The Pinch

[jtbingster2]

I've heard people talk about this, and I'm assuming it just refers to gripping the disc hard right before the hit. The problem is, I can't seem to get it. If I try to relax my arm, I can't seem to get the timing right on the gripping-hard-at-the-end part. Any drills or advice on how to work on that?

[CatPredator]

It's very difficult to time if you're just trying to pinch hard at the end of the shot.

An easier approach is probably to try to get the feeling of loading up the tension in your wrist/arm as you bring the disc into the power zone/pocket. Once you know what that feels like, you know when you have to pinch, and you can start to incorporate more timing mechanisms like shoulder and hip rotation. If your timing and positions are off, you never get the disc loaded into the power pocket, and when you pinch will sort of just be a guessing game.

Edit: I'm realizing that is sort of a backhanded way of saying look into the hammer pound and right pec drills, but hopefully it helps in some way

[JR]

Stand still throws help, because everything moves slower. If you start the pinch early like, when you start the elbow chop you should not be late with the pinch. As long as you realize, that the pinch needs to start fast and be hard. Once that works try adding steps until you're at full speed. Then it should be easier to move the onset of the pinch later to see, if you gain or lose D now with it. What you achieve now may not be, what works best for you later, if you train for a different timing.

From muscle resistance point of view a fairly late pinch would allow a faster arm motion. But once you factor in the need to fight the bending back of the wrist once the elbow starts to straighten, things get complicated. The better you are at wrist part of the snap, the earlier you can probably get away with pinching. That means, that with changing form and muscle power with possibly changes in nerve speed your pinch timing may change over time. If you want to get the best results, So you should check the timing each year.

There's a young gun here, that squeezes hard from the get go and never varies the squeezing power. He says he grips firmly with the fingers inside the disc and has a fairly loose thumb atop the disc. That comes from the perspective of a strong guy. I heard him have a slip last summer and the sound was more like firecracker going off than a pop. It was really loud so he must grip way harder than i can at full power. I've never heard anyone else make such a loud sound from throwing. It goes to show, that once you have excess of power you can get away with almost everything and still have the disc sail past 200 meters in wind. He has done that in a storm. According to Ville Piippo this guy throws the fastest backhands in Finland. People have spoken of well above 120 KPH radar measurements, but the radar is not necessarily accurate so exact numbers are a mystery. If i recall correctly he has thrown 600'ish on flat land without that much wind, but i don't have exact details. By the way he is not that tall. He may be the shortest 200 m thrower on flat ground and i don't think the shot was made that much above sea level, so it is a great result indeed. Transfer that to Primm and there's potential for much more.

[Timko]

The Jarvis brothers are short. Like 5'6" I think.

[JR]

Forgot about them so he's probably the third shortest 200 meter thrower. That is if someone i've not heard of has passed 200 meters. Or someone i know like Emac has done it. I would not wonder if he could do it with wind assistance after seing how far he ripped anny with a Buzzz at Tali Open 2011.

[JR]

21 revs per second yesterday. 14 usually and 17 tops last year. Different emphasis on finger pinch direction and gripping hard early on. No active wrist extension yet. Nor any attempt to resist the bending back of the wrist or stopping the wrist afterward. No idea about the distance and flight line changes, because i threw into a net other than with a different grip my average D has gone up. I've done finger strength exercise so that may explain some of the added revs. Unfortunately gripping that hard on two drives hurt my arm. Injuries are probably healed as far as they will so i need a lot more muscle mass and power to be able to grip that hard even for one round without pain. If i ever can that is. Don't know until i do get bigger muscles.