I think I need a discgolf coach

[slowRoll]

Is there anyone in my area that can help me learn how to pivot on my heel like they talk about at the 17:30 mark of this video? I've always spun on the ball of my right foot and had no idea that it mattered. So I'd like to start with this one change, then go from there.

I am tired of not being able to throw with power and losing to people that do. I know how to putt, make good decisions, and have won small tournaments at the Am II and Am I level playing my way, but I can't seem to throw a disc over 300' anymore to save my life.

If you are interested, contact me via PM and we can schedule a time to meetup to do field work. This is not a favor; I will compensate the "Coach" that helps me get over this hurdle.

God bless.

 

[BrotherDave]

There was some good stuff in this thread.

I know what you mean, it's hard as crap to get used to. I'm struggling mightily with this transition myself. I definitely think heel pivot is the light at the end of the tunnel but it's so frustrating.

The biggest, simplest piece of advice that has helped me so far is to step on the inside of your foot and rock onto the heel with weight shift rather than trying to plant onto your heel or consciously pivot on the heel.

 

[JoshEpoo]

Heel pivoting won't teach you how to snap a disc. You really need to look towards grip, wrist tension, your pull line, and timing. Heel pivoting is more about how you're balanced and shifting your weight. Those things are important for consistency and generating maximum power, but if your snap efficiency is very low, it won't matter.

Odds are you're letting your wrist collapse if you can't throw farther than 300'. Need to have a good grip on your disc and keep your wrist rigid but not locked down. Something you might try is keeping your wrist totally rigid and taking a few throws. Then relax it just a little bit and see how those muscles accept a little tension and then can "snap" your wrist back to fully extended once you chop your elbow. Experimenting with wrist tension like this and different grips/nose angles is how you're going to get a big jump in distance.

 

[BionicRib]

Patience is the key with any change in your swing. When you make drastic and even suddle changes it can take months before you see improvements in your game. In the long run it will pay off. As for a coach, I'm not to familiar with people from that area, but getting a hold of HB clark may help (I believe he lives in that area, but he may be in Kentucky. I don't have a contact for him, but at the very least he may be able to get you in contact with a local pro/coach that would be willing to help you out.

 

[Lewis]

Just a thought: this request might be better placed in the marketplace than in the technique forum. Usually this is where people ask for or give advice in writing or in video form. If you want in-person coaching, you're not likely to get it by posting here. Otherwise, maybe try asking around at your local club or your local course. There's bound to be a local pro in your area who would like to supplement his lunch money by selling a few lessons, but it's probably easier to find him with local networking than by posting on an intercontinental web forum.

 

[slowRoll]

There was some good stuff in this thread.

I know what you mean, it's hard as crap to get used to. I'm struggling mightily with this transition myself. I definitely think heel pivot is the light at the end of the tunnel but it's so frustrating.

The biggest, simplest piece of advice that has helped me so far is to step on the inside of your foot and rock onto the heel with weight shift rather than trying to plant onto your heel or consciously pivot on the heel.

I think the hardest part will be to unlearn what I've been doing for the last 5 years. I once shot a 1031 rated -12 to win a tournament from the 3rd card and I was rated in the top 10 ams in my state for 2 years straight at one time... But as ATL_Scott, ChainAddicted or anyone i've played with recently can attest, my drives are the worst part of my game. It sucks sooooo bad to just know, I mean just flat out know... that you have no chance at this tournament because you cannot get birdies on the course due to needing 350' - 400' drives and you just aint got that. That is the worst part. I putted lights out at Renny Gold when I was down there and only shot a 72. I can't drive far enough for some of the better courses and those strokes of me still being 400' out after my drive and you only being 300' really add up.

Heel pivoting won't teach you how to snap a disc. You really need to look towards grip, wrist tension, your pull line, and timing. Heel pivoting is more about how you're balanced and shifting your weight. Those things are important for consistency and generating maximum power, but if your snap efficiency is very low, it won't matter.

Odds are you're letting your wrist collapse if you can't throw farther than 300'. Need to have a good grip on your disc and keep your wrist rigid but not locked down. Something you might try is keeping your wrist totally rigid and taking a few throws. Then relax it just a little bit and see how those muscles accept a little tension and then can "snap" your wrist back to fully extended once you chop your elbow. Experimenting with wrist tension like this and different grips/nose angles is how you're going to get a big jump in distance.

