I don’t mean “throwing” in the sense of being paid to perform poorly on purpose in a competition, but I mean it in the sense of literally and physically propelling an object using our upper bodies. Definitely a question that doesn’t cross your mind everyday, but an interesting one — at least, I think it is.
I first stumbled across this topic when researching the age old “human vs chimp: who wins” question (who doesn’t search up facts about chimpanzees when they get bored?). After reading through various responses on Quora, I found myself doing a bit of reading on why humans are so good at throwing. That really struck me, as strange as it may sound. If you think about it, humans are the only animals that can really throw. Sure our ape relatives have some decent throws, but most of these so-called “throws” from chimpanzees and orangutans are pretty weak. Most of them should be categorized under “fling.” But that’s enough about my arbitrary Google searching; let’s dive into answering this question.