So I more or less found what I'm looking for and figured some things out while practicing and playing yesterday!
First, I ordered an A4, and it is absolutely MONEY for me! The disc shape is even flatter than an A3, so it can easily be thrown forehand! Which is HIGHLY useful when in trouble or near the basket with no great way to throw a backhand. I already threw it 3 times from the "rough" FH with excellent results. So that makes it even more useful as an overall disc great disc in the bag. AND it feels incredible in my hand! I parked two shorter tee shots yesterday with this thing that I never get close with any of my other discs. Just aim 20' right, throw it however hard it needs to get to the basket and fuget about it, haha. It's so easy to know where these two Prodigy A discs will land and how they will fly to get there. Hyzer flight path is quickly becoming my favorite. Any time I can throw a hyzer, I'm doing it. No more straight or S line or annny's. Just point to the right, aim and fire, and the hyzer does the rest. PLUS it just slams into the ground like a lawn dart making it stick, which is also super helpful.
It has a similar flight path more or less as the A3. But instead of going right fairly quickly and sharp, it just takes off and goes straight for about half to 2/3's of the flight and THEN has a pretty reliable hook up to the left of about 10-20' on a flat shot, even more on a hyzer. The A3 on the other hand, turns right almost immediately right from the get go, and is turning hard left and sharp all the way. Kind of like a Firebird, but for approaches. So both have distinct but somewhat similar feel, shape and flight path. And they compliment each other VERY well and I have literally every hyzer type approach shot I could ever want with these two.
The A4 also has much more glide then the A3. I'd rate it like 4/4/-0.5/2.5 So at full throw, the A3 feels more like my Berg. It kind of just falls out of the air quickly. It goes about 200-250' on a nice controlled throw. Whereas the A4 just keeps going, and ends up about 240-290' on a nice throw. And the harder you throw the A4, the straighter it stays until it hooks up left. So it's absolutely amazing! Knowing that it will NEVER finish right, but also ALWAYS hook up at some pt and turn left is such a great advantage for me. Knowing exactly what it will do. I wish I had more consistency in my longer discs and knew they would fly like this
I'm still just having all sorts of horrible consistency issues (pulls, grip locks, slips out to the left, too low, too high, not enough snap, none at all), which is a whole nother issue I'm not getting into right now, haha.
The A4 is probably going to knock a mid range out of my bag until I get a bigger bag. My MD4 flies just about the same flight path, but I like the feel of the A4 better AND I can throw it FH. Whereas the MD4 is JUST for hyzer approaches from 280-310'. So not getting used a whole lot, haha.
Then I was messing around with approach shots for like an hr before my buddy showed up for our rd this weekend. And I noticed if I just take my index finger off of the underneath part of the rim on my putters, and put it on the leading edge of the rim (like you would do when putting), that the disc gets way less pull and goes much much straighter on release! I was already fan gripping any approach shot, but didn't realize that my index finger was causing so much of the pull. So I was able to really throw some nice approaches with all my putters while practicing and playing. They still usually go a little more right then I want, or sometimes 10-20' right on a bad pull, but now it's not my grip that's causing it, it's just my throw. And nothing is pulling as bad as it was when I had my index finger in the rim. So as long as I get a nice consistent throw and at the target, the putters work great for approaches. I never realized I could throw it just about as far without my index finger in the rim :doh:
But... the putters still don't really have any fade at the end that is helpful. They go dead straight with a super baby soft fade of a foot or so at the end, or if I rip on them pretty hard, they turn right most of the way, then barely fade back at the end. So the end up right still. So I'm still looking for that disc, but the A4 is very close and super helpful. I can see it permanently staying in the bag.
The A4 is almost perfect, but still lands with a pronounced skip, pretty noticeable fade and not that soft floaty putter landing I want. Just not as harsh a skip and fade as the A3. So I think a putter, but with a fade of about 1.5-2.5 would be perfect! So I ordered a PA-1 in 400 plastic, so that should probably do exactly what I'm looking for. Good reliable soft landing fade, but not super hard like the A series discs.
But that A4 is definitely helping me out a lot on approaches and recovery shots already. Same with just taking my index finger off the underside of the disc rim on my putters.
I'm realizing real quick how important the short game is in this sport, JUST like regular golf. You can have a thousand FW's and Drivers, but the only discs that are going to actually lower your scores are discs that help you get close to the basket from 250' and in, and great putters. So I'm really moving my bag around to add some more short range discs and take out some redundant drivers and fw's that hardly ever get used. With this PA-1 and A4 added, I now have every single short game disc I could ever want or need. I have an understable soft landing putter, a neutral soft landing putter, a slightly overstable soft landing putter, 2 hyzer approach discs that skip and can be awesome for little FH flicks, and then the Berg for weird approaches or very delicate landings on short tee shots or approaches with small landing zones that present trouble if the disc bounced or skipped. That K2 Berg is a hamburger, haha. Just throw it and it flops down and sticks like raw meat to the ground, haha.
Thanks so much for the advice and help guys
