Ever learn a great shot by accident when trying to learn something else?

[Blobfish]

I was trying to hammer down a forehand roller that I also stumbled across by accident when I put too much anny on a Force, resulting in a dead straight beeline to the basket. Now something about the way I was practicing screwed up my technique on distance flick flex shots and I was losing 50 feet or so from my raptor. I shrugged it off and decided to throw some flick annys with my heats and thrashers and lo to my surprise, the thrasher took off "flexing" for monster distance (for me, and yeah it was an s shot, not a true flex shot) but it caught me off guard. My bad form reduced the spin off my finger, resulting in worse flex shots but now I have the most distance I've ever thrown by toying with a different mold that I intended to use for something altogether different!

 

[Ryan P.]

Sort of the same, but not exactly. I found an unmarked thrasher in the woods, not knowing anything about it at all. I saw it was a 0.4, and came to a wide open uphill par 5. I threw my first shot and it flew with some turn and landed right in the middle of the fairway. I then threw a roller about 550' with it, totally not flying like I expected, and ended up pin high about 60' right. It is now one of my favorite discs.

 

[Casey 1988]

I was trying to do a turbo putt and messed up resulting in a flick putt. Well now I have a flick putt and a forehand putt with more open fingers for when I can't putt normal but I have space lower to do a forehand putt that also works for low ceiling putts and the flick putt is at the height a turbo or higher if need be but I putt with no arm movement using wrist to do all the spin. Flick putt has uses for both shorter approach under 50 feet with approach disc to putt distance 35-40 feet and in.

 

[UhhNegative]

So basically you discovered you were throwing way too fast and OS discs for your arm speed?

 

[mojorooks]

I tried to hyzer a Valkyrie around a tree and wondered why it straightened out and flew WAY far away.

 

[Blobfish]

So basically you discovered you were throwing way too fast and OS discs for your arm speed?

Well not entirely. I knew that long before I bought the speedy and OS discs in the first place. I recognise that my arm speed matches up nicely with a speed 9 heat on a BH throw. I can get more distance with a speed 12 thrasher or beat ESP speed 13 crank but usually not enough to warrant the loss of control.

All of the speed 9 and above OS discs were all a result of changing to a flick flex game that I see a lot of guys using around here with great success. Learning that game required me to play with some discs that were very forgiving on the anny release angle (machete, raptor). As I started hitting my top end BH distances with the raptor, I started fooling with other OS and faster molds that I would never think to throw BH, but tossing (quite literally tossing) some of these fast and OS molds make for some interesting lines in woods golf.

 

[TheBeardedFatGuy]

I learned flex shots because my first midrange was a Gator (5,2,0,4), so naturally it didn't want to turn at all. I started forcing it over anhyzer and discovered I was getting good results with it finishing straight as long as I got the correct angle and spin on it for the distance. I wasn't trying to develop a flex shot really, I just wanted to stop the disk from finishing too far left (rhbh) and was too green to immediately recognize the 0 turn and 4 fade were not making it easy.

Ultimately this taught me the benefit of having a good sense of exactly how much a disc's overstability pulls it to the left. I probably won't describe this right, but the feeling was like I was 'bracing' against that overstable pull and that gave me a good sense of what I had to do to get the shot to turn more to the right and finish straighter. I got so good at judging this that, for an entire year, the gator became my putter because I found I could anhyzer it into the chains more consistently than I could with a straight putt with a stable putter.

Eventually I realized I was limiting myself by doing this and moved to a more stable putter and midrange, but I still keep the Gator in my bag because I understand its flight better than any other disc I own.

 

[cHildebrandt]

I haven't been doing this for long, but I feel like I've come alot further in 5 months of playing than most others, based on the people I play with regularly.

I can back hand consistently 310-315, that being said, I only picked up throwing backhand about a month ago, I'm doing field work daily to work on it.

My forehand (being a lefty it was advantageous to learn) is my go to for accuracy and consistency still though.

I learned if I stick my Wraith (I bought this way too soon, but it's seen more wood than a pornstar so it's nice and beat. Perfect for me now) out on a backhand, full power, big run up, I will be able to force flex my Anax just as far with a 60% power forehand.

Guess who's never backhanding again. Lol

 

[JuanA]

I live at just over 5000', so all of my regular shots became new shots when I went to sea level a few weeks ago.

 

[blazerico]

I live at just over 5000', so all of my regular shots became new shots when I went to sea level a few weeks ago.

I had the same experience going from sea level to 5000+ in CO, everything was overstable!

 

[JuanA]

I had the same experience going from sea level to 5000+ in CO, everything was overstable!

Yep...my first round at sea level had most of the drivers in my bag turning and burning. I bought a few discs at Brewster the next day to have something I could trust to hold straight.

It was definitely an eye-opener though, and got me re-thinking what I throw for drivers now that I'm home.