I apprecite you chiming in with this Josh and you're probably right, but I want a person working with me on this. I've read a ton on this site about technique, but I'm unable to put it together by myself in the field. There are people that could use some money, and I could use the help. I know how to golf... I just can't throw as far now as I could 3 years ago.

Patience is the key with any change in your swing. When you make drastic and even suddle changes it can take months before you see improvements in your game. In the long run it will pay off. As for a coach, I'm not to familiar with people from that area, but getting a hold of HB clark may help (I believe he lives in that area, but he may be in Kentucky. I don't have a contact for him, but at the very least he may be able to get you in contact with a local pro/coach that would be willing to help you out.

Thanks. I know HB. I may give him a call.

Just a thought: this request might be better placed in the marketplace than in the technique forum. Usually this is where people ask for or give advice in writing or in video form. If you want in-person coaching, you're not likely to get it by posting here. Otherwise, maybe try asking around at your local club or your local course. There's bound to be a local pro in your area who would like to supplement his lunch money by selling a few lessons, but it's probably easier to find him with local networking than by posting on an intercontinental web forum.

Good point Lewis. I didn't even consider my request might belong in the MP since I never use that part of the site. Mods, please move this thread if it would be better suited elsewhere.

 

[chain-addicted]

...But as ATL_Scott, ChainAddicted or anyone i've played with recently can attest, my drives are the worst part of my game.

I dont remember your drives too much bro, but I know you had some pretty solid upshot/approach/putting game going on big guy. In fact (if I recall) I thought you had some pretty decent drives when we were playing that round with DSCJNKY; and you didnt even know that course.:\

 

[atl scott]

as ATL_Scott, ChainAddicted or anyone i've played with recently can attest, my drives are the worst part of my game. It sucks sooooo bad to just know, I mean just flat out know... that you have no chance at this tournament because you cannot get birdies on the course due to needing 350' - 400' drives and you just aint got that.

Don't worry I heel pivot and I can only drive around 370. Apparently there are a lot of factors that go into a decent distance drive. And a lot more factors that go into a solid round of golf.

 

[slowRoll]

Don't worry I heel pivot and I can only drive around 370. Apparently there are a lot of factors that go into a decent distance drive. And a lot more factors that go into a solid round of golf.

Thanks for the encouragement.

But I seem to remember you flying 50' or more past me on every single open hole Scott. I've gotta do better than this if I'm gonna keep playing. Knowing whats wrong and not being able to fix it is driving me nuts.

 

[Connor Jones]

It's okay, after 15 minutes with my coaching, you are guaranteed to either gain, OR LOSE, 25 feet of distance ..

 

[atl scott]

I seem to remember you flying 50' or more past me on every single open hole

Your memory is better than mine! But in this case I'm ok with that. :thmbup:

Of course there aren't many open holes in Charlotte so that was probably rare.

Have you done the "video yourself and post your form in slo-mo and real time" thing yet? I filmed myself the other day and quickly noticed a few basic errors in my form. One of them was that my front foot was out too far in front. So I heel pivot but with poor balance.

 

[JoshEpoo]

Have you done the "video yourself and post your form in slo-mo and real time" thing yet?

I remember he posted a video a while ago. It really didn't look that bad, certainly he should be cracking 300' no problem, which is what leads to the conclusion that his biggest problem is wrist tension and grip strength. The things you're going to have to work on are difficult to see with the naked eye. Just gotta keep plugging away at it and quit worrying about anything else until you get a little snap going...

Good luck in finding someone in your area to help you out. There are quite a few guys around here who I've played with and watched throw 450+ all year the last two years that have really helped me understand how the throw works. It's ALLLLL about snap efficiency. Once you get that down, discs will come screaming out of your hand with little effort, versus exerting great effort working on heel pivoting or w/e and seeing very poor results...

Anyway, best of luck again.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

There are some local pros around here that will take $20 from you and give you good pointers. I tagged along with my parents for a disc golf lesson with a local legend and state coordinator here in Colorado and picked up some good tips. I am sure there is someone local that would be willing to help you out, you just have to figure out where to meet them. The better the player the more they will be able to help, that is if they know how to coach.

