Schusterick Driving Clinic

[ihatepickles]

HUB made comments about effortless distance, and that something I wanted to specifically comment on. Pulling through my core, just a bit below my xiphoid process, makes the disc sing out of my hand. There's a soft snap of my fingers slapping my palm and I hear the disc zip as it sails away.

When I come across the pectorals, this is when I feel like strong arming. There's no life to the disc when it flies. There's OAT and my follow through seems deliberate rather than part of an athletic motion.

I couldn't put together for myself how to accomplish the core pull through consistently. It seemed about 1 out of 10 times I was dragging the disc across (leading with the hand) rather than keeping my hand on the outside edge so that a few milliseconds later could be ripped out of my grip as my wrist unloaded. Keeping my head down, which is just as HUB said really means keeping my head inline with my spine until the disc is gone, is what I believe is the key to keeping that form.

TL;DR - I don't see anything in this video advocating strong arming. This technique immediately made the disc golf backhand feel like a natural motion for me.

 

[dukesilver]

Is Will's rip point his middle finger? His index finger seems to just be there for... I don't know what.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

^yeah that's the case with a lot of players. Pointer finger is a guide/stabilizer.

 

[zj1002]

I believe for most people the most people the middle finger is actually a stronger grip point and its added length has benefit as well. I use a modified grip that uses the middle finger as the main rip point. It adds a little more nose up but that's more control when used right(hyzer flip). For flat or turnover throws it comes more off the index.

Best advice is to try every grip. Make your own up. Learn the angles each one opens up! Eventually you switch back and forth without thinking about each grip.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

I believe for most people the most people the middle finger is actually a stronger grip point and its added length has benefit as well. I use a modified grip that uses the middle finger as the main rip point. It adds a little more nose up but that's more control when used right(hyzer flip). For flat or turnover throws it comes more off the index.
:hfive:
Best advice is to try every grip. Make your own up. Learn the angles each one opens up! Eventually you switch back and forth without thinking about each grip.

:clap::thmbup: always on point like a needle.

 

[slowplastic]

For the pulling through the core...I saw that in his previous video from him as well. I tried doing that for a while and eventually just did whatever felt right for me. Over the last couple of weeks I realized that when things weren't going as far as usual, I had to get "over" the disc more...I would pull through my core.

The issue is that everyone thinks of things differently. It could look like pulling through the core is what gets me back to my normal distance, but I think about it as getting overtop of the disc and making sure that it's under my forearm/elbow, although I'm sure that's an extreme way to think of it.

It's so hard to teach/explain form things when everyone has a different way to think of what they are doing, and how it feels vs. how the positions actually are. Anyways, that was a good video.

 

[sidewinder22]

Overall it's solid advice. I do take issue with keeping the head down because it can lead to back injury. The chin should be over the disc as it comes through unless it's anhyzer(Climo said this long time ago). The forward tilt of the spine is what causes the head to look down during the swing and creates the power zone to swing through the core. The arm is less than 90 degrees(more like 70) to the spine during the throw, as Will said the arm should finish below the shoulder. It's not uncommon to see newbs trying to swing the arm through at very low angles to the spine when they are completely upright or even tilted back.

I also agree with ZJ about grip, try everything. I now throw everything with a fan grip that I modified from a 2 finger grip and talking to MJ. I actually push the disc with my middle finger and thumb.

 

[Dan Ensor]

"I've never worked on my form" and "I'm glad I never listened [to the people trying to help my form]" ~Will S.

 

[dysmike]

^yeah that's the case with a lot of players. Pointer finger is a guide/stabilizer.

I know if I try and use my index finger, I go nose up. I simply can't wrap my finger around the rim and keep a loose wrist.

 

[Krinkncrank]

Just trying some footwork on the backhand, leaning forward with the torso as Will talks about, I noticed one thing which became very apparent: by tilting the torso forward about 10˚, keeping the head aligned to the torso, there was a much heavier weight transfer to my plant foot. Like night and day as compared to keeping the torso straight up and down.

Looking forward to giving it a try in fieldwork later this week.

 

[HyzerUniBomber]

I'm all for tilting the spine forward - I think it's benefits are great:
1. Easier to hold later on a hyzer
2. Better bracing balance
3. Promotes staying on the balls of your feet.

