Throwing 400ft RHBH and looking for tips

[jungledonkey]

Here's a video of me driving 6 times with a slo-mo following each drive. The first 3 drives went ~375ft and the last 3, when I was warmed up a bit more, went ~420ft. For reference, the fence is 380ft away and I was throwing into a ~20km/hr headwind. The pink/orange discs are Teebirds, the yellow disc is a PD, the green disc is a River, and the blue disc is a Trespass. Aside from the PD, which went about 10ft further on average than the other discs, I was getting the same distance out of every disc.

So far what I've figured out is the difference in the first and second set of throws is that I'm losing some good distance because I'm opening my hips early - before I plant my right foot. I'm under the impression that when I plant my hips should essentially be perpendicular to where I am aiming? I think this is the main reason why my last few throws went further but I'm not sure if this is entirely the case.

I've also been a bit concerned with my grip and you can hear it snapping/slipping in every one of my throws. I'm still not quite sure how to get a clean release while keeping the disc nose down - these two things seem to be mutually exclusive at the moment.

I've been thinking of going a bit faster and maybe adding a hop in to my x-step but I would like to know if I have any other issues that I should be worrying about before doing this. Basically, I'm looking to get a little bit more distance and perhaps some more consistency in my vertical accuracy. I seem to be doing pretty good as far as release angle and horizontal accuracy are concerned.

 

[DiscFifty]

I'm no expert by any means, but just looking at the vid, maybe it's the angle of the vid, but it appears you're bringing the disc out and around your core instead of keeping it closer and straighter. That's the only thing that seems to be standing out to my eyes.

 

[sidewinder22]

There's some rounding in there, but I think it's mainly due to bad posture and balance as the body simply can't get out of the way of momentum. You lean back so far trying to reach back that your lower spine gets stuck on the rear leg and are flat footed with balance behind the heels. It's basically overheaving the backswing(check sledgehammer drill in link). Your rear foot spins out, the heel should move targetward ahead of the toes, where your heel spins around and back behind the toes. Stay off the rear heel, it's more athletic. Stay in a taller posture and delay turning back/backswing, working around the disc will probably help.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/dgr/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24009

 

[teemkey]

As you reach back your right shoulder dips quite a way below parallel with your left. You get back to parallel for release (or perhaps a nanosecond or so after); but that requires lifting the right shoulder, and may be why you're experiencing nose up issues. The taller posture SW recommends, and focusing on slow to fast should help.

 

[Kodachrome]

what do you mean when you say his heel spins out? sorry, i know this is his form post - i was watching the vid to learn a bit - but the only way i feel i can turn my hips to generate **ANY** power is by opening up my left hip backward away from my target and then slamming them around.


edit: i'm dumb. you're talking about his follow-through and the leg swing. carry on!

 

[jungledonkey]

That gravel was quite slick and I was slipping all over, but I definitely see your point about being flat footed. I've been looking at Nikko's and Avery's reachback lately, I've always assumed a big reach back helped them get their distance. I guess i'm just overdoing it? At what point in my throw should my maximum reachback be? What does it mean to "work around the disc"? Recently I read somewhere that Mcbeth does this but I've watched some videos and can't seem to see what it is. Is it just a shorter reachback or something?

In the next few days I will get a few more throws on video, or atleast a shot or two of myself doing the towel drill. I'll first try to focus on being lighter on my feet and maintaining better posture and hope that working on these will fix some of my other issues in the process.

 

[DiscinFiend]

That gravel was quite slick and I was slipping all over, but I definitely see your point about being flat footed. I've been looking at Nikko's and Avery's reachback lately, I've always assumed a big reach back helped them get their distance. I guess i'm just overdoing it? At what point in my throw should my maximum reachback be? What does it mean to "work around the disc"? Recently I read somewhere that Mcbeth does this but I've watched some videos and can't seem to see what it is. Is it just a shorter reachback or something?

In the next few days I will get a few more throws on video, or atleast a shot or two of myself doing the towel drill. I'll first try to focus on being lighter on my feet and maintaining better posture and hope that working on these will fix some of my other issues in the process.

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2056450

 

[jungledonkey]

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2056450

Thanks for the link.

