It's not a technique thing for me, I have a star and champ wraith in my bag and I can get them both 350 ft I'm just wanting to know if the nuke or boss would be a better distance disc for pro tees. I'm starting to play tournaments and I've cut down my mids to a dx roc and 2008 super roc (no real reason I just like the way it looks) and I flick a star max.
Do you have any tips on technique for the wraith?
I have a maximum distance of 440 feet with a Z Nuke on flat ground, often hitting around 410-420. However, during serious rounds I find I reach more for my Wraiths and Valkyries when going for distance because it is more reliable and comfortable to throw with a hyzer than forcing my Nuke into a flex (I only get about 380-390 throwing the Nuke with a hyzer, it is all about the wide grip).
Last year when I was over-torqueing a disc and throwing with a bad follow through that it made it seem like I was turning over everything but the most overstable discs, I grabbed a Star Wraith for a player's package disc. When I first threw it I backed off the power not knowing what it would do. It flew beautifully and easily got 370 feet. At the time, that was the longest I was throwing.
Like always when I get comfortable and excited about a disc, I start trying to squeeze more distance out of it and that is where my poor technique always took over. I kept thinking it was the disc and not my form, that I had so much snap that I was not throwing what was right for me. I eventually moved onto to Bosses and XCalibers. They obviously were flying right, for me, but I still had flaws in my form.
This year when I settled down and realized that I was shifting my center of gravity away and to the right as I was working my way to the release point and follow-through, I was able to move back into long distance drivers that had better glide. I rediscovered the Wraith and even the Valkyrie, discs I could not have thrown last year. What really helped was learning how to release a Katana with a hyzer so it would not flip over. Using the same line I noticed how beautifully the Wraith can fly.
If you can swing it out to the right a little bit with the slighest of hyzers, it will have the same finish time and time again. Doing this I can almost always get the same distance as my Bosses and my average distance with my Z Nukes. If I want a straighter finish, I can even swing my Valkyries out there with that slight hyzer. On average, I get anywhere from 380 to 400 feet.
If I had to sum up what changed from last to this year, it is my mentality. Last year I was all about throwing flat, thinking the line drive was going to get the most distance because it is the shortest line from point a to point b. I also thought it would set me up as an elite player because of how beautiful line drives look in flight. At the end of last year, I realized that trying to throw like that is forcing a disc into something it is not designed to do, and that is only going to rob it of its potential. Very few discs are designed and capable of flying flat on a line drive. The TeeBird is the only disc I can think of.