Give an inch, get an extra 50 feet!

[bradharris]

I changed my grip for my backhand yesterday. I shifted the disc about an inch in my hand and threw farther than ever before. I got easily 50 feet added on.

Here's the backstory. I throw forehand. It felt more natural when I first learned to play. I taught myself the game and always thought forehand was the way to go. It felt like a much more powerful and controlled shot.

Last year I started playing tournaments and saw some crazy backhand rips. So I've been working on it for two years now. I never knew the fundamentals, just tried things with very little success. I've made some tweaks and saw some improvements, but I still couldn't get past 250' consistently. I topped out around 275' on a really good rip.

I've read many of the technique threads here and read a lot online and tried this new adjustment last night. I saw immediate results. When I threw my beat pro wraith on hyzer flip that cleared the entire soccer field - topping out around 335' according to google earth - I was ecstatic.

The reason for the success was immediately clear. My old grip had the rim tucked in the soft skin between my thumb and index finger. There wasn't a lot of tension on this grip and the orientation in my hand actually meant the nose was pointed slightly upward on release (OAT city). So I rotated it slightly, basically pinning it against the pad at the base of my index finger.

The new grip provided three huge benefits:

1. There was much more tension in this grip. Just holding the disc, it feels like it wants to just pop off my hand. This creates more snap and spin on release.

2. The nose angle is much better on release. Now the disc is lined up much better with the angle of release. Instead of going high and hyzering out, the disc stayed level with the ground.

3. This new grip made it much more natural to wrap my wrist around the disc. This added significantly more rotation then the old grip did.

It's amazing how a small tweak in your grip can have huge benefits!

[ProFiction]

That is great to hear! I'm not sure you won't get even more advice on grip now that you've shared what your new one is like.

I'm changing my grip at the moment as well. Like, figured out I wanted to change it while sitting around the house holding my discs and haven't had a chance to throw yet. Same reason as you though. When I do the standard power grip, my thumb and pointer do not pinch the flight plate because either my thumb is too long or my pointer is too short. So now I'm bending my thumb at the knuckle to force a pinch and it feels soooo good in my hand, I can't wait to throw. Might suck but we'll see Hopefully I add 50' like you did! Congrats

[Mr. America]

How in the world were you gripping that allowed you to shift it an inch in your hand?

[bradharris]

Originally Posted by Mr. America

How in the world were you gripping that allowed you to shift it an inch in your hand?

I'm approximating, may not be a full inch. Essentially I had the rim tucked against the base of my thumb before and moved it to the base of my index finger, almost between index and middle.

[garublador]

Yeah, that grip can help a lot. Here's a thread about it on DGR from a few years ago:

http://www.discgolfreview.com/forums...php?f=2&t=6148

[Ryan P.]

Originally Posted by bradharris

I changed my grip for my backhand yesterday. I shifted the disc about an inch in my hand and threw farther than ever before. I got easily 50 feet added on.

Here's the backstory. I throw forehand. It felt more natural when I first learned to play. I taught myself the game and always thought forehand was the way to go. It felt like a much more powerful and controlled shot.

Last year I started playing tournaments and saw some crazy backhand rips. So I've been working on it for two years now. I never knew the fundamentals, just tried things with very little success. I've made some tweaks and saw some improvements, but I still couldn't get past 250' consistently. I topped out around 275' on a really good rip.

I've read many of the technique threads here and read a lot online and tried this new adjustment last night. I saw immediate results. When I threw my beat pro wraith on hyzer flip that cleared the entire soccer field - topping out around 335' according to google earth - I was ecstatic.

The reason for the success was immediately clear. My old grip had the rim tucked in the soft skin between my thumb and index finger. There wasn't a lot of tension on this grip and the orientation in my hand actually meant the nose was pointed slightly upward on release (OAT city). So I rotated it slightly, basically pinning it against the pad at the base of my index finger.

The new grip provided three huge benefits:

1. There was much more tension in this grip. Just holding the disc, it feels like it wants to just pop off my hand. This creates more snap and spin on release.

2. The nose angle is much better on release. Now the disc is lined up much better with the angle of release. Instead of going high and hyzering out, the disc stayed level with the ground.

3. This new grip made it much more natural to wrap my wrist around the disc. This added significantly more rotation then the old grip did.

It's amazing how a small tweak in your grip can have huge benefits!

Pics or it didn't happen.

[bradharris]

Originally Posted by Ryan P.

Pics or it didn't happen.

I'll try to get some pics tonight.

[Ryan P.]

the pics on DGR are great, but I want to see the OP's pics as well.


Thanks. I'll be at work then, but I'll check 'em out tomorrow.

[Mr. America]

Originally Posted by bradharris

I'm approximating, may not be a full inch. Essentially I had the rim tucked against the base of my thumb before and moved it to the base of my index finger, almost between index and middle.

Originally Posted by garublador

Yeah, that grip can help a lot. Here's a thread about it on DGR from a few years ago:

http://www.discgolfreview.com/forums...php?f=2&t=6148

I see what you are saying now. I've been trying to do things that way for a while. However, I've recently noticed that I was getting a bit lazy with it, or letting the disc slip back down the base of my thumb when I grip the rest of the rim.

[maskedavenger]

is this what you are talking about? http://www.discgolfreview.com/resour...ttoripit.shtml (the first trio of pictures)

if so, I made the same discovery early this spring. it makes perfect sense, no wonder i had so much noseup before. this combined with "wrist down" should suffice in disc alignment to make it go straight.

seemed like I had paid all too much attention to the way my fingers were gripping the disc that I didn't even come to think about the palm side of things.