I might quit throwing drivers. Bad idea?

[sweeper]

I also posted this on dgcoursereview.com. They asked a few questions and I cut and pasted my responses here so that all the information can be in one place.

original post

I'm a RHBH thrower with a little over '300 distance. I'm a fairly solid intermediate player in my area (my pdga rating is inflated because I've only played shorter courses in the last year).

Here is my problem:
I don't throw drivers well at all! I'm terribly inconsistent even though I work on my drives all the time. I have paid special attention to keeping the nose down over the last year.

Has anyone just stopped throwing drivers?
Can I do that and still be competitive?

I have taken them out of my bag for now and it doesn't hurt my scores at all. It actually helps. I am not saying this is forever, but maybe if I just throw mids for a while and go back and drivers again in say 3 months, do you all think that might be good for my game?

I can throw comets up to 300 and rocs over 280. I don't get much added distance from drivers most of the time.

added information

Most recently the drivers I had in my bag were

Eagle X: star 168 and KC pro (old and beat) as overstable and stable
Assassin 172: Straight, understable
Eagle L: DX was replaced by assassin.
Sidewinder: DX was replaced by Eagle L
I have also recently been throwing Cyclone 2s as an overstable driver from time to time. I might try a cyclone later.

I have also tried leopards (and liked them) but I'm not sure what I can do with them that I can't throw a comet for.

About a year ago I got smart and stopped trying to throw wraiths and other wider rimmed drivers. Maybe not smart enough.

My favorite comets are some old rubbery (t-pro?) misprints I found at PIAS. I have them in weights between 170 and 178, my favs being 174. I also will throw some Xs and i recenly got a Z (178) just to try. So I probably have like 8 comets? I usually carry 3 for a tourney.

Rocs I throw: 170 KC pro (straight) 176 DX (older and stiff) 180 glow (very stable)

Advice is needed. I'm trying to be comfortable with just throwing mids, but don't want to screw my game in the future.

As always, Thank you all Very Much!

[curt]

This question reallyoils don to one thing. How does it affect your score. If you score better without drivers, don't throw them. That being said, if you can throw your comets and rocs close to 300, you ought to be able to benefit from slower drivers, at the very least. I'd suggest trying something aling the lines of the stalker, cyclone, or gazelle and see what that does for you. If you are going to stick with just mids, I'd also keep a very overtable driver, like a firebird or predator, because they offer something you can't really get out of a mid.

Something else, you said you are horribly inconsistent with your drivers, could you describe your inconsistency and this site may able to diagnose what is going on.

[Star Shark]

Cut your bag down to 4 molds and see what happens.

Putter
Mid
Understable Fairway (Leopard, XL, River)
Overstable Fairway (Teebird, Tracker, Sabre)

As to weights, I'd suggest mids and putters around 175, drivers around 170

[Mark Ellis]

If you expect to compete with good players who throw drivers then you must learn how to throw drivers. Otherwise you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. The news gets worse (sorry), in order to compete with good players throwing wide rimmed drivers (which are harder to control than smaller rimmed drivers) then you must learn how to throw wide rimmed drivers.

The new gets worse again (sorry again), you must learn to throw drivers on anhyzers, and in tight tunnels, and in bad winds, and on overheads and rollers, and in elevation, and in bad footing and all of those under pressure.

In a competitive world the guys in your group want it as bad as you, practice as hard as you and have natural talents as good as you or better. Not throwing drivers is like purposely blowing off the first hole or two of the tournament and taking 7's (ok, par plus 4, which is usually a 7) then hoping to make it up later.

There is nothing magical about learning to throw drivers. If you can throw a putter or a midrange there is no reason you can't throw a driver. They are not harder, just different. Now throwing a driver in bad wind with a tiny landing zone on a roller under pressure with lots of OB: that is difficult. Putting in bad wind: that is difficult. Learning a driver is not difficult. Find a local Pro to help you out.

[sweeper]

My favorite professional disc golfer posted on my thread! My life is complete. My girlfriend thinks I'm.... ok we are not going to quote what she said.

Thank you Mr. Ellis. I will continue to pack my big bag with drivers, take them to the field, and throw them till my arms fall off.
There are a few local pros I can talk to about getting help. You have now let me know that my Rattlers are ok AND that I can't just run from throwing drivers.

[Parks]

I know you said that you have worked on nose down, but that is by far and away the biggest reason that people can throw mids well but not drivers.

I'm guessing that you're going about it wrong. Make sure that you are digging in your plant foot at the rip, pulling the disc close to the chest, and angling the nose down through the pull to maximize nose down. This will add a lot of D and accuracy with drivers.

[Sean40474]

I know I was having similar issues at one point, but throwing putters and mids a lot more seemed to help. The form and technique it takes to throw putters and mids lends itself pretty well to throwing drivers. After you get the hang of throwing putters and mids move to a nice easy to control fairway driver like a Gazelle, Leopard, Cyclone, and the like. Work with one of these for awhile and then take another speed jump in drivers and learn to control it. If you want to get good and move up in the ranks, then you NEED to learn to throw all sorts of drivers. Just stick with a few that you like and really learn them before you decide to load up on 12 different drivers in your bag.

[Redisculous]

Yeah if you can throw a comet 300' you should get at least an extra 50' out of a driver unless you have the nose way up. You should post a video in the critique section and see what people have to say.

I was in the same boat for a long time, throwing mids about as far as my drivers, and I'm not quite sure what did it for me, but a lot of things that I worked on last summer were:

trying to keep the nose down obviously

NOT trying to throw harder when I threw a driver, I didn't even really realize I was doing this until I read something about it on the board here

I was throwing a LOT of mids and putters and ended up trying to throw drivers the same way, on the same lines, which is way too high for a driver, unless you can get the nose way down, which obviously I wasn't doing.

I'm not claiming to be an expert or to throw really far or anything but having just gone through this last summer I thought I would post.

I would def post a video if you can though, I'm sure some of the guys on here could tell you right away what you need to do to fix this.

[A buzzz and a beer]

Yeah, you have to be able to throw drivers and like Mark said, not only throw drivers, but wide rimmed drivers and learn to control them too. However, you don't have to start doing that this second. What I always tell people to do at the start to to throw things like teebirds. It is a good stability for learning.. It will fade a lot for someone without power but as you learn to throw more it will become a great disc to learn different lines. I would also pick up something like a Surge or a Surge SS(SS most likely to start) as your max distance driver. These fly like a teebird but just go farther and need alittle more speed. I have found that the Surge SS is a great teaching driver for new people.

Overall I would recommend doing what I did. Watch a ton of videos! It's winter right now so you have plenty of time to watch everything out there on You Tube. Watch peoples form. The Dan Beto drivering video is my personal favorite. Then when it gets to playing time go and spend time in the field and practice the right form. Then just throw tons and tons of discs.

I personally enjoy spending time in the field and on the prac basket as much as playing actual rounds. Theres nothing better than seeing improvement.

[A buzzz and a beer]

Oh and I recommend throwing understable drivers to start. It will teach better form. There is no reason to start throwing destroyers and things like that when you are only throwing 300. It will just teach you bad form. I have a good friend who has maxed out at 350 and only throws bosses and destroyers. Since hes been doing this for a while now, it has taught him bad form and its been really hard trying to get him to break it.

[Sean40474]

I personally enjoy spending time in the field and on the prac basket as much as playing actual rounds. Theres nothing better than seeing improvement.

I'm the same, I love just practicing and know that improvement will show on the course. I remember this as motivation when I start to think about being bored with repetition.