Reid's Journey to Backhand Mastery

[UhhNegative]

Pretty rough day out in the field today. Found a massive field with over 1500' of length. I took some drivers and mids out to have some fun and see what I could do. According to Google Maps my best throws were at about 315-330' and I think it was uphill a little because throwing back I got them a little further usually. That is honestly more than I expected to see today for the first time throwing drivers really. I think my biggest issues right now are not getting off the rear leg properly or early enough which causes me to not really get onto my front hip and pushes me over the top with little extension my back leg does. I end up with my hip staying back with head over my front foot instead of everything stacked: head/hips/foot. I've got to trust myself being on one foot. So... probably one leg drill and some bull riding are in order. It seems I've started to get my rear arm in a little tighter sometimes. But that still needs work as well.

I start decent here

Then here I should already be off my rear foot but I'm not so it pushes me over the top

Then I'm STILL not off the rear foot here when I should be well off of it.

Then by the time I'm releasing I'm not stacked

Then somehow I regain balance (sometimes) in the finish

From the side:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zFe7CiWJaq9xFtWHA

From rear view (downhill shots):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EsqfWJutm6uWJQtx9


At the end I was having a little fun and threw a 156g Wave 400' downhill according to UDisc. The throw actually looked terrible on film, but it was fun.

 

[UhhNegative]

Throwback to my first post:



I'm glad I switched to righty and I'm really happy with my progress even though I tried to quit along the way

 

[slowplastic]

Can you do the elephant walk thing with a hammer? Try that out and then pump with the same tempo back and forth with a parallel stance. That showed me how you have to be on the leading foot well before the object is at the bottom of the swing, then you pump through the bottom and out forward.

Once you feel that pump then you should be on the front leg sooner in the throw, or throw later relatively, and be off the rear foot sooner relatively too.

 

[UhhNegative]

Can you do the elephant walk thing with a hammer? Try that out and then pump with the same tempo back and forth with a parallel stance. That showed me how you have to be on the leading foot well before the object is at the bottom of the swing, then you pump through the bottom and out forward.

Once you feel that pump then you should be on the front leg sooner in the throw, or throw later relatively, and be off the rear foot sooner relatively too.

It feels like I'm getting on to the front foot but just not with my full weight. Watching the video I do delay the pull until I land on the front foot, but it's like I'm scared to commit all my weight to one foot. So I think it's less timing based and more me just wanting to have weight on both feet at the same time. The forward pump really fixes my backswing timing (which I also don't always fully commit to) but I'm just not getting my rear heel off the ground soon enough. I think I really just need to do the kick the can drill a lot.

 

[UhhNegative]

Tried some battering ram drill

https://photos.app.goo.gl/q47vxNsuUbqTM86w9

 

[UhhNegative]

Can you do the elephant walk thing with a hammer? Try that out and then pump with the same tempo back and forth with a parallel stance. That showed me how you have to be on the leading foot well before the object is at the bottom of the swing, then you pump through the bottom and out forward.

Once you feel that pump then you should be on the front leg sooner in the throw, or throw later relatively, and be off the rear foot sooner relatively too.

Like this?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FNBcohv8BU26Z8UB7

 

[slowplastic]

Like this?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FNBcohv8BU26Z8UB7

That's what I thought you'd be doing.

Let's define 0 degrees as hammer out horizontal, 90 at the bottom of the swing/dingle arm, and 180 out to the far side.

Right now you're letting the hammer drop with gravity, planting at like 80-90 degrees and swinging it forward.

You should be weighting the foot as early as 45 degrees, maybe even sooner. Once the lead foot is down you can feel like you can pump it from 45, through 90/bottom, and have it accelerate to 180.

Then start the sequence again back the other way with the other leg.

https://youtu.be/Y-KVWfUkQ3s?t=279

It will be slower, longer, and once you understand it you will instantly know.

 

[UhhNegative]

I see what you are saying. I will have to practice that. I actually still don't think I have that problem in my swing though when I do the pre-swing pump.

 

[slowplastic]

I see what you are saying. I will have to practice that. I actually still don't think I have that problem in my swing though when I do the pre-swing pump.

I'll try to explain how it feels for me...I think you do have this issue which is why you appear late off the rear leg and you're actually missing a ton of clearing/leverage that you don't realize should be there.

When you do the hammer dingle arm and start at 0 degrees, to the backswing side, it will feel like it arcs down toward 45 degrees when you can "catch it" with your plant leg. I don't feel like I catch myself, it's that I feel a connection from my leg through the ground all the way to the hammer. I can influence it by pumping it down with my leg through the bottom of the arc at 90, through this point, and it accelerates forward.

It will be mirrored on the backswing but I won't worry about that now.

So on the equivalent to a throwing motion, the 45 degree point that the hammer glides to is like the classic right pec/power pocket position. The disc just wants to get there like the hammer wants to swing down with gravity. You should already be on the front leg by this point and this is when you can leverage it while only on the front leg...already from this point forward.

So the leg in front is pulling/pumping the disc forward and through the arc...it doesn't just catch up when you're already in the arc.

The hammer is during the elephant walk drill, so he's walking forward and the weight is off the rear foot by this point...that's why you don't see any side to side shift of leg.

 

[slowplastic]

To relate to what you're doing in the drill, you're catching your weight as the disc is going through 90/the bottom of the arc. That would be like you catching your weight just before the hit point rather than catch->pump/sling

 

[UhhNegative]

I hear what you are saying and I'm definitely not doing it correctly in that drill... but in my swing I'm clearly coming down onto my front leg and the weight compresses into the ground before the disc or my shoulders start moving forward, so I'm not sure how it's possible. What I do think is possible and what the video shows is that I'm simply on both heels at the same time; I'm trying to swing from two legs instead of one and it wrecks my balance. I think we are in agreement though, I'm not getting fully on my front leg before the swing. I'm like 70% forward and 30% still on rear leg then halfway through the throw I'm finally 100% front leg.

 

[slowplastic]

Yeah I think we're on the same page...in your recent video your last few throws had you on the front leg before the disc came forward for sure with the back leg fully unweighted so you know how it feels.

 

[sidewinder22]

Tried some battering ram drill

https://photos.app.goo.gl/q47vxNsuUbqTM86w9

Hands are too far apart, and you can only swing under like Feldy with horizontal grip. Need something with vertical bars to grip to swing higher.

 

[sidewinder22]

Like this?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FNBcohv8BU26Z8UB7

That's what I thought you'd be doing.

Let's define 0 degrees as hammer out horizontal, 90 at the bottom of the swing/dingle arm, and 180 out to the far side.

Right now you're letting the hammer drop with gravity, planting at like 80-90 degrees and swinging it forward.

You should be weighting the foot as early as 45 degrees, maybe even sooner. Once the lead foot is down you can feel like you can pump it from 45, through 90/bottom, and have it accelerate to 180.

Then start the sequence again back the other way with the other leg.

https://youtu.be/Y-KVWfUkQ3s?t=279

It will be slower, longer, and once you understand it you will instantly know.

Yeah longer and slower. Feel the swing weight pulling your foot/feet up, instead of picking your feet up.

 

[UhhNegative]

One of my better standstills from today. My rear heel still wants to touch the ground, even on these one leg standstills where I'm keeping the weight on the front leg mostly.

I think a threw a few Rocs 300' today according to Google Maps and 280' from a standstill. Overall progress but I'm seeing a lot of disc plane issues/dipping and that pesky rear heel of course. I'm keeping the rear arm in a lot more consistently now. Video wasn't really informative or different enough to post.

Sometimes they do come out nose up but I manage to somehow correct the angle at release sometimes.

 

[slowplastic]

I'm not sure of this, but do you think it's possible you're trying to use your arm too much and too soon?

Like what I'm seeing is you keep the disc wide in the backswing, you get the torso turned to parallel with throwing line point while keeping the disc/arm wide, then the upper arm really slides forward kind of linearly. I feel like this is where you might be using the upper arm to move it forward, and then at/after this point you are throwing by swinging the arm outward.

I've always wondered why you don't get a full follow through/pulled forward, and could it be because there is too much arm use and too early rather than arm adding to body momentum?

What it's feeling like to me now that I'm finally feeling it more correctly, is upper arm feels wide/locked and I turn back to backswing. I move forward, plant catches and starts to clear. Upper arm still locked and this brings elbow/upper arm around torso as the torso gets turned forward from hip clearing. At this point it feels like my elbow/upper arm starts moving to the right from my torso being cleared/turned, and my forearm is now wanting to start swinging targetward. This is the point that I start throwing the disc, adding to the arc that has already started.

Keep in mind this is all by feel, and you only really feel changes compared to what you were used to previously.

 

[HyzerUniBomber]

Took some doing to align these at the same time! It really looks like like you're shift direction / posture is off, as your back leg is not rebounding quite right. The brace should keep that center of gravity inside your little a-frame and bounce off the front side.

 

[slowplastic]

Took some doing to align these at the same time! It really looks like like you're shift direction / posture is off, as your back leg is not rebounding quite right. The brace should keep that center of gravity inside your little a-frame and bounce off the front side.

Too behind/through back of the brace perhaps, rather than along/to the hip on the diagonal angle that the stance would naturally close to?

 

[UhhNegative]

Too behind/through back of the brace perhaps, rather than along/to the hip on the diagonal angle that the stance would naturally close to?

I think this is right. It's easier to see on the from behind videos where you see my toes come up on my rear foot and then the heel comes up and moves to the right like this:

For some reason I can't stop doing this even when I'm trying to just stay on my left toes. It's like my left heel is where my left toes should be which makes my stance not as closed? I think some of it is just ingrained in me because of how pidgeon toed that foot is. I tend to walk more on that heel because its more balanced for me. But in theory this shouldn't be a problem for my throw when I get it right.

I don't see anything weird/wrong about my follow through besides a little bit of an abrupt stop to the arm. It shouldn't really bring you forward that much right? I could certainly smooth that out when I get more comfortable.

 

[UhhNegative]

Took some doing to align these at the same time! It really looks like like you're shift direction / posture is off, as your back leg is not rebounding quite right. The brace should keep that center of gravity inside your little a-frame and bounce off the front side.

Can you explain a little more? Like which way am I shifting wrong? You mean I'm coming past the brace?