Throwing help...short throws and disc golf woes

[treehugger87]

I finally got a chance to go out and get some tape of myself throwing. I posted last week about my throws not making it past about 160-180' and I'm hoping some more experienced players seeing this video can give my some incite. In the video I threw everything in my bag (about 10 discs right now) starting with putters going to mids and finally drivers. Once again I'm still not getting past that 160-180' mark and it's absolutely frustrating. Any and all positive criticism would be much appreciated.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/QCvWjJvlhTA[/youtube]

[keltik]

you have to use the long link

[keltik]

first it appears you are throwing nose up. do all of your shots rise quickly, stall and then fade hard to the left?

[treehugger87]

8 out of 10 flew straight and flat and just hyzered low at the end. Two of them flew up high stalled and crashed off to the left.

[JR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pk23LeyVk4 You are rounding. To help combat that you can raise the arm pull line height of the throw to shoulder level. That can help in avoiding throwing high. In fact some have a problem of throwing down 30' in front of them initially.

Your throw is all arm and depending on your health it may be the only choice. If your ankles, knees, hips and back can take it safely reaching back more will move your distance to a whole new level. I don't recommend reaching back fully at first for several reasons. One is coordination. Most can't maintain balance, timing and muscle control to accelerate if they go to a full reach back. Because disc golf is more an accuracy sport than a distance sport control needs to be emphasized. Distance comes with it in time. In order to get controllable distance one can't take eye sight off of a target too long. Or at all.

That means that the first step shouldn't have the foot pointing more than 90 degrees left of the target and the x step more than about 120 degrees and the plant step more than 90. When you test the hips left of neutral in the arm reach back and the shoulders even more you increase the arm pull length about a quarter and that transforms the power you'll generate. Meaning i wouldn't wonder if you wouldn't throw past 250' soon as long as you throw low with drivers. Not face height but say under 12' height.

In the throw you should also twist and turn the hips and the shoulders right of neutral before straightening the elbow.

Another nose down tips is wrestling the wrist down in the elbow chop. If you start with you arm super loose you can allow the wrist to hang down as far as it can go. It won't stay there unless you use muscle power to keep it down late in the throw. You had the disc aligned traditionally in the seam of the hand. You can also raise the rear of the disc in the grip up to the innermost joint of the thumb. Most won't go that high because it can tense up the forearm muscles slowing the arm down. It depends on hand and finger size, flexibility and muscle power if the muscles get tense. Stretching, working those muscles with weights and grippers plus throwing a lot in field practice will loosen up the muscles eventually.

The most important thing now is to not stay flat footed -it will screw up your form and worse your health.

[treehugger87]

thanks for all the info JR and keltik. I'm headed out to the field this morning to work on the things you were talking about and see what happens. I'll report my findings and may take some new video if i see a marked increase in distance today.

[treehugger87]

for the new video...are there any other angles that would help the critique?

[keltik]

no special views necessary for me. just back the camera up about 5-10 feet. maybe a couple from behind so we can see your flight path.

just post the new vid in this thread. no need to start a new thread.

[treehugger87]

Posting from the field...tried some of the new advice you guys have given me and i have been throwing sporadically between 225-250 for about the past 30 mins...had sort of an ah ha moment after considering the things above...going to throw for another 30 mins to an hour and will post a new video in the thread shortly

[treehugger87]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgR-o9g1JTc&feature=plcp[/youtube] new video from behind. the angle may not be perfect...ran out of time and couldn't do multiple runs.

[JR]

You are still flat footed and that has got to hurt sooner or later so that should be the first thing to check out. Either you've hit the limit or passed it in terms of safe reach back distance or you can lift half of the sole up in the air or more to allow health sparing foot pivot. That is if your body can handle it. It should unless you have injuries. You are rounding try to pull the disc in a straight line close to the body. If i'm right you might get a little harder snap from pushing the elbow more toward the target prior to starting the straightening of the elbow. Some shots lifted up higher than the arm pull direction indicated. My bet is that the wrist rose above neutral, the disc was aligned nose up in the grip or both. Whichever the cause is it needs to be eliminated. So try to push the hand down.

Your hips twist to the right in the follow through which is great. If you can manage to get the same motion range or more before the elbow straightens you should gain power. The shoulders weren't working as hard as the hips.

Your arm follow through is constricted my the mobility of the shoulder blade. Which hits the back muscles early. When you turn the thumb down starting after the disc has just left the shoulder can follow through farther=more power. And more consistency in the disc hyzer/anhyzer angles.

[treehugger87]

i don't have any injuries or anything that would restrict my movements into my throw. unfortunately i will have to wait another 4 days to go back out in the field and try things out. like i stated before I was getting past my previous mark and was hitting 225-240 pretty consistently by the end of that day so something has changed for the better. i encountered a problem today while i was playing with some friends at a local course and it could possibly be throwing off my timing and possibly causing a loss of power. i'm doing everything the same as in my field work but on standard tee boxes i'm going too far forward and losing my balance in my follow through and having to step off the front of the tee box to keep from falling. i dont know if this has anything to do with loss of distance or timing but it was something i caught myself doing several times today. i'm definitely going to pay close attention to the things that you mentioned above JR and see what happens next week and will post video after working on it for a while.

[keltik]

okay give me a few minutes to look.

[treehugger87]

with the loss of balance at the end of the throw i'm not necessarily referring to the loss of balance itself but if the long stride is causing the loss of balance which is in turn causing a loss of power/messing up the timing into the hit point of my throw just to clarify

[JR]

Many tee boxes are short so you need to either start from further behind or shorten the steps or start out at a lower speed to allow the steps to become shorter.