But if you want to throw a flat shot - over your disc, you're going to have to adjust the angle of the disc. Will's got the disc on a hyzer angle in the pic above. If he wants to throw the shot flat the disc would be flat or else he'd be changing the disc angle between the chest and the hit.

For me, it's difficult to put the disc on a different angle than flat in relation to the 90 degree line - so I end up using the tilted spine for hyzers and a more upright spine for flat shots.

I'd also suggest, if you've not messed with it already, play with adjusting the trajectory of the line when you're leaning forward by throwing from lower in the reach back to higher at the hit. Spine stays the same, it's just the line that you're putting the disc on changing. I was surprised to see my own form in video review - that I would backswing "flat" and then raise the release point.

Much better results when I lowered the back-swing point, pull through the core and release higher.

 

[oppyland]

I played a round yesterday morning after watching the video, and noticed the grip change (index finger) made a pretty big difference for me! Seemed like I was getting a lot more spin on the disc.

 

[Dan Ensor]

^yeah that's the case with a lot of players. Pointer finger is a guide/stabilizer.

Someone said that it changes for them, whether they're throwing distance lines or golf lines. I can't remember which one they used for which, though. I believe pointer finger rip point was for distance shots.

 

[zj1002]

On distance you need more nose down, which can happen with a power grip that rips off the index finger. Any stacked or fan grip is ideal for control because it adds a slight degree of nose up to help range things. I only use a true power grip when I need to get over 500ft. Everything else is my modified stacked grip that I can tighten or fan out depending on the distance.

I didn't notice the slight differences until I got pretty deep into my own technique. It was one of the last "AHA!" moments I had once everything else was in place.

 

[Nasty Nate]

Today I threw a few discs trying to use Will's grip that is focused on the middle fingers since I have always clenched my index finger in my grip. Well, for the few throws I did I felt some definite discomfort in my wrist, close to being painful. I attribute this to not being sufficiently warmed-up, but I wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this? My throws looked alright but they put some strain on my wrist.

Not sure if I should just stick to my regular grip or try to do the Shusterick grip... I'll experiment more but I was just alarmed because I never really strain my wrist throwing.

 

[HyzerUniBomber]

I don't get pain, but I was throwing with it today and it does seem to accentuate the index finger hooking on the rim after the other fingers blow off. That's a bonus, but it will definitely take some time to develop a feel for it.

 

[smix]

I'm a relatively new player (since Feb) and I've always struggled with standstill approach shots (within 50m)...they seem to go everywhere BUT where I'm aiming.

After watching Will's video, I made a point of keeping my head down during standstill approaches, and this made quite an impact to my game. Prior to the video, I would always try to keep an eye on where I was wanting to throw...which never really worked. Last night, I was consistently hitting the lines I wanted, and was overall happier with my short game...I actually shot 4 strokes better on our local par 54 course for a +4.

Next up will be improving accuracy on drives and longer approaches, but hey, baby steps!

 

[Pbmercil]

I love that freeze frame you posted HUB. When I started trying to work on some of this stuff today that was really helpful. I noticed that for me, when I worked on angling my spine down (which was something I did fairly naturally without thinking about it, just started making more of a conscious effort to do it this week) that a natural product of that was a more comfortable, more bent at the knee, powerful base with a longer plant stride without loosing any of my hip action. I've shortened my stride significantly to keep my hips powerful, and now I seem to be getting just as much if not more hip action with the long full stride I've always wanted to go back to eventually.

I also loved the way he describes waiting for his back shoulder to lift his head up. That made a lot of sense to me as well.

I love trying to learn from Schusterick, probably because I am also very tall and super lanky, so I figure if he can bomb it maybe I can someday too.

 

[sidewinder22]

Head down is possibly the worst advice out there:

 

[Dan Ensor]

Today I threw a few discs trying to use Will's grip that is focused on the middle fingers since I have always clenched my index finger in my grip. Well, for the few throws I did I felt some definite discomfort in my wrist, close to being painful. I attribute this to not being sufficiently warmed-up, but I wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this? My throws looked alright but they put some strain on my wrist.

Not sure if I should just stick to my regular grip or try to do the Shusterick grip... I'll experiment more but I was just alarmed because I never really strain my wrist throwing.

Possibly from increased tendon travel?