Better Creative Throwing With Athletic Humor
Flying discs are magical missile objects. They seem to move in an impossible manner. It is this impossible movement that attracts people to the flight of a flying disc and disc play in general. Cool throws need not be difficult things and the coolest throws are often quite simple.
Excerpt from the Art of K9Disc
Athletic Humor
Athletic Humor is like telling a joke with your body. Jokes are funny because they walk you down a familiar path and then dump you out somewhere totally unexpected. You can do this...
Humor is about taking the listener down a familiar path, letting him or her know exactly what to expect and then delivering something entirely unexpected.
“3 guys walk into a bar…
…a 4th guy ducked.”
Terrible joke, I know, but did you see the path set up: “3 guys walk into a bar…” everyone knows that the story is just beginning and the listener expects to hear what kind of guys are walking into the bar and some long drawn out story. “… the 4th guy ducked.” ba dum dum tss!
It’s funny because it is surprising, it doesn’t even matter if it is a particularly good joke or not, all that matters is that it surprises you. If you are surprised, you will smile.
Athletic humor is the same thing. Take
A Take is a cued Bite that replicates the placement and timing of a throw. Usually used with overs, vaults, and flips, the Take is a powerful teaching tool for creating habitual leaping... the people watching and lead them down a predictable path. Once on the path, deliver something entirely different or unexpected. They will smile. That is athletic humor. It’s like magic.
If you are going to move left or throw left, shift your body or focus over to the right just before the throw. Everyone will look over there, to the right where the body or focus has shifted, expecting that to be where the next move will happen. When you shift gears and pop the body or the toss over to the left it will surprise people. It will be nifty, spiffy, or interesting. It will be cool.
Much of the disc dog freestyle magic is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. It’s athletic humor. Once it’s broken down it’s really pretty simple stuff. It’s all in the set up and the delivery.
Art of k9disc page 244 ~ Ron Watson
Love it!