New to the sport, trying to add some D.

[Rmwyatt]

Hey guys, I've been playing probably 3 months. 2 months seriously. I am trying to get my form right so that I can start working the muscle memory. Here is a video of my driving, sorry that I don't have a slow motion of it, but if anyone can offer me any advice or has any feedback (Good, Bad, or even Harsh), please feel free to help the new guy out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lMReXZhVOY&feature=related

I know the title says "Friends Drives", but it's me. I am that friend haha.

 

[steveo69]

Hard to tell but it looks like your wieght is to much on your back foot. All you weight should be on your right foot before you start the pull. It also looks like your arm is almost stright the whole throw. As you pull your elbow should bend. Then as the disc gets to your left pec you need to keep the elbow up and lead with it. Keep in mind I am not the best when it comes to form eaither but this is what I see. I am sure that others can add to this. I know it maybe hard but do yourself a favor and go to a field and just throw drives with every disc you have. Throw at about 60-70% of full power and just concentrate on what your body is doing and what the disc's filght told you, you did. Do this at least once a week and more if you can.


Oh and welcome to the site!

 

[Rmwyatt]

Thanks, my friend Cody also tells me that my weight is on my back foot. It's something I need to start working on more analytically. The "leading with the elbow" is probably the hardest thing for me. I agree with you that my arm remains straight throughout the entirety of the pull.


Thanks, I've only looked a few times, but now I am on it all day everyday. I even have a post up trying to trade and sell discs.

 

[sidewinder22]

I'll modify a few things from above. Your weight is stuck back due to trying to shift your weight from in front of you and planting too far. You want to shift your weight from behind, which means closing your stance. Also you want to start to actively pull when you have around 60% weight on the plant foot/leg, not 100%. Watch the Best Downswing Weight Shift vid to understand that part better.

You are pulling way too early. The downswing weight shift vid will also help sequence your throw to being after the 60% weight shift. Your pull also gets a bit screwed up because of being to open on the plant and shifting your weight the wrong way. Basically your body is getting in the way of the backswing and the downswing in your case. The closed shoulder drill should help closing your stance and feeling late acceleration.

 

[Rmwyatt]

I don't mean to sound illiterate to the terminology on the sport, although I humbly accept that I am, but could you elaborate about "closing my stance" and what "pulling early" means?

I think I understand the close stance. Does it have anything to do with, in my video when I start to throw my arm around, my back (left) foot somewhat stays planted back until after I've thrown the disc?

 

[sidewinder22]

If you stand on the tee with both feet perpendicular(90 degrees) to the target line so your shoulders form a straight line to the target(or both feet same distance away from the wood plank in the vid above), you would be neutral. Now take your front foot and move it 6-12" closer to the left side of the tee pad(or wood plank), that would be closed like in the still of Brad in the closed shoulder drill vid.

You are beginning to open your foot/hips/shoulder past neutral before you even land your plant foot. This also has to due with you beginning your arm pull early. You really don't have much choice to start your pull early since you are opening your foot/hips/shoulders before planting and/or vice versa. I'm not quite sure which is actually causing which in your case. You are focusing too much on trying to drive the throw with your rear foot/leg and your timing is out of whack so things are a little hard to explain in words. The power does ultimately come from the rear leg, but not the way you are doing it because of you trying to shift your weight from in front of you like Shawn Clement explains in the vid above talking about chicken wing city. The rear foot actually pivots.

Your arm should be fairly passive and loose/taut until your arm/disc is brought forward into your chest or power zone from momentum from planting the foot and bracing the front side of the body. Once the disc is in the power zone you want to then try to throw. The arm motion has the passive inward pull into the power zone which is basically just a setup for the much more powerful outward motion of the pull from the power zone out to the apex of the hit. Check out Cody's thread for Brad's Snap2009 vids and pics.

 

[Rmwyatt]

I watched the two videos you just posted, and took what advice you gave me and then rewatched my video. It all makes a lot of sense. I am going out to throw either today or tomorrow. I will get a new video up and see if there are any differences. Thanks. I am going to check out Cody's thread again.

 

[JSurmann]

Thanks, my friend Cody also tells me that my weight is on my back foot. It's something I need to start working on more analytically. The "leading with the elbow" is probably the hardest thing for me. I agree with you that my arm remains straight throughout the entirety of the pull.


Thanks, I've only looked a few times, but now I am on it all day everyday. I even have a post up trying to trade and sell discs.

Yeah I would have to agree with the weight too far back. I used to do this as well so no worries. To fix this I now do my "run-up" on the balls of my feet. My heels won't touch the ground until after the release. Kinda seems like I am tip toeing but I think it keeps me light on my feet.

 

[codyroberts18]

Yeah I would have to agree with the weight too far back. I used to do this as well so no worries. To fix this I now do my "run-up" on the balls of my feet. My heels won't touch the ground until after the release. Kinda seems like I am tip toeing but I think it keeps me light on my feet.

I was throwing with my weight backwards, getting stuck back and couldn't transfer my weight. I used Sidewinder and Blake T's advice and started my walk/run up on the balls of my weight and it pretty much fixed my problem.

I think we should start paying Sidewinder a monthly fee for his advice :thmbup:

 

[Jar-El]

I think we should start paying Sidewinder a monthly fee for his advice :thmbup:

Agreed. I'm really digging the insights.

 

[Rmwyatt]

Hey guys, I did some driving today with Mids and Putters. I tried to make some of the changes. I'm having trouble I think putting the weight forward. I understand it and what it should be like, but knowing what it physically feels like is giving me trouble. Hope this video of a few drives has at least a minuscule level of improvement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fozrzYxgVAo

 

[MattMan]

Really focus on feeling where your weight is being held in your run up. It looks like your disc is not in sync with your weight. Sometimes you were reaching back with your weight still mostly forward, and then pulling forward when your weight had already shifted back forward.

 

[sidewinder22]

Slight improvement in timing and closing stance however, this where standstill practice really helps because your issues begin with your x-step. Compare your body posture to Espen below through the x-step who throws 200 meters. You will notice how tall and centered his weight and head stays and light feet like a ballerina. He has more weight toward the target. Your posture and weight are leaning away from the target.

Compare your backswings...notice he is turning/pivoting his hips back as he goes to plant, