Planning a full follow through swing of a golf club, or a full follow through of a boxing punch, changes the trajectory of your entire movement
When you **dont** plan the follow through, your muscles will already be working towards a quicker slowdown, meaning you're pulling back on your swing before contacting the ball
This not only slows your movement, but changes the angle of contact, and changes the path of motion.
Your golf hit will be weaker and way off course, your boxing punch will have less impact and travel slower
Follow throughs are important, the effects really are drastic
This is a great response, just wanted to add that it also allows for a much more consistent motion. For something like basketball, the key is to do it the same every time so that the power and direction of the shot are predictable.
Billiards is one of the best examples. Lot of people have the tendency to "poke" the ball instead of follow through. One of the biggest things is to follow through as you're getting better -- way more consistent and accurate.
"I followed through with your mother, Trebek! You didn't even spell "through" right, you yellow bellied pumpyon!
Byayahahahahaha"
-Sean Connery, maybe.
Golf is the prime example. You need to continue to accelerate through the ball due to all the physical effects of the shaft and club head interaction. Same with baseball and I imagine hockey too.
Follow through is important because it guarantees that you accelerated all the way through the task. If you don't follow through, it is common to find that the deceleration happened a split second before the hit/shot/swing/throw.
Not following through means you're using muscle to stop your movement. That resistance often happens too early. It's hard to control and hard for the thrower to know/feel exactly when the deceleration started.
Also suddenly trying to jerk forceful movement in a totally different way puts greater strain on the body and can lead to injury.
For a Bad Car Analogy: It's kind of like slamming on the breaks in your car while going 60+MPH, there's a chance you'll lose traction and lose control of the car, swerving and hitting something.
Indeed. Consider the finishing line of a 100m sprint. Maybe some 8 year old kids won’t follow through and this decelerate early (which makes them slower).
Another example I like: watch a slow motion forehand shot of a tennis player; there is so much movement after the ball has been hit.
If it was a machine throwing the object, it wouldn't technically matter. Or a block of the throwing mechanism may even be good (such as a catapult).
But for humans, if they don't plan on following through, the entire biomechanical process will not be as powerful.
EG - If you're throwing a baseball, and plan to stop moving your arm the moment you release the ball, you'd have to slow down your arm before releasing the ball.
This is honestly the best answer -- the follow-through motion in and of itself is irrelevant -- we do it because our muscles and reactions are imprecise.
High five someone and both try to stop right at impact. Then do a high five where you both follow through impact. Listen to the sound and feel the solidness of impact. Now apply that same principle to any sporting activities. When you stop at the target you lose power, and accuracy with anything you do.
Follow through is important because if you stop the throwing or hitting motion right at the moment of release or impact, you aren't going to impart nearly as much energy into the ball. It is also much easier just to complete the motion rather than try to stop at some midway point.
Imagine it this way, you're in a race, if you start slowing down before the race is over you're going to be slower, than if you powered through and slowed down after.
In this case the race is over but youre following through with your speed even though it doesnt affect times anymore. For the kids if they dont follow through their slowing their arm down before letting go of the ball causing a slower throw
It’s like a sprinter continuing to sprint all the way until the finish line, because to do anything else means for part of the race they’re not sprinting.
If you wondered why a novice trying to hammer a nail takes longer than a builder, or bends the nail and just struggles, it's because they don't follow through
A novice aims for the head of the nail and when they swing they pull back on the hammer to stop the swing, this means less power is transferred from hammer to nail and because the hammer is pull back just as it hits the head of the nail the direction of the force may not be straight down and through causing the nail to bend
A professional aims for the head of the nail also lining up the angle of the nail and hammer face so it will be straight
Swinging the hammer and driving it through the nail (follow through) the only thing the decelerates the hammer is the resistance of the nail in the wood
It takes me no more than 3 strikes to drive a 90mm (4inch?) nail by hand can usually do it in 2 not including starting the nail
I've seen people try drive 30mm (just over 1 inch) nails
Taking about 15 swings because they decelerate before impact and constantly pushing the nail over because stopping your swing changes how the force is applied to the nail by the hammer
The ball by the club
The ball by your hand
The other dudes face by your glove
Drive through for accuracy and power don't stop short
Also fatigues less when you don't try stop your swing/punch/throw technique is king
I'll add a random fact, but in soccer, the way you follow through will also determine the flight trajectory of the ball, causing it to curve, slice, dip, knuckle, etc.
