Never forget the little things

[rhatton1]

I had a pretty nasty back injury at Christmas which left me walking like an old man for a month.

I've been battling back since and the back is pretty much back to normal albeit a bit stiff but I've been struggling with all aspects of the game, forehand, backhand, approaching, putting and even scrambling. It's all been off.

For the last month I've started filming a bit and working on technique on the field chucking discs for the dog.

Out on the field the techniques looked pretty good if a touch stiff and less fluid than in the past. I've made small changes, it's gone well, I was getting the dog chewed putters consistently out over 270' with quite a lot when warmed up going 300' and with some going 350' which is probably as far as I've ever thrown putters on flat ground.

On the course though it's been terrible. All aspects of the game.

Today with a friend we went out with no intention of scoring but just to throw and have fun on the course and try to work out how to translate good field technique to good course technique. Still I was being rubbish. Putts were hitting band or basket, drives were weak (struggling to throw with drivers what I was achieving with putters on the field) Angle control was rubbish.

And then, the friend hits an ace with one of our own made discs (Launch CodeX) so spirits are high and on the very next hole he points out my grip/wrist just looked a bit weird and it had on the sidearm too. And there it was. the simplest of simple things, for some reason I had done something weird with my wrist and been totally unaware I was doing it on the course. It had felt like normal, until I looked at it and changed it and realised it felt nothing like it had in the past!

Suddenly everything was firing. Palm push was back in the putt giving nice laser line long putts. The backhand suddenly was effective and snappy again and instead of landing 15 meters short on holes I was 10 long, hyzerbombing over rather than hyzer flipping through. Discs were going through the Apex and gliding out straight rather than stalling out.

Even the sidearm had somehow gone into a weird grip and once I readjusted my stance to accept the greater power generated the forehand was back again (still some power to find there) .

Such a simple tiny change but one that let down everything else in the system.

All the good form in the world is pretty useless if you don't make sure you are able to put the force created into the disc.

TLR make sure your grip and wrist angle is allowing you to transfer power, it can get really easy to get fixated on form and forget to allow it to work.

 

[navel]

It's such an awesome feeling when you get to correct something with an easy fix, when you finally realize what the problem is.
(And also a bit frustrating that it is was so easy all along.)

I feel like some photos of your before and after would be beneficial. The story is great, but to me it's like talking about a fantastic painting without showing it. Since you didn't realize your own grip was off maybe a whole bunch of people reading this post has the same problem without even realizing it?

 

[RowingBoats]

I feel this sometimes too. I simplify it to a simple thought:

"Don't forget that all of these technical concepts are ONLY there so you can throw a plastic disc."

Anytime I start to forget that I'm holding a disc everything goes to crap.

 

[rhatton1]

It's such an awesome feeling when you get to correct something with an easy fix, when you finally realize what the problem is.
(And also a bit frustrating that it is was so easy all along.)

I feel like some photos of your before and after would be beneficial. The story is great, but to me it's like talking about a fantastic painting without showing it. Since you didn't realize your own grip was off maybe a whole bunch of people reading this post has the same problem without even realizing it?

Nothing special to it really and the clues are all in the text above and something I should have worked out myself a lot sooner. Weirdly though everything in the grip and wrist "felt" right or how I remembered them to feel. This was clearly a wrong feeling but was making me look for other problems instead of the obvious which was then leading to complete lack of trust of everything I was doing and so more and more bits collapse on the course (on the field was fine as I would just make little adjustments and find my way back again)

Since I did my back in most of the throwing I've done has been with battered putters for the dog. These are what I have been using for the form field work. They must be flying more understable than expected from the teeth marks and more and I was almost certainly throwing them nose up and getting away without much distance loss.

Jump on to drivers and the same just doesn't work, they were getting to the apex and stalling nose up. Annoyed me however is standing there, seeing it whilst obsessing about form and assuming it's because I was shifting wrong and leaving my weight behind or a myriad of other problems when the simple answer was staring me in the face. My misremembered "feel" was making me disregard it.

Always make sure the little easy to change things are right before you try and make big adjustments!

 

[azplaya25]

I carry a small hammer in my disc golf bag because properly leveraging the disc with my thumb still isn't muscle memory and I'll lose the feel for it and the wheels fall off