Part 2: The “Chest Up” Trap: Why This Common Cue Destroys Shot Put & Discus Performance

If you missed Part 1 of Distance Killers, (Check it out Here). I talked about how hard-working, well meaning throws coaches and athletes get stuck because of technical concepts that fight physics and sabotage performance.

To catch you up quickly, Distance Killers are the intentional application of specific technical cues that seem right, sound right, and feel right, but are actually sabotaging you and all your hard work.

And one of the most common offenders?
The “Get the Chest Up” cue at the finish.

The Tricky Thing about the “Chest Up” Cue

The chest up at the finish is 100% correct,  but how it’s applied is what matters.

The exaggerated cue to “lift the chest up” is crushing coaches and athletes across the USA and around the world.

This is why understanding the mechanics of each segment of the throw is critical (it’s why we break the throw into the 6 Pillars,  (built from PhD-backed research).

Almost every coach says some version of “Lift the chest at the finish, big chest, get the chest high!”

And athletes? They do exactly what they’re told.

The coach means well. The athlete works hard. But as I like to say:

“Physics doesn’t care what you think is right. It only rewards what is right.”

It’s one of the toughest things to watch at high school and youth meets — well-intentioned athletes following well-intentioned coaching… that’s setting them up to stay stuck.

When that “chest up” cue combines with two or three other Distance Killers, it’s a guaranteed recipe for slow progress and limited potential.

The Physics Behind a Powerful Finish

When you lift the chest early, you dramatically slow down rotation on the throwing side, which kills the speed you need at the finish.

The exaggerated chest-up cue sends the energy up instead of out.
You lose separation and that leads to reducing the stretch reflex between the hip and shoulder.

Think Think of a high school, NCAA, or NFL quarterback. When they throw a football, if they lean back and open the chest up. They would lose all ability to control the football.

Same thing here. The discus or shot leaves your hand at the wrong angle,  too high, less speed, less power.

Again, the  “chest up” cue is correct,  The chest will be up if you hit the correct positions throughout the throw that get you to the power position that sets up the legs.

The proper action from the lower body,  specifically the delivery leg and bent block leg, leads to staying loaded on the delivery leg and down on the ground until both knees face the direction of the throw.

Then the thrower can pull across, not a forced upper body lift.

Why It’s Such a Big Problem

At meets, private coaching Online & in-person, camps, and in our club, I see see the results of coaches giving the cue, athletes doing exactly what they’re told. Both are trying their best. Both believe they’re doing the right thing.

The problem is, what they’re actively working to apply will never produce what they’re hoping for.

It simply can’t.

The active 'chest up' cue fights physics. So instead of unlocking power, it cuts off power. 

For highly gifted athletes, their natural strength and awareness sometimes lets them “get away with it.” But for developing throwers — the 99% — this cue becomes a wall.

They exaggerate it, lose tension, and train the wrong technical sequence. That’s why the gap between potential and performance keeps getting wider. and improvement gets harder.

The Correct Sequence: Deliver Knee → Hip → Chest

The fix begins at the ground.

Push the delivery knee down (like an inch) as it rotates around and into the finish. →  Keep the block leg bent and locked. This helps rotate the hips into the throw and naturally lifts the chest into the ideal 34–38° release zone.

Now the thrower can Punch the shot put or pull the discus across that angle.

You don’t “lift the chest.” You hit that position, through sequencing, this is what we mean by a Throwing Chain Reaction®,  which  starts in Pillar 1.

It’s just like a whip;  the handle (legs) lead and stop to crack the whip (upper body).

A Real-World Example

One of my former throwers was  6'7", 240-pound thrower who had thrown 134’ feet his junior year. a bit gangly, not super strong, but decent movement. He had taught himself to throw watching a patchwork of videos from YouTube and Instagram and had been throwing for 3 years.. ( No Structure. No System)

When he came in, it was clear his patchwork had produced a bunch of things that needed to be fixed &  corrected. 

