Forehand advice

[whoopsstalemate]

I got into disc golf a few months ago, and started focusing on developing a good forehand. Right now, I can throw 150-200 feet, but tend to throw anhyzers high into the air to get distance. Does anyone have any advice on how to get more distance, or things that worked for them?

 

[Chucker60]

It takes time, and practice, and patience. There is no quick fix. Find some instructional videos online and work on your form. My one little piece of advice would be to make sure you snap your wrist as you release the disc, like cracking a whip. You've gotta get that disc spinning to get more distance. Good luck.

 

[Keokuk Discer]

I was told an old disc folder to throw out like you would throw a rock to skip it off a pond or lake, just aim higher. It's all in how much wist anal you can get.

 

[timothy42b]

It takes time, and practice, and patience. There is no quick fix. Find some instructional videos online and work on your form. My one little piece of advice would be to make sure you snap your wrist as you release the disc, like cracking a whip. You've gotta get that disc spinning to get more distance. Good luck.

I'm wondering about the wrist snap in a distance throw. All the internet coaches say it's important but I'm not so sure.

Ryan Sheldon throws forehand pretty hard. I've watched his video frame by frame and I see a straight wrist throughout the throw. His background was baseball.
I've been to Stokely's clinic and he says throw a forehand like a baseball, not like a frisbee. He does say you have to add spin, but when I watch his throw his wrist looks pretty straight. Sidewinder also has a baseball background and to me it looks like his mechanics are similar to baseball players.
I don't have a baseball background myself so I struggle with arm motion, and of course at my age I have very little layback capability, but I look at some baseball sites like Tread Athletics. Here's one that says don't snap:



I'm thinking maybe for a short range touch upshot you can throw a long way with just a wrist flick, but that's a completely different throw than an actual forehand with good lower body mechanics. And that you can't just ramp up a wrist flick throw into a real forearm. Maybe. I dunno.

Here's a Tread Athletics that I thought might apply.

 

[whoopsstalemate]

Thanks

 

[Thereitgoestoday]

I got into disc golf a few months ago, and started focusing on developing a good forehand. Right now, I can throw 150-200 feet, but tend to throw anhyzers high into the air to get distance. Does anyone have any advice on how to get more distance, or things that worked for them?

make a peace sign with your hand. So your thumb is going on top of your ring finger, and your index and middle finger are in the air making a peace sign. Now turn your hand sideways like your gonna forehand a disc.leave the fingers loose. Now go through the motions of throwing a forehand without the disc. Get it quiet in your house or wherever you are. Now the idea is, you want to hear the swoosh sound from your hand/fingsers without the disc. You can standstill or step, I promise you'll hear the swoosh once you get it. If you can't get the swoosh without the disc, your not loose enough and fast enough coming throw. Forehand is still a loose shot as in backhand

 

[Skervoy]

I'm wondering about the wrist snap in a distance throw. All the internet coaches say it's important but I'm not so sure.

Ryan Sheldon throws forehand pretty hard. I've watched his video frame by frame and I see a straight wrist throughout the throw. His background was baseball.
I've been to Stokely's clinic and he says throw a forehand like a baseball, not like a frisbee. He does say you have to add spin, but when I watch his throw his wrist looks pretty straight. Sidewinder also has a baseball background and to me it looks like his mechanics are similar to baseball players.
I don't have a baseball background myself so I struggle with arm motion, and of course at my age I have very little layback capability, but I look at some baseball sites like Tread Athletics. Here's one that says don't snap:



I'm thinking maybe for a short range touch upshot you can throw a long way with just a wrist flick, but that's a completely different throw than an actual forehand with good lower body mechanics. And that you can't just ramp up a wrist flick throw into a real forearm. Maybe. I dunno.

Here's a Tread Athletics that I thought might apply.

Other way around.

No to little wrist on shorter upshots.

