The feeling of Brace

[swiftchariot]

Hello All!

I am still searching for the elusive 350' average. I am going out to the field soon to work on the brace. I understand the concept, but there are two big things for me in disc golf that are different compared to a baseball swing or a hockey slapshot.

1) I have to do everything backwards compared the baseball swing. My lead foot is my right not my left. This will take practice, but geez...

2) More importantly, with baseball and hockey I can rely on a counterweight to help the "brace." Even with sidewinders door frame drill there is a counter weight. Put in practice the disc doesn't support enough of a counterweight to really allow me to brace like in the past. Please correct me if I am thinking about this all the wrong way, but I find that I can really throw my hips forward and brace if I have a heavy counterweight.

 

[DiscJunkie]

The disc is not your counterweight, it's your momentum and motion.
Think of a pole vaulter running down the runway, sticking the pole in the slot and then using his/her momentum to carry them over the crossbar.
The pole is not the counterweight, the pole vaulter is the counter weight.
That can be the tough part about bracing, it's not always about the motion, but about the timing.
Bracing with the correct momentum and then turning your momentum into, not around, that brace.
THAT is what takes practice, practice, practice.

Note: Obviously, you get around the brace, but only after you have planted into and used that plant to direct your energy.

Heavy?
SW22?

 

[slowplastic]

Swing your baseball bat lefty, so you feel the leverage unwind. Once you feel that motion and the bat isn't tugging at you, then swing a hammer one handed like that. Should be similar, but different lever length. Then same leverage/anticipation with the disc.

Definitely going back and forth between R/L baseball swing helped me, but the extension is a bit different one handed and with a shorter lever. Hammer/wrench helps then, leverage the hammer through an imaginary wall in front of your stance.

 

[sidewinder22]

Hello All!

I am still searching for the elusive 350' average. I am going out to the field soon to work on the brace. I understand the concept, but there are two big things for me in disc golf that are different compared to a baseball swing or a hockey slapshot.

1) I have to do everything backwards compared the baseball swing. My lead foot is my right not my left. This will take practice, but geez...

2) More importantly, with baseball and hockey I can rely on a counterweight to help the "brace." Even with sidewinders door frame drill there is a counter weight. Put in practice the disc doesn't support enough of a counterweight to really allow me to brace like in the past. Please correct me if I am thinking about this all the wrong way, but I find that I can really throw my hips forward and brace if I have a heavy counterweight.

1. Just keep swinging one handing back and forth, feel the bat or club or disc whip back and forth in the same spot.

2. The disc is leveraged just like anything else one-handed, it's just lighter so you will end up accelerating faster, sequence and rhythm are the same - tempo increases. You still need to toss the disc back into the backswing and abandon it's weight away to gravity. Imagine the disc still weighs as much as a sledgehammer. How do you use the hammer's(disc's) weight? You toss it back so it's weightless to you while you still maintain leverage and lag into the transition forward as you gather more momentum and leverage and weight force against the disc's weight/inertia into the plant.

 

[billyjacko]

I think a lot of beginners get too wrapped in 'bracing'. The brace is a byproduct of a good weight shift and good leverage. Assuming you're getting the disc into the pocket and not rounding, I think it's easiest to think of leveraging from the ground if you think of the shoulders as your main source of power. You leverage the throwing shoulder against the rear foot in the back swing, shift your weight forward, and then leverage the off shoulder against the plant foot (the brace part.) If you have a good weight shift, you'll maintain leverage through the entire throw.

Do as sw and sp say and grab a hammer and rock your weight back and fourth. Now focus just on moving your shoulders with your feet/hips.