Nontraditional Styles

[Warlord]

Age:49 RHBH
Experience: Less than one year.
Max (Golf) Distance: 300-325'
Rounds per week: 2-4 on weekends
Practice per week: 1-2 days per week when I find time.
No courses in my area....have to drive over 100 miles to play.

I use the Bonapane grip to get the nose down because every other grip that I tried was inconsistent. Around 50% of my throws were nose-up....causing stall outs and short drives.

Questions:

How many people use the Bonapane?
How much prospective distance am I losing (if any)?
Should I just stick with it since I'm moving up to Grandmaster next year?

I'm also a little nontraditional in my putting. I use the Turbo Putt style. When the wind is calm or light I can hit close to 80% of my putts within 30 feet. At first, I wasn't able to get much velocity on the putts, which caused a hard fade at the end of each putt of any distance 25' and greater; however, I am now getting some good speed on the putts which I think will extend my distance. When the wind is blowing hard I putt upside down....just started with it after being shown by a senior grandmaster. Pretty good with this....but nowhere near where I want to be.

Questions:

How many people use the Turbo Putt.
What is the max distance that the Turbo can be used?
How many people use the upside down putt in windy situations?
I'll be getting a DB5 soon....should I practice the more accepted forms of putting?

Or....should I just not worry about it and try to improve on my present techniques?

[Blake_T]

How many people use the Bonapane?

i only know of maybe 5 players in the country that use the bonapane grip full time on drives, but it was designed to get more nose down.

How much prospective distance am I losing (if any)?

you are losing 10-20% or more of your potential distance as that isn't a strong rip grip.

Should I just stick with it since I'm moving up to Grandmaster next year?

if you were having trouble getting the nose down with any grip, chances are you were not getting your weight forward and this was causing the nose up problem.

it's up to you whether or not you wish to address the source of the problem or to accept your solution to the problem.

What is the max distance that the Turbo can be used?

the longest turbo i've ever seen made was ~70-75'. this was with someone that had been playing pro since around 1978 and had been putting that way for 25 years.

How many people use the upside down putt in windy situations?

i've seen it done, but never really appealed to me unless the wind was over 45mph and the putt was inside 10'. i support it if you choose to do it because you feel it is the best shot. if it is what you do because of lack of confidence in putting it rightside up... im less supportive of that.

I'll be getting a DB5 soon....should I practice the more accepted forms of putting?

there's never really anything bad about adding more skills to your game. a very large chunk of people that putt with a more traditional style have some form of semi-proficient (at least within 10') turbo putt. i believe the reverse should also be true in that if you are a primary turbo putter, you should probably have at least a semi-proficient traditional putt.

however, since turbo putts generally leave pretty long fly bys on missed putts, i generally do not consider it to be a very high percentage technique unless you are willing to sink in MANY hours of practice.


based on the amount of experience you have with the sport, i would say buckling down into set patterns without having developed proficiency elsewhere is not the best decision to make just yet. it's one thing to have used the power grip for 10 years and decided the bonapane was a better choice vs. only being able to throw the bonapane. the same goes for turbo vs. traditional putting.

[Thatdirtykid]

when it comes to putting practice I definately am for practicing many techniques, I practice my normal pitch putt most, but also practice turbo, strattle, forhand, from knees ect... Ive saved tons of strokes by having a decent strattle putt when putting around obstacles, and also have made my share of from the knees using all of my armspan, legspan ect trying to get out of the rough stuff throwing a 25' forhand putt.

[Craig]

What is turbo putting?

[Pagan]

What is turbo putting?

AKA the Pizza putt. Stand up straight, hold the disc high with fingers behind it, push it towards the basket. It sorta tumbles into the basket end over end (at least when I do it).
I rarely use it unless it's a gimme as my accuracey is practically nill with it. If I have to putt over something I'll go with a light forehand putt.

Pagan

[Thatdirtykid]

turbo putts dont flip they spin, julianas website (too lazy for a link) shows some different grips. they fade the direction of a forehand.

I call the turbo putts that flip "flippies"

[discmonkey42]

Yesterday, I played with a guy that used the turbo putt perfectly. Stuck under 5 foot tall bushes, he stood in the middle of them and turbo putted out and into the basket about 35 feet away. The next round he did the exact same thing from the exact same spot. I never thought I would need this shot, but it seemed to work great.

[ParanoidPiranhasDave]

I've heard it called "Spider Putting". Unless, that is, I'm misunderstanding.

I watched a tournament at Hudson Mills, MI where a guy was using it exclusively. I only watched him for about 5 holes but he only missed one putt...which had popped out the other side of the chains, and only two of them were what I would consider easy.

[roadkill]

I used to use a bonapane primarily for most of my drives in the late 80's early 90's.
I then stopped tucking the thumb so it gradually morphed into a fork grip. I still use a forked grip (disc pinched between index and middle fingers and fingers underneath fanned) for all drives where accuracy is more important than power and with all my midrange discs. I can't imagine using a bonapane grip on a tight wooded course.

I use a power grip on most shots over 340' especially when the fairway is more forgiving (open).

The turbo is a good shot to have but I'd reccommend working in some other styles as well. If you're putting with a low celing a turbo will be next to impossible. In that case an underhand kneeling putt or straddle will prove more effective.

[Sokpuppet]

you are losing 10-20% or more of your potential distance as that isn't a strong rip grip.

Why is the bonapane grip not a "strong rip grip"? Do you lose spin simply by having a weaker lock point?

I have trouble with the power grip. I can't seem to put much force into my index finger, while keeping the disc properly aligned in my hand. Are any of the middle-finger rip grips comparable in distance potential to the power grip?

[Blake_T]

it's not a strong rip grip because the rip point is not as strong as some other grips.

the fan grip probably offers the strongest rip point of the middle finger rips.

i have small hands and tend to have a problem with sliding on wider rimmed drivers. something i've found that helps a bit is to add a bit more downward pressure with the pad of the thumb to add a bit of "pinch grip" effect to the rip.

[Sokpuppet]

I don't understand.
What makes (for instance) the power grip's rip point stronger than that of the bonapane? The positon of the rip point along the inside of the rim? The index finger being inherently stronger than the middle finger?

[Weebl]

Blake will be able to answer that better than I and in a more cohesive manner.


Now about turbo putts. Ever seen/played water polo? Replace the ball with a disc, thumb near the center of the disc and fingers along the outside rim. It's easier for people with bigger hands to do this putt, but ive seen smaller hands do it sucessfully too. The floppy one I call the butterfly putt. Why? It flutters.

The longest turbo putts ive seen are 45' out though, it doesnt seem to be accurate at long distances though from what I've seen. It's also possible to use a disc like the arrow (textured top plate) to do upslide down putts (ultimate players know these throws as "hammers") for distances too far to turbo putt, with the abrasive surface of the Aerobie Arrow stopping it when it touches the ground (most discs will slide). Be creative, no rules on style.

[dscglfgeo]

I played a tourney against this guy in K-zoo. He turbo putted everything inside of 70' .... he only missed 2 of them.... freaking amazing to see him sink putt after putt. He used a champ aviar.

I ended up beating him by one or two strokes to win the tourney. If he could of gotten a couple of drives together he would of swept the field.

[Blake_T]

I don't understand.
What makes (for instance) the power grip's rip point stronger than that of the bonapane? The positon of the rip point along the inside of the rim? The index finger being inherently stronger than the middle finger?

it's a little of each.

basically, based on the position in the hand as well as inertia based on the throw the index finger yields the strongest rip point (assuming the rim isn't too wide) even though it doesn't necessarily have the most leverage.

the strongest grip i've seen is the stack grip i have on the grip article with the index on the rim and both the middle and ring on top of the index.

one thing of note... the closer the lock points are to the rip, the stronger the rip will be, but it also diminishes control.

when people drive farther with the bonapane, it's not because of grip strength, but because they are getting more nose down than they do with other grips.
in the majority of these cases (not all), people tend to default to the bonapane rather than a) keep their wrist down and b) get their weight forward.