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I'm looking for advice about my timing more than anything, but if you see something that could improve in mechanics too, I'm all ears. My goal is to consistently throw 300ft+.
This throw was in a headwind with an Axiom Crave. Went about 260-270 feet, which tends to be my average.
My background, if you need it:
I've been playing about a year and half, working on my form that entire time. I hit my lines most of the time, so accuracy isn't really the issue for me. It's distance. I mostly throw fairway drivers and understable/low speed drivers. I had never thrown a frisbee before disc golf, and I didn't play any other sports, so I prefer literal terms over analogies to other activities.
Leaning outside of your posture on the x-step, staying on the rear foot too long which doesn't allow you to get balanced on the front leg, and leading with the torso instead of the hips which causes you to not really get much out of your legs.
Really the best thing to do, if you haven't already, is watch these videos (and there's more!). Understanding what you should be aiming for the first step to making improvements. The good news is that 300'+ is totally attainable with some adjustments.
Looks pretty good for not having an athletic background and only playing 18 months. You ever dance? Camera view from behind the tee will likely show your balance more behind your front heel/toward right tee side, instead of more toward toes/left tee side.
Frame 1 - Note how your feet are separating ahead of your knees and your front femur is facing 180 degrees backwards away from target with your head/arm/disc are well behind your rear foot and have fully extended the arm/disc to max reachback already, so you are going to be accelerating the disc forward early before you plant the front foot. Note how PP's legs are more lateral/sideways to target, legs straight hanging/standing tall so all joints are stacked upright and she has not turned back and extended the arm/disc into max reachback yet. Getting more upright and balanced/leveraged on the rear leg here makes it easier to turn/swivel into the backswing much later as you plant.
Frame 2 - Note how your rear foot is still pushing off the ground and extending you pushing your rear hip and front shoulder/elbow upward. You are pushing too late after you plant the front foot and you push the rear side over top the front side. Note how PP rear foot has completely left the ground and rear shin is almost horizontal with knee hanging under hip, so she has squatted/swiveled/leveraged the rear hip forward and down rather than extended the rear hip upward and over. She has leveraged the rear side forward underneath the front side and rising up on the front leg/hip.
Frame 3 - Note how your head and left shoulder have gone past your front foot, and your rear leg is going upward and around to the left tee side, around your front foot. Note how PP is braced inside the front foot, and rear toes dragging over to the right tee side behind her front foot.
Yeah this is all tons of good info to go through, lots of it overlapping and complementary once you feel it. I think swinging from one leg so you really understand how far forward to get, and without the back leg on the ground to push you forward/over as you are currently will be a helpful drill. As well as swinging a hammer or the two handed underhanding brick type motion...you need to set up your weight to do these things as you can't pull them forward or down like with a light disc. And if your body is out of balance they will yank at you.
I realized the long-ish grass/soft ground in the first video I sent was messing with my throw. In a way I'm glad though, because it exaggerated my problems. I haven't been able to get anymore good video yet, but I've been working on changes as I can. Thank you everyone for the feedback! I'm exciting to be changing things up again.
This was something I'd never thought of before. I always thought the shift was gradual for some reason instead of a quick shift between feet. Thank you.
Thank you! I like to dance, but I don't do it often. I think it's just that I have some athletic ability, but chronic illness since I was a kid prevented me from using it.
The visuals you drew up were really helpful. Makes it way easier to see the underlying mechanics.
Balance. I had a problem with slipping on the tee when I first started, so I had trouble trusting my weight on my plant foot for a long time. I've noticed balance is something I've struggle with ever since.
I realized the long-ish grass/soft ground in the first video I sent was messing with my throw. In a way I'm glad though, because it exaggerated my problems. I haven't been able to get anymore good video yet, but I've been working on changes as I can. Thank you everyone for the feedback! I'm exciting to be changing things up again.
This was something I'd never thought of before. I always thought the shift was gradual for some reason instead of a quick shift between feet. Thank you.
Thank you! I like to dance, but I don't do it often. I think it's just that I have some athletic ability, but chronic illness since I was a kid prevented me from using it.
The visuals you drew up were really helpful. Makes it way easier to see the underlying mechanics.
Balance. I had a problem with slipping on the tee when I first started, so I had trouble trusting my weight on my plant foot for a long time. I've noticed balance is something I've struggle with ever since.
The plant foot is everything. Trust it! Throw from some concrete. As SP stated, one leg drills on the front leg should help. Your weight, or anyone else's for that matter, needs to get transferred to that front leg/plant foot before a real swing can happen. When I'm not really getting a good pop on the disc, I have to remind myself to slow down and wait for my weight to settle on the front side before I can really start swinging forward.
Finally got out to a field. The video includes camera angle from behind as well. They're not the same throw, but I figure it's better than nothing.
I wasn't going for max distance in the videos, so I don't think the reachback-balance issue is resolved, though it may look it. This session, I was focusing on shifting my back hip down and forward, instead of up and over. Also, I was trying to trust my plant foot more and shift my weight into it. I can see that my pull-through timing is off, but I want to get the hip shift issue resolved before fixing that.
Please let me know what you think! Thanks so much!