His Pillar 1 was incorrect. He’d wind himself off balance, which led to falling into the middle, and opening the upper body, which created a shift in the power position (Pillar 5-6), He would lift the chest up too high,  and lose all his lower body power and upper body pull on the discus.

His fix? Keep the shoulders stacked over the hips at the finish (Pillar 5 & 6) in order to stop the Chest from opening and lifting.

At the same time we cleaned up Pillar 1 by applying a more static start using what we call a Wind-up 1 start….

and his PR started climbing. He became consistent, and he peaked perfectly at the end of the season:

• The last qualifier in his division to make the final
• The last guy to make the state championships,  where he PR’d 3 times.

Now here’s the comparison: a new thrower, same age, 5'10", 190 pounds, who had never thrown the discus before and started the first week of February.

No experience. No bad habits. Starting learning the Throwing Chain Reaction system day 1.

In just 9 weeks, he went from 0 to 153 feet, nearly matching the 6'7" athlete (who had been throwing for three years)  in just over 2 months..

The difference?
One had to unlearn bad patterns from training the wrong concepts
The other learned clean, efficient patterns using a clear framework and system to learn how throw and train.

So a system that includes eliminating Distance Killers matters so much.

Why This Trap Spreads

Coaches pass the cue down because the chest up is what was learned. But no system to determine the optimal way to do it. 

Everyone should agree the chest needs to be “up” for an optimal release angle, but the problem is the angle of release goes too high  and power is lost, when the cue is taught wrong.

Remember the quarterback example?: if Patrick Mahomes leaned back, lifted his chest, and ripped his block arm open mid-throw, the ball would sail 20 yards over the receiver. He wouldn’t be earning $400 million if his mechanics didn’t match physics.

Elite throwers who “make it work” are usually talented enough to adjust intuitively.

But developing athletes can’t. They exaggerate the cue and fight physics and that’s why thousands of athletes get stuck doing and work harder…. 

On the wrong thing... because they don't have a system to follow.

That’s why the Throwing Chain Reaction® System shows coaches and throwers how to identify Distance Killers like this one ( and 6 common other ones) and how to retrain the optimal pattern.

Rebuilding the Right Pattern

Stage 1: Identify the Distance Killers.
Stage 2: Re-pattern with targeted PEDs (Performance-Enhancing Drills).
Stage 3: Lock it in with the Perfect Training³ Formula — applied to every session.

That’s what we teach in the Throwing Chain Reaction® System, built around three simple areas:

• Rules – 1) Mechanics, 2) Sequence, and 3) Core Ability
  
  
• Tools – 1) Eliminate Distance Killers, 2) Optimize Pillar Zero, 3) Leverage PEDs
  
  
• Train & Compete – 1) Perfect Practice Formula, 2) Training Plans, and  3) Compete like a pro
  
  

Once you connect those dots, technique improves faster, distances jump faster, and you start training and competing consistently at a higher level. 

Off-Season, Pre-Season, Early Season, or Championship Season: The Secret to Exponential Improvement in the Shot Put & Discus Throw

No matter the time of year, removing Distance Killers will always accelerate results. But the off-season and pre-season are where the biggest transformations happen.

That’s when you have time to rebuild, re-pattern, and create optimal technical patterns and understanding without the pressure of a meet coming up.

This is why Having the correct technical understanding from the start usually leads to exponentially faster improvement than those with years of throwing and applying inefficient movement.

Final Thought

Throwing success isn’t about effort and grinding,  it’s about efficiency, so when you grind, it produces big time results.

 Stop fighting physics. Start using it.

If you’re serious about breaking plateaus:

👉 Check out our METHOD Program (for Athletes) and ACADEMY Program (for Coaches).
You’ll get access to the Distance Killer Assessment, live coaching every week, and the full Throwing Chain Reaction® System.

Or start small and get a Video Analysis to get a fresh breakdown of your throw.

Unlock your potential,
Coach Johnson

P.S. — Our Winter Throws camps and Accelerator Camps (limited to 8 Throwers)  fill fast. If you want hands-on help before season or during the season, be sure to check us out.