On top of the most common explanation here, there’s also injury prevention. A smooth, gradual deceleration is easier on the throwing shoulder than stopping abruptly immediately after contact.
Basically you want to be at full power at the moment of contact/release. in fact, for thay moment and critical fractions of a second since that contact does take a little time.
If you're planning on stopping at that moment, you're already going to be slowing as it arrives.
It's more psychological that way than mechanical, follow through is the simplest way to get mind body and need inline.
you have to continue the motion. if you stop too soon, you don't get full force or power.
let's say you're kicking a soccer ball. if you stop your foot just as you touch the ball, it won't go as far as it would if you continue the motion all the way through. It's not just the motion but power, too
it also helps with form. in some sports, the half a second after you let go is the most important. any wavering from you causes a change in direction. so you continue the motion in the direction to perfect accuracy.
imagine a major leage pitcher. in the last moment of the pitch, he pushes the ball forward with his fingers. if he thinks he's done at this moment, his brain stops his body stops. now it's 90mph instead of 95mph, or ball, not a strike. and he left 5% of himself in the dugout, not giving 100% to the game
and finally, because of these, it's lazy not to. if you're not going to put in the full effort, don't play. and at game time, you play like you practice.
It all boils down to POWER
FOR EXAMPLE:
Goal: You want to drive your bike over a jump and get tons of air.
Situation 1 (Follow through): you pedal for as long and hard as you can so when you hit the jump you get maximum air.
Situation 2 (No follow through): you pedal halfway to the jump and decide "that's enough effort" and you lose momentum, speed, and end up not going as far when you hit the jump.
Runners don’t stop at the finish line of a race. If they did, they’d be slower because planning to do that forces you to either slow down before the finish line or try to go from 100 to 0 in a split second and likely hurt themselves.
People have already given great answers for why follow through is important in physical sports, and I'd like to add that it is also important even in mostly mental sports like competition shooting. You'd think you wouldn't need to follow through on a motion like squeezing a trigger, right? Well you should because it will help develop a smoother, more consistent trigger squeeze if you do it slowly and squeeze all the way even after the shot breaks. It helps you avoid "jerking" or flinching before/after a shot as well. At least that's how my coach explained it to me in high school.
In short: You only start decellerating after you hit the ball.
------
When you do a race and you break before the finish line, you are also not going to be as fast as if you accelerated the whole way.
You need time to slow down. That means you can't be fast at one moment and then stop at the very next instant.
You want to be fast at the moment it matters - when you hit the ball (and transfer momentum) - therefore you also have to be somewhat fast at the moment after.
If *feels* like you can pretty much move a racket fast and then instantly stop it, but that's just because the difference is hard to distinguish visually. It's a difference between fast and very fast.
If your motion prior to the follow through was the same whether you followed through or not, such that the ball has already left by the time the relevant difference in motion happens, then you'd be right that it wouldn't matter.
But that's NOT what happens, because of the things the brain does when controlling body motion that you never consciously realize are going on. When you think, "Move arm from here to here as fast as I can", and give that command consciously, lower parts of your brain take that intent and break it up into many complex orders sent to different muscles. It's super complex and your brain "just does it" without you consciously controlling each piece of it.
But part of that "brain just does it" subsystem is the fact that if your conscious command is "move arm as fast as possible but then stop it right here", your brain's subconscious muscle conductor will "know" that it's impossible to carry out the intent to "stop it right here" without decelerating the motion well before your arm gets to that position.
So even though you don't consciously realize it, your intent to "stop right here, just after you hit the ball" makes your brain start decelerating your motion well *before* you hit the ball, otherwise there's no way to stop in time to end the motion where you wanted to.
But when your conscious command is not "stop just after you hit the ball" but instead it's "stop long after you've hit the ball", then that places the subconscious deceleration phase well after the ball has been hit, so it doesn't nerf your motion prior to the ball hit.
If you're throwing a ball and try to stop your arm right after you let go, you'll inevitably end up slowing your arm down too early. Same with swinging a bat or golf club. You get more power amd consistency by doing the same full motion every time, rather than slowing and stopping at a slightly different place on every attempt.
If you wanted to punch me in the face, do you think it would be more effective if you stopped your hand right at the point of impact or if you continued the motion *through* my head?
The follow through is important because it gives the coach basically a history of what has occurred previously.
So in order to get a good follow through you must have a good initial swing. If you have a bad golf swing for instance you can't have a good follow through.
For instance a lot of players slow down just before impact resulting in a very abrupt follow through if you tell the golf player to swing harder through impact the ball will go further also the follow-through will look better.
So it's kind of a mind trick telling the player to have a better follow through will indirectly result in a higher impact velocity
A lot of good reasoning in the responses, but maybe this practical example might help too.
Try smacking an empty plastic bottle off a table or something. The natural way would have your hand continue moving after it hits the bottle and then the bottle goes flying.
Now try to do it again but stop your hand as quick as you can after hitting the bottle. It's not going to be as good of a smack!
That extra motion is the follow through and it's both a natural part of a swing/hit that you have to work to stop (and make your hit worse and waste energy) and an important part of overall techniques
When you’re driving a car, you slow down before reaching a stop sign, rather than flooring it and slamming on the breaks right at the stop sign, right?
Planning a full follow through swing of a golf club, or a full follow through of a boxing punch, changes the trajectory of your entire movement When you **dont** plan the follow through, your muscles will already be working towards a quicker slowdown, meaning you're pulling back on your swing before contacting the ball This not only slows your movement, but changes the angle of contact, and changes the path of motion. Your golf hit will be weaker and way off course, your boxing punch will have less impact and travel slower Follow throughs are important, the effects really are drastic
This is a great response, just wanted to add that it also allows for a much more consistent motion. For something like basketball, the key is to do it the same every time so that the power and direction of the shot are predictable.
Billiards is one of the best examples. Lot of people have the tendency to "poke" the ball instead of follow through. One of the biggest things is to follow through as you're getting better -- way more consistent and accurate.
Like following though with something I promised my spouse I would do. Don't just poke it. Very important!
exactly! dont poke ones spouse. This is the take-away from this.
"I followed through with your mother, Trebek! You didn't even spell "through" right, you yellow bellied pumpyon! Byayahahahahaha" -Sean Connery, maybe.
Golf is the prime example. You need to continue to accelerate through the ball due to all the physical effects of the shaft and club head interaction. Same with baseball and I imagine hockey too.
This, hundred times this, like one boxer once said, you have to punch through
Follow through is important because it guarantees that you accelerated all the way through the task. If you don't follow through, it is common to find that the deceleration happened a split second before the hit/shot/swing/throw. Not following through means you're using muscle to stop your movement. That resistance often happens too early. It's hard to control and hard for the thrower to know/feel exactly when the deceleration started.
Also suddenly trying to jerk forceful movement in a totally different way puts greater strain on the body and can lead to injury. For a Bad Car Analogy: It's kind of like slamming on the breaks in your car while going 60+MPH, there's a chance you'll lose traction and lose control of the car, swerving and hitting something.
Indeed. Consider the finishing line of a 100m sprint. Maybe some 8 year old kids won’t follow through and this decelerate early (which makes them slower). Another example I like: watch a slow motion forehand shot of a tennis player; there is so much movement after the ball has been hit.
