Working From the Hit Backwards

[Blake_T]

my only issue has been putters and mids...they are spinning fast and straight, but they don't seem to carry much.

are you giving them sufficient height to carry?

a 300' putter throw usually requires 20' of air under it.

a 330' roc throw usually requires 25' of air under it.

[phisherman77]

probably not. seems that with my old style (lot of arm, little snap), i could get mids and putters to fly faster

now all of them aren't necessarily that fast, but they're very spinny and hold lines very well. i will experiment with adding height to the throws.

[Frank Delicious]

When you guys say limp arm do you mean the whole arm is limp and when you rotate it just whips around. Or is the shoulder flexed and held up horizontally like I would have it if I was going to throw a disc across my chest?

[black udder]

When I've talked about a limp arm, I just mean just hanging by your side to give you an idea how much power the hip/shoulder rotation generates. In an actual throw, I don't believe we're talking about a limp arm. That's just when I reference a limp arm though.

[Frank Delicious]

cool, thats what I thought. Thanks for clarifying.

[Timko]

I was working on the late hit with a slow arm leading into the hit using a standstill throw, and was amazed at the hyzer distance I was getting on my mids and putters. I have always been able to throw a wizard pretty far, but it's on a bit of a turnover line. I was putting wizards standstill out 270' on a hyzer line last night, while my rocs were in the 300' range. Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate a run up with this new found power, and hello 400'!

edit: I'm also back to throwing dx valks. Man, do those discs go! They just never fade!

[IowaDiscGolf]

Make sure you're spinning those putters. It's easy to yank them and send them careening off into wobbly turnovers with the tall inside rim, but if they have sufficient revolutions they will not wobble but remain stable. Blake points this out in an article elsewhere on the site...the spin and the pulling/yanking force need to be in concert.

[roman]

I'm not as technical as everyone else here, I just practiced throwing putters until I could get them to hold whatever line I put on them for 250-300 feet. Even the soft floppy putters can crank out a 250ft hyzer.

I went through a similar problem of OAT on the putters and after many sessions I finally got them to fly right. My problem was that I was trying too hard with my arm. Putters need less arm speed and more snap to fly right. Try focusing more on getting the snap with your wrist (maybe coil it a wee bit more) and not powering down so hard with your arm. After a while you'll get the feel for it and you can start adding speed to your arm.

[jazzact13]

Hello.

I've been playing for a few months, and have a desire to improve my throw. I'm interested in trying the "working for the hit" practice, but so far I'm not sure I'm understanding it correctly. Nor can I watch the video linked to in the "Masterbeato's Form" thread.

I'd like to know if I've understood correctly the "working from the hit" is suppose to work.

Being RHBH, I would need to start with stand with my right shoulder toward the target, the disc held in the right hand chest high and right of center or in front of the right pectoral. The arm would need to be bent so that the disc is close to the body, maybe a few inches or even less. Starting from that position, with the body remaining stationery, I would need to throw the disc, concentrating an accelorating (I've misspelled that, haven't I ) into and through the hit or release.

Is this correct? Should there be no weight shifting yet? Should there be no turning? is the throw at this beginning point mostly an arm motion? Should there be a follow-through with the body?

[garublador]

Should there be a follow-through with the body?

There should be a full follow through with the arm and body, so there will be a weight shift. Following through with the arm is necessary to get snap and unless you're Gumby, or close to it, you'll need to follow through with your body as well.

[black udder]

Hello.

I've been playing for a few months, and have a desire to improve my throw. I'm interested in trying the "working for the hit" practice, but so far I'm not sure I'm understanding it correctly. Nor can I watch the video linked to in the "Masterbeato's Form" thread.

I'd like to know if I've understood correctly the "working from the hit" is suppose to work.

Being RHBH, I would need to start with stand with my right shoulder toward the target, the disc held in the right hand chest high and right of center or in front of the right pectoral. The arm would need to be bent so that the disc is close to the body, maybe a few inches or even less. Starting from that position, with the body remaining stationery, I would need to throw the disc, concentrating an accelorating (I've misspelled that, haven't I ) into and through the hit or release.

Is this correct? Should there be no weight shifting yet? Should there be no turning? is the throw at this beginning point mostly an arm motion? Should there be a follow-through with the body?

Working from the hit backwards is a process of reviewing everything you do starting at the hit and trying to understand what helps/hurt you maximize your speed and power at the point of the rip.

An example would be as you're working your form backwards, you discover when you do your x-step that you pause at the reach back before the pull. Essentially, this stops your momentum and makes whatever came before moot. You would then work on making your x-step a constant motion that incorporates your reachback up to the pull so that you don't stop or jerk your motion.

Examine everything you do from the moment the disc rips from your grip backwards so you can identify each action and see if it helps you or hurts you.

Things to look for:

Shoulder rotation
Keeping disc close to chest/arm during pull
Hip rotation
Planting before pulling
pulling and accelerating arm speed late vs the whole pull
Keeping your final stance a reasonable distance that is manageable for your body type and power
Keep the nose of the disc down

There is a sticky in the technique section which has a lot of good reading info regarding the above topics.

[sunspot]

It's funny that you post this. This is the first post I saw when I came back on Friday from practicing. I'm working for the Hit Backwards trying to generate more hip power with some success. However, when I throw my putters they've had a tendency to go right. I think my problem was grip and me rolling my wrist at the end. When I put my thumb over the disc more I'm able to have better throws. I have to remember to orient my grip to the proper disc. In this case it would be putters.

That's why comments like this :

It's easy to yank them and send them careening off into wobbly turnovers with the tall inside rim, but if they have sufficient revolutions they will not wobble but remain stable.

and

try modifying your putter grip and see what happens. I've had issues before with a power grip on putters, but I had good success with the birdie grip and even more with the Climo grip.

are invaluable. Problems like these (like mine) refer to putter grip.