Thread bump after some recent downhill experiences
Thread bump. I've noticed several things with downhill drives. Reading through this thread, it sounds like lots of people think it's an anhyzer release. I think that's usually wrong. I think the tendency to turn is almost entirely from the nose down angle. I've recently had some very successful throws with an ESP Surge that is usually a headwind disc for me because it's still a little too much disc for my backhand on a flat drive with no wind. When I throw it on downhill holes, it gets some decent turn and glides like crazy, and I've gotten it out to 450' or 500' easy.
Just in case any of you know these holes, here are some examples: Harmony Bends, hole 10 from White tee, and Branson Cedars Resort Treehouz DGC hole 6 pro tee (600' par 4; I managed to get a 2 with a ~100' Zone throw-in). These holes have a couple things in common. First, they require a full drive off the bat. Second, they are downhill "tunnels," in that they have a ceiling fairly close to the tee. By the way, this has bearing on downhill shots, but it also speaks to the importance of throwing discs nose down.
For me, I don't play a ton of "top of the world" shots, being that I've played much of my disc golf in Oklahoma and Florida. Nevertheless, I generally struggle with those shots, having them stall out and fade. On the several TOTW shots where I've actually succeeded, it's because I got the nose down. Those downhill tunnel shots I mentioned above had an early ceiling, and this helped me aim for the tunnel to get the trajectory right, as opposed to throwing my standard throw from a flat tee, which tends to make me not throw along that downhill line that the hole requires.
My summary, or tips for players trying to get better at downhill distance shots, is:
1) Disc up. Don't feel bad throwing that Destroyer, Nuke, or Surge, a disc that might otherwise have a little bit too much high speed turn for your arm (in other words, a little too fast or too overstable for you). I'd favor throwing something a little beefier as opposed to faster, but both might work. For the OP, maybe it would have worked to throw a beefier Roc if he/she had one available.
2) make sure you get the line right, both in terms of trajectory with respect to the ground and in terms of nose angle.
3) Remember that you consciously have to throw below the tee. Try to avoid letting your muscle memory make you throw at the same angle with respect to the tee, which is almost level (with respect to gravity) as opposed to angled to help you throw the right angle for the hole.
*Note: This is specifically for downhill distance shots. Throwing my Comet or glidey putters is also an important skill to have, but the nose angle issue is a little less important simply because they tend to hold that straight glide for longer without stalling out like incorrectly thrown drivers.*
Throwing downhill definitely makes things understable. I frequently play a course with a huge downhill that is almost always into a headwind and my destroyer flips over like an understable putter.
Here I quoted Shamis from this thread, because this is the post I agree with most. Maybe some people have an issue with subconscious anhyzer release, but I think it's far more likely the nose angle issue. If you read through the physics threads, some folks (myself included) believe that the high speed turn phase of disc flight is more because of nose angle than disc speed. If so, downhill throws thrown correctly will have more nose-down angle and can thus be expected to have more "high speed turn" than they would on flat throws. Part of this, by the way, is that gravity and aerodynamic forces will help the disc MAINTAIN its nose-down angle for longer, as opposed to throws on flat ground where the disc may start with the exact same amount of nose-down (relative to trajectory) but where the forces on the disc bring the nose up faster because of how the disc is moving with respect to gravity.
I hope this is a helpful bump, and I hope this makes sense.