<300' and Feeling Lost

[Jobenis]

Howdy,

I've been playing for about 3 months now and stuck in my progression. Putters and mids both hit about 200-225' (max 250 for mids) and drivers usually hit about 250' and max out at about 275'. I used to throw from a standstill and anything above speed 5 would immediately hyzer out, so I found that adding an x-step helped me align with my target and get my arm moving faster. Now, I can get nice flights out of my drivers, however I can't get them to break 275.

I try watching technique videos from SW22 but don't know which ones to focus on and implement, I'm starting to feel lost and am considering trying to just restart from the ground up since I haven't been playing a long time and don't have a super developed throw anyways.

Any advice to point me in the right direction would be appreciated!

First throw is a DX Roc, second is an Infinite Exodus, these produced the best throws I can expect out of myself. Mids and putters I throw slowly and (in my mind) smoothly. Drivers I try to step it up a bit to hit the speed number and produce proper flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMerAwnCMmY&ab_channel=JoeCroson

 

[clean-slate]

Door frame

Seabas' door frame drill simulates the feeling of the first part of the throw so it probably makes sense to start with that one and really try to figure out how to leverage your balance/stretch your lats. I'm currently working on that drill as I'm in a similar boat to you as a beginner.



https://youtu.be/mvGudQYfjD8

 

[Pinchofsalt]

If I learned anything from trying to figure out my form on my own, reading up on this forum and countless of hours of youtube binging it is that you need to focus on one detail at a time.

Here's 3 of the most obvious things I see to work on:

I would start with the feet
While my stepsequenze differs from yours (first step is straight with the left foot, 2nd is angled then x-step ...) I sort of like the angles produces up the the plant which is way to open, toes pointing towards the target.

Then you have the timing of the rest of the body in the runup. your full reachback/top of your swing happens in your first step. and then unloads before your plantfoot/brace/weighttransfer happens. This will take a bit longer but try keep targetward
for longer and find where to "leave the disc" in your walk. This will be a longer process but with great benefits to reap at the end.

Last one is a real distance killer and its about you hugging yourself. if you pause at 0:10 give or take a frame you will see that the angle between you upper arm and your shoulders has collapsed. Start in full backswing (reachback) no disc needed and turn your body into a netrual position 90 degrees from the target (where you would like to hit the powerpocket). Do this once with you hugging your self and one maintaining >90 degree angle upperarm/shoulders and see how big of a difference there is in the distance your disc has travelled from the same movement and effort.

English is clearly not my first language, feel free to ask for clarification if needed.

 

[NotActuallyChris]

Don't restart from the ground up. You are in a great place to begin making incremental changes. It takes time and a lot of practice and patience but if you are persistent you will slowly get there.

The thing that stands out to me is that you are opening before your plant. You want to go into your plant in a more closed position, using your weight shift into the plant foot to drive your hips from closed to open from the ground up. See attached images of you immediately before and at plant -- note the position of your hips, your front foot, and your left shoulder. Compare to the screenshot of the pros the moment they plant -- hip is closed, left shoulder is still back, lead foot is still ~facing camera. Don't focus too much on those particular features, just use them as a guide to understand what it feels like to plant in a more closed stance. I might start by planting with your front foot a little closer to the camera -- try filming yourself from behind and watching films of pros from behind to see what I mean.

 

[Flyzerhip]

I have been trying to learn a better backhand for a few years now and have started over from the ground up several times during this period. For me development has not been linear. Like you describe, I will sometimes reach a point when things do not progress but rather go backwards and just feel confusing. This will typically happen after a period of throwing fairly well and starting to take things for granted. Each time I start over and relearn the basics I pick up something new. I think this video is a great reset button. It also contains advice to "swing with both arms" that I think you could try to implement in your technique anyway. And another great piece of advice if starting over: "It's perfectly fine that it won't fly anywhere at first"

https://youtu.be/UeyywknqHq8

English subtitles are available.

Best of luck!

 

[sidewinder22]

Agree with all the above.

Your left arm/leg appear to be decent.

Your right arm/leg need work, so that you can hug the disc creating a power pocket with the elbow bent forward, instead of elbow straight and hugging yourself. Note how your body is turning open before you plant front foot, need to be turning further back away into the plant. It will feel weird at first to turn almost backwards.

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119328

 

[Jobenis]

Thank you so much for the replies, I can see what you are all pointing out. I especially see how open I am before I even plant my feet, even though when throwing it feels like I'm coiled up. This gives me some good stuff to work on moving forward.

Thanks again all!

 

[Jobenis]

Update for anyone who cares: Just 30 minutes of field work with focusing on turning my back to my target and staying closed until planted, and I hit a little over 300' with my halo valkyrie I also find some discs I now need to hyzer flip instead of just throwing flat, otherwise they turn over, maybe due to new arm speed? Not sure, either way, I am very happy with these results.

 

[clean-slate]

Update for anyone who cares: Just 30 minutes of field work with focusing on turning my back to my target and staying closed until planted, and I hit a little over 300' with my halo valkyrie I also find some discs I now need to hyzer flip instead of just throwing flat, otherwise they turn over, maybe due to new arm speed? Not sure, either way, I am very happy with these results.

Nice! But I would be wary of jumping too quick into faster discs/hyzer flipping just yet.

Every beginner (including myself when I first began) thinks that they aren't getting enough distance on flippy drivers because their arms are too fast for them, but 95% of the time the disc is flipping over too soon due to off-axis torque from throwing mechanics that need to worked out. I guarantee that discs flipping over for you at 300' is due to the same issue.


Simon and Eagle have thrown normal putters over 400' and if anyone has the arm speed to turn over a non torque resistant putter, it's those guys.

 

[Jobenis]

Nice! But I would be wary of jumping too quick into faster discs/hyzer flipping just yet.

Every beginner (including myself when I first began) thinks that they aren't getting enough distance on flippy drivers because their arms are too fast for them, but 95% of the time the disc is flipping over too soon due to off-axis torque from throwing mechanics that need to worked out. I guarantee that discs flipping over for you at 300' is due to the same issue.


Simon and Eagle have thrown normal putters over 400' and if anyone has the arm speed to turn over a non torque resistant putter, it's those guys.

Okay that makes sense, thank you