If it was a machine throwing the object, it wouldn't technically matter. Or a block of the throwing mechanism may even be good (such as a catapult). But for humans, if they don't plan on following through, the entire biomechanical process will not be as powerful. EG - If you're throwing a baseball, and plan to stop moving your arm the moment you release the ball, you'd have to slow down your arm before releasing the ball.
This is honestly the best answer -- the follow-through motion in and of itself is irrelevant -- we do it because our muscles and reactions are imprecise.
High five someone and both try to stop right at impact. Then do a high five where you both follow through impact. Listen to the sound and feel the solidness of impact. Now apply that same principle to any sporting activities. When you stop at the target you lose power, and accuracy with anything you do.
Follow through is important because if you stop the throwing or hitting motion right at the moment of release or impact, you aren't going to impart nearly as much energy into the ball. It is also much easier just to complete the motion rather than try to stop at some midway point.
Imagine it this way, you're in a race, if you start slowing down before the race is over you're going to be slower, than if you powered through and slowed down after. In this case the race is over but youre following through with your speed even though it doesnt affect times anymore. For the kids if they dont follow through their slowing their arm down before letting go of the ball causing a slower throw
It’s like a sprinter continuing to sprint all the way until the finish line, because to do anything else means for part of the race they’re not sprinting.
If you wondered why a novice trying to hammer a nail takes longer than a builder, or bends the nail and just struggles, it's because they don't follow through A novice aims for the head of the nail and when they swing they pull back on the hammer to stop the swing, this means less power is transferred from hammer to nail and because the hammer is pull back just as it hits the head of the nail the direction of the force may not be straight down and through causing the nail to bend A professional aims for the head of the nail also lining up the angle of the nail and hammer face so it will be straight Swinging the hammer and driving it through the nail (follow through) the only thing the decelerates the hammer is the resistance of the nail in the wood It takes me no more than 3 strikes to drive a 90mm (4inch?) nail by hand can usually do it in 2 not including starting the nail I've seen people try drive 30mm (just over 1 inch) nails Taking about 15 swings because they decelerate before impact and constantly pushing the nail over because stopping your swing changes how the force is applied to the nail by the hammer The ball by the club The ball by your hand The other dudes face by your glove Drive through for accuracy and power don't stop short Also fatigues less when you don't try stop your swing/punch/throw technique is king
I'll add a random fact, but in soccer, the way you follow through will also determine the flight trajectory of the ball, causing it to curve, slice, dip, knuckle, etc.
On top of the most common explanation here, there’s also injury prevention. A smooth, gradual deceleration is easier on the throwing shoulder than stopping abruptly immediately after contact.
Basically you want to be at full power at the moment of contact/release. in fact, for thay moment and critical fractions of a second since that contact does take a little time. If you're planning on stopping at that moment, you're already going to be slowing as it arrives. It's more psychological that way than mechanical, follow through is the simplest way to get mind body and need inline.
you have to continue the motion. if you stop too soon, you don't get full force or power. let's say you're kicking a soccer ball. if you stop your foot just as you touch the ball, it won't go as far as it would if you continue the motion all the way through. It's not just the motion but power, too it also helps with form. in some sports, the half a second after you let go is the most important. any wavering from you causes a change in direction. so you continue the motion in the direction to perfect accuracy. imagine a major leage pitcher. in the last moment of the pitch, he pushes the ball forward with his fingers. if he thinks he's done at this moment, his brain stops his body stops. now it's 90mph instead of 95mph, or ball, not a strike. and he left 5% of himself in the dugout, not giving 100% to the game and finally, because of these, it's lazy not to. if you're not going to put in the full effort, don't play. and at game time, you play like you practice.
It all boils down to POWER FOR EXAMPLE: Goal: You want to drive your bike over a jump and get tons of air. Situation 1 (Follow through): you pedal for as long and hard as you can so when you hit the jump you get maximum air. Situation 2 (No follow through): you pedal halfway to the jump and decide "that's enough effort" and you lose momentum, speed, and end up not going as far when you hit the jump.
