Critique my form, please.

[Dan Ensor]

Well, I finally took my crappy web-cam out to the field. Stretched my extension cord as far as I could, which ended up being on gravel. Sorry for the video quality; bad cam, I don't know how to edit, and I can't force myself to shift my weight properly on gravel. The camera kinda freaks me out, but at about the 9:00 mark, I start throwing some decent shots. Any advice is much appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByFxSauRNJc&feature=youtu.be

Some standstills (towards the beginning), some drives, 2 rollers, 2 thumbers (late), and a sidearm(last).

 

[Dan Ensor]

I cut out the first 9 minutes of the video where I wasn't throwing so well. Also, I have 2 other videos from a side view, if that's better, but I thought this angle was better.

 

[sidewinder22]

Your reach back and pull through are not keeping a straight line, so you got some rounding or arcing going on. It looks like you pull the disc in toward the body funky and early which gets your elbow out off line and shoulders open early. Your hyzer shots all have the front shoulder down and slight lean back so you have some plane alignment and balance issues. The steps after the followthrough show you aren't properly using the hips and balanced. Try squatting a little more over the disc and turning the hips back more and reach back more toward the left side of the tee pad to keep more width of the upper arm and chest and a straighter pull line. Your standstill shows you pushing the rear side too early before the front heel has planted, and you aren't keeping your weight on the inside part of the foot/leg for proper weight transfer and pivot.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Thanks. Very helpful. 'Pushing the hips', I don't quite understand what that means.

 

[sidewinder22]

You are rotating hips before your weight transfers...

 

[Dan Ensor]

Is the weight shift the same in disc golf? Should my hips be moving forward to initiate it? (I'm not sure if "forward" is the right word, but I used to ball golf, and that sort of hip movement felt far more natural with a ball golf swing than it does in my disc golf swing.)

I worked on getting a straighter pull today. As a by-product, my stance became more closed; something I'd been trying to incorporate for a while now, but hasn't clicked until today. So thanks for that. I'm having some nose angle issues, but my release point was more consistent today. I'll probably post another video later this week.

 

[Dan Ensor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9dQFloNXm8

I'm hoping I have a straighter pull here.

 

[WW82]

Look at the difference in your drives on the ones that get released high versus driving through low and hard. You are very much on target and your balance looks really good on the low shots.

I can't really tell if you are trying to throw different heights or if you are simply inconsistent with holding your form to keep the disc at the height you want. On the higher shots you are obviously off balance and it shows that you are either uncomfortable throwing the high line or the balance issue is causing the height inconsistency.

Look at 1:04 for example of good on balance low hard drive and 3:11 for the off balance high shot.

Your pull through looks pretty good here though.

 

[sidewinder22]

Principles of leverage are the same. Your spine is never braced on your front side, so you can't generate torque from the ground up and really catapult power from the hips. You still need to close your stance so you are not shifting your weight from in front of you, but transferring it from behind you while bracing the spine. You end up in a backward position like feldy points out, and your max reach back you are in quite a different position than feldy displays. Transferring your weight from behind you will also make a lower reach back more natural keeping your spine aligned to help fix your high reach back swooping pull which results in a nose up air bounce.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Balance issues are causing the high release. Bad timing. It's a fairly substantial change from just a few days ago, so it's still pretty rough. Haven't really landed on one particular run-up.

 

[Omega SuperSloth]

take out that first step on the left foot and just start from the next step

 

[Dan Ensor]

I wasn't really focused on that today. I thought getting my pull straight would be the easiest thing to work on, so I did that first. I think a couple of times today I shifted my weight a little better, but I wasn't really expecting it, and my release angle ended up being low.

 

[Dan Ensor]

That's going to be the focus of my next few field practices. Do you have any drills etc. I should work?

 

[Omega SuperSloth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9dQFloNXm8

I'm hoping I have a straighter pull here.

at 50 seconds you do a 3 step x-step but it looks like the rest of the time its 4 steps

 

[sidewinder22]

 

[Omega SuperSloth]

no joke ,work on hitting the ground by throwing too low , if you never hit the ground by accident your not throwing low enough, imo

or throw from a hill

 

[WW82]

The standing drill to get consistency in your balance is where I would start.

Start with your back towards the target and your feet planted in a comfortable position that you can turn and send a balanced shot towards the target. Repeat twenty or thirty times till you can really feel the balance in your body. Then try your standard run-up and hopefully you will feel the same good balance at the end of the shot. If after 10 shots you don't feel the better balance try starting over at the standing and then adding to your runup every 10 throws by adding one step at a time. Hopefully you will start to feel the better balance this time.

Honestly you will know if you are on balance simply by the flight path of your disc. Low means good, high means off balance...

 

[foo_g]

Pause the video on each of your reach backs.
To me, it seems like you are too low most of the time, which probably affects your balance and weight shift.
That may or may not be the case -- I don't know.
The one thing I am seeing, however, is that there is a variation in the starting height of your pull from throw to throw.
That's bound to cause some inconsistencies.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Pause the video on each of your reach backs.
To me, it seems like you are too low most of the time, which probably affects your balance and weight shift.
That may or may not be the case -- I don't know.
The one thing I am seeing, however, is that there is a variation in the starting height of your pull from throw to throw.
That's bound to cause some inconsistencies.

I do start too low. I think that's what SW was talking about it "different position than feldy displays". The height of my pull changes from disc to disc, and is also somewhat inconsistent. One of the things that I'll be working on. Thanks for the input!

 

[Omega SuperSloth]

how often do you burn worms?