Grip Questions

[dgdave]

I got the notion of all 4 fingers under the rim when I went to some Scott Stokely demos about 7 or 8 years ago. I figured he knew what he was talking about since he can throw 700 ft distand and about 550-600 ft golf drives. I've seen him. I think the fingers should just be off the rim for distance. put them under. fingers on the rim slow the disc down from the get go.

As for the fork grip, it helped me get the nose down by changing the orientation of the disc in my hand. I've got big hands and to get a comfortable power grip, which I used for about 6 years, the nose would be up 90% of the time. with the fork grip, it put the disc in the crease of my palm and left the nose down when I wrapped my fingers under the rim.

At first, it was uncomfortable and my forarm was very tight. I lost about 80-100 feet of D, but the nose was down consistantly and notice more accuracy. I've used this grip for about 5 or 6 monthes. I have gotten all my D back plus a little extra. My forearm has loosened from the stretching and now when I do get a 400-420 ft shot off its a tighter line and more accurate than before.

[JR]

Four fingers under the rim sounds cool if the disc doesn't slip out and the required muscle tension isn't too bad. Squeezing the disc at this highest part may actually allow for more strenght out of the muscles because the muscles are closer to the center of the moving range position. I'll have to check this out. I held a disc in my hand nad it seems that the corner of the rim and wing in a Teerex is so sharp that it might be painful to grip hard and more so during the throw. Especially if the disc slips.

Gripping under the corner with the fork grip seems to allow for quite nice a nose down angle. I'll have to see if I can throw with this grip. The pinky shouldn't stick with this grip Thanks for the idea. Way cool even if I couldn't get it to work Thumbs up. I've gotta try this with Wizards as well

My trouble is not a lack of limberness. I'm too limer for my own health and it has contributed to my being injured. I've got nerve damage from injuries that tenses up my muscles. So different strokes for different folks even though the end result might be the same. If the muscles are strained for any reason you're out of luck.

I'm not surprised at all that you've gained accuracy and tightened the flight lines by getting the nose down. That's my expectation and experience from limited success with getting the nose down. Tres cool in tunnels like the courses around here. So extremely useful. Thanks dgdave!

[dgdave]

You should be good with this grip on your wizards too. I find this is the most comfortable grip for my mids and putters for my hands, big hands and big fingers, but not hot dog fingers just large size.

when I used to power grip, the disc always felt slightly loos in the hand, especially near my pinky and ring finger. I think this caused plenty of problems. the fork keppes the disc locked into place and more of my hand on the disc which seems to give me more contol as long as I keep my wrist locked down.

on youtube there is a video of climo explaining this grip. its a clinic with him and hosfeld. look for the ultimate disc golf show and find the clinics. they are all good. they have grip, drive, approach, upshot, putting videos. they also have an awesome one of climo and hosfeld freestyling which is flippin sweet!

[JR]

You should be good with this grip on your wizards too. I find this is the most comfortable grip for my mids and putters for my hands, big hands and big fingers, but not hot dog fingers just large size.

when I used to power grip, the disc always felt slightly loos in the hand, especially near my pinky and ring finger. I think this caused plenty of problems. the fork keppes the disc locked into place and more of my hand on the disc which seems to give me more contol as long as I keep my wrist locked down.

on youtube there is a video of climo explaining this grip. its a clinic with him and hosfeld. look for the ultimate disc golf show and find the clinics. they are all good. they have grip, drive, approach, upshot, putting videos. they also have an awesome one of climo and hosfeld freestyling which is flippin sweet!

We are in the opposie end in hand sizes. It seems that I just can't fork grip Wizards regardless of the finger position. But trying to fan grip I seemed to find a comfortable version of the fan grip with the pinky and index finger on the wing of the disc. I've had no luck with regular fan grip either. I get good gripping strength with little muscle tension when I put my index finger under the thumb pad. I curl my pinky to the bottom of my palm and have the outermost joint under the wing. To me it seems that keeping the middle finger straight like it is in handshaking position yields the loosest muscle tension for me. I need to curl my ring finger back to keep the Wizard parallel to the ground and get a sturdier grip.

I don't actually have a lot of contact with the disc and my palm. The only part of my hand that touches the disc slightly is in the immediate vicinity of the midway point of the base of the index and middle fingers.

