flow and ease that a discus alone cannot always communicate.
WHAT THIS SERIES WILL BUILD
Each of the remaining five articles in this series will take one of the coaching cues from Babbitt’s research — patience, leaving room to work with, orbit, the hip-shoulder relationship, and the block and finish — and answer the same fundamental question:
Not what does it look like when an athlete does this well — but how does a coach teach an athlete to get there?
The biomechanics research tells us what the destination looks like. This series is about the road.
Next: Article 2 — Teaching Patience: How Athletes Learn Not to Rush
Dave Wollman · Second Eye Consulting · davidwollman.com · Dallas, Texas
About The Author
Leave a Reply