Video of a few drives, critique please

[Dennis1]

What am I doing wrong, and am I doing anything right? Any tips and pointers welcome.

I know I need to sort out what I do with my off hand, and I've noticed I have nose angle issues and tend to throw a bit high most of the time.

 

[Triton]

Try to make sure you tilt your wrist downward and keep your thumb forward. I would also try to get more of your weight forward at your release. That should help a lot with the nose angle also. It seems like you have a lot of weight shift happening, but not until after your release, so once you get the timing down where you can get that weight forward by the time you release, you may notice a difference in power and your nose angle should be better as a result too. That's my little bit of advice. I'm sure someone else will get with you on more info, but in the mean time I highly recommend jumping over to the technique section and reading up on the first 4 or 5 threads. There's a lot of good info there, and really all of the stickies in the techniques section are worth taking a look at.

 

[JR]

Tervetuloa. You can't push yourself forward enough when your left leg is in the air so you remain leaning backwards. That points the arm pull line from low in the reach back to high in the rip creating a rising line. And the disc rises up front higher than the rear. If you twisted the hips you'd create a lot more power. That is made difficult with the airborne rear leg. In the last step you raised the right leg from the hip as if to kick at the target. That lengthened the step also resisting moving the weight forward. How about moving the elbow a little closer to the target before straightening the elbow? Just make sure the elbow is not as close to the target as possible because it will lock up the elbow and the momentum forces the elbow to straighten possibly tearing up the tendons and the muscles. It hurt like hell. Never do that leave the elbow a few cms short of pointing straight at the target form the shoulder to the elbow.

 

[Dennis1]

Thanks, and kiitos.

I started playing last summer, and up to about two months ago I was driving exclusively forehand. I'm sure you know the story, first disc I bought was a Champion Boss and only way I could get a decent throw with it was over torquing it forehanded. When I hit it right, that thing would fly past 90 m dead straight between 1-2 m off the ground, but most of the time I was picking it out of the nearest tree or off the ground 10 m in front of me. Reading the technique section here is a large part of what made me start working on my backhand, I've read through most of it. However as you all know there's a big difference with knowing what should happen and making it happen.

Looking at the video now I see what both of you are saying about the weight transfer, I'm releasing the disc somewhere in between instead of forward.

Yesterday I played a couple rounds with this in mind, and had some success both getting more powerful throws and keeping the nose down. I'm not sure if it's because I did something right or I did something wrong, but I was throwing a star Boss and it kept flipping on me, on a flat(ish) throw it did a big S and on a high hyzer it flipped up straight. I'd estimate the throws at around 90-100 m. I think it might have been in part because I was more focused on getting the motion of the throw forward and less on snapping it with my wrist, so it would have less spin.

JR, so what you are saying is I should shorten my last step?
I thought I was getting power from the left leg, but now I see I'm not. I'm not using it to power myself forward/turn the hips but just lifting it up and the forward momentum is from the earlier steps. I'll try to work on using the left leg when I go throwing next time.

 

[JR]

The wrist may have rolled clockwise or the arm dropped lower after the disc left or your Boss is beat or atypically flippy. I'd try 20-40 cm shorter final step to see which way is the most consistently accurate and which way is the longest. The Boss ain't flying as it is designed to BH at 100 meters it needs more speed to not fade out hard. Forehand is different because usually people get less spin on the disc.

 

[SpikeHyzer]

Just curious, do you have control issues? I only ask because you seem to turn into your reach back more than I normally see. This can lead to spraying shots.

Once your arm is parallel to your chest, that is where your throw seems to breakdown in my opinion. Your right forearm looks like you are sawing it off a bit and not getting a good full extension of your forearm, thus losing potential power.

 

[Dennis1]

Yeah, I'd say control has been and is still probably my biggest issue. I've been trying to keep the throw more compact since I shot that video, shorter X step, less reach back and getting my weight into the disc more. One big problem I had was that whenever I tried to put any power behind my drive and even approaches, I'd end up throwing 15-20° to the right and just couldn't figure out why. Then one day it hit me that it was because I was trying to keep my plant foot on a straight line from my left foot towards the target, thinking that meant I would be lined up right. I'm not sure what made it click, but I noticed that instead planting the foot a bit to the left actually made the whole line of the run-up and throw straighter, I made an illustration of what I'm trying to say because I'm not sure I'm making sense.

 

[JR]

My signature? I can't see the picture.

 

[Dennis1]

I uploaded the pic again, hope it'll stick around for longer this time.

 

[Simeon1]

Yeah, I'd say control has been and is still probably my biggest issue. I've been trying to keep the throw more compact since I shot that video, shorter X step, less reach back and getting my weight into the disc more. One big problem I had was that whenever I tried to put any power behind my drive and even approaches, I'd end up throwing 15-20° to the right and just couldn't figure out why. Then one day it hit me that it was because I was trying to keep my plant foot on a straight line from my left foot towards the target, thinking that meant I would be lined up right. I'm not sure what made it click, but I noticed that instead planting the foot a bit to the left actually made the whole line of the run-up and throw straighter, I made an illustration of what I'm trying to say because I'm not sure I'm making sense.

I was going to draw the same picture. Thank you for saving my time.
The picture on the right tells how 99,9 % pro players do the runing. The steps in the left picture are exactly what I produced in natural way in the beginning of my career. I had to teach myself away from that last right foot planting before making progress.
-Timo

 

[Dennis1]

You're welcome. That's something I started noticing too now when looking at videos of pros driving, I just never saw it before.

I have a feeling it's going to help improve my game too, for one it's a lot more fun being out there throwing when I have more confidence in the disc actually going in the general direction I'm aiming.