My drives suck. What's one thing you would tell a new player to gain distance

[armiller]

One thing: swing plane.

If you've played catch with frisbees, it's really easy to throw 100' shots without having a real "swing plane." You can easily throw a catch disc with just some good wrist action and minimal effective arm motion.

With disc golf, that doesn't work. Work on some standstill shots, using the foot placement mentioned in the past few posts. Make sure that your upper body is really rotating in your lower body. That means a reach back and then following through so that your chest is facing the target after you throw. Get that swing motion down, and then it ought to be easy to work on other aspects of your throw.

[mjoyce]

Originally Posted by DiscologyGus

Play 1 disc rounds with your Judge until you can throw it like 200'-250'. Then add in your buzzz until you can throw like 300' then, and only then, start throwing that river. trust me, I just started throwing back hand this year too and this is what you NEED to do to improve your accuracy, form, and distance. Do a stand still drive, work on smooth release. Try not to think too much about mechanics yet.

This will probably help you the most. Another thing to note is that Rivers are very nose angle sensitive. So if you're throwing them nose up at all you're going to lose a lot of forward distance while the disc travels vertically.

Once you get them dialed in they're sneaky long for their speed but the nose angle sensitivity is what took the river out of my bag.

[eric40817]

"put down the damn Boss. You think you have too much snap? Thats not your disc snapping from your fingers, that your back snapping"

[Skins]

Slow down the run up or x step to make sure you're in the correct position before cracking the whip.

On cracking the whip.....wait for the hit, hold the cocked position/angle as long as you can coming across the chest area.

I've found the water bottle drill to be great for this.

[Sopuli]

Originally Posted by Central Scrutinizer

I used to suck at RHBHs for years and years. Then I learned one simple thing that made it click for me. It's a loose grip on the Disc until right before letting go, then grip the hell out of it at that last instant.

I'd like to ask a little bit more about this from other folks, is this something that everybody throwing over, say 400ft does? And I mean really gripping it on the last instant? For me it feels so hard to time and counter-intuitive, tried this a while back with no success, but will have another go at it. I've been stuck at 350-380ft for a longer while.

[mark996]

The thought is the looser can you be during the x step the better you'll be able to be more "rubber band-like" during the throw. If your grip is tense, your forearms are tense, which means your tri's and traps are tense, then your chest, etc. The biggest thing for me was slow the f*** down and focus on winding up the power in the reachback, making sure I timed the reachback with my last step, then uncork the power. Paige Pierce is a great example of this, as well as Paige Bjerkus. Their walkups are slow and steady then after the reachback going in to the last step they have a controlled explosion of power. Dreg Gibson is also a good example. One issue I see though with people with a soft grip is not getting around the disc on the outside and not getting in to the power pocket. Keep the grip as close to how it is when you grip hard, and typically it's instinctive during the throw for me, I don't consciously think "squeeze RIGHT now".

[DiscJunkie]

Originally Posted by SnackeyG

Besides X-Step, I'll work on this later, and watch such and such video. I've been playing about a month and I'm getting tired of having to play as drive, drive, approach, putt. I'm usually always 1 over thanks to my short distances.

And by suck I mean I like 100 feet not counting downhill. Uphill is even worse. Or am I just expecting progress way too quick?

Yes, you are expecting progress way too quickly.
Take lessons from a Pro, if available.
If not, take video of yourself and try to improve on some part of your throw.
Watch it, try again, film again.
Rinse, repeat.
Send a video into the Form Analysis Critique forum.
Do what they say.
Rinse, repeat.

[mike3216]

Originally Posted by SnackeyG

Besides X-Step, I'll work on this later, and watch such and such video. I've been playing about a month and I'm getting tired of having to play as drive, drive, approach, putt. I'm usually always 1 over thanks to my short distances.

And by suck I mean I like 100 feet not counting downhill. Uphill is even worse. Or am I just expecting progress way too quick?

The big (recent) gain for me was realizing that reachback does not equal shoulder/hips turn. I realized that when I was watching Paul Macbeth's drive on Youtube. Once I committed to turning hips and shoulders, everything got easier. Hips and shoulders do not have to turn quickly. Visualize a baseball pitcher's windup. Slow start loading up, uncoiling at the end explosively and allowing the arm to be pulled through.

[Dan Ensor]

Originally Posted by Sopuli

I'd like to ask a little bit more about this from other folks, is this something that everybody throwing over, say 400ft does? And I mean really gripping it on the last instant? For me it feels so hard to time and counter-intuitive, tried this a while back with no success, but will have another go at it. I've been stuck at 350-380ft for a longer while.

Yes.

Try not actively timing it. A lot of times people will naturally grip at the right time if they aren't too tight early on.

[tu-f-o]

i would throw a disc that you can semi easily flip over. then learn how to not flip it completely over and throw it pretty far.