Bent elbow vs full reach back

[Hangvar]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the great material on the site, it has helped me tremendously during the last year or so. Although I'm probably into my 50th rereading of all the articles I'm still learning new stuff.

To my problem. I feel that I'm getting the hang of the bent elbow technique. However, I still throw longer with a full reach back, at best around 350' but on average more like 310'. With the bent elbow I'm averaging around 270' although my accuracy is definitely better.

When reading on increasing my distance (using a bent elbow) I get the impression it's a lot about the active uncurling of my elbow, but I just don't seem to be able to do that. Performing the throw, the arm motion is too fast to be able to incorporate any active uncurling of the elbow. Am I doing something wrong or are there other ways to increase my distance to beat my full reach back distance.

PS I also have noticable better performance in headwind with the bent elbow technique, plus it's a lot harder to turn over discs, although that may be due to the fact that I'm not able to deliver the same disc speed that way. DS

[Blake_T]

from the sound of it there are 2 things probably happening...

first off, it sounds like you are trying to be strong at the beginning of the throw rather than the end. the real key to getting good snap is to focus your power into the rip. with the bent elbow, you treat the upper arm like a direct extension of the shoulder, that is, there should be no real lag time between the start of the shoulder and the movement of the upper arm. with a full reach back, players often have a slight delay as the upper arm lags behind the shoulder motion, but ideally, the upper arm should behave the same in both instances if you are going for golf d. you should be under control the entire time until the time immediately after the finish and so if you find your arm moving too fast, you probably aren't feeling the hit, meaning your armspeed is likely too high BEFORE it needs to be.

as for the difficulty with turning discs, the thing that often is a result of these drills are that players throw without off-axis torque on the disc. this is a good thing, as it is the method for throwing understable plastic as well as slower discs such as midranges/putters. if a player doesn't have the arm to throw a crush straight/flat, they will often still try to throw the crush straight/flat but then give a roll over to make the disc fly straight/flat. with a more controlled pull/finish, people often find themselves torque-less and thus the discs fly more stable, and imo, how they should.

once you get the timing down for the finish, you will find the disc will fly just as fast if not faster. it takes some work, but in the long run, you can incorporate this into whatever style of throw you choose and it will increase your power.

[Hangvar]

Tried to slow down this morning and focusing on extending my elbow. It might just be that I'm able to do something of an active extension if I slow down my movement. However, the distance is shorter than before and I feel that I can never accelerate enough to reach the distances I want.

Also I get an anhyzer tendency when focusing on this, it somehow feels like when performing the rotation and extension the release angle automatically gets tilted a little towards anhyzer.

My own analysis is that I need to incorporate more of this active extension movement into a throw where I do a little more reach back, but not a full one. Thereby I can have a higher incoming velocity into the elbow extension part of my throw, but still accelerate the disc more.

[Blake_T]

hrm. my advice is to focus less on active extension and more on keeping the disc close to your body upon the pull through and powering into the rip. once you have the timing to finish strong, the power should be there. i keep my body relaxed until the last 1/3 of a second before the rip and try to let my hips do the work if i can, and i do this on both reach back and bent elbow throws.

hope this could help.

[Hangvar]

Where is the disc located in relation to your body when there is 1/3 of a second left before the rip?

[Blake_T]

it depends on the type of shot...

if i am throwing anhyzer or flat, generally a few inches in front of my left pectoral with my shoulders almost square to the target. if i am throwing a hyzer, usually about a foot in front of my left pectoral, but with my upper body more at 45 degrees...