Nice work! Yeah, you basically need to wait until your weight shifts forward to then swing. You are swinging with your rear foot still weighted on the ground trying to power the arm/disc with the rear foot, instead of shifting all your weight/momentum forward off the rear foot with the arm/disc still lagging behind and then swing. It will feel like a slow eternity waiting for your weight to shift then swing, when your natural tendency/bad habit is wanting to go go go.
Swing your shoulder back and forth more underneath your chin like a pendulum. You might also want to play around your left arm starting more forward like Paige and swimming back during the throw - I demo this in Swedish Badfish. Your rear arm is getting slung around you. There are a couple different ways the left arm can help leverage and be out of the way... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpp7ZFLHK90&t=8m45s
I would try swinging something heavier like a hammer a bit, pendulum motion, to help you feel how to let the front shoulder rotate down/under instead of keeping the shoulders titled up like you currently are. I think setting up on one leg and doing the pendulum with a long arm lever and heavy object really helps expose how easy it should feel to swing the weight through, with connection/pump through the ground with the plant leg.
Thank you for the suggestions, especially about the arm becoming a pendulum. I haven't posted an update in a while because I wanted to make some more substantial progress before I did. The main thing I think I have more down now is how the hips power a relaxed arm. Something clicked when I was watching Bradley Williams throw his Texas States ace in JomezPro's Best of 2018. I could finally imagine what it would feel like to have the energy flow from the hips through the arm into the disc. Tried it out the next day, and it worked.
I'm trying to keep things slow and as smooth as possible. At this speed, I'm getting my previous max distance at around 260. I know if I increase speed of the hip rotation the disc will go farther, but I want to clean up some other things before I do.
My question is, is the pull-through timing correct? I feel like I might still be pulling through a tad early, but I don't trust my knowledge of timing yet.
First of all I think you are throwing slightly nose up, which is costing you some easy distance. Experiment with tilting the disc in your hand before you wrap your fingers around it, so that it is aligned with or nose down of your forearm angle: https://www.dgcoursereview.com/dgr/resources/articles/gripittoripit.shtml
I can see the disc's flight plate from the rear view of teepad...think in tourney footage of pro's who the disc just looks dead flat from the back. Also from the side view I can see it fling out just slightly nose up. Expect to adjust to new flight paths in your discs once you change this consistently...later fade and more turn on neutral-US stuff, along with more distance. Just experiment with it a bit though, everyone's hand size is different, do what gets the best flights.
As for your throw, I would work with some hammer drills to feel the weight/swing. What I'm seeing is you turn back/"loaded" position during the left foot in behind step, not after it. What that is doing is turning you back to the target, rather than stepping in behind, balancing on the left leg, and loading into the left leg with leverage. It's the difference between turning/loading and walking backwards. You are doing it in a balanced and clean looking way but it's still not the same.
Then when you go to plant the legs open up a bit like the "horse stance" in the power of posture video that is in one of the first replies. Again it's not an extreme case of it but it's happening. This is because you turned backwards with the left step, rather than stepping more laterally and then loading back. Since you are set up backwards...well you have to open up to get to the plant.
I like this video a lot to help with feel, especially the elephant walk drill at 4:40. It may seem silly but post a video of it even if you think you're getting it. What this does is show you that you need to plant the leading foot before there is any swing movement...so you have the leading leg to swing from. You should feel control/weight of the arm and hammer the entire way from apex of backswing/forward swing, to the downward arc. Then the hammer should just shoot out the other side...while it floats upward you can step to the other foot and repeat.
I like this drill because it takes away the need to think of throwing, it's just back and forth. It also takes away the need to balance while walking sideways, you just walk like in everyday life. It's still tricky until you've felt this. But once you have, you can keep the same backswing/forward swing tempo in a standstill shot, and then work with your X-step. This is how I think it makes most sense to learn why to sequence your plant->throw, rather than try to make it look better on video without understanding. As well it shows how to plant the left foot and THEN backswing....which is the problem I was saying before. You turn into your backswing before the left leg is weighted and your balance is on it, which is why you end up backwards rather than loaded.
Again 4:40 for elephant walk, but try out a lot of these motions. Somewhere safe obviously...
Agree you are turning slightly early and what SP noted about horsestance. Need more vertical pendulum from the shoulders and more spine tilt to get your body more over the arm/disc. I like to keep my hand underneath the disc in the backswing, feel the weight as you swing back and levitate it up to the top of the backswing weightless.
In the 1st pic note how much wider your knees are apart and your left arm is more behind you over to the right side instead of getting ready to help shift all the weight into the plant like Henna.
In the 2nd pic note how your rear toes are still pushing into the ground, and left arm not pinning body into front leg. You are also really bending your elbow a lot here so your elbow/forearm/disc is going to make a harder rounded motion, it looks like you are pulling the disc inward with your elbow. You can really see how stacked forward Henna is on the front leg with tighter left arm and looser/relaxed right arm, she isn't really trying to bend her elbow it is more relaxed and just lags back and her forearm/disc keep a longer straighter wider angle toward the target.
Follow thru note how your right shoulder started high and finishes high and your left arm is swinging out around you. You can see how Henna maintained the same hyzer body tilt start to finish with low right shoulder and finish with high right shoulder, and her left arm swings straight through underneath.
I think the EU women are going to start an uprising if they compete over here. IMO all these ladies forms are easier to learn than PP:
