Use the wrist for spin putting?

[Malawi]

So i watched a vid today from the Foundation discgolf channel and they talked about diffrent putting styles and how they work.

He said that you shouldnt break your wrist at all for spin putting. It should remain straight and you only use your elbow and fingers to spin the disc. Then i looked uo other putting clinics that some ppl said the same. But if you watch for example feldbergs tips and other "pros" they say to pre cock the wrist and your tumb should move from 9 to 12.

For me i havent tried only use the elbow but i can imagine it will be hard to make those +10 meter putts without the wrist. I thought that style was push putting but push putts seems to be with the elbow locked all the way.

So what do you guys think is the right way to spin putt if there is one?

 

[seedlings]

opcorn:

All I've heard is push put locks out the elbow and uses shoulder as hinge. Spin uses active elbow. Wrist is overlooked (or not memorable?) in the putting vids I've watched.

The good spin putters look like they Force Pushed the disc Star Wars style at release.

 

[ru4por]

As a spin putter, i have medial wrist break at the initiation of my putt, but not lateral wrist break with follow through.

 

[flatflip]

I don't cock; there is a wrist break and rebound during the stroke which is the extensor tendon bounce.

 

[sidewinder22]

Simon says little wrist motion, and eliminate the elbow and shoulder motion - although he doesn't really.

 

[Sad2980]

I have been working through this with my own putt recently and have found that my spin/spush putt flies best when I use an active wrist that is in rhythm and tempo with the rest of my putt. I.e. if I putt slow and amooth, but slam my wrist open the putt flutters and flies poorly. The same thing happens with no wrist action. If my wrist action matches the tempo and rhythm of the putt, it almost feels like a backhand throw with effortless spin and glide.

For what it's worth, in Scott Stokely's most recent putting video he defines the different putts by which joints are actively engaged.

 

[ray1970]

For what it's worth, in Scott Stokely's most recent putting video he defines the different putts by which joints are actively engaged.

I watched that. Kind of funny but I always thought I was sort of a spush putter but I guess I'm actually just a bad spin putter.

 

[seedlings]

I don't cock; there is a wrist break and rebound during the stroke which is the extensor tendon bounce.

Can you give some more detailed commentary? Like nerdy with many words or pictures? I do a straddle hyzer push put with just a bit of wrist pop. The wrist pop is more like going quickly from a fist to five fingers spread out. When I try to spin putt, I feel like a slobbering dunce with what to do with my wrist.

 

[twistedraven]

Putting is very personal, and some people out there got some really weird ways of doing it. But ultimately, what works for you is what works for you. It all comes down to practice through repetition

I've seen two methods of spin putting: one camp does cock their wrist, and their hand starts out at 3 o'clock, but before they release, their hand is at noon, because the wrist curls up. The other camp (I'm part of it) keeps the wrist locked in place, but they start off with their hand at noon. All the spin comes from the elbow and fingers releasing. I prefer a putter with a microbead, because I feel I can generate more spin off of it (the underside of the farmost knuckle on my index finger is wrapped around that microbead).

 

[flatflip]

Can you give some more detailed commentary? Like nerdy with many words or pictures? I do a straddle hyzer push put with just a bit of wrist pop. The wrist pop is more like going quickly from a fist to five fingers spread out. When I try to spin putt, I feel like a slobbering dunce with what to do with my wrist.

Ha. I'll try. Similar to many other frisbee throws, it involves a stretch reflex in the tendon -- this has been discussed in a lot of the driving technique forums here and I won't try to make a hash of it here.

Probably if you've been doing a push putt, you've already got the start of a sufficient spring in your wrist. It just gets engaged differently. In both the push putt and the spin, as the stroke starts forward from the bottom of the swing , the inertia of the disc loads the spring of the wrist extensor tendons (and likely some of the elbow, shoulder tendons as well depending on where and how much tension you are keeping in those joints). With a smooth stroke, that spring stays loaded until the arm stops & allows that spring to rebound.

Here's Chris Clemons -- I took pics of him not because he is a spin putter but he has the bounce and you can see it pretty well because of the way he drops his arm:



In 1, he is at the bottom of his stroke. Though he has a funky dip leading into it, both his elbow and wrist are straight when he starts his weight shift.

In 2, he has started moving forward. The inertia of the disc has loaded his wrist (as well as his elbow) into flexion. He has practiced enough that he knows exactly how much tension to put on these tendons to maintain the loading in that spring until...

3, where he has caught his weight on his front foot. At this point his arm stops (starting with lead shoulder) and the springs uncoil, projecting the disc to the basket. It's a wave moving down the arm.

There can be similar loading into the finger extensor tendons. My pulleys start going out if I rely on these too much but I am getting old. Sounds like you've got something to pop with already from your description of your push putt.

Spin putters do all of this in front of their body, typically with more loading (and subsequent extension) in the elbow. Here's Hammes:

and MJ:


The timing takes practice. The best drill I know to get a feeling is to, from your putting stance, push an empty hand out from the chest and grasp into a fist at full extension. If you can do it in such a way that you hear an audible slap from your fingers closing, you're getting to the point where the energy is focused in the right place.

There's a lot more to this -- I don't know everything there is to know about the biomechanics of the tendon bounce, and I get the impression that physiologists are just now figuring out how intermuscular force transfer happens. Maybe someone who knows more than I do can chime in.