Building Distance

[gcoghill]

I have been struggling with building distance this year myself. I seem to have topped out around 225 based on a basket I know I can reach in one drive - and I don't always get that far either. Up to this point in time I was working on my putting - which is very solid now - and my approaches, which are getting better but nowhere near the consistency I would like.

Getting a new driver helped out some, but the other day I randomly met with some guys who were just picking up the sport and they were throwing sidearm drives at least 275 feet - with S-curves! Just when I thought I was improving, I realized I needed more work by seeing these guys throwing drives that far, and just starting out.

 

[kvanorsdel]

When I hit a wall with my distance I started playing rounds only using my putter. I played for nearly a month at least 9 holes a day throwing only a putter and it increased my distance immensely.

 

[edge3281]

I agree with the power grip.... I just found that the other day went to the course today, practiced it and ended up with a personal best on the course. I found out that you can only use it on your long shots. Anyone have any suggestions or sites for a better grip on longer mid-range shots???

This might help you out some. It talks about different grips and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Also has a picture of them them.

http://www.innovadiscs.com/tips/davesgripsmain.html

 

[edge3281]

Tried to edit my last post but it was outside the 5 min window... anyway here is what I was wanting to add.

This is only my second summer playing disc golf. I was stuck in the 250 range when I started this summer. I have used some of the pointers in the link below to help increase my distance. I would guess I am in the 280 to 300 range most of the time. I think my farthest drive on a flat surface is around 325. Just yesterday I had one at 390 but that was throwing down hill .

http://www.kenclimo.com/howto_drive.htm

Just a sidenote I normally throw a 167 gram Champion Beast and occasionally a 164 Star Sidewinder.

 

[tomjulio]

When I hit a wall with my distance I started playing rounds only using my putter. I played for nearly a month at least 9 holes a day throwing only a putter and it increased my distance immensely.

This is great advice! Played the other day with a pro and that's all he was using. He said he comes out to the course with just his putter and learns how to throw that one disc every way possible. His drives were crushing mine! So I shut up and watched and learn. He also said that basically when you get the right technique down that your mids and putter really aren't that far away distance wise to your driver. 20 to fifty feet maybe. Watching him I believe it.

Today played about 60% of my drives with my putter, slowly things down and was easily hitting 230-250 with it, and straight as an arrow. surprised the hell out of me.

 

[Midnightbiker]

That is great information. My nephew is learning how to play and I want him to read this.

 

[gcoghill]

Today I tried out the Power Grip mentioned in the Ken Climo video clip mentioned earlier in this thread. My accuracy isn't there yet, but I can feel a lot more snap off the throw already. Even with minimal power (so as not to lose too much control) I was hitting similar distances with my old throw.

The other thing I noticed is that the Power Grip was forcing me to throw more similar to how the pros recommend - it's like a combo thing that just makes sense together. I had to modify my arm & body movements to get the right snap on the Power Grip. Very interesting.

I think I may make my next outing just a distance drive day and practice the Power Grip in an open field for an hour or so.

 

[Donovan]

gcoghil,

First off I love your posting of your journey, I think it will help many of us.

When trying this in the field start off with perfecting the form with medium distance throws. Let the distance come to you on its own. Each throw after so many will start to get longer and you will start throwing harder. But allow the form to guide you, so the accuracy still has its place with your distance right now.

Sorry for spelling and grammar, this came from my blackberry.

 

[Aaron D'Angelo]

Wow, I'm just starting to comfortably throwing like 230-240, probably shorter. 300' is still a bit beyond me. I started throwing really hard and nothing but really high hyzers heh. Maybe 130-150'.

For new people starting (about 2 months now) how fast does distance seem to gain on throws? I've corrected my approach steps, I seemed to dip my left knee just before my throw causing high shots. I now x step but step in front rather than behind as it feels more comfortable. Is this bad? I'm coming much more straight across my body and getting my torso more into it, though my snap could proabably be improved...

Those videos posted earlier I think are a great help, just have to go and try them out now.

 

[garublador]

I now x step but step in front rather than behind as it feels more comfortable. Is this bad?

It defeats many of the purposes of using an x-step by doing it that way. It might still help you get your weight over your front foot, but ideally you won't need an x-step for that anyway. It will not get your hips into position to maximize (in fact, it will probably minimize) the power you can generate from the lower half of your body.

 

[High Flyer]

I like the idea of using your midrange and putters on drives. I don't get as much distance with my back hand, so I've been using my 180g Roc on half my back hand throws. Seems to have given me an extra 20 to 50 feet when I go back to back hand drives with my Sidewinder.

 

[gcoghill]

gcoghil,

First off I love your posting of your journey, I think it will help many of us.

When trying this in the field start off with perfecting the form with medium distance throws. Let the distance come to you on its own. Each throw after so many will start to get longer and you will start throwing harder. But allow the form to guide you, so the accuracy still has its place with your distance right now.

Yeah I can feel myself trying to overpower the throws instead of going for control. Need to work on that.

It's also interesting that lately I have been meeting more people on the course, and almost all of them have been throwing with pretty good distance. Part of me gets frustrated — especially when they are players out there their first year — but also it's making me realize that my technique is not correct.

I met a guy yesterday that said my "standard" grip (which I use on drives) is actually a mid-range grip. This guy was getting monster distance, and he recommended the power grip.

I wonder sometimes if some people new to the sport either learned to throw a Frisbee/disc differently than I did growing up, or perhaps not at all, and as a result they are coming to it without any preconceived throwing style. I've played "catch" Frisbee all my life — and it's what got me into disc golf — and lately I am thinking I may have brought a technique into my drives that negatively affects my drive distances.

The first step is definitely control, since my drives with the power grip have a 50% tendency to go wildly off-course. I need a day in a field where I just throw, and get that down and under control.

 

[ERicJ]

...I met a guy yesterday that said my "standard" grip (which I use on drives) is actually a mid-range grip. This guy was getting monster distance, and he recommended the power grip.

I wonder sometimes if some people new to the sport either learned to throw a Frisbee/disc differently than I did growing up, or perhaps not at all, and as a result they are coming to it without any preconceived throwing style. I've played "catch" Frisbee all my life — and it's what got me into disc golf — and lately I am thinking I may have brought a technique into my drives that negatively affects my drive distances.

The first step is definitely control, since my drives with the power grip have a 50% tendency to go wildly off-course. I need a day in a field where I just throw, and get that down and under control.

Yep. I started playing DG with a "fan grip". Then someone who knew what they were doing showed me a "power grip"... and I read the instructional articles over at discgolfreview.com and I made the change for my drives. And my game suffered for a couple weeks while I got used to the new grip. (I actually settled on a three-finger power grip, I don't use my pinky finger.) But after that I definitely got more distance with the improved technique.

I still use a "fan grip" on my putting and mid-range shots. I may eventually switch the mid-range over to a power grip, but for now it's working alright with the fan grip.

ERic

 

[gcoghill]

Cool Eric, thanks for the inspiration. FYI, the guy I met also used the 3-finger power grip.

 

[gcoghill]

OK, wow. The Power Grip. Amazing.

I just got back from 3 hours out on a big open field on the local college campus this afternoon with the sole goal of practicing Power Grip throws. It took about an hour to finally start getting the feel of the right grip — turns out for me the three-finger power grip ended up being what felt most natural.

After the initial hour, I could start getting a sense of the trow and a bit more control over it. I walked out a few of the longer ones and was amazed to find I was averaging 275' to 300' throws! Even had a 320'! And I was coming from a Fan Grip/mid-range throw where I was lucky to hit over 200–225'. For the record, I was just pacing out the throws, estimating a 3–foot pace — which is fairly accurate.

My control was spotty, but pretty good considering it was the first time for a real workout with the Power Grip. I would say I had a 65% consistent throw. Some just went wild, others I didn't get a clean snap so they hard-arched to the left the whole flight. But when I got a good clean throw, man did those things sail!

I narrowed down my drivers from 5 to 2 discs as I progressed and got a feel for the disc that felt right for me; I was throwing all Discraft: Cyclone, XL, XL 150, and 2 Xpress discs. The Cyclone went out forst, then the XLs (I think the small diameter of the discs was not a god fit for my hand). Ended up with both Xpress discs as the ones I was hitting the sweet spot with consistently.

I was totally stoked heading back home — if my arm wasn't so tired, I would have gone out and played a round. Probably best that I didn't. I still think I should go throw another afternoon of Power Grip practice throws before heading back to the course, since my consistency is so spotty right now — don't want to lose/chase discs!

 

[ERicJ]

Good to hear! My experience was similar. The increase in distance came pretty quickly after adopting the power grip. The control is what took me a while to get used to. If you're like me, you'll be shanking some pretty ugly looking drives for a couple weeks until you really get used to the grip.

