40 year old looking for some extra distance.

[riltim]

I'm old and in terrible shape but am looking for some drills to practice to clean things up. I know I struggle with nose up quite a bit and my footwork is probably wrong.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


https://youtube.com/shorts/_7ZcAwWfAAg?feature=share

 

[seedlings]

Biggest thing I see is your backswing goes back too early and comes forward way too early. Keep your disc on the outside of your off foot's toes. Your maximum reach backwards should 1) be momentary/split second and 2) happen simultaneous with the lead toe touching the ground.

A side view would be helpful. Can't tell the disc position or if you're tipping over the lead foot.

Footwork looks OK except for that odd sidestep there at the beginning, but that might be due to the pad.

What helped my nose-up problem was... ok, imagine there is a line poking straight out of your sternum. At no point in your swing should the disc be behind that imaginary line. AND don't add any power with your arms (pulling is bad), until your sternum goes past 90 degrees toward target. This forces your elbow out front, and makes strong arming difficult. Hips do the work until sternum gets past 90.

 

[riltim]

Thank you for the feedback.

Everything mentioned above makes a lot of sense to me. Next time I'm in the field I'll give your recommendations a shot.

I'm thinking what you mentioned about the reach back timing might be the reason when I'm throwing from an uphill lie my shots have significantly less power/distance than if it were from a flat surface or teepad. Almost like it's all arm.

 

[seedlings]

IMHO the two most helpful PRO form videos worth watching are Tristian Tanner and Simon Lizotte. These videos mention every single very important aspect of the throw. Of course all of the drills on site are exceptional, too numerous to mention. Specifically note how they talk about the momentary backswing, and it's timing.

 

[sidewinder22]

Yeah backswing sequence is out of order and you end up hugging yourself as your shoulders go forward early, instead of turning your shoulders later further back going into the plant.

 

[ThrowaEnvy]

Now THIS a thread I can get behind!!!!!!

 

[dmoore1998]

Biggest thing I see is your backswing goes back too early and comes forward way too early. Keep your disc on the outside of your off foot's toes. Your maximum reach backwards should 1) be momentary/split second and 2) happen simultaneous with the lead toe touching the ground.

A side view would be helpful. Can't tell the disc position or if you're tipping over the lead foot.

Footwork looks OK except for that odd sidestep there at the beginning, but that might be due to the pad.

What helped my nose-up problem was... ok, imagine there is a line poking straight out of your sternum. At no point in your swing should the disc be behind that imaginary line. AND don't add any power with your arms (pulling is bad), until your sternum goes past 90 degrees toward target. This forces your elbow out front, and makes strong arming difficult. Hips do the work until sternum gets past 90.

When I first started working on my form earlier this year, I read something about "there is no reachback, the body just rotates around the disc"...which sounds great theoretically, but I ended up doing the same thing which was just having the disc in reachback forever, which made me also come forward too early.

One thing I've found extremely helpful is to actually exaggerate the reachback (not necessarily by reaching SO far back, but by keeping the disc a bit more forward for most of the footwork) and then waiting until I'm taking my final step to reach back. That's also forced my movement forward to come much later in the process after my lead foot plants. That's also meant that my body rotation to throw vs throwing all arms has become a lot more natural. It's a lot easier (for me at least) to twist my core for the reachback, and then twist it forward again immediately.

One of the things that really helped me with that was standing with both feet together (almost like an x-step but without them crossing). Disc center chest. Then just taking a hard plant step forward. As my leg started forward, my body rotated back and my reachback started. As my plant foot hit, the movement forward started. There's not much time in one step, which helped me "naturally" delay my movement forward instead of trying to time it out in my brain. I find it a lot more helpful to mentally focus on delaying the reachback than I do in telling myself not to start the disc forward.

 

[riltim]

Thank you for all the replies. I've been trying sidewinder's drills at home and they seem to make sense, just not what I'm used to. Going to try to hit the field either today or tomorrow and see what I can do.

 

[riltim]

Made it out to the course after work and threw a ton of putters with pretty good results, although I am still struggling with nose up.

My reach back was limited to front of my back foot, trying to keep myself centered, and worked on planting my front foot a hair wider to make sure my hips were engaging.

I was probably getting my old midrange distance but it felt like I wasn't trying to power through with my arm. I tried my old form and confirmed that I was throwing with mostly arm before.

Sidewinder22 I've watched a bunch of your videos, and see that you make it up to the Lehigh valley on occasion. If you're ever up this way again I'd be willing to pay you to throw a round with me and teach me what I'm doing wrong.

 

[sidewinder22]

Been thinking about a trip back there to check out Preserve, Steel Club, Green Monster.

 

[riltim]

I don't get out as much as I'd like to so the only one of those 3 I have played is Steel Club. From what I understand it was designed with the expectation of carts being available for disc golfers; a lot of long uphill walks. They are going through a redesign before the pro tour match play there so I'd wait for that.

I hear nothing but great things about AGA. You could could make a day trip of there and Camp Tecumseh if you've never played either.

Green Monster is on my radar too but I've yet to find time to make it there.