Moving up in distance

[flowinowen]

Here's a pretty vague/open ended question about gaining distance, but I'd like to poll this for an average:

When working on distance, Slowplastic (among others) mentioned your lower/max distances will become easier. When the DG community works on distance, about how long did it take you to break through your max D once you started hitting it with ease?

To give an example: I throw 340 regularly (measured via football field). For weeks, its been my max distance, but today I was hitting that with ease. If I attempted to rip it harder, I would fall back into strong arming habits and hyzer out early. Sorry in advance if this is too vague, but thanks!

 

[demon102]

I started off on a course where you basically didn't really need mids, you could just play with putters and drivers and getting to football field D was pretty easy once me and my friends figured out how to throw the disc. Then it was just going on and launching discs and we would keep pushing our max distance little by little pretty quickly. Nothing crazy but when you are always driving instead of doing mid/approach shots you just develop that quicker.

Then I started going to more technical courses and focused more on precision and my max D has gone to **** but accuracy is on point compared to any other point since I started.

 

[ThrowBot]

Hmm, what amount of time it takes to make a distance breakthrough is an interesting question. For me, to see consistent improvements in distance, it takes a number of fieldwork days: one day to "figure out" technique improvements, and then a day to come back and "remember"/solidify those gains. So maybe 2-3 total hours of field work, but with 1-2 days of rest in between.

Of course, I don't do fieldwork all that often. If I worked on just distance once or twice a week, I should expect to see less and less improvement every week, per the law of diminishing returns.

Most people on here don't frame distance breakthroughs in terms of time required, but rather form & technique improvements that will make distance gains possible. Along those lines, I think the standard question to help would be:

What disc(s) are you getting out to 340'?

 

[HyzerUniBomber]

In my own form changes, it's about making a change and then allowing myself to commit to the change in fieldwork and then in a round when I can be confident in the shot.

Some changes will immediately benefit your accuracy and distance, some will be detrimental until you can execute it properly.

Some changes will expose other problems, and you'll think "oh no, this is a bad idea". Those are some of the hardest to fix.

The time this takes will come down to a number of factors:
1. how ingrained a certain motion is
2. Having good drills to relearn the proper motion
3. Previous experiences you have with making physical adjustments and micro adjustments
4. Using slow motion film review to verify, adjust, verify, adjust in the field
5. Dedicated daily time to commit to a swing change

 

[mike.sepulveda.73]

I've been playing just over a year and wanted to step up. Made a video for the gurus to critique and noticed that I was pretty hunched over. SW22 gave me some stuff to work on. And while I still need to work at it, in the past 2 weeks I have built up some distance.

Saint 330
Renegade 350
Trespass 370
Destiny 390

Still have some work to do though, seems like I am getting a little more turn than I should.

Thumb smashed on my Galaxy Note 4

 

[RFrance]

Typically as guys we grow up knowing if we want to throw something far we throw it harder. For even more distance, we grit our teeth and maybe yell. With throwing a disc that only works up to a certain point. Then it's all physics and finesse. And like HUB says:

The time this takes will come down to a number of factors:
1. how ingrained a certain motion is
2. Having good drills to relearn the proper motion
3. Previous experiences you have with making physical adjustments and micro adjustments
4. Using slow motion film review to verify, adjust, verify, adjust in the field
5. Dedicated daily time to commit to a swing change

I'm finally understanding why it's important to slow down. I'm improving a lot more and a lot faster now by throwing a bucket of mids and concentrating on one or two things.

 

[Teamkiller]

I've been playing less than a year but i can say with certainty that my farthest golf line throws often leave me feeling initially like i didn't "get enough on it" as in it feels effortless and smooth and I'm sure at the moment of release its going to be a short, hyzer route. I do not get this feeling all the time but when I do, discs fly lower, flatter, and straighter than normal for me. More to the question is I get small incremental increases over weeks and then usually a bigger jump of say 20-30' when something profound clicks (grip, alignment, not spinning my body, balancing by bending knees more, staying upright etc). All said though you're already throwing the distances I normally see, depending on if 340' is a flat throw on a golf line rather than some soaring high anny with a super fast and OS disc. Keep working it and try and get it more and more consistent with smooth clean releases.

 

[slowplastic]

I agree with a lot of the comments. My perspective is that every form iteration that you have, will cap out at a certain distance. Every time you change/improve your form, it should feel better once it stops feeling "new". That means that it will make things easier, because it's more proper. You'll be forcing your body less.