This grip allows for the most nose down/loosest muscles with the Wizards I've ever had. An added bonus is very loose resistance free(compared to all previous grips) back to front motion range that is the largest I've ever had. If there are problems with clean releases and possibly lost distance due to the index finger being outside the rim and the ring and middle fingers slipping cleanly off the disc this grip might not get into use with Wizard drives but it will be tested and probably adopted for approaches. I've tried this with miniscule power inside my home and it works beautifully for approaches. I haven't got enough practice yet to determine the feasibility of this grip for putting. I don't yet see any obstacles.

Thanks again dgdave for being a catalyst and an initiating spark for my thinking.

[dgdave]

that's why I post. I might make sense to someone out there

[JR]

that's why I post. I might make sense to someone out there

Me too. I've gotten so much help from here that I feel it's my duty to give something back. It doesn't matter if only person beefits from my experiences or gets an idea of their own as long as everyone benefits.

[daniebl2]

All,
After a breif feild practice session...I had the best results with the thumb pressure down and pushing twards the otter rim of the disc. I even dare to say I saw an increase in distance. I'll be playing on Sunday, so I'll report back then with more details.

[JR]

Doh! I can't draw too far reaching conclusion about this day because my knee and hips twisted in various ways they shouldn't have. The grip I detailed earlier gave me more annies than I wanted Meaning too often withou trying to get them. So there's probably some off axis torque resulting from the grip. I tried to vary positions of each finger to the corner of the rim and wing and to the wing. I also changed the positions of my middle and ring fingers. To no avail. Luckily these problems didn't occur on approaches. But it seems that for drives with Wizards this modified fan grip needs more practice or initial hyzer or keeping with the power grip.

[JR]

dgdave you must have thick skin in your fingers. Or you don't grip as hard as I did. Ouch! As I suspected gripping under the rim gets painful quickly. I got mild pain by gripping hard without throwing. Yuck. Throwing hard didn't help either

[JR]

All,
After a breif feild practice session...I had the best results with the thumb pressure down and pushing twards the otter rim of the disc. I even dare to say I saw an increase in distance. I'll be playing on Sunday, so I'll report back then with more details.

I had tried that a long time ago. I tried it again today and remembered why I don't need to bother. It just doesn't do anything for me. But the results might very well be masked by my wrist raising from initial wrist down position as I reach the rip point.

[BenKrishman]

Just watched that climo grip video, I'm going to have to try this out and see how it feels.

Anyone else find it funny that climo was using a buzzz for this clinic?

[Star Shark]

It's not that Climo was using a Buzz. He was showing a guy how to grip and just used that guy's disc.

[dgdave]

Yeah, I have a few calluses. find that climo video. that's where I learned this grip and at first I got a LOT of turnovers because I wasn't used to this much nose down and I had to reposition my to stop from it rolling. now I have a lot more control on it if I keep my wrist locked down.

[daniebl2]

After a little playing today...here is my conclusion. And a couple improvements I've made.

Pushing down with the thumb and directed pressure twards the outer rim causes the wrist to open up and helps maintain a wrist down orientation during the pivot.

Also,
I noticed today that my lock point does not come off clean with the standard fork grip.....my middle finger seems to catch. I think I've found a possible solution. If I remove the pinky finger and double up ring finger and middle finger they seem to come off together and clean. I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but I'm hopefull.

Has anyone experimented with this style fork grip before or does anyone use this currently?

[Timko]

I think that style of grip is mentioned in the grip article on this site.

As far as the fork grip goes, it take a lot of work until you're able to feel comfortable. I was shown this grip by Aleksey Bubis (who was shown it by Climo). He told me it would feel weird at first, and I should slow down my throw to really feel where the hit takes place. That way, when you get back to your normal speed, you've got a lot of accurate distance. Of course, Boobs can throw Teebirds 500+, but I think that's got less to do with the grip and more to do with the fact that he's a hoss. But back to the grip...I was doing a lot of throwing over the weekend, and feel that the fork grip allows for a super clean release because your grip point rips off the disc right before your rip point without any other fingers getting in the way. I know Climo makes note of that in the video, and I totally agree with it. Now I never spent a lot of time throwing power grips; Aleksey showed me the fork grip within 3 weeks of switching from forehand to backhand, but I feel I get plenty of distance from that grip. And more importantly, I normally know where it's going.