What I notice is at the apex of the "backswing" the disc is out and away from his body and the disc is being pulled from outside inwards to the chest right before release. There is also a straight armed swinging motion to get the disc out and behind the body instead of a "placement" like what I'm doing in my throws. Would you agree that this is an accurate analysis?

 

[sidewinder22]

Your timing is off, you hit the apex of the backswing too early because you lean back and turn backward early so the disc is also then being dragged forward early, losing a good amount of acceleration. You want to the apex of your backswing just as your front foot plants and then the disc can slowly move forward keeping the arm loose into the power zone and then accelerate out. It could be the camera angle, but it appears your pull goes outside in and around(cause your body's in the way) and not getting the elbow quite forward.

 

[jungledonkey]

Your timing is off, you hit the apex of the backswing too early because you lean back and turn backward early so the disc is also then being dragged forward early, losing a good amount of acceleration. You want to the apex of your backswing just as your front foot plants and then the disc can slowly move forward keeping the arm loose into the power zone and then accelerate out. It could be the camera angle, but it appears your pull goes outside in and around(cause your body's in the way) and not getting the elbow quite forward.

Its hard for me to see that but I think you might be right. I did a (very unflattering) frame by frame that shows me pulling through to about the center of my chest but I think I am deviating from the line just before the release. Nonetheless I think modifying the backswing to keep an upright posture will change a bunch of things which will give me another new starting point to work off of.

http://imgur.com/a/Xoyep

 

[StarFirebird]

Bottom set of photos 4th one over.

This is how far my reach back is. It's not a big reachback either and I can throw my Katana's,PD's,TD's and TD2's over 400ft.(I'm not a big guy either 5'8" 140lbs) I focus more on the hit than anything. My run up is real smooth and I do not slow down during the process. It's just smooth,smooth and then bam!. Even on my powered down throws I still have that big hit at the end.

You don't really need that big reachback to get distance. Maybe focus on shortening up your reachback and see if that helps?

Sidewinder is a lot better at this than I am. lol

 

[jungledonkey]

Been working on what everyone has said for the last 2-3 weeks and have pushed my distance up to about 430-450 on average so I have already seen some improvement, but I still know there's more I can do.

This drive here is the furthest I have ever driven a disc on flat ground; it went 470-475ft.



You can see that I no longer reach back and now work around the disc, but I think i still might be overextending myself a little. Something I'm also wondering about is the size of my step (0:22). Is this sapping distance or could it be a factor contributing to my balance issues?

 

[sidewinder22]

Looks a bit better than before. Watch how your disc(and your body) gets back early and how much later the pros are turning back around the disc. You never get your spine braced against the front side so your shoulders are constantly moving which hurts acceleration and whip. Watch your finish and how far your knees are apart and hips left behind the front knee and shoulder, that's folded posture and leverage lost, the pros all finish stacked shoulders over hips over knees. You are moving quite fast from the get go and could use more acceleration through the hit, starting slow and working up to fast the last step. Your x-step is huge and so you have to plant huge or fall on your face. Huge steps aka horse stance are not good at maintaining good athletic posture to move in any direction quickly and redirect weight.

 

[DiscinFiend]

I'm stuck in the same boat as you right now. I've been maxing out around 475ft & can consistently hit about 450ft with my Destroyers for around 6 months now. I know what helps me a lot to keep my timing is the pump before the backswing. One thing that helped me get to were I'm at right now with distance is messing around with how far I reachback, the height I put on my discs, how big my final plant step is & the angle my plant foot is at. I was stuck at 400ft for awhile til I started messing with these things to see what worked best for me & I recommend you mess around with these things also. I've been trying to hit 500ft but at these distances it seems the smallest things don't make as big of an impact as say they would on a person throwing 300ft but ever little tweak helps & they all add up to more distance. Keep DGCR posted b/c i'd love to hear what little changes help you out.

 

[DiscFifty]

wow..to my eyes you're spending way too much time looking behind you. That has to be doing something to your aim, momentum, etc, etc. Have you seen Will Schusterick's driving video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30cUNsWOYSI

 

[Smigles]

That gravel was quite slick and I was slipping all over, but I definitely see your point about being flat footed.

yeah it looks like your rigth foot is slipping around alot