Barely breaking 300 feet

[rhynoanhyzer]

I have made good progress over the year while just lurking here but now I'm just stuck and have no idea what to correct.

https://youtu.be/s31Flg84EIs

 

[Kratos]

You turn back too early. You need to stride more in line with the target and look at the target until you are on your left foot after the x-step.

 

[RoDeO]

Well, it looks like you could practice throwing harder, quicker. Form looks good enough, just stretch it out a bit more and put forth more effort.

 

[RowingBoats]

I am far from an expert, but I had to correct some similar things that I see you doing. The biggest one that will make several pieces of this puzzle come together is actually bracing against a shift from behind. Your front leg should feel similar to a hockey stop on ice skates, and you are kind of just spinning through. Your back foot actually slips backwards, instead of propelling you laterally into the brace.

 

[seedlings]

There is a sensation of timing the furthest stretch of the reachback with the plant of the lead foot. All your muscles from plant foot, through your leg, along your back over your shoulder to the disc, can be thought of like a spring or a rubber band. Stretch that spring to max as your lead foot plants. Foot plant is the brace that your spring unwinds against. Foot plants, hips start to turn, shoulders follow hips and starts to pull the disc. Shoulders turn faster than hips and catch up through the pocket, then the disc is released.

 

[sidewinder22]

Looks like a funky camera angle. Looks like you are leaning/tipping back off balance in x-step and choppy. Need to move/flow/glide forward more centered/balanced like ballerina.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Wow thank you. Great advice and videos. Too bad I don't think I can make it to the field today since I'll be at school almost the time while there is enough light to throw.
Looking back at my throw I also seem to do this kind of "dipping my shoulders" or like "throwing off my posture" at the power pocket (if I even get to it). Is that something I should focus on to fix or will it be fixed with being more smooth and bracing correctly?

 

[sidewinder22]

If you are off balance, then something else has to compensate/compromise.

Need to be dynamic balance to your shot like Olympic hammer thrower.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Well hello there. Over three years ago I posted this thread asking for help so maybe now is a good time to continue.
Long story short, after november 2020 I lost interest in disc golf due to various reasons but this spring I took up disc golf again. Man I forgot how much fun this game can be. Anyways, I took some video of my form yesterday and well, my form still looked exactly same. Just for reference, my form yesterday:

Looks pretty similar to November 2020, doesn't it? (Yeah, the camera angles are still weird, I'm sorry)

So I read this thread's advice again and focused on
1) Delaying my reach back
2) getting a smoother x-step (In fact, I think I should be practicing from a standstill at this point)
3) not tipping over
4) just overall throwing more relaxed and not strong arming the disc


Today, due to various reasons, I wasn't able to put in field work but rather had to just play the course. However, I think that may have been good for me, because playing on the course I was able to better focus on just throwing smooth instead of distance. After playing two rounds, the field next to the course finally cleared of football players (real football, not the "foot"ball you play with your hands) and I got some field work in. And I got some footage with a better camera angle than my previous videos:
Well, the camera angle could still be better. I'm gonna have to have my friend film me next week so at least then I will definitely get some quality footage.

Looking at these videos now, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between yesterday and today, but for whatever reason my discs were flying way further today than yesterday, and just overall the throws felt more effortless. My distance ranged anywhere between 200 feet to 330.

Some thoughts I have about my form:

1) I think I'm still tipping over but maybe not as bad as I used to. (Yet again, the camera angle could be better)
I think my tipping over issue comes from trying to shift my weight to right leg too early (can be clearly seen in my november 20 video), but if I delay the weight shift I start rounding. At least it feels like this way.
2) the latter video shows how my left leg pushes backwards as I'm releasing the disc. Kind of "spinning" on place.
3) I'm still definitely rounding, I know because sometimes my discs were releasing way to the left or grip locking to right, but sometimes the disc released straight ahead, really ripping off my fingers (and it felt amazing, how come these throws also flew the furthest...)

So I guess what I'm asking is:

Do these camera angles give a better insight on what I should fix? Or should I still continue fixing the things I was adviced in this thread more than three years ago?

Does my form look at all better than it used to?


Do you think maybe I should have given this a few more days and see where my form goes, but I got too excited from picking up this sport again that I just had to post this

 

[sidewinder22]

Note how your front leg is planting turned wide open, instead of turned back.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

My front leg planting wide open is a nice catch! I think that's exactly what's causing me that rounding feeling. I went to the field today focusing on my plant leg and "shifting from behind." I threw my putters 200+ feet and a DX Shark 250 feet from a standstill feeling completely effortless. Eventually I started feeling so confident that after a long time I took out my Teebird from my bag (last time I threw that it was way too overstable) and tried throwing it and I was amazed when I threw that thing about 300 feet (into a tailwind of course, and with an x-step). Now 300 feet into tailwind isn't much but it was weird throwing a Teebird without it diving and fading straight left immediately after releasing.

I will now give it a week or two to get consistent and see where this gets me and then I'll be back with some footage.

 

[GMcAtee]

Flexibility. When my back is jacked up from doing projects around the house, I struggle to surpass 300'. When my body is right (or I wear one of those heating wraps on my back), I'm throwing in the 350' - 370' range. I beat my body up when I was younger with physical labor. 370' at 46 years old: I can't complain.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Well for the past week I have been working on keeping that front foot closed. I am throwing further than a week ago so I guess something has changed but it might be that I just started muscling the disc harder because my form doesn't look that different. Or maybe x-stepping messed up my timing so bad that I can throw better from a standstill. If Udisc's measurement tool serves me correctly, I can throw putters about 250 feet up to 280, midranges from 280 up to 330 and drivers 340 feet with one throw breaking 370 feet (easily my record throw) for whatever reason. That only happened once. That throw probably flied nose down and that's why it was so much longer than any of my other throws.

I thought that I was finally getting that plant foot landing closed but what is happening now is that before planting my foot indeed is closed, but reaching back too early leads to opening hips too early which opens that plant foot. At least that's what I think, of course I might be totally wrong.
For example:



I also recorded some good throws where I was able to keep the foot closed. These discs didn't necessarily fly further but they flew with less effort. For example this one:



Here is a video of me crushing the "can":




In the end I also show how much weight there still is on my rear foot. If I have understood correctly, the rear leg should be completely (or like 99%) de-weighted after the weight shift, right?

I don't have any real cans with me so I had to improvise with those single use plastic mugs. Maybe a real can would be better?

Maybe I am crushing the can incorrectly and that's why I'm still reaching back early. If I understood correctly, the weight shift and reach back are opposite and at the same time, so crushing the can properly (=shifting from behind) should automatically delay my reach back?

I am still working on this, but of course I want to make sure I am on the right track here.

 

[sidewinder22]

bad throw - your foot is opening before you plant the heel.

plant foot closed throw - looked good. Same distance with less effort is a good thing, more distance will come later.

mug crush - looked the most flat footed. Your heels need to be doing opposite things, rear heel going up while front heel crushes down.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Thank you for your insights. I watched your crush the can video again and its obvious you're talking about doing opposite things with heels. I will see if that helps me keep the front leg closed more consistently. I will report back in a few days or maybe even today.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

So I just got some field work in and that "heels doing opposite things" really clicked. I was still getting throws where my plant foot was opening too early, but many less than last time. It also felt like I was getting on my front foot better. I tried one shot with an x-step and really focusing on getting on top of that front foot, just to see how far I could throw. Probably not a surprise that I was tipping over and opening that front leg way, way too early, yet still I easily broke my previous distance record with a throw of 406 feet! I almost jumped to the front foot felt like. Anyways, I don't think talking about or showing that throw is worth it because I know the mistakes I made in that and for now my focus has to be on keeping that plant leg closed.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Today was by far... the WORST field work session of this year. I don't know what has happened over a couple nights but I wasn't getting any of those effortless throws. I was muscling the throws so hard I had to just leave early because I became afraid my erector spinae muscles would tear in half just from how goddamn hard I was muscling / twisting / rotating my core to get the disc flying. In addition, I was having horrible OAT and rounding issues = griplocking the discs 30 degrees to right. Weirdly enough, those griplocks were very consistent with that 30 degree angle and seemed like there was no variance in the "degree of griplock". It was straight ahead or 30 degrees to right. No variance between those two.

Here is some video from today:




I was able to keep that plant foot closed on pretty much every throw and my throws (like the one above) looked quite similar to that good throw I posted earlier / plant foot finally closed video. But something must be different because today's throws flied and felt horrible. You can also see how there is somekind of a weird "pause" in the middle of my throw where I start rotating my core. Best seen on 0.5x speed.

If it helps anything here is a video from behind:



You can see how the discs releases wobbling and 30 degrees to the right.

I don't know why, but everytime I post here the next day I get good results and after that it goes steadily down hill until I post here again.

Any ideas what did I suddenly start doing incorrectly even though that plant foot is now planting closed? (atleast seems like that to me)
Should I post more footage of me crushing the can?

 

[sidewinder22]

Stride straight, not diagonal. You aren't getting your body inline to front leg, your right hip snaps to the right while your head falls over to the left looking behind tee. Swivel Stairs.

 

[rhynoanhyzer]

Thank you again. I think I may have started doing that to somehow "feel" the shift from behind better or whatever. I got some field work in and some throws where I lost focus I was still shifting too diagonal / felt like my spine would snap from strong arming(ok, a little over exaggeration in that) and got horrible OAT but when I slowed down, really focused on that smooth weight shift, not rounding and a clean release I got those effortless throws too. And surprise surprise, those effortless throws flew straighter and further than the muscled throws... This seems to be a psychological obstacle as well: I need to get out of my head and start really focusing on smooth effortless throws instead of trying to brute force distance but it's difficult because it's just too tempting to try throw as hard as I can xd (and that will 100% only lead to injury in the long term). I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty quick fix but we'll see..