New old guy in Philly

[tmoody]

I've now played three times at Sedgley Woods in Philly, and that's it. I play with some young guys from my church. I'm 64 myself.

I enjoy the sport, even though it's humbling to see how challenging it is. Like most people who have casually thrown a disc around at a park over the years, my first thought was, "How hard can this be?" I quickly discovered that I really knew nothing about how to throw a disc. But that's okay; I like learning new things, and there's plenty to learn.

At Sedgley Woods there are always new and used discs for sale. Somebody gave me a beat-up putter for free, and I bought a distance driver for $5. I don't remember what disc that was, but it was a waste of money, for the time being. For one thing, Sedgley is such a tight, wooded course that there's hardly any hole where a driver would be a good choice. At least, so it seems to me. But the main reason is, the driver feels fairly heavy and it's beyond my ability to throw it. Maybe someday.

Second time out I bought a mid-range disc, a Buzzz Z-Flx. The weight isn't marked. This worked a bit better for me, but was still pretty ugly. Third time out we got there early and practices in a field first, and I found that I did much better, in terms of distance and accuracy, using that chewed-up putter.

I have virtually no power in a backhand throw, or if I go for power the disc goes all over the place. I do a bit better with a forehand snap. Part of the backhand problem is one of those age-related things: I have a little bit of rotator cuff pain when my arm is elevated at shoulder level--just enough to inhibit my throw. But even without that, my form is poor enough to yield poor results.

I've watched some instructional stuff on YouTube, and my plan is to play for a while using just one disc: a putter. I picked up a 165g Aviar in a store. When I feel like I've outgrown that, if ever, I'll bring the Buzzz back in. For a casual player, I don't see any advantage in trying to master multiple discs at once. I remember reading Lee Trevino telling about how when he first learned to play golf he just used a 7 iron for everything; then he added another club. I realize that there are limits to what can be done with a putter disc, but I'm nowhere near those limits, and judging from what I've read (here and elsewhere), putters are fairly forgiving in terms of distance and straight flight, at lower throw speeds.

At some point I'd like to experience a less gnarly course than Sedgley Woods. I'm thinking of something with at least some open spaces. There's very little of that at Sedgley.

Anyway, that's my intro. I'm sure I'll have questions as I go.

 

[Pymm]

Welcome! It's a great sport. As someone who discovered disc golf late in life, I can sympathize with aches and pains; disc golf is worth it though. Have fun out there!

 

[tmoody]

I went to Fort Washington State Park this afternoon, to check out the nine hole course there, but mainly to practice throwing in the large field. The course previously got terrible reviews but has been upgraded, I gather. It looks okay to my novice eye. Still pretty tight and woodsy.

But I wanted to see what's going on with my throw. Initially it seemed I couldn't get more than about 100 feet, although that's just by guess. I experimented with grip, forehand and backhand. I have pretty large hands. For backhand, I did better with a power grip with index finger extended a bit and the rim tucked in at the base of the fingers rather than dept in the palm.

Forehand, I used either index finger on the rim with middle finger pressed against it or middle finger on the rim with index pulled back. Both worked okay.

I experimented with a little footwork. Nothing fancy, no x step just a step and a skip step to launch the throw. This helped more than I expected. I know I didn't add much or any speed to the throw but it seemed to help the timing of the whole thing. Just this little move immediately added 50 feet and fewer sky drives.

I kept at it and eventually was throwing 200 feet. I brought two discs, the 167 Aviar and 177 Buzzz Z flx. The Buzzz actually worked better on forehand and the Aviar flew better on forehand.

Back in the day, my go-to throw for toss and catch was an underhand backhand. This isn't great for these golf discs but for a 75 foot shot with a dependable arc it's okay.

And that was my practice session. I'm reasonably satisfied.


Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

 

[tmoody]

I'm still out there doing more field practice than actual play. I did play on Sunday morning though.

