Disc Golf Tips and Technique: Driving with Dan Beato (Video)

[JR]

That's great progress speed with distance Jen congratulations! I'd like to know how far you can get your Valks now. That stinging will take time to go away the more you throw the more durable the skin becomes. There is a great chance that you experience micro slips where the disc slips out late enough to fly where you intended but still not ripping out of the fingers. Which shortens the time the disc slides across the fingers. The rim area actually forces your fingers apart in a rip so that there's minimal plastic to skin contact area and time wise. So throwing harder in the sense of better form can reduce the wear on the finger.

[jenb]

Thanks JR. Previously, I was throwing champ valks with a lot of anny line and oat to get an s curve, and going maybe 250 ft on a really long drive, and more typically 200-230. My longest drive at a driving range with a wraith like that was 270 ft, and that was with a tailwind and a lucky bounce and roll at the end. So in discing down and learning to drive putters, dx rocs, dx leopards, dx banshees, etc., I was trying to fix my drive. Now I'm trying to increase distance with this new techique, and I think it's working.

I confirmed today that my leopard is going around 260-270 ft, without wind or roll. Just a nice straight drive, with maybe a little finish right. I tried throwing a 154 JK 5x champ valk, and it flew out past my leopard. I thought it was going to go another 75 feet from the looks of it, but it faded really hard at the end and wound up only about 20-30 feet past my leopard. I tried it a few more times, and I couldn't get it to flip. It just keeps acting really overstable for me now. I also tried a 150 DX valk, but it went right and shorter. No further than the leopard. The dx leopard is also going a little right on me, so I am trying to figure out wht I ought to do at this point.

Should I stick with the DX fairway drivers and midranges only for now?
Should I try some 150 class champ and star sidewinders and roadrunners?
Should I try a champ or star leopard or 150 teebird or eagle in champ or star plastic?
What do you guys think?

[JR]

That's good D for a lady with the Valk. Very respectable. And it's only going to get better i think. I wouldn't go overboard with trying out new discs. You gotta solidify some discs that you have already. Few discs will make you a better player. Some discs will go farther. It's not only distance that you need to think. You need to think of wind tolerance, accuracy and repeatability too. For plastic choices DX is best on open grassy courses and you have enough power to go through them fairly quickly if you play on tight rocky courses but don't have enough accuracy to avoid the trees.

There is difference between Champ and DX Valks and DX fades less definitely so it has more distance potential. Especially considering the fading out early part of the Champ Valk. I've thrown a 175 DX Valk 400' released flat not flipping a degree. Fade was about disc width or a little less and most throws would fade 6-12'. That to me would suggest that heavy DX Valks like 410'+ power to not fade at all. That is the second longest golf flight. Slight turn utilizing gravity to keep up the speed is the only golf shot that's longer than that. Seeing that your Champ Valk 154 fades out early for you DX is the correct plastic for you for the longest flight out of the Valks. To not have it turn right in the beginning try increasing initial hyzer angle degree by degree until you find the angle with which the disc flips to flat and doesn't turn.

The shape of the disc dominated the flight and winds also bring out differences in weight apparent with good molds too. If you wanna try out other discs for even more D and even more dependability in 150 range you're gonna need more than one disc because there are more than one requirement. I don't recall your discs now so i throw a couple of descriptions. Background: Valk and the next longer development of the same mold Beast were designed in the era of DX plastic accounting the changes of disc shape once it cools down after taking out of the mold. Beast was retooled later for overlapping with the Orc and going into Champion. Sidewinder was designed for Champ and so was the Roadrunner.

Beast needs more power for straightish flight but it needs more power than i have for no fade flight. The longest i've thrown a Beast is 407' on a low line with maybe 8' fade. Usually i get some few feet more fade on lowish lines. That's relative IIRC apexing at around 8-10'. That means that you can't expect straight flight from a Pro/champ Beast of 166 or above weight. Mine was 166 Pro for that flight and few feet less with Champ 166. If fading out is not a problem for you if you get equal or better distance with the Beast fine. If not i suspect that it fades out too fast for you. At least before it breaks in. In that respect the Pro plastic version should be better. At my power Beast is longer than a Valk on average and absolutely. At your power i'm afraid it would need more power than the Valk.

A Sidwwinder is well within your power range but it is infamous at your power level for being super unpredictable even in calm weather. That is with equal throws it's gonna do two very different things in two throws. And more with more throws. Blechhh. I would shy away from it especially in light weights and winds. If not altogether. Where it shines is getting it to roll. Where to is another matter.

