Of course it's not a secret, but it's also not apparent or was not apparent to me.
I've never been able to figure out how to throw nose down. It may have been a thread here or a youtube talking about Ricky's form, but it was about how in his back swing, the disc is nose up. Then as he releases it, the disc rotates to nose down. It's that fraction of a second that he maintains contact with the disc before release that changes everything.
So let's backup--when we start out we want to do two things:
1) throw far
2) throw straight
Not necessarily in that order. We sling away and the disc goes off in to the woods on the right (RHBH). Okay, how do I fix that? I back down a little and work on releasing straight. For me, that cut short my follow through. I was stepping straight towards the basket.
So, if we do as Sidewinder and Simon show--step at that angle (15 degrees from straight at the target?), then the release point is slightly more extended--your chest is opened up. You get that "tip of whip" effect and add speed to the throw while also allowing the disc to rotate to the nose down position. Posture also comes in to play. Getting your upper body a little forward over your toes rather than vertical--not forward towards the target but slightly bent at the waist.
I also tweaked my grip to be a little looser and more of a pinch. I was power gripping with all four fingers under the lip. I let my pinky slip off the disc, had a pinch between the index and thumb and the pointer and ring were loosely under the lip.
I just hit on this revelation last night as I was watching TV and flipping around a disc--something I do all the time when I watch TV. I was thinking about the Ricky release and wondering why the hell I can't throw nose down. It hit me that I'm releasing too early. The above kind of followed from that realization.
I just went out to the field and did about 40 throws. I was throwing "hard" but not maxed out. However, I did throw farther than I've ever thrown in my field with less effort. It's kind of windy, so hard to really judge how much extra D I might have discovered, but I feel confident that if I can execute what I discovered tonight, I will get more distance off the tee. Considerably more in fact as I had maxed out around 300' and have actually been struggling to get that lately.
This is all knowledge that people (sidewinder and others here and a million youtube videos) have shared in various ways, just took an aha moment for me to understand it.
So, if you are struggling with nose up like me--try to tweak the release so it's just a fraction later and see if that helps.
Like and subscribe!
I've never been able to figure out how to throw nose down. It may have been a thread here or a youtube talking about Ricky's form, but it was about how in his back swing, the disc is nose up. Then as he releases it, the disc rotates to nose down. It's that fraction of a second that he maintains contact with the disc before release that changes everything.
So let's backup--when we start out we want to do two things:
1) throw far
2) throw straight
Not necessarily in that order. We sling away and the disc goes off in to the woods on the right (RHBH). Okay, how do I fix that? I back down a little and work on releasing straight. For me, that cut short my follow through. I was stepping straight towards the basket.
So, if we do as Sidewinder and Simon show--step at that angle (15 degrees from straight at the target?), then the release point is slightly more extended--your chest is opened up. You get that "tip of whip" effect and add speed to the throw while also allowing the disc to rotate to the nose down position. Posture also comes in to play. Getting your upper body a little forward over your toes rather than vertical--not forward towards the target but slightly bent at the waist.
I also tweaked my grip to be a little looser and more of a pinch. I was power gripping with all four fingers under the lip. I let my pinky slip off the disc, had a pinch between the index and thumb and the pointer and ring were loosely under the lip.
I just hit on this revelation last night as I was watching TV and flipping around a disc--something I do all the time when I watch TV. I was thinking about the Ricky release and wondering why the hell I can't throw nose down. It hit me that I'm releasing too early. The above kind of followed from that realization.
I just went out to the field and did about 40 throws. I was throwing "hard" but not maxed out. However, I did throw farther than I've ever thrown in my field with less effort. It's kind of windy, so hard to really judge how much extra D I might have discovered, but I feel confident that if I can execute what I discovered tonight, I will get more distance off the tee. Considerably more in fact as I had maxed out around 300' and have actually been struggling to get that lately.
This is all knowledge that people (sidewinder and others here and a million youtube videos) have shared in various ways, just took an aha moment for me to understand it.
So, if you are struggling with nose up like me--try to tweak the release so it's just a fraction later and see if that helps.
Like and subscribe!
