Nose up with slow drivers?

[gretagun]

So, all winter I practiced the hammer drills, and throwing putters at my basket in the basement. I felt like this has given me a much better understanding of the pivot and wrist action, but now I'm struggling in the field. Now that the weather is better, I have been practicing in a field by my house, mostly keeping to Champ and Star Leopards with a Star Teebird or two thrown in the mix. Last night, however, I could not keep the nose down on these discs, and I have not had this problem for years. It's a little frustrating, b/c even with the nose up angle, they were going a good 40 feet further than I was throwing them last year, and I can't help to think that I'd be getting more distance if I could get the nose down. It's also making me doubt my ability to throw faster, more nose angle sensitive discs, so I need some advice. I feel like I'm getting my weight forward, but not sure if I had a wrist down orientation. By the time I started experimenting with this, it was getting too dark to see my discs, so I called it a night. I also messed around with actively extending my wrist. This seemed to keep the nose down better, but took a lot of distance off my throw, or sometimes caused turn overs, which I think was a result of rolling my wrist while trying to actively extend it.
Has anyone else had this problem occure with slower, less nose sensitive discs, and able to remedy it?

[JR]

Video is the best way to see what's what. Where is you thumb? Half over wing half over flight plate straight ahead pushing down would help a little. Wrist is crucial and so is weight forward and pulling the disc on constant height from the ground.

[gretagun]

Yeah, I know videos will help, and when I get some time I'll get some up. I just don't understand how the last 3 years I had very little nose up issues with Orcs and Wraiths, and now I'm having them with Leopards and Teebirds. My thumb is positioned on the flight plate, just past the rim directly above my index finger. If I can get something recorded, I'll throw it up on the Video Critique board.

[JR]

In the mean time try to move the thumb half over the flight plate and half on the wing.

[gretagun]

Thanks JR! I'll give it a try. I'm also going to focus on my wrist down angle this weekend to see if that helps as well.

[gretagun]

I have not had much time to throw lately, but I spent a little bit of time in the field last night. I don't know what I was doing differently, but the nose up issue with the leopards and teebirds seems to be corrected.

I don't know if this is correct or not, but one thing I worked on was slowing my arm way, way down when coming up to the hit. This seems contradictory, as everything I have read speaks of acceleration, and each part of the throw should be faster than the part right before it. In fact, it felt like I kept my arm moving at a slower, constant pace until my wrist closed then began to open. Right before the hit, and as my wrist began to open is when I really started to pull hard. I think I'm finally able to focus on the "out" motion of the throw, and I was getting my nice s curves and low flying drives back.

It's hard to explain, but I was able to focus all my energy and power into a motion that caused my wrist to open really fast. I know Bradley often spoke of "lofting" the disc into the apex, and I have tried this in the past, but it became apparent to me last night that I was still entering into the apex way too fast. For now I'm only going to focus on that outward, wrist opening motion, and try to keep my arm slow up until the last minute. I know a lot of this has been discussed before, and I although I can read and comprehend everything that is written on here, it's a totally different thing to be able to physically do it.

I'm pretty excited as I was able to reproduce these throws over and over again, but like everytime I feel like I have a major breakthrough, I lose everything and it takes weeks until I get that feeling back. I have league tonight, so hopefully I can remember what I was doing last night and translate that to the course.