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How Throwing Made Us Human

2026-05-04 · 15:29 UTC ·Michael MacKelvie ·1 min read

Brief

Michael MacKelvie presents a hands-on demo/tutorial (published 2026-05-04) where he and two partners practiced spear throwing three times weekly, collected full kinematic data from Driveline, and ran two spear tests. He frames results with evolutionary literature (Lieberman, Milks) and includes segmented analysis of aiming, aggression, and shoulder mechanics.

Why it matters

Michael MacKelvie (published 2026-05-04) ran a backyard spear-throwing experiment, practicing three times per week with varied experience among throwers: Sean (threw javelin in college) and Casey and MacKelvie (played through Little League).

Key details

  • Full kinematics from Driveline Baseball (Joe Marsh, Kyle Boddy) are presented; MacKelvie cites Dr. Daniel Lieberman's paper 'Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo' and Dr. Annemieke Milks' experimental work on Pleistocene hand-thrown spears.
  • The video is a hands-on demo/tutorial with timed sections (e.g., Aiming, Building an Arm) and two filmed spear tests (Spear Test 1 at 13:34 and Spear Test 2 at 27:45) to evaluate throwing mechanics and weapon performance.
Cleaned source text

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I had planned on making a video about pitching...this was a lot more fun. As I read Quick overview of the experiment:

We only practiced by throwing spears in our backyard (3x a week)

Full kinematics data (provided via Driveline) is shown towards the end

Experience levels varied between throwers (Sean threw Javelin in college, while Casey and I played up to Little League)

big thank you to the following folks:

1. Driveline Baseball - Joe Marsh, Kyle Boddy

2. Dr. Daniel Lieberman

“Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo”

3. Dr. Annemieke Milks

“External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution”. In this study, Dr. Milks tests in a similar way (using experienced throwers). Well worth checking out her study for more info...

A few other citations here before I fall asleep:

Dr. John Shea

Dr. Steven Churchill

00:00 Intro

01:32 Monkey See, Monkey Can’t Do

03:29 Aggression

06:29 Throwing Evolution

11:40 Weapons

13:34 Spear Test 1

17:32 Ad

18:52 Aiming

24:30 Building an Arm

27:45 Spear Test 2

Channel: Michael MacKelvie

Published: 2026-05-04

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKOxoktII4