JR
* Ace Member *
krik72 said:
Too bad.
I've changed my putter driving in details lately and did a 25 putter shootout yesterday. Things have changed for me definitely. Relative weakness and strengths have changed for some of the discs. I'm happy with my overstable putters so I wasn't concerned about those and didn't bring any along. I was auditioning for the low/no fade slot even for uphill drives and long at the same time role. And no fade at 200' and under performance because we have many tight places here. Boy was I surprised!
Surprisingly many discs flew the same to other manufacturer's other mold in different grades of plastics. The largest surprise for me was a 175 DX Aviar P&A that used to bee too flippy for me and I was just ripping at full power just like many other discs. My tweaks seem to suit putter driving even though one thing is definitely unlike standard DGR advice for driving with drivers. I wasn't pulling close to the body with the arm I was trying to maximize muscle and grip looseness concentrating on late acceleration and violence of the acceleration. I got many discs as far as the Ion and sometimes farther. Hard D Magnet, P2 D and S plastics flew farther with way more HSS and the Aviar with close to the same HSS as the Ion. But I only wailed on the Ion a couple of times and put them on higher lines which I've noticed are too high for the Ion so there's definitely some room for D improvement in there. The thing is that I'm a little bit afraid of throwing the Ion at full power right now and the winds didn't help it. I'm just not comfortable with sacrificing repeatability for 10-20' of added putter drive D even if I could get it over the other tested discs. The local holes are so touchy that I'm more comfortable throwing under powered throws and there even more discs started to fare well for 200' and under. A large gaggle of putter went straight there. And for 300' the Ringer I've beat much straighter is much less likely to flip and will come back much earlier and better where the Ion would glide anny to the ground sometimes.
The Ion as a driver seems to be well contested if one is willing to depart from mold minimalism which I am for putters. At 200' half the putters can be thrown on lasers. At 250' some of my Wizards became straight and were a lot more dependable and repeatable if I made minor errors. At 300' at least Ringer, hard d Magnet, P2 in both plastics but especially the S are all close to Ion D although I didn't test for it but much more safer and less penalizing of minor and major thrower errors. I didn't test the Ringer yesterday but did a couple of times earlier. I've gotten the Ringer in broken in state farther than the Ion in every session I've compared them by 3-4' but it needs way more height.
Ion does win everything else I've tried in flying far and high with annies and with a lesser power requirement than the next best thing Spike. In putting long the altitude holding for long lasers combined with mild fade that limits otherwise long blow bys from the excellent glide and good speed is a great combo because other few discs that glide as well or better tend to exaggerate sideways missing if hyzered or annied and can't take nearly as much wind. Rattler being the best challenger in the glidey yet not sideways exaggerated missing department losing clearly in wind handling. Before I discovered that I'm more accurate within the circle putting with a much harder arm motion the Ion was the best short putter for me. Now the power generation is so high that the disc probably would bounce out and the blow bys would be immense so Rhyno it is. Ion still retains the long putt and jump putt to 170' range. From 170' up I use a Buzzz but I've used MD1s successfully too and I need to make a comparison for those both fly fairly similarly based on memory on those throws. For giggles I'm gonna try out a Comet too to see if weight lifting has helped in keeping the angles better at high power levels. In hopes of getting super glide without turning and burning problems of last year. Ion also is the best low height maximum length putter driver there is but man it is touchy so it would be better thrown where there's room to flip. Which defeats the point of driving with a putter in many cases. As an escape shot disc the Ion is wonderful.
The nicest thing I saw yesterday was the need to put both the D and S P2 back in the bag for rounds testing because they were almost as forgiving of errors as the hard D Magnet (OOP IIRC) and 8-10' longer with equally little fade if one switches the plastics at shorter distances where the S would fade out. A D and S P2 together make for lasers far out with much more calmer and confident thrower at a little higher height requirement than the Ion. And so far in the field the results have been better than with the Ion at long distances and the Ion matching the P P2 for shorter throws and the S beating for golf shots at longer distances. D P2 tracked twice in the winds S P2 didn't. I'm gonna get a backup S P2 I already own two D P2s.
Because I think the Aviar DX 175 was long and a little more dependable than the Ion medium 172 non FR at full power I'm gonna try out a champ as well as soon as I get to buying one. I didn't test my Star Aviar Driver now and I will ASAP. Weight and finger strength training and changing index finger placement has finally allowed me to grip tall discs like BB Aviars, Rhynos, VPs and Challengers semi comfortably to comfortably so I can throw them too. Since I was ok with the KC Aviar I lost (grr...) and the no bead Aviar really surprised me and the BB Aviar was longer than the Wizards but too LSS at shorter ranges I'm interested in seeing how far and straight it will fly and what the flipping and wind handling is like. I think I'm ready to be surprised positively
Even with the tests incomplete for a few discs I'm confident that my setup is gonna be more complete and way better than now for the short and tight spots around here. I'm so excited and there's definitely room and usage for the Ion in the bag now and in the future. Can you tell I love driving and approaching with putters? 8)