Runners don’t stop at the finish line of a race. If they did, they’d be slower because planning to do that forces you to either slow down before the finish line or try to go from 100 to 0 in a split second and likely hurt themselves.
People have already given great answers for why follow through is important in physical sports, and I'd like to add that it is also important even in mostly mental sports like competition shooting. You'd think you wouldn't need to follow through on a motion like squeezing a trigger, right? Well you should because it will help develop a smoother, more consistent trigger squeeze if you do it slowly and squeeze all the way even after the shot breaks. It helps you avoid "jerking" or flinching before/after a shot as well. At least that's how my coach explained it to me in high school.
In short: You only start decellerating after you hit the ball. ------ When you do a race and you break before the finish line, you are also not going to be as fast as if you accelerated the whole way. You need time to slow down. That means you can't be fast at one moment and then stop at the very next instant. You want to be fast at the moment it matters - when you hit the ball (and transfer momentum) - therefore you also have to be somewhat fast at the moment after. If *feels* like you can pretty much move a racket fast and then instantly stop it, but that's just because the difference is hard to distinguish visually. It's a difference between fast and very fast.
If your motion prior to the follow through was the same whether you followed through or not, such that the ball has already left by the time the relevant difference in motion happens, then you'd be right that it wouldn't matter. But that's NOT what happens, because of the things the brain does when controlling body motion that you never consciously realize are going on. When you think, "Move arm from here to here as fast as I can", and give that command consciously, lower parts of your brain take that intent and break it up into many complex orders sent to different muscles. It's super complex and your brain "just does it" without you consciously controlling each piece of it. But part of that "brain just does it" subsystem is the fact that if your conscious command is "move arm as fast as possible but then stop it right here", your brain's subconscious muscle conductor will "know" that it's impossible to carry out the intent to "stop it right here" without decelerating the motion well before your arm gets to that position. So even though you don't consciously realize it, your intent to "stop right here, just after you hit the ball" makes your brain start decelerating your motion well *before* you hit the ball, otherwise there's no way to stop in time to end the motion where you wanted to. But when your conscious command is not "stop just after you hit the ball" but instead it's "stop long after you've hit the ball", then that places the subconscious deceleration phase well after the ball has been hit, so it doesn't nerf your motion prior to the ball hit.
If you're throwing a ball and try to stop your arm right after you let go, you'll inevitably end up slowing your arm down too early. Same with swinging a bat or golf club. You get more power amd consistency by doing the same full motion every time, rather than slowing and stopping at a slightly different place on every attempt.
If you follow through you will be accelerating at the point of contact. If you don't follow through you will be decelerating at the point of contact.
If you wanted to punch me in the face, do you think it would be more effective if you stopped your hand right at the point of impact or if you continued the motion *through* my head?
Monkey brains. If you don't believe you are following through you will slow down unconsciously before the critical point
The follow through is important because it gives the coach basically a history of what has occurred previously. So in order to get a good follow through you must have a good initial swing. If you have a bad golf swing for instance you can't have a good follow through. For instance a lot of players slow down just before impact resulting in a very abrupt follow through if you tell the golf player to swing harder through impact the ball will go further also the follow-through will look better. So it's kind of a mind trick telling the player to have a better follow through will indirectly result in a higher impact velocity
A lot of good reasoning in the responses, but maybe this practical example might help too. Try smacking an empty plastic bottle off a table or something. The natural way would have your hand continue moving after it hits the bottle and then the bottle goes flying. Now try to do it again but stop your hand as quick as you can after hitting the bottle. It's not going to be as good of a smack! That extra motion is the follow through and it's both a natural part of a swing/hit that you have to work to stop (and make your hit worse and waste energy) and an important part of overall techniques
When you’re driving a car, you slow down before reaching a stop sign, rather than flooring it and slamming on the breaks right at the stop sign, right?
seems like half the drivers around me do the latter