New Drives - 08/15/2009

[gretagun]

Here are a few drives I recorded this morning. The ones I kept for youtube are mostly with Champ TeeBirds and Orcs. I have no idea how far these are going, but I'm looking for ways to improve. I'm not good at critiquing these vids, but here is what I've noticed:

The disc looks like it needs to get a little further in front of my body before it ejects.

My footwork also looks like I'm setting up for an anhyzer, going from back right to front left.

It still looks liking I'm "lunging" too far forward, and I believe I want to be more upright at the hit.

Feel free to rip these apart!

Drives 1-3

Drives 4-6

[dgdave]

Your arm looks hella tense before your pull. It also looks like you're pre cocking your wrist. You don't need to do that because your pull should do that for you.

[gretagun]

By pre-cocking, you mean my wrist is pretty much closed throughout the throw? I see what you are talking about now, but I'm not doing that consciously.

[dgdave]

Yup. If you do that you won't get the bounce back if the pull does it naturally.

[gretagun]

Thanks for pointing this out. I never thought I was doing it, but it's pretty dang clear here:

[keltik]

It still looks liking I'm "lunging" too far forward, and I believe I want to be more upright at the hit.

i always thought this was a good thing.....the whole weight forward ideal.....oh and yeah you are milking the disc.....relax your arm a little bit during your run up.....but aside from that it looks like your ripping the sh¡t out of it, great acceleration

[dgdave]

Weight forward= good
Lunging forward= Not so good

Everything needs to be in balance.

[dgdave]

Cam Todd is the only person I can think of that lunged and it worked well.

[cmlasley]

You could probably get another 50' by turning your shoulders more away from the target.

[black udder]

Some things you might not be doing:

1. Really getting power from the rear leg. It seems like it comes up pretty quick, thus you can't drive from it, you just push off a little.
2. I don't know that your getting the elbow stopping and chopping the lower arm. Seems like it's one straight pull from when you do pull, all the way through the follow through.
3. I think you are trying to throw the disc as well. It's a late pull, but I don't believe you're letting the body rotation power your throw, I think you're rotating and then throwing the disc instead of allowing your body to carry the disc until you pull, then hitting it hard.
4. The wrist thing already mentioned.
5. It doesn't look like you're getting to most out of your reach back. I think you'd benefit by getting the elbow back further (either bent or straight).

[Ironhide]

Were you just throwing a disc into a field or did you have a target in mind? Each throw was a little different to the point we could get really knit picky.

5. It doesn't look like you're getting to most out of your reach back. I think you'd benefit by getting the elbow back further (either bent or straight).

I think this is where you are losing a little bit of distance. It seems in the back of the throw you rotate a little around behind you, rather just bringing it back behind you.


Also it seems you tend to lunge forward because you're body is already leaning forward when you bring the disc back. I'd focus on trying to keep the body a little more upright and watch your elbow/forearm is pointing and the angle of your arm.

[gretagun]

Man, I didn't' realize how terrible my reachback and wrist issues were, but I agree completely with everyone's comments. Ironhide hit the nail on the head about the reachback being around my body. I "feel" like I'm reaching back in a straight line and keeping my wrist neutral, but after reviewing these videos, it's obvious that I'm not. I think I might have to exaggerate these motions a little more, and see if that helps at all. I messed around with a proper reachback and wrist position in the apt last night, and although the disc still stays close to my body, it felt really far away.

BU: Not disagreeing with you, but what should I be looking at in these videos to determine that I'm still throwing with my arm? I've worked hard at trying to throw with my body, and thought that was one part of my throw that was somewhere in the ballpark of being correct. My arm never gets sore or tired anymore, and this is where I saw one of my biggest jumps in distance, relative too where I was a year ago. What can I do to improve this, or make it more efficient?

Were you just throwing a disc into a field or did you have a target in mind? Each throw was a little different to the point we could get really knit picky.

I was in the field, and while I didn't have an exact target I was trying to throw straight drives from one end of the field to the other. I picked these 6 out of about 50 that I recorded.

[black udder]

I could be wrong on this, so I'm hoping that Dave, Dan or Blake will chime in.

The way you hold the disc and reach back, the disc doesn't drift/move much at all in the reach back and approach to the pull. You pretty much keep it in the right pec position, rotate your shoulders, then turn and pull from the right pec position. While that's late, I can't hope but think that by straightening your arm some and pushing your elbow back further, you wouldn't get a better feel of the weight of the disc in your hand so that when you pull late, you would actually accelerate your arm speed. If you watch Dan's throws and now Dave's, you'll see that their throws start slow and then they pull late - you can see it in the swedish players throws in that video, especially with the shot of Jesper. At the very least, take a look at the old video of Timmy Gill to see how somebody using the bent elbow all the way really gets the late pull and acceleration.

If you're not seeing the late acceleration/pull, just keep watching those guys throw long. The more you see it, the easier it will be to spot and hopefully, the easier it will be for you to duplicate.

[Ironhide]

I think you are both right, but you're just talking about different parts of the throw. You do tend not to reach back as far as you can, which does affect your throwing. Just think of a pinball machine, if you only bring the plunger back so far, you're only giving it so much power. Much like your throw, you're trying to stay too much into the pec drill.

It's a timing issue now that I think you're dealing with.. the first initial move back is the pec drill, then you break out of it a little with the reach, and then when you come forward, you have to go back into that pec drill. Like with the picture below. (Sorry to use you Dan!)

Look where his elbow is and the line his forearm creates. As you can see his elbow is at a 'near comfortable extension'. Also about the whole leaning in thing, notice how he keeps his body more upright.

[gretagun]

BU and Ironhide, thanks again for the feedback!

The way you hold the disc and reach back, the disc doesn't drift/move much at all in the reach back and approach to the pull. You pretty much keep it in the right pec position, rotate your shoulders, then turn and pull from the right pec position. While that's late, I can't hope but think that by straightening your arm some and pushing your elbow back further, you wouldn't get a better feel of the weight of the disc in your hand so that when you pull late, you would actually accelerate your arm speed.

This makes so much sense, and arowan, who has seen me throw in person, has mentioned that it looks like I'm throwing from the right pec position too. BU, I think I know exactly what you are talking about now, and it is very evident in Ironhide's pictures. Hopefully straightening my arm and moving my elbow back in my reachback, will help me with better acceleration, as well as help improve my wrist issues. I'm going to work on this a bit and get some new video up in a week or so, and hopefully see some improvement.

I never cease to be amazed by the amount of help and generosity this community of disc golfers is willing to donate. Thanks again for everyone's input!