Discing down

[mmilam90]

I've been playing for a few years and have heard this term thrown around occasionally. I think it's time I tried my hand at it. My home course is fairly long, but the first hole is a wide open straight 285 feet. My goal this summer has been to successfully drive with only a mid or putter. I've been able to do that a handful of times this month and want to try discing down my whole game.

My bag does have a handful of high speed drivers that only work out for me on a good day. Luckily I have been on a fairway driver spree and have a handful of teebirds, escapes, saint pros, eagles a rival and an apache. My go to mid is a lucid truth and driving/approach putter is a fuzion judge.

Could I start my discing down attempts with the following?

Teebird
Saint pro
Escape (beat in bio fuzion and newer lucid)
Rival
Apache
Truth
Judge (fuzion for driving and classic to putt with)

 

[Stardoggy]

If you're actually discing down, I'd even dump the Escape.

Seems to be some overlap in the Teebird/Rival/Saint Pro area. No clue about the Apache.

 

[scotnt73]

The most important part of discing down when I did it was learning to throw mids and putters and only throwing speed 7-9 drivers on wide open driver holes. Once it finally clicked what a mid was for and I could throw 250 foot+ beautiful midrange/putter shots with no fade or put them on hyzer /anhyzer lines my game improved dramatically.

 

[MonkeyShine]

Discing down really pays off and builds confidence, and those look like good discs. I agree with Stardoggy, the Teebird and Saint Pro are very similar, unless you have one that's really beat up and one that's newer, but you'll develop better consistency if you pick just one mold. I have a Saint Pro and a PD that I'm trying out, and it saddens me I might have to vote one off the island someday soon

How long is the longest hole at your home course? I think discing down needs to be done with "proper disc selection" as the principle to follow, so if you need a 400' drive, throw the fastest disc that you can throw confidently. I know a lot of guys that want to throw an Aviar or Wizard on anything under 350', but if you're wearing your arm out trying to crank out slow plastic, you're going to notice it by the end of a tournament.

 

[mmilam90]

Thanks for the input!
The longest hole at my course is 610, with another being 600 and a handful of 400-500 footers. Shortest is 285 feet.

 

[garublador]

The main reason to "disc down" is to develop "clean" power. Fast discs will fly well when underpowered and with a bunch of OAT. Slow discs will not. If you learn to throw with fast discs (> speed 7 or so) you'll likely end up with not a lot of power and lot of OAT. If you learn to throw with slower discs you'll have more power and less OAT.

If you're trying to develop your timing (snap) it's also much easier to feel, and replicate snap with slower discs.

There's also "minimization," which is throwing fewer molds. The advantage there is to learn to throw as many different shots as possible with just a few discs. If you think of the number of shots you can make as the number of shots you can perform times the number of discs you have, you'll see why it's a big advantage to learn many shots with just a couple discs, then add discs to up your "multiplier." In other words, someone carrying 20 discs who throws the same way every time can make 20 shots. Someone with 3 discs who can throw 10 different ways can make 30 shots. It's oversimplified, but that's why you see pros carry so many discs. They have the skills to throw many shots with few discs, have the time and practice in to know all of their discs and have good disc and shot selection skills. Most new players don't have any of those attributes, so they're best off throwing few discs to learn many shots.

 

[Questatement]

Most rec players do not get any *consistent* additional distance past x speed (usually around 9-11) and the average distance they do gain b/t the last speed or two as they push the limit is minimal (5'-10'). A heavier weight in my top speed makes a big difference for me (+20-30 feet) if I'm having an 'exceptional form day.' My advice would be to discover what lowest speed is your max D disc and abandon all faster speeds from your bag for now.

Then, work on getting each individual speed in the same HSS to range out 12'-20' apart for each increase in speed. Then and only then do you know that you are throwing each disc at (or near enough) to it's proper speed to get the designed distance and flight out if it. Once you can consistently range via the speed of your disc, you're set.

 

[mmilam90]

Getting some great info here. The overlap in molds is pretty apparent after i started looking at everything. Went through a box or two and found an old champ leopard ill also be bringing along.

 

[JTdisc]

This is what I do: Go out to a park or open football/soccer field and throw your drivers. See which ones go the furthest and which ones are the most similar.

Do this for at least 6 throws with each disc.

For me it was eye opening that the Teebird was one of my longest discs, often beating out Destroyers and PDs. This told me it was time to disc down.

 

[JTdisc]

Could I start my discing down attempts with the following?

Teebird
Saint pro
Escape (beat in bio fuzion and newer lucid)
Rival
Apache
Truth
Judge (fuzion for driving and classic to putt with)

That is pretty darn similar to the bag I normally carry. I have a Firebird-L (FL) instead of the Saint Pro. And the Rival and Teebird are nearly identical so you only need one of those. Truth is a great do all midrange that gets close to fairway distance. The Judge is great for shorter throws. Trust me, based on personal experience, you can do very well with this limited bag.

 

[Questatement]

For me it was eye opening that the Teebird was one of my longest discs, often beating out Destroyers and PDs. This told me it was time to disc down.

This is good advice but remember that the teebird is somewhat unique in it's speed range and available H/LSS combo. If it's somewhere around a -2/-3 HSS, 0/1 LSS, it may well range out to a speed or two futher than the same speed in a solid stable combo. A similar new disc in the DX Archangel.

When I say each speed should space out 12-20' further, this is largely dependent on HSS. Generally, the less stable (up to a limit) the greater the spacing.

 

[Questatement]

One thing that I try and do for 1-2 rounds a week is play alone and, if the basket is reachable, drive with 3 discs of the same rough stability off the tee and/or approach to the basket if over 200' on an OS/hyzer approach line or over 250' stable/US approach line. The first is the range I know/guess to be correct and the other two are one speed less and one greater.

This tells me if my initial range guess is good and if I'm throwing at the proper speed for each disc.

 

[Spike Hyzer]

So is there a "If you are only hitting x distance with y driver you need to disc down." For example should people disc down from a destroyer unless they are hitting the 430ft inbounds lists its flight characteristics at?

This is a little of topic but I know inbounds assumes a flat release for these charts but what height on the disc does it assume for those flight paths?

 

[whentherainscome]

I think the following things are all separate things:

Discing down
-Throwing best (usually slowest) disc for the shot for maximum control.
-I subscribe to this explanation.

Matching drivers to your arm speed
-Commonly called "discing down"
-Find the speed range where there is no/negligible distance gains with faster drivers of similar stability.
-Find the speed range where drivers fly "as intended" with clean form

Cleaning up your form
-Commonly called "discing down"
-Throw slow and sensitive discs for entire rounds to find and fix form issues, nearly always OAT
-Throwing your armspeed-matched drivers to find and fix form issues, nearly always nose-angle

I did the "slower drivers" type of discing down for a year an a half before I committed to doing Roc/Comet rounds. These discs always wobbled/wormburned for me, even when my Buzzzes didn't and my putter drives seemed okay. Working out my issues there has added a lot of consistency to my throws, and with consistency comes confidence.

I might seem caught up in semantics, but I think it's helpful to think about them separately. Smart golf, objective disc selection AND good form combined will see much greater gains than just throwing Teebirds instead of Destroyers.

 

[Broken Shoulder]

I might seem caught up in semantics, but I think it's helpful to think about them separately. Smart golf, objective disc selection AND good form combined will see much greater gains than just throwing Teebirds instead of Destroyers.

:thmbup: