Whyzer?

[nothinbuttree]

OK, this will sound like a newb question, and possibly been addressed before, but...

Why do top players (and maybe better ams even?) seem to prefer throwing wide hyzers vs something more straight toward the basket? I have an idea, but wanted to get more seasoned players' opinions.

Not talking about the sky hyzer where a tombstone is desired--I get that motivation of minimum ground play. But rather the throw for a RHBH player that goes out laterally 50' from the straight line target, has to be thrown higher usually, harder, and with a higher speed disc.

Seems like it invites more variability such as ground skips than just a straight mid rip up the middle. Is it that much more predictable?

Help my ignorance.

 

[elmexdela]

looks cooler

 

[seedlings]

Less margin for errr on a hyzer. Straight shots will turn over if the wind changes. Hyzer won't change much and generally has less ground play. "Oh, no. Larry turned over his spike hyzer" isn't a line you'll never hear.

 

[teemkey]

The hyzer angle pretty much eliminates glide, so ranging the shot is more dependable.

 

[wolfhaley]

Because a straight shot requires so many more aspects to be executed perfectly to succeed. Speed control, nose angle, release angle, height, etc. Any one of these being off can result in a terrible shot. That's why it's thrown less than a stock hyzer when given the option between the two. Don't overthink it when you don't have to.

 

[autocrosscrx]

Go grab a bin full of discs within a certain speed range. Grab everything - your understable stuff, your neutral stuff, and your stable stuff.

Go to a soccer field and set up on the sideline at a reasonable distance from the goal. Try to throw everything into the goal.

I think most people are going to gravitate towards more stable stuff in that exercise, especially with any wind.

 

[DavidSauls]

Summary of preceding posts:

Consistency.

 

[Smigles]

Expanding on the previous post:

All discs have the natural tendency to hyzer out. Some very understable ones only do it very late in their flight, but all of them go there eventually.

So you can either throw with the discs nature to fly or try to work against it. Guess which is more consistant.

 

[DiscFifty]

Because watching the reliable fade of a hyzer throw hit the ground and do a pole dance around the basket is pure disc golf sexy.

 

[Hampstead]

Straight is the hardest shot in golf.

 

[Ryan P.]

OK, this will sound like a newb question, and possibly been addressed before, but...

Why do top players (and maybe better ams even?) seem to prefer throwing wide hyzers vs something more straight toward the basket? I have an idea, but wanted to get more seasoned players' opinions.

Not talking about the sky hyzer where a tombstone is desired--I get that motivation of minimum ground play. But rather the throw for a RHBH player that goes out laterally 50' from the straight line target, has to be thrown higher usually, harder, and with a higher speed disc.

Seems like it invites more variability such as ground skips than just a straight mid rip up the middle. Is it that much more predictable?

Help my ignorance.

I thought the same thing before I started playing. I stumbled my way onto a temp course Innova had set up at a music festival 17ish years ago and I played a round with my ultimate disc. I started playing and caught up to a pro (I think Barry Schultz, but my memory may have retroactively changed that because he won world's whatever year it was). Anyway, I noticed he threw hyzer on any hole he could, and that stuck with me for a couple years until I bought my own disc and started playing.

As i've played more and more, I've thought a lot about that and realized that, David Sauls is right: consistency.

You're right that a hyzer will invite more ground action than a straight shot. However, the straight shot has a lot more action in the air. The straight shot, as it's been stated, has a lot more variables to it (they've been mentioned.

You're also right that you need to throw it harder, which would seem to be less accurate. I thought the same at first; the shortest path between two points is a straight line, so that'd seem to be the most accurate path. However, the more I've played, the more I've come to realize that a hyzer shot is more accurate at hitting its target. I'm not sure why this is exactly. I have my theories, but they're nothing more than inductive reasoning so they'd probably confuse more than help. Regardless, it just is.

I will say that, as they get closer to the basket, pros will move toward a flat shot rather than a hyzer one. 300' upshot? They're probably releasing on hyzer. 200' upshot? Some do and some don't. 100' upshot/putt? They're probably releasing flat. I'm overgeneralizing here. I also wonder if pros should be throwing hyzer shots at 100', but they're better than I am.

 

[ChrisWoj]

OK, this will sound like a newb question, and possibly been addressed before, but...