Roadrunners don't come in as low weights i think but it could be a good disc in the lowest weights it is produced in if you can find them.

Star 150 Leo is ridiculously glidey and wind rapeable disc. No real help over DX i'm afraid. And understable a little and unpredictable to boot. I used for stand stills after my ankle broke. 330' was super unpredictable and 250' was still not always pretty. OAT got one throw to go right over 100' before hitting a fence and it would have easily gone 20'+ more right. At 270' max.

150 Star Eagle is susceptible for winds for me so it can be ok for you. Eagles are designed to turn then fade harder than Teebirds. So it is control not distance disc. Teebird can take some winds and once broken in fades less meaning being in you power range and flying relatively straight and starting the fade relatively late in the flight. It's always better to be in putting range in the woods due to fade than 100' short in the woods. It is personal if a speed 9 disc is longer than a speed 7. Usually you need to throw harder with slower discs to get the same D if you can't snap hard and they are about 1 % of the throwers in men. I have no idea how many women there are that fit the description. At worst it may be just Niloofar Mosavar Rahmani of Sweden.

I would loan discs to try if possible. Low weights are rare so it may not be viable. If you get to play with women (was Texas state already?) there may be more opportunities. Faster than Valks with possibly more distance discs at your power are bad for 350' and above crowd for general use. Quest AT Defender fades hard at my power but is very understable early on. It is so fast that it goes fairly far and an 8 year old threw it farther than anything else i gave him. No hope for straight flight though. The same for me even though i throw way farther. The understability helps to keep the disc flat long enough to go far with people with less power than you. The Defender is very slick.

Another understable disc that may be even less wind tolerant but has more use would be light R-Pro Bosses. They come in a wide variety of weights. The plastic needs grass landings and no tree hits. They can't be used around rocks. That is the worst plastic i've thrown. I've thrown a 137 Boss that is way understable. It has a very wide wing so gripping might well be an issues.

Do you have a min weight River? That could be nice too.

[jenb]

I do have some opto rivers in minimum weight. they seemed too stable before, but I haven't tried them with the new technique.

I started trying the option today that Blake mentioned of throwing across the hip/abdomen, and I think it might wind up working better for me. I had a lot more control. My leopard went out to 300, and my two DX Valks (150 and 170) were flying out there like crazy. I couldn't get them to go straight enough to see how far they would go in the sheltered tree tunnel where my Leopard went 300, but they went about 50 feet further then the leopard out in the open area in a headwind. The headwind took off too much distance to be able to conclude that I'm throwing them past 300 yet. I have a 160 star roadrunner on the way that should arrive tomorrow.

The winds this year are ridiculous. I can't wait for it to calm down so I can go the range and see where I really stand.

Regarding Niloofar Mosavar Rahmani, I have tried to find info on her technique and videos of her drive, but I cannot find anything. I wonder if it is an issue with the search engine trying to search sweedish web content with search terms in english letters. Are you able to find any videos or the like of her? If so, can you please link them?

[JR]

Headwind aren't a similar thing for modern discs if you have power. For Valks at 400' headwinds usually give shorter flights because the disc ain't gonna drop early due to fading out. DD2 and Nuke at 400' with micro slips -no real pivot around the finger tips fade out even in headwind but worse in calm weather. They are so fast and aerodynamic that they slice through the wind so that some drives are longer in headwind than calm weather for me which surprised me. Things might look different to those that get more spin on the disc so that they don't fade as hard. Nothing in under 13 speed class i've tried cuts through air enough to gain distance repeatedly in headwinds. That does happen occasionally with slower discs too if you get lucky with no wind early then a gust just when the disc is about to fade so that the disc stays flat longer and gets raised.

Valk to 350' is imaginable indeed for you in a headwind if the disc won't fade out and is raised by the wind in the end of the flight. That is good D indeed!!! Congratulations. You seem to have talent for disc golf i see great things in the future for you if have the motivation and opportunity to push forward. Progress will get slower inevitably in distance department but i would think that you are already among the longest throwing females around. That means that your scores are improved the fastest by gaining accuracy and repeatability to 90% of your maximum distance and approaches and putts.

The great news about your new found distance is that you can throw at a controlled less than maximum power to your previous best or beyond and stay accurate. In 2003 Worlds DVD Juliana Korver said that she never throws at 100 % power unless it is uphill and even then rarely. And that was in a mountainous area playing for a world title so i don't imagine she'd go near top power in most uphills anywhere else. Disc golf is more about accuracy and repeatability than raw distance. A department where you don't lose much to most females. In fact you throw so far that when you get accurate all the time at those distances and get proficient in putts and approaches you can well win a world title in open division. Really. The old saying drive for show putt for dough applies. And the old school saying that driving distance (and the implied accuracy increases) with putters and mids accounts the most. Not the driver distance.