 

[Triflusal]

fly over to Minnesota and work with Blake_T for a week or two

have you tried the right pec drills/hammer pounds/reverse thumb lead drills? I'm also finding the key to throwing far is explosiveness

 

[discdoh]

You can also come to St. Louis for the St. Louis Open this May. The Non Stop Disc Golf Tour will be attending. On Thursday, Dave, Nikko, Will, and Cale will be holding Flight School lessons at one of our local courses, Jefferson Barracks. For an extremely reasonable price, you will be able to get some PRIVATE 1-on-1 lessons from the top ranked golfers in the world. If they can't fix it, well...

Sorry for the shameless plug, but it really is going to be an awesome opportunity for people to get some personalized instruction. Here is the info that we have so far -
http://stlouisdiscgolfclub.com/forum/vi ... f=4&t=1716. The Flight School specifics should be up later this evening once their Tour Manager, BIG Andy, gets it to me.

 

[discdoh]

Well...the website is down right now. No idea why. Give it a few minutes...

 

[EvanA2]

Well...the website is down right now. No idea why. Give it a few minutes...

I think this is what you want: http://stlouisdiscgolfclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1716

 

[slowRoll]

I spent just over 2 hours yesterday doing field work with a friend of mine that throws in the 400' - 450' range. We are both advanced players but his gift has always been distance where mine was with my accuracy and putting. He brought a large net to set up for me to throw into until I was exhausted and a camera to get some videos to illustrate the points he was making as we talked about each one. I'm a simple man and being able to have someone verbally and even sometimes physically correct me seemed to make all the difference in the world. Starting from a standstill (just like the Beto videos), we slowly worked into the 1 step, and so on, until I eventually was incorporating my full X-step back in. He would yell STOP and I would freeze (think red light/green light from your childhood) my motion for him to adjust my elbow height/angle to increase the overall elbow chop. The primary points he made yesterday for me to work on this week were:

1. Do the right pec drill with a towel and discs to continue focusing on my late acceleration.
2. Keeping my chest out and standing tall rather than hunching over. (I was curling into somewhat of a ball on my reach back)
3. Doing a sleight pause on my pull through to allow the shoulder shrug/hip turn to punch my throwing elbow out towards the target as I pull the disc through. (This is what made the biggest difference for me, maybe it'll help some of you too. Coming from a martial arts background, it made perfect sense to me when he told me to punch my elbow at the target to stop arming my throws.)
4. Work on reaching back with more of a straight arm rather than the bending and curling the arm around myself as I was kind of balling up to explode outwards.

I'm sure that he told me much more, but I want to take small steps and not try to rebuild Rome in a day. The end result of this work was very profitable. When we finally stepped away from the net I was instantly launching drives about 30' past my usual 300' - 320' average. My longest drive of the evening on flat land was almost 360' for an instant gain of almost 15% distance in the matter of just hours.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to working on this more in the coming weeks. :thmbup:

 

[sidewinder22]

Sounds like solid advice.

 

[jmhoekst]

Heel pivoting won't teach you how to snap a disc. You really need to look towards grip, wrist tension, your pull line, and timing. Heel pivoting is more about how you're balanced and shifting your weight. Those things are important for consistency and generating maximum power, but if your snap efficiency is very low, it won't matter.

Odds are you're letting your wrist collapse if you can't throw farther than 300'. Need to have a good grip on your disc and keep your wrist rigid but not locked down. Something you might try is keeping your wrist totally rigid and taking a few throws. Then relax it just a little bit and see how those muscles accept a little tension and then can "snap" your wrist back to fully extended once you chop your elbow. Experimenting with wrist tension like this and different grips/nose angles is how you're going to get a big jump in distance.

This. The heel-pivot is just part of the puzzle. If you did everything right but were just missing this piece, then you're probably doing just fine and enjoying life in the Open division.

I don't heel-pivot, but I can still throw 400+ at will. Could I become a 500' thrower by developing the heel-pivot? Maybe, but I have a life. And I'd rather work on my putting.