Form help: Thursday Field Work

[DG_Before_Breakfast]

Hello,

My buddy and I try to improve our game on Thursdays with various kinds of field work. For distance work, we do some standstill/1-step drills based on pro clinics and videos (e.g. Bradley Walker Closed Shoulder Drill, Dan Beto pec "hit", Will S's latest driving tips). Then we take a video of our full run up drive and post it to youtube so we can analyze it. We have theories about what we need to improve, but it would be nice to hear what the folks here have to say. Along with dumping my high speed drivers, this has helped me a lot get my drive distance back to improving where I was topping out at 300 for a while.

Please help us continue to improve by critiquing our drives.

So here is me today.



Just so you can see where I came from a couple years ago I looked like:



Last October is here:



I'll post my buddy's drive in the next post. Thanks for any insights you can provide!

 

[DG_Before_Breakfast]

My buddy's drives now.

Today:



Last October:

 

[sidewinder22]

That's quite an improvement. Your recent vid looks like you aim with just the wrist and your body too open and a bit tense. Slowing down and smoothing out is in order. Loosening up will allow you to turn your body back further and gain more acceleration later. There should be more whip of the arm. You open your front foot too far and try to shift your weight from in front of you, so you get thrown forward past a braced posture in the followthrough and don't allow that weight to transfer through you into the disc. If you keep your plant foot more closed and don't stride as far with your right butt cheek facing the target more, you can transfer your weight from behind you and maintain your posture, so your weight transfers to the disc. Your rear end or butt should anchor and counterweight back the propulsion of the disc forward, and into the backswing. Your rear end is continuously moving forward. You should feel like the disc pulls you into an effortless balanced followthrough on your plant foot.

 

[LeBryson James]

You're not getting a full reach back with your shoulders and upper body. But then you pull through with all your upper body and not all of your lower body. Which is also making your follow through looking like a lunge off the teepad. That's because you're lower body is trying to catch up.

My 2 cents which is probably wrong but that's what I see.

Check out Feldbeard's video:
http://vimeo.com/64171158

Keep in note his demonstration is exaggerated to help viewers know what he's talking about.

 

[sidewinder22]

Steve is off balance on the rear foot pushing from the heel, heavy and slow behind his heel on the outside part of the foot, and collapses his upper arm against the chest so he never gets the elbow forward of the shoulder. He's also swinging off plane of the throw and there's not much force being generated down the target line in his throw and is not an athletic position to throw from. Keep your weight between the insides of the feet/instep, and keep the upper arm away from the chest and finish with the arm high palm down. All those vids above will help.

 

[DG_Before_Breakfast]

Thanks much! I was hoping to hear from sindewinder22 - the dgcr forum form guru! Also appreciate Kat - I saw that video once and had a big aha moment, but then I never followed through practicing the hip movement.

You open your front foot too far and try to shift your weight from in front of you, so you get thrown forward past a braced posture in the followthrough and don't allow that weight to transfer through you into the disc.

What does the bolded part mean by "open"? When I plant my foot should the heel be facing more toward the target and the toes away from it, so that my right butt cheek is still facing the target more? OR, do you mean I'm putting my front foot too far ahead of the back foot on the line to the target (ala the B. Walker Closed Shoulder drill). I did recently make that adjustment and felt it was helpful in making me drive through my front foot, so I'm hoping you say the former. I also understand that I'm stepping too far forward, which seems to pull my upper body ahead of my hips.

Overall, both of you are saying what I've been thinking - I'm not transferring my lower body weight shift to the Disc. I seem to propel myself forward off the teepad instead I think step one for me to fix that will be Dave's Tip that Kat posted. That really ties into the Ultimate guy's tips too, shifting your butt up before your upper body moves forward, keeping the alignment, holding the power behind you right until the hit. I'll probably suck a while trying to implement that, but that is the way of improvement!

I'll pass your advice on to Steve.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Could I please get a definition of "athletic position?"

I've seen it used several times in the last couple of days.

 

[sidewinder22]

What does the bolded part mean by "open"? When I plant my foot should the heel be facing more toward the target and the toes away from it, so that my right butt cheek is still facing the target more? I also understand that I'm stepping too far forward, which seems to pull my upper body ahead of my hips.

Overall, both of you are saying what I've been thinking - I'm not transferring my lower body weight shift to the Disc. I seem to propel myself forward off the teepad instead I think step one for me to fix that will be Dave's Tip that Kat posted. That really ties into the Ultimate guy's tips too, shifting your butt up before your upper body moves forward, keeping the alignment, holding the power behind you right until the hit. I'll probably suck a while trying to implement that, but that is the way of improvement!

I'll pass your advice on to Steve.

Yep. It's the squeeze between the knees :41-42sec...

 

[sidewinder22]

Could I please get a definition of "athletic position?"

I've seen it used several times in the last couple of days.

 

[onetimeme]

Really great thread guys. However, just like in ball golf, you are not going to want to drive the same as will if you have the body structure of dave. There are a lot of similarities but also some differences. I'd say I'm somewhere between dave and Ken. I really like the release of MJ though. Will just has a sickly smooth release. His structure and flexibility make this possible. If you are a stout or thick body type, you may want to model after someone who's pro with a similar type. That's my take on it though. You don't see Jim Furick driving like John Daily.