It's a slow learning curve for me. For one thing, I never was athletic, so it's been a long, long time since I've had any practice throwing anything, even a ball. So even though I have plenty of arm strength I just don't have very good muscle memory for throwing things. I noticed on Sunday that one of the longest throwers is a very skinny guy with stringy arms, but he gets a nice whipping action and the disc travels well. So that's what I've been working on: less of a feeling of power, more of a whippy feeling. I'm focusing on forehand, but doing some backhand work too.

There's a lot of conflicting information on YouTube, especially with regard to forehand. I'm used to this from regular golf though. Often, what people advise you to do is what they think they're doing, not what they're actually doing.

I still needed to get better distance, however, and I found myself experimenting with grip. Today I had pretty good luck with an unorthodox grip that I haven't seen in any instructional video. Instead of two fingers stacked against the rim, I tried three fingers, with the ring finger actually touching the inner rim and the other two pressing down on it. This felt instantly more comfortable and gave me better control and distance--at least for today. Another thing I've learned from regular golf is that today's miracle at the driving range can be tomorrow's train wreck.

I also did some backhand work and was surprised to see some improvement there, despite giving it little effort. The main thing I worked on was full shoulder rotation on the "backswing", allowing myself to lose view of the target. This is one thing where regular golf has helped. You can't watch the target during a regular golf swing so train yourself to trust your swing. Anyway, I still have a lot of work to do but the backhand was a bit better today; straighter and a bit longer.

That's all.

 

[Enrico]

First of all, it's great to hear older people getting excited about disc golf. Sounds like you're doing pretty great.

Forehand technique is pretty interesting since there's so many different ways to do it "right". Throwing with three fingers under the disc if fine, especially in accurate placement shots. I have pretty good forehand but I've just recently learned how to throw understable putters. First I used three fingers because it was the easiest way to hold the disc and release it cleanly. Nowadays I use two fingers, either power, stacked or V, depending on how hard I need to throw. V-grip is better in shorter throws, but stacked grip gives more power. Power grip (with index finger tucked and middle finger straight) gives most power but it's more difficult to release cleanly (especially with putters). You should definitely experiment what grip suits you the best!

Cheers from Finland!

 

[tmoody]

First of all, it's great to hear older people getting excited about disc golf. Sounds like you're doing pretty great.

Forehand technique is pretty interesting since there's so many different ways to do it "right". Throwing with three fingers under the disc if fine, especially in accurate placement shots. I have pretty good forehand but I've just recently learned how to throw understable putters. First I used three fingers because it was the easiest way to hold the disc and release it cleanly. Nowadays I use two fingers, either power, stacked or V, depending on how hard I need to throw. V-grip is better in shorter throws, but stacked grip gives more power. Power grip (with index finger tucked and middle finger straight) gives most power but it's more difficult to release cleanly (especially with putters). You should definitely experiment what grip suits you the best!

Cheers from Finland!

Thanks for the greeting!

I continue to experiment. The three-finger grip hasn't held up that well; I'm currently favoring the "power grip" for forehand, with index finger tucked back. But the main thing I'm working on is hand position and snap. For hand position, the "hammer the nail" drill is very helpful, but I tend to visualize a karate "shuto uchi" strike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbDz5GKXlU0

Of course, the target of the strike is lower and the edge of my hand is at about 45 degrees, but the feeling of snap is identical. This is useful to me because many years ago I got to a brown belt in karate and I still have muscle memory of that kind of strike, so I just adapt it.

I've stopped thinking about distance. I go out and practice and focus completely on control. I'm after a clean, non-wobbly, straight disc flight toward a pre-selected target zone, and I don't worry about whether it's 100 feet or over 200 feet. My view is that when I can do that consistently my brain will figure out how to make it more efficient, but it's counterproductive to try to work on control and distance at the same time.

And at 64 I have to be careful about not over-stressing joints and ligaments. Since I last posted in this thread I'm getting fairly consistent FH throws to about 200 feet, and BH about the same distance. I also picked up a lightweight Vibram Onyx disc, and that helps a lot too.