Help on disc selection

[dhlogic1]

I'm new to disc golf and have only been playing for a little under one month. Not doing much research, other than looking at the disc selection charts in the store, I decided upon a 172g Champion Beast as a driver. It certainly sounded and looked appealing to me at the moment

The following few weeks I struggled throwing it straight. As a RHBH thrower, going hard left was a common occurance. But now I throw it with moderate anhyzer and to the right. I use a power grip and x-step run up. With this technique, it starts off going right immediately, then starts coming back left ending up relatively straight ahead. I can consistantly throw like this for 260-280 feet on a football field. Compensating for my lack of arm speed and snap (im guessing?) with anhyzer and throwing to the right seemed like power and ultimately distance was being wasted by "fighting" the disc. Getting more serious into the sport I came across the PDGA forums and saw Blake posting this:

i always push for people to work their way up incrementally because moving up to discs that are too fast and overstable will often lead to anhyzer tendencies which will severely limit your disc selection later on down the road and require a lot of adjustments to counteract.

Obviously this sounds like me and I dont want to run into problems down the road limiting me. Given my situation what disc is suitable for my level? And with this new disc, what should I be doing to improve to the point where I could throw a Beast? Thank you.

Dan

 

[Blake_T1]

i'm currently working on a more thorough disc selection article.

here is my current breakdown
tier 1 = less than 250' power
tier 2 = 225-300' power
tier 3 = 300-350' power
tier 4 = 350+ power

Tier 1:
Cobra
Panther
Puma
Gremlin
Stingray
Eclipse
Storm
Stratus
Sniper
#2 Flyer
#3 Flyer
Apollo

Tier 2:
Leopard
Cheetah
Ace
Raven
Gazelle
Archangel
XL
Xpress
Sabre
Polaris LS
Bomb
Voyager
#1 Driver
#1 Flyer

Tier 3:
Eagle
Teebird
Valkyrie
XS
Cyclone
X2
Reaper
JLS

Tier 4:
Beast
Orc
Viking
Starfire
Crush
Flash
Predator
Wildcat
Talon
Spirit
Illusion

basically, what these are, are discs you should be able to throw flat to slight hyzer and make fly straight. i generally recommend learning a flattened hyzer as a straight drive for the long run for several reasons:
1) you can always throw flat/annie if you need to
2) the disc will almost always finish more predictably (left)
3) you don't have to worry as much about accidentally turning stuff over
4) you have greater freedom in disc selection
5) it can yield the best distance for least effort if you can get the disc to do most of the work
6) you'll have more finesse for throwing slower discs

for the time being, you can probably use the beast as an overstable disc but i don't recommend overcompensating to throw it straight if it is too fast. power will come as your technique gets better and at some point you should be able to throw it slight hyzer or flat and make it go straight (prolly in the 330-350' range of power). until then, most of the discs in tier 2 and tier 3 will probably fly farther and more accurately with less effort. as for what to do to improve to this point, just practice practice practice and consult others when you hit a wall.

 

[garublador1]

I'm sure any of those drivers he mentioned will work great, but if you want a more specific recommendation, I'd say to get a Leopard. I'm pretty new to the sport too and of the "Tier 2" drivers mentioned, I've thrown a 165g Elite-X XL, 172g DX Cheetah, a 171g Sabre and a 175g DX Leopard and the Leopard is my favorite of them, although I haven't disliked any of them. (As an aside, I actually found my Leopard while looking for my XL that I had just thrown into the woods...I never found the XL) Right now it's beat to the point where I can either flip it up from a hyzer and it will fly just about perfectly straight with little or no fade, throw it straight with a little turn or throw it anhyzer for a nice, sweeping curve that doesn't flex back (i.e. flip back in the "hyzer" direction).

Lately I've been finding that I've been going to my Gremlin (now out of production ) for most drives between 200'-250'. I think that learning to throw it has helped with my "finesse" and is improving my drive. It's been forcing me to put plenty of spin on it and since it doesn't glide all that well, it's been brutally honest about how fast I'm throwing it. It's not what I go to when I want distance, but I think learing to throw it a good distance will have a positive effect on my longer drives as well. Plus it doesn't go as far when I mess up and throw it poorly or in the wrong direction.

 

[dhlogic1]

Thank you for the detailed responses. I'll pick up a leopard and a valkyrie today and stay with those until I see improvement.