Lewis
* Ace Member *
I posted a video of me driving to get advice from the DGCR community. Some of the replies were unreasonably harsh (DGR-style, if you know what I mean), but after I swallowed the instinct to be offended, I took another look at the Beto videos that I had been aware of for months if not years, and decided to try them out in practice. After a couple of short practice sessions in an open field, I started feeling the explosion out of the hand that is typically described as "the hit," but could only produce it with my putters. The main things the pec drill did for me is help me gain awareness of the plane of my pull across my body, improve the timing between my shoulder and my elbow, and explore a deeper reach back. The practice, albeit a rather short-lived effort in my case, helped me improve my driving accuracy, and while it didn't improve my driving distance one bit (apparently I'm living proof that you can "strong-arm" a disc up to at least 350', which I did in the video for which people tried to tear me a new one), it did help me achieve roughly the same max distance with a good deal less strain and effort.
But the pec drill is only one of many ideas and lessons that have helped my game and my driving form. An important concept that the pec drill did not teach me, though it may have been intended to, is how the pull and rotation of a drive should start down in your legs, flow up through your hips and back, and your shoulders should follow all the lower parts of the body. I had to glean that from bits and pieces of conversations on these forums, and with that understanding was better able to conceptualize what "strong arming" is. I had been given the impression that "strong arming" simply describes a throw where power is almost solely generated from a swinging arm; in my case, the term was applicable not because my hips and back weren't active, but because they were following behind my shoulders rather than leading and then pulling on them. In other words, strong-arming does not seem to be an all-or-nothing matter of doing everything wrong -- though you will get that impression from some people in the Technique forums -- but it seems to describe a varying degree of leading with your shoulders and arm rather than letting the shoulders and arm follow your hips and back.
After a few pec drill sessions, I posted a follow-up of my driving form, and actually got some praise for going through the task of "totally rebuilding" my driving form. It didn't honestly feel like I had changed my form much at all between the "before" and "after" videos, but apparently I had changed enough small things that the harsh criticism turned to relative praise and encouragement.
So for me, Beto's pec drill video has been decidedly useful, but has definitely not been enough for me to rely on as a primary practice tool.
But the pec drill is only one of many ideas and lessons that have helped my game and my driving form. An important concept that the pec drill did not teach me, though it may have been intended to, is how the pull and rotation of a drive should start down in your legs, flow up through your hips and back, and your shoulders should follow all the lower parts of the body. I had to glean that from bits and pieces of conversations on these forums, and with that understanding was better able to conceptualize what "strong arming" is. I had been given the impression that "strong arming" simply describes a throw where power is almost solely generated from a swinging arm; in my case, the term was applicable not because my hips and back weren't active, but because they were following behind my shoulders rather than leading and then pulling on them. In other words, strong-arming does not seem to be an all-or-nothing matter of doing everything wrong -- though you will get that impression from some people in the Technique forums -- but it seems to describe a varying degree of leading with your shoulders and arm rather than letting the shoulders and arm follow your hips and back.
After a few pec drill sessions, I posted a follow-up of my driving form, and actually got some praise for going through the task of "totally rebuilding" my driving form. It didn't honestly feel like I had changed my form much at all between the "before" and "after" videos, but apparently I had changed enough small things that the harsh criticism turned to relative praise and encouragement.
So for me, Beto's pec drill video has been decidedly useful, but has definitely not been enough for me to rely on as a primary practice tool.
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