[Redisculous]

Hoping for a quick answer here. Recently started doing the right pec drill and I find my upper body uncomfortably torquing everything over to the right. I think I'm not opening my hips enough, which was a big problem with my drives last year (I ended up hurting myself and taking a couple months off). Does this sound like it's probably my problem?

I was really surprised, I can throw a comet from a standstill 250+ and don't have any problems torquing them over, but as soon as I took away the reachback, ouch.

[bill]

thanks so much Beato for the effort you put into this. this video has helped my form and snap tremendously. I really appreciate the simplicity of it. i've been mimicking these techniques for weeks now and it's really paying off. i'm throwing longer and with more command than ever before. This can help every golfer!!

[bill]

Hoping for a quick answer here. Recently started doing the right pec drill and I find my upper body uncomfortably torquing everything over to the right.

i was doing this at first, i was trying too hard to get distance and i was rolling my wrist to the right before i let the disc go. i tried to focus more on armspeed and snap and keeping the disc flat in not hyzer when throwing and things straightened out.

i find this drill much easier with mids. i did them for a while and then went back to drivers. it's a really fun drill with putters.

[Triflusal]

rather than reading through this thread (again) I will ask a question that probably has been answered, but that I don't recall seeing

what exactly am I trying to feel with this drill? I feel like it is slipping out of my hand instead of ripping out (this is with putters+one step, they are going ~200'), which is probably wrong.

so, since it is slipping out, I'm going to hazard a guess that my timing is off? am I on the right track?

[superdrive]

You just need to feel the disc pivoting around your index finger. That's it. You can feel it after that and form doesn't matter anymore. Hope this makes sense.

[Sean40474]

Golf is the most popular sports around the world appreciate the countless men and women around the world. Many people take pleasure in golf, especially because it can be fun and challenging. The sport of golf is in constant evolution and the sport is always different. It's really a lot of tactics you can use the course and will continue to find a whole new thing and use them in the game.

Nike Golfmode

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[fanter]

I did some one-steps today in the field (which is actually a sinkhole), and I pitched almost every throw about 40' ahead and into the ground. What causes this? Am I dropping my leading shoulder, maybe?

In my video critique, Emiller said that I lean a lot into my throw, and that also my "shoulder" plane is off. If this is the case, maybe these one-step throws are a good place to start isolating issues...

[jenb]

I'm no expert, so I will speak with caution. It sounds to me like you are doing two things right: weight forward and nose down. What it sounds like you are missing (and this is based on my own recent experience) is getting the disc to gain height by "throwing the flight plate through the ceiling" as Blake purportedly puts it.

Actually, I've found two ways to make the disc gain height wil remaining nose down. The first is hyzer flip, so you hyzer that understable disc way up in the air and then it flips and flies out nose down. The second involves using a modified power grip, where only the index and pinky are gripping the rim, and the second and ring fingers are against the flight plate. Then, in the release, the second and ring fingers curl and trust up against the flight plate, and the rim of the pivoting disc passes across the finger tips with a glancing blow. The reult is flat release that launches up in the air 20-30 feet and nose down. I can get dx rancho rocs more than 250 feet using this technique. But I'm probably doing it wrong, IDK.

When I try to throw flat, but don't thrust the flight plate up as described above, I wind up stubbing discs out in the dirt as you describe. So maybe this will help you, or maybe someone who knows what they are doing will help us both.

[Dookville]

I did some one-steps today in the field (which is actually a sinkhole), and I pitched almost every throw about 40' ahead and into the ground. What causes this? Am I dropping my leading shoulder, maybe?

In my video critique, Emiller said that I lean a lot into my throw, and that also my "shoulder" plane is off. If this is the case, maybe these one-step throws are a good place to start isolating issues...

Dude...you are throwing 390-400' shots into the wind in your video, that is far beyond the distance that most people throw. If you are wanting to throw farther for distance competitions, or the courses you play are airplane runways, then cool, I hope you find what your are looking for.

Otherwise, stay fit, play often, and make very small changes, one at a time, and don't let advice jack your game up. BE HAPPY, you're a stud.

[mark12b]

Nike Golfmode

How do these spam bots get through!?

Good question, but when you quote their post and include their link, you are helping them..

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