Seth Drives

[geoloseth]

Here are two clips from today's round at the lake. The first is one from the back side so you can see down the fairway. If I recall I think my drive only went about 300' since I over-tuned it into a stable pig. But I felt like I had good acceleration. The second shot was about 375' to 385 ' judging by where it went OB. It went too high, ~60+ and I didn't get as much nose down as I was going for, but oh well.

1. http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn28 ... MG3563.flv

2. http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn28 ... MG3571.flv

[JR]

Can you twist your hips faster? The range of motion is ok but could be better and would be automatically larger with more power from the hip twist.

On the second video you started to pull with the arm a little before you planted the right foot.

[geoloseth]

Getting the hips to open up quicker is one of the last things in my run up that I've left to work on. Right now the hips are being driven y the push off with my left leg. It seems the faster I try to open rotate my hips the more I tend to sheik to the right.

I thought the same thing about starting the pull early in the last clip but after watching the clips over and over, it's not starting early. The motion is coming from pushing off with the back leg and shifting my weight down onto my plant foot.

[black udder]

Brad has better hip rotation I think. It appears that you start the hip rotation, but push off to rotate around the plant foot.

The way it looks to me is you push off and your back leg swings around to the front.

With Brad, he goes from an closed hip to an open hip to a closed hip and then his back leg comes around as a result of the closure of the hip.

[geoloseth]

No, I deffinitely don't have much hip rotation. But like I said before its something that I'm working on since when I do I shank my drives right. When I hit the field and get losened up I do get more rotation. It seems like a mental block to me. I'm also trying to work on turning my back more toward the target.

Any other advice is appreciated.

[Bradley Walker]

Seth is doing great.

I really think all he needs is more hit focus. When he hits it, everything works. He has tendency to get to ooooonnnnnnneeeeee sppppppppeeeeeeddddd.

A throw should be tick tick tick BOOM!!!!
Or slow slow slow FAST!!!
Not medium medium medium medium.

I practice one steps for this. I am getting better even. Practicing the hit leads to real improvement beyond learning the physics.

[JR]

No, I deffinitely don't have much hip rotation. But like I said before its something that I'm working on since when I do I shank my drives right. When I hit the field and get losened up I do get more rotation. It seems like a mental block to me. I'm also trying to work on turning my back more toward the target.

Any other advice is appreciated.

For learning to rely on your hip rotation and not being tossed in varying directions depending on changing forward speeds of the linear part of the run up I suggest slowing down especially in the forward linear part of the x step. In the end the left leg push to the right leg pivot should still be explosive. It's easier to generate more leg push and pivot cleaner when you come into the push walking slowly. It's also easier to time the left leg push and hip explosion late in the throw at slow initial speed.

You can lock on the timing easier if you start the x step in slo mo first concentrating on where you need to start the push and hip explosion. Four times slower x step than normal is pretty good for me for allowing to feel different parts of the body and the natural time where the effort should be passed on by one body part to the next. Plant, hard part of the push, hip explosion, shoulder rotation, arm swing, elbow chop, wrist extension, disc pivot between thumb and index. There are naturally overlaps between different parts but that's the general idea. You should look at big cats and how smooth they walk. That kind of ease, springyness and bounciness in the steps, smoothness and beauty of motion is what you should be able attain in slo mo x stepping and throwing. And eventually in full power throws.

Grace is a good word for sports too. Looking for grace and ease of motions things made to look easy when they are not maybe ballet dancers, gymnasts and figure skaters are good for comparison. Those kinds of people make standing on toe turning perfectly without a twitch in perfect balance look like nothing. Most disc golfers I've seen including me mr. herky jerky at one point and half that now look like ducks running and desperately flapping winds beating water while taking off.

It's not a bad idea to stop at different points where one body part hands over the hardest part of the effort to the next to see where your body is and if the positions are correct and to feel which muscles are working hard and which ones are loose. If you detect tension in the muscles too early especially in the arm focus on fixing that.

From slo mo I recommend going to no more than 50 % power next to check that things stay smooth. Then 10 % intervals or so until you notice that somethings aren't smooth, positioned right, muscles get too tense. I'd say that for most people problem areas should be noticeable compared to 4x slowed down and at interesting points stopped motions.

[JR]

A throw should be tick tick tick BOOM!!!!

At which point and to which direction you start to boom your arm?

So far I've had better results in adding spin to the disc when I've delayed my elbow chop max acceleration after the rear of the disc has passed my right side. Speed of the elbow extension acceleration naturally dictates where the individual best results are.

[Bradley Walker]

After the front foot is firmly planted.

[JR]

After the front foot is firmly planted.

That's pretty early in my books but I'm younger than you are and have started arm speed practice in the 80s.

Looking from top down which letter resembles your arm power vector your consciously striving for during and after the elbow chop? Inverted L or inverted V? I assume it ain't an inverted U.

For me it's more an inverted V than an L. Not as tight angle as a V but the direction is more to the back than to the right as the follow through progresses. Starting with an inverted L quickly changing to a V. Haven't pin pointed yet where the direction change should be for best results.

Naturally the arm will do a different thing in actual motion thanks to momentum and elbow stopping when it's straight. The same for wrist with conscious braking. For more like an inverted J.

[Donkeypuncher]

I see you're playing at the lake course, nice choice.

[geoloseth]

I see you're playing at the lake course, nice choice.

The lake course is my course of choice now days. Never any problems with standing water or mud like at alot of Dallas courses.

Nice handle by the way. My old xbox handle was TheDNKYPuncher.

[Bradley Walker]

After the front foot is firmly planted.

That's pretty early in my books but I'm younger than you are and have started arm speed practice in the 80s.

Pull any later and you will never get your elbow set. Pull later and the disc will most likely hit your left shoulder.

[Bradley Walker]

After the front foot is firmly planted.

That's pretty early in my books but I'm younger than you are and have started arm speed practice in the 80s.
.

BTW, what is "arm speed practice in the 80's"?

[JR]

After the front foot is firmly planted.

That's pretty early in my books but I'm younger than you are and have started arm speed practice in the 80s.

Pull any later and you will never get your elbow set. Pull later and the disc will most likely hit your left shoulder.

My arm does accelerate really quick at times I don't have a long lag between the plant and the start of the arm pull. However; the arm pull starts quite slowly and stays slow until the rear of the disc passes my right side on good throws. After that it's greased lightning times.

I meant in the 1980s I was doing sports and work that helped in developing arm speed.