Now when you change your form, you may not see a distance increase yet because it isn't fully muscle memory...but that doesn't stop it from feeling smoother/easier/more flowing. Say you max out at 330', with some snap but you just rotate through your plant. You learn to brace better. But, you have to throw at 70% the speed you used to, without tipping over past the brace. You will likely be throwing 330' still, but be doing it very easily. Give yourself 5 sessions in the field (making up a number) to work on it, and you may be able to add back more of your effort again in a controlled manner, and be hitting 350'. In a few more sessions you may be at 360'. You try to throw harder...you throw worse. The only way to throw farther is to adjust your form again.

There's no length of time for throwing farther...it's about identifying issues and actually solving them. Each iteration of form has some type of distance cap that you can hit, on a golf line, with reasonable effort. That distance will likely be quite consistent. If you don't decide to actually change what you are doing, no amount of time will change how far you throw.

But in my experience, every change I have made (and stuck with) has felt better pretty much immediately...that's how you know it's moving forward, even if the distance doesn't increase instantly.

 

[mm1315]

Typically it takes 2-3 weeks once I've hit a distance wall for me to start working on getting more. It's always a minor tweak gain another 10-20 feet then another tweak, so on and soforth. My biggest jump was when I switched my grip to a two finger to get the nose down more. My main issue is I dont have a lot of rotation in my hips so I'm kind of at an impass every distance gain I've made since has been working on armspeed and timing.

 

[zmannz1984]

I have been playing almost a decade and I am finally throwing over 325 with ease and some control. I had no athletic throwing ability to speak of prior to disc golf. I spent my youth playing paintball and riding bicycles. I maxed at about 250 for years and years, so I finally disced down for a while and tried harder to improve.

The biggest things that helped me was doing planned, controlled practice based off what I learned here, learning to throw a baseball correctly and feeling those proper mechanics, and soaking up all the stuff HUB/others post that helps you feel different parts of the throw in controlled conditions, like the water bottle drill for example.

Once I started that, I gained at least 10 feet a month with limited time to practice or play. I have now maxed out around 340 on my longest golf lines (with about 70% consistency), and I feel confident I will get to 400 this year. I just bought a go pro for a trip I am taking so I think I'll start taping myself and posting for feedback.

 

[sidewinder22]

Here's a pretty vague/open ended question about gaining distance, but I'd like to poll this for an average:

When working on distance, Slowplastic (among others) mentioned your lower/max distances will become easier. When the DG community works on distance, about how long did it take you to break through your max D once you started hitting it with ease?

To give an example: I throw 340 regularly (measured via football field). For weeks, its been my max distance, but today I was hitting that with ease. If I attempted to rip it harder, I would fall back into strong arming habits and hyzer out early. Sorry in advance if this is too vague, but thanks!

Extremely vague. I'll just say I only gauged distance improvement with putter distances since that will tell you most about your efficiency.

 

[flowinowen]

What disc(s) are you getting out to 340'?

FD, CD2, PD, DD and DD2. My P2 I can regularly put around 270, but I don't gauge distance with it - I throw them before and after my drives for form clarity.

The time this takes will come down to a number of factors:
1. how ingrained a certain motion is
2. Having good drills to relearn the proper motion
3. Previous experiences you have with making physical adjustments and micro adjustments
4. Using slow motion film review to verify, adjust, verify, adjust in the field
5. Dedicated daily time to commit to a swing change

Thank you HUB! I do tend to use your drills the most - biased and all. As a student, I've got the luxury of some down time to work on this, and I've tried to use my time as efficiently as possible.

 

[flowinowen]

Extremely vague. I'll just say I only gauged distance improvement with putter distances since that will tell you most about your efficiency.

Yea, definitely vague, but I relate it to a parent asking when their child will walk. Some can expect 9 months, others 15 and anywhere in between. But in relation to your putter comment - I can normally put those at 270', give or take 20'.

 

[INTP]

It's a funny feeling when distance comes without feeling like you're ripping it any harder.
A little more reachback, a slightly more ambitious x-step, a slightly quicker pushoff, a more confidently planted foot, basically all the tweaks below the shoulders that you don't feel in the arms.
My significant distance gains have actually felt like my arms are doing less than before. Might just be the smoothing of form for more effortless movement.

 

[flowinowen]

It's a funny feeling when distance comes without feeling like you're ripping it any harder.
A little more reachback, a slightly more ambitious x-step, a slightly quicker pushoff, a more confidently planted foot, basically all the tweaks below the shoulders that you don't feel in the arms.
My significant distance gains have actually felt like my arms are doing less than before. Might just be the smoothing of form for more effortless movement.

It is, especially when its as simple as a disc change. Just got an S line CD2 in the mail and it travels at least 20 ft further than my C lines.