Why do top players (and maybe better ams even?) seem to prefer throwing wide hyzers vs something more straight toward the basket? I have an idea, but wanted to get more seasoned players' opinions.

Not talking about the sky hyzer where a tombstone is desired--I get that motivation of minimum ground play. But rather the throw for a RHBH player that goes out laterally 50' from the straight line target, has to be thrown higher usually, harder, and with a higher speed disc.

Seems like it invites more variability such as ground skips than just a straight mid rip up the middle. Is it that much more predictable?

Help my ignorance.

Others covered it well - the wind is always hitting the same side of the disc, and with a straight shot a smaller difference in angle can make a more dramatic impact on where the shot winds up. With that said: a player I met when I was a newb once said to me "the thing in disc golf that I'm most proud of is that I can throw a dead straight shot on target any time I want." (he peaked at 991, solid player from my area - Tim Grabowski)

I took that to heart and stand by it. Don't abandon the dead straight shot just because the hyper will quite often be the best shot. And that's coming from, in me, someone who truly believes in getting on the hyzer as often as possible. I throw forehand or backhand hyzer as my preferred throw. But I'm very proud of the fact that I can throw something on a bee-line for the basket whenever I need to.

I'd be willing to argue that if you can control angle on a dead straight shot, you should find it fairly easy to control angle on a hyzer. You're pulling off the more difficult throw.

 

[armiller]

At some point toward the middle/end of this video, Ezra said hyzers are fun. By the way, he definitely did NOT mean that they're fun to watch. I suppose that I, too, would have fun throwing hyzers if I could get them 400 feet as easy as Ezra can.

As far as this topic goes, take a gander over to the technique thread. I won't go full Prerube here, but this topic has been discussed ad nauseum over there.

 

[Steve West]

There is a geometric reason, too. Somewhere there is a graph showing that the more-curved shape of the flight dampens the errors from releasing the disc off-angle. For any given error, the resulting distance from the target will be smallest with a hyzer, compared to other flight shapes.

 

[4hcgoods]

There is less variability and margin for error in a hyzer shot. This video explains it all sciency...

https://youtu.be/FDUJzS7CQLU?t=187

 

[raceface59]

As a relatively new player, I learned the answer to this on Tuesday. My straight shots took a lot more planning as to where they would land. By playing to the fade of the discs, my hyzer shots thrown way to the right of the target area with an overstable driver (Firebird, Thunderbird and Teebird in this case) landed at the target area every single time and were parked for birdies on two shots. It sounds crazy, but the shots thrown way wide were easier to figure out than the straight throws.

 

[nothinbuttree]

Thanks everyone for the great answers and links. Funny thing is, even knowing this, I probably will continue to try to throw as straight as I can most of the time. With my limited ability to play/practice (3-4 hours a week max), and the variety of courses I play, I think having one shot perfected is probably better than 2 shots halfway perfected, especially since I'll never be a 400' type of thrower.

 

[rocthecourse]

Thanks everyone for the great answers and links. Funny thing is, even knowing this, I probably will continue to try to throw as straight as I can most of the time. With my limited ability to play/practice (3-4 hours a week max), and the variety of courses I play, I think having one shot perfected is probably better than 2 shots halfway perfected, especially since I'll never be a 400' type of thrower.

If you can throw a ~250 foot shot dead straight you can score pretty well on most courses.

 

[DavidSauls]

Thanks everyone for the great answers and links. Funny thing is, even knowing this, I probably will continue to try to throw as straight as I can most of the time. With my limited ability to play/practice (3-4 hours a week max), and the variety of courses I play, I think having one shot perfected is probably better than 2 shots halfway perfected, especially since I'll never be a 400' type of thrower.

If you're lucky, a lot of those courses will have a lot of holes that don't allow the hyzers, and reward you for those straight shots.

There are reasons that many people lament the number of high-level events on open, modified golf courses, and want to see more on woods courses. This is one of them.

 

[autocrosscrx]

If you're lucky, a lot of those courses will have a lot of holes that don't allow the hyzers, and reward you for those straight shots.

There are reasons that many people lament the number of high-level events on open, modified golf courses, and want to see more on woods courses. This is one of them.

That's why hyzerflips were invented.

And forehands.