ERic

 

[Olorin]

Grip

From Distance Secrets by Dave Dunipace:

Grip

Many people have wondered if there is one "best" grip to use. I know of at least five different grips that have been used for distance and golf championships including the power grip, fan grip, fork grip, flip the bird grip, and bonopane. What this means is that no one grip is "the" right one, so the specific grip doesn't matter. What is important is that your grip should match your finger and thumb strength.

If you do use the power grip, there is a best way to do it, though. For the fingers to be lined up correctly, the first knuckle of the index finger should be closer in line to the second knuckle of the middle finger than to the first knuckle, and so on down to the pinkie. This way the finger pads all line up with the crease in the palm. There should also be some space between the index and middle finger. Then by holding the wrist down, the disc can be in line with the forearm.

With the power grip the index finger is usually the finger that the disc rips off from. The ring finger is usually a "lock" rather than "rip" finger. The ring finger pad is the first to pop off the rim with a power grip and other grips too. If you put your ring finger on the lower part of the rim it will be easier for it to slide off and let the index rip.

Note, too, that the distance of every shot necessitates a different grip strength from short shot to long. A high degree of precision is possible if you concentrate on the hit. When you are on your game you can put the disc right on the beam at any speed or distance. Just like magic but real.

Thumb Position

The thumb position is an important part of every grip, but it is a tricky thing to explain. First realize that just as there is no "best" grip, there is also no "best" place to put your thumb. However, each grip does have a better way to do it depending on your hand size and strength. Here are the points to look for: 1) good feel for the position of the disc in your hand as far as being nose up or down, hyzer or anhyzer, 2) good lock and release to the pivot point that allows for a clean linear release and pivot to the rip point, and 3) a strong rip point with good feel. The thumb is almost always on the flight plate from close to the rim to more central.

You must realize, too, that your thumb can grip and oppose in more than one place. The various positions are the thumb pad, the first joint, the second joint, and the base. These are in order of the weakest to strongest points. As an added complication, the pressure from the base of the thumb can be translated along the rim such that it is not directly opposed but is none the less effective. Try to become aware of where the pressures are coming from, and what you are trying to accomplish with your grip, and you may find a more efficient and/or powerful grip. At the very least you may be able to focus pressure in your current grip more effectively. It should be emphasized that the grip pressure is light until the disc pivots, then the pressure becomes strong between the thumb and rip point.

 

[Olorin]

NOTE: I still only average about 290 with occasional bursts of 300-320.

One of the most helpful thing I got out Dave Dunipace's Distance Secrets was based on this statement in V. The Hit (Snap) " [FONT=&quot]you need to feel of the weight (inertial shift) as the disc is ripping out of your grip." [/FONT]I found that gripping the disc very tightly on my drive, at the hit, forces it to rip out of my hand and this adds distance.

 

[Jungle Tim]

Distance Measurment Google Earth

Everyone watching was calling out his drives as being 450' -500', some were even saying 550'. I was skeptical and went back the next day with a laser range finder and his drives were more like 375'-425'.

An easier and quicker way to do this is to use the ruler on Google Earth, once you have located your course/field, work out what the landmarks are and measure away. Accurate to around 6ft (measuring know building distances)

That way you can gauge your D from the comfort of home.... then you can type in that you genuinely average 800ft drives

 

[gcoghill]

I finally got a chance to go back out after my day last week of practicing the Power Grip (arm muscles were too sore to play until this rain-filled weekend).

The Good: I still had "the feel" of how to do the throw. 3 hours that day of practice must have helped with the muscle memory. My aim/control still needs work, but it wasn't too bad. I could feel that "snap" off the index finger and got some nice drives. I didn't overpower anything as I didn't want to wear out my arm like last time.

The Bad: On the back nine — where the more open holes are in my local course — I ran into some guys starting the back nine. It was late and they suggested playing together to beat the dark. These guys turned out the be living incarnations of Silent Bob & Jay from the Kevin Smith movies! Although they both talked all the time... One dude kept losing his discs, and frustratingly the other guy had some monster drives, although they were all over the place and he couldn't putt for crap. He did show me the new performance air filter he installed on his Corolla though!

Anyways, the whole flow of the game was ruined while these guys looked for discs, talked my ear off and drank beers. Nice enough guys, but I was not there to socialize/party. I did get a few good drives in with the Power Grip, and really I just wanted to get back out and test the Power Grip in an actual round instead of in an open field.

Overall I was pretty happy with the results and can't wait to get back out for a solo round to put the new throw to a real test round.