Towel Drill, What am I missing?

[archimedesjs]

so did anyone actually go and do the towel drill and see if they were doing it right or not?

I actually had to record myself doing it because I couldn't tell whether or not it was shooting straight out at the end, or flairing into the U shape. Apparently I was doing it correctly. The purpose of the towel drill was just to practice timing, correct?

[Crosseyed0811]

so did anyone actually go and do the towel drill and see if they were doing it right or not?

Sorry, I forgot to respond here. I did, but its still hit or miss for me... Still working on things, I'm getting snap in my throws now and getting much better "action" off the discs. A little more distance starting to show up as well. Thanks for all the help you give us Blake

[itlnstln]

If you are having trouble with the towel drill ("U-shape"), I would highly suggest watching Brad's latest video. While I wasn't having problems with "connecting the dots" as he is specifically addressing, I did have a problem "twirling" my shoulders. Doing Brad's drill reinforced the timing/positions I was losing with poor shoulder rotation. After doing Brad's drill, my towel drill was "fixed" and discs were coming out a lot straighter and faster. Now, I have re-learn how to aim. Again.

[jhilton]

Who is Brad and where is his latest video?

[JR]

he used to be a moderator here and all his Youtube vids are on channel citysmasher1. He has updated his thinking from the snap videos of old, but they are usable still.

[Bradley Walker]

I want this stamped on discs...

[Crosseyed0811]

I want this stamped on discs...

171 soft Ion please...

[Bradley Walker]

Kc Pro Rocs with one on the top and the other on the bottom...

[Crosseyed0811]

Good point, there are two... One soft one medium

[LYang]

So I've been lurking on this forum for over a year now; been reading the threads of goodness almost every day and am still stuck. Standstills (or even a very slow walk-up) with a reach-back and gentle hip rotation yield about 275' with a buzz and 300' w/ gazelles & teebirds on low line drives (< 10 feet height). With this drill, I believe I'm "popping" the towel correctly according to Blake's diagrams; however, I can't seem to crack the towel. If I try to rotate fast or accelerate the arm violently, I can get somewhat louder pops, but that just seems to contradict the smoothness that I read. I'm using a somewhat thick hand towel, but I don't think that would make much of a difference. So what am I missing?

My personal guess would be the hammer pounds? Except with the several times that I've read through that thread and tried, what I am suppose to feel eludes me still.

Another question that I have with this drill is:
- Should I be able to pop (or crack!?!?) the towel doing the right pec drill? or even from a modified RPD (last quote on the rightpecdrill.pdf by Banzai7) where I am only turning the shoulders and not the hips?

Also just wanted to add that this forum has been awesome with all the wealth of disc knowledge being provided. Thanks.

[garublador]

My personal guess would be the hammer pounds? Except with the several times that I've read through that thread and tried, what I am suppose to feel eludes me still.

I think your guess is right. If that feeling is eluding you then you aren't "getting" it. Go through the early parts of the drill very carefully focusing on getting that feel. Don't just try to emulate the video. It doesn't need to be done quickly to get the feel. Just let the disc drop on it's own and you'll start to feel it tug on your hand. When you feel that tug is when you actively pound the hammer.

[JR]

I honestly can't hit fully and can't get a bang! loud sound like Feldy. I do get a correct orientation of the towel according to the above diagram. With the towel i can't get the feeling of the weight of the disc once the arm starts to move to the right and the disc pivots while moving forward. For me the best result of the towel drill is to see that at least my snap is somewhat happening because the towel is oriented correctly. Last summer i tried to throw with a locked wrist and couldn't throw past 350' with line drives. So with half hitting i'm getting a maximum of 70' extra with s-curves and the wrist snap. By half hitting. And there should be more available with getting the disc to pivot more only if i could hold on to the damn disc. It may not even be a pinch issue but possibly a result of my poor wrist stopping capability. Poor pinch can't help though. I can't say what is what once i push through that barrier.

To be exact i've thrown farther than 420' on occasion but it's not golf D and 420'+ is mostly with skips. Only a small majority of 420'+ throws are air shots and it's field practice with perfect throws and usually with rear winds and i think i've hit the rear wall with an air shot only three times. The wall is at 440'. Only Nukes to that D in the air alone. No way i can pull it off on regular tees without fully warming up that is only available for me in serial shooting on the field with hundreds of tightly spaced shots, Very small target window means that it is exceedingly difficult to hit that small window so the make rate is so small that getting it right in calm weather is nowhere near golfable. Let alone riding the wind. One of the three shots was almost calm in the place i threw from but the place gets crazy winds all the time so i'm sure it was pushed forward at some point in the flight.

With that background i can't seem to get help from the towel drill other than for reassuring that i'm doing something half right.

[LYang]

With that background i can't seem to get help from the towel drill other than for reassuring that i'm doing something half right.

Seems like I need to figure this hammer pound out.

I think your guess is right. If that feeling is eluding you then you aren't "getting" it. Go through the early parts of the drill very carefully focusing on getting that feel. Don't just try to emulate the video. It doesn't need to be done quickly to get the feel. Just let the disc drop on it's own and you'll start to feel it tug on your hand. When you feel that tug is when you actively pound the hammer.

It's the recoil feeling that I don't understand. Either I have not felt what I am suppose to or I have felt it but didn't know it. I let gravity pull the disc down, and when I feel the weight I am suppose to snap the forearm (which causes the snap of wrist) and grip hard right? or am I suppose to actively snap the wrist? Do I snap and hold it down or is it just a snap?

[JR]

The hammer drill is easier than a real throw because the disc falls down with gravity and achieves a free lunch minor passive snap. A real throw has an active muscle powered snap component so it is good to get that into the hammer drill too. The hammer drill done with an active wrist snap is way faster and more powerful feeling leading to a much easily felt physical feedback from the tendon bounce (makes feeling the time to stop the wrist easier) and you sure will have to fight to pinch the disc hard or the disc will drop. You also get a disc pivot more easily in the hammer drill so getting to know what that feels like is great because you need to be aware of it in a real throw. That's the last time you should pinch. If you're that late you better pray for an active pinch from the don't drop a weight on your toe reflex. Because the disc leaves so quickly after that feeling that an active pinch is bound to be late. Reaction time is too slow for most i would think.

[garublador]

This will all be a bit cryptic, but the point of these drills is for you to figure out how to get these feelings rather than telling you what specific movements to do. Trust me when I say it's a lot easier way to try to learn this stuff an not just everyone being cryptic for the sake of being cryptic.

It's the recoil feeling that I don't understand. Either I have not felt what I am suppose to or I have felt it but didn't know it. I let gravity pull the disc down, and when I feel the weight I am suppose to snap the forearm (which causes the snap of wrist) and grip hard right?

The downward hammer pound is more like an overhand or sidearm throw. The point of doing it vertically is to have gravity do most of the work for you so you can get the feel right. If you first let it happen passively you can then figure out how to actively strengthen the pound. The recoil feeling you get happens because the disc is pivoting about the lock point rather than slipping out of the lock point. It's because the disc is rotating rather than falling in a straight line. If you have that feeling then you can switch to doing it horizontally so that you're initiating the hammer pound rather than gravity. Then you do it horizontally but "backwards" to get it for backhand. That's probably the most difficult part.

The idea is to experiment with what you have to do it get that feeling for each of those steps rather than trying to emulate some motion that someone else describes.