Distance you need all the wrist you can get to get spin. But....but the motion can be very devious to spot, you can have straight wrist up untill last split second were the players lags/loosen the hand compared to the arm and then directly pushes hard.

Spin is such a key to distance you just have to accept that the wrist is the key.

And for reference I went from 30m to +100m in a couple of weeks when I started disc golf. Figuring out the armlag and wrist was 99% of it.

 

[Sheep]

Other way around.

No to little wrist on shorter upshots.

I throw like 150 and in all wrist.

 

[timothy42b]

I throw like 150 and in all wrist.

I tried today, just throwing wrist flicks without much body or backswing. I was consistently very clean without flutter and just over 100 feet. A couple even went straight ahead, not many of them though. I blame that on 40 F and a brisk cold wind.

I have no concept of what the wrist does or should do, it's a mystery to me. In a decent speed arm swing the inertia of the disc will pull a loose wrist straight. Or if you use Spin Doctor's "gentleman" grip the wrist should stay straight and the inertia of the disc pull its COM in line with the arm at some point, hopefully at release. Using an active wrist to power a shot? That I don't understand. Is the wrist a pin joint? or the finger a pin joint? (I think yes for the spin doctor grip, no if you have it wedged into your hand. Maybe.)

A high speed video of the forehand would be nice too.

 

[Thereitgoestoday]

I throw like 150 and in all wrist.

I tried today, just throwing wrist flicks without much body or backswing. I was consistently very clean without flutter and just over 100 feet. A couple even went straight ahead, not many of them though. I blame that on 40 F and a brisk cold wind.

I have no concept of what the wrist does or should do, it's a mystery to me. In a decent speed arm swing the inertia of the disc will pull a loose wrist straight. Or if you use Spin Doctor's "gentleman" grip the wrist should stay straight and the inertia of the disc pull its COM in line with the arm at some point, hopefully at release. Using an active wrist to power a shot? That I don't understand. Is the wrist a pin joint? or the finger a pin joint? (I think yes for the spin doctor grip, no if you have it wedged into your hand. Maybe.)

A high speed video of the forehand would be nice too.

Where can I post a video, what's the maximum time video allowed to upload here

 

[acrosley]

This video helped me a lot. Key concept is to get "lead" with your elbow so the rest of your arm sorta whips through

 

[Sheep]

I have no concept of what the wrist does or should do, it's a mystery to me. In a decent speed arm swing the inertia of the disc will pull a loose wrist straight. Or if you use Spin Doctor's "gentleman" grip the wrist should stay straight and the inertia of the disc pull its COM in line with the arm at some point, hopefully at release. Using an active wrist to power a shot? That I don't understand. Is the wrist a pin joint? or the finger a pin joint? (I think yes for the spin doctor grip, no if you have it wedged into your hand. Maybe.)

A high speed video of the forehand would be nice too.

One of the best forehand players I know of says this.

"You want to fly the disc, not throw the disc."

When were talking about the wrist and the things going on, we focus really hard on just kinda hucking the disc at the target. This is why so many people say dumb things like "I turn over firebirds." No you dont, you throw forehand and roll your wrist over cause you're hucking the disc.

This is why I hate Scott's "dont serve the pizza" video. If you throw scott stokley style, then.. yeah, dont serve the pizza. But the other part of that is, dont roll your wrist.

The point of "palm up" on fore hand is because you dont want to "Palm Over." This isn't a changeup side arm. We want to "guide/fly" the disc at the target. Think about "pushing the disc at the target."

People get so caught up in who has the best sidearm. "eagles side arm is so great" yeah, eagle is also hurt from throwing them like a knob. Cause he was pushing his body beyond normal limits and stretched all his tendons out hyper extending things.

Players like Oakley and Hokom have SUPER clean forehands that are high power and low impact. Hokom's looks weird because she's abusing mechanics that nobody thinks about. But it's about core concepts. Nobody gives Matty O shit about his throwing. But they wanna shit all over hokom because instead of throwing 90 degree out to her side standing straight up, she leans over so she can throw forehands in a more powerful posture with her body.
Oakleys forehand is just not given the credit it should. Dude can bomb forehands 400-500 feet. The problem to remember is, very very few people have figured out how to throw high power low impact forehands. Because they destroy your elbow.


There are a few ways to throw forehands, There is the stokley method. Jaani's Gentlemans side arm (which is actually pretty good) and your other similiar styles.

The problem with stokleys video is that it assumes you're throwing EXACTLY like him. There are some other grips that forehand throwers use that his video will trash their forehand.
He doesn't make a note of that or anything in the video cause unfortunately as good as scott is, in scotts head "scotts way is the only way" cause... Drugs or something. I digress.


How I teach forehands is this. And this is also how I try and warm up or bring back my forehand, as I'm a 90% backhand dominate player now, cause forehands are owie.

Basically I'm using some mechanics from baseball when I played, but broken down into simpler steps.

I teach the wrist flick first. The reason for this is to learn to use the power of the wrist to "push" the disc at the target while keeping it simple.
Throw ALL your upshots with a wrist flick.
This helps you dial in the accuracy and get a "feel" for the flick. Eventually you'll lean on it harder while throwing from further away, and I've never actually "taught" anyone to use their arm, they just kind of naturally start getting the elbow forwards and pushing the disc at the target like they are trying to "fly" the disc there.

As soon as you start trying to throw the disc, that's when you start doing all sorts of dirty movements.

I know guys who throw 250 with basic wrist snaps. Danny Parkins had an amazingly hard forehand when his shoulder wasn't jacked up. But he jacked up his arm throwing to many forehands. He was a forehand dominate player, and he had a hard throw. That's kind of a baseball term, I've never understood the meaning, but just what it is. But you can have fast pitchers, and hard pitchers. And.. You're like "huh?" Something about it when catching the ball and the flight of the ball, it's just "hard" like a rock is being hucked at you vs just a speeding bullet. Danny's forehand was HARD. I felt bad for the tree's when he hit them it was so hard.


As for slow motion on the forehand, I didn't have time when I was doing it. Having someone help you and not dragging ass the whole time cause batteries only last so long, it's a bit of a strain to get things setup and roll hard and get as much data as you can.

I need to get a shorter lens for it before I do more high speed stuff, because I have to have the camera so far away to even get the small area of the shot I'm trying to hit. And the lens's for the Kronos are a bit more of a PITA to get. I can't just slap my cannon or sony lens's on there.

 

[timothy42b]

There are a few ways to throw forehands, There is the stokley method. Jaani's Gentlemans side arm (which is actually pretty good) and your other similiar styles.

The problem with stokleys video is that it assumes you're throwing EXACTLY like him. There are some other grips that forehand throwers use that his video will trash their forehand.

The wrist can slap (palmar flexion?) or karate chop (radial deviation?).

The people like Stokely who advocate the slap say it's got way more range of motion, which is true.

But apparently people throw pretty well with either grip. And the pivot in Jaani's throw isn't even in the wrist. So I dunno.

 

[Kennets]

I know nothing, about anything, but..

I've yet to have an in-depth conversation with anyone, where their opinion doesn't conflict with the previous one I spoke to.

- Elbow tucked/not tucked

- upper/lower throwing slot

- hip/shoulder speration/or not

Some coaches advocate for the fingers going/snapping left (if RHFH) as fast as possible in the end of the throw, without ever telling me how.. spend countless hours watching MLB pitchers, disc golf pros and myself to see where I could improve.

And for once (just kidding) @Sheep is bang on with the "push the disc at the target".

I found out, that if my swing thought were to throw the disc at the target/throwing my arm AT the target (sounds stupid when written down), my wrist and fingers would automatically "snap" left in the last second.. I'm not sure if that's what happens, but that's the feeling of it. The longer I could keep the disc in my hand, guiding it towards the target, the harder it came out. People tend to "round" and throw around their own body, that's at least what I see when people ask for help.


To OP:

- work from a standstill and watch out for strain/pain.

 

[Sheep]

The wrist can slap (palmar flexion?) or karate chop (radial deviation?).

The people like Stokely who advocate the slap say it's got way more range of motion, which is true.

But apparently people throw pretty well with either grip. And the pivot in Jaani's throw isn't even in the wrist. So I dunno.

The slap style push is what I advocate for, its the most powerful way you can push the disc. There are some who stack fingers up towards the top of the plate though, and you want to serve the pizza then, but you loose a lot of the wrist pop.

Both methods work, because. well I know people who throw absolutely amazing forehands with that grip, or even a fan style grip. I use the fan grip when I wanna throw certian shots.

The main deal though when you're pushing at the target is that its natural for us to roll the palm down. Palm up, isn't really "serving the pizza" so that's why I find that so stupid to say it like that.

I dont think its a terribly complicated topic, but when guys like Stokley roll in and make big video's like that, it screws up the teaching methods because you start getting "well scott said" in discussions. And.. Yeah, what scott teaches is right for "scotts throw" not yours. So, You gotta tell people at that point if they want to learn the "stokley method" to go sign up for stokleys course.

I wanna try and make sure I can bring the best out of everyone while teaching them, so you gotta learn all these methods and processes and styles to make sure to best teach them to how their body works and moves. And not everyone's wrist deflects the same, or their elbow or shoulder are as smooth as someone else's.

I like Jaani's method because it tries to take the natural simple motions and put them into practice without putting a ton of load on the arm/hand/elbow but giving you a serviceable forehand vs no forehand.

 

[Sheep]

I know nothing, about anything, but..

I've yet to have an in-depth conversation with anyone, where their opinion doesn't conflict with the previous one I spoke to.

- Elbow tucked/not tucked

- upper/lower throwing slot

- hip/shoulder speration/or not

Some coaches advocate for the fingers going/snapping left (if RHFH) as fast as possible in the end of the throw, without ever telling me how.. spend countless hours watching MLB pitchers, disc golf pros and myself to see where I could improve.

And for once (just kidding) @Sheep is bang on with the "push the disc at the target".

I found out, that if my swing thought were to throw the disc at the target/throwing my arm AT the target (sounds stupid when written down), my wrist and fingers would automatically "snap" left in the last second.. I'm not sure if that's what happens, but that's the feeling of it. The longer I could keep the disc in my hand, guiding it towards the target, the harder it came out. People tend to "round" and throw around their own body, that's at least what I see when people ask for help.


To OP:

- work from a standstill and watch out for strain/pain.

I really struggle with popping forehand to the way left, because my timing is so bad. I did, however, figure out what my issue was the other day dorkign around trying to bring some level of reliability back into my forehand, and that was the fact I wasn't getting the elbow forward, so my hand was getting SO far in front of my elbow on timing that I was sending it with 300+ foot of power 70 feet to the left of my target.

The downside to that is, it's a hard elbow load to throw tight compact forehands.

And the one thing about the stokley method is its more like an old school side arm pitch, nice and wide, lots of inertia driving the swoop and the pop. While the compact throw gives you a bit more snap and spin I think. And the biggest struggle on a forehand is spin generation. I know through high speed footage the actual amount of leverage on the disc now.

However, without taking the high speed on the forehand, I don't have that particular information yet.

But then there are guys out there with just super human forehands that make you question everything. Like watching Telly throw 400 foot forehands with a pig... And you questioning the reality of what you're doing and it makes you want to quit.

 

[Kennets]

I really struggle with popping forehand to the way left, because my timing is so bad. I did, however, figure out what my issue was the other day dorkign around trying to bring some level of reliability back into my forehand, and that was the fact I wasn't getting the elbow forward, so my hand was getting SO far in front of my elbow on timing that I was sending it with 300+ foot of power 70 feet to the left of my target.

The downside to that is, it's a hard elbow load to throw tight compact forehands.

And the one thing about the stokley method is its more like an old school side arm pitch, nice and wide, lots of inertia driving the swoop and the pop. While the compact throw gives you a bit more snap and spin I think. And the biggest struggle on a forehand is spin generation. I know through high speed footage the actual amount of leverage on the disc now.

However, without taking the high speed on the forehand, I don't have that particular information yet.

But then there are guys out there with just super human forehands that make you question everything. Like watching Telly throw 400 foot forehands with a pig... And you questioning the reality of what you're doing and it makes you want to quit.

For me, the "pop" is like the "hit" in BH. It's a byproduct of a well timed throw (sequence? Timing?), I can feel it in my finger(s). It's kinda hard to explain, but it feels like I'm "dragging" the disc, just for a second, before it leaves the hand. Not sure if it pivots around the finger shortly or not..

I'm still baffled when people throw zones, pigs or harps 300+ feet's.. I mean, how? I had a beat in zone I could push to 300, but it took everything I had and everything hurt for weeks..

I blew out my elbow early into this sport, so I had to rework my throw. A higher baseball kinda slot, power grip (mcbeth) with a wrist roll/slap - that were actually the only thing that kept the pain away. I used to throw with a low arm slot, stacked grip/karate chop, relying immensely on shaping out from a steep hyper angle. With the new arm slot, I had to incorporate a side lean, otherwise I would throw more flat than I wanted to.

After my elbow injury, I've always had a mental thing regarding throwing power shots. The upper arm slot feels more demanding on the body and yet it was the lower slot that fucked my elbow up for ages.

I think striving for a serviceable FH around 330 feet's (may vary because of age, injuries etc) should be more than enough to play most courses on a casual level

 

[Skervoy]

For me longevity trumps anything else and FH will be the throw that will be the most likely to f*ck me up. So as soon as I hit around 300 feet I focused on only smoothness and as little and slow movement of the arm as possible.

So a big and wide reach back and lots of wrist pop has been the end result. Also the big key is getting good upper/lower body separation!


I think McBeast maybe has one of the most underrated forehands, dude rips it but looks very effortless.

 

[BillyP]

I got into disc golf a few months ago, and started focusing on developing a good forehand. Right now, I can throw 150-200 feet, but tend to throw anhyzers high into the air to get distance. Does anyone have any advice on how to get more distance, or things that worked for the

If it hasn't been said already, field work is the answer. Go out with a set of mid discs and practice your form. Cock the wrist and snap it on release. I use two fingers, classic style. It also helps to drop down the whole drive from start to release. Start with your knees bent from step 1. You might anny it due to keeping your arm folded to much or not lowering it down far enough in the first place, like being a bit shy going for it b/c it might feel a little out of control or unnatural. It'll come to you with time, just be patient and play. Be sure to warm up!!! The forehand more than the backhand can blow out a tendon or muscle if you're not properly warmed up. G/L

 

[timothy42b]

The slap style push is what I advocate for, its the most powerful way you can push the disc. There are some who stack fingers up towards the top of the plate though, and you want to serve the pizza then, but you loose a lot of the wrist pop.

I like Jaani's method because it tries to take the natural simple motions and put them into practice without putting a ton of load on the arm/hand/elbow but giving you a serviceable forehand vs no forehand.

I would like to see more detail on Jaani's method. I've watched his video many times but I'm still missing something.

Today I watched Sarah Hokum on as many different videos as I could find, including the clinic she did with Nate Sexton 6 years ago. Interesting form. It looks weird but in the context of a baseball throw I don't think it is, except she doesn't do a backswing at all. She just holds the disc down and moves her body forward. My take anyway. On a steep hyzer she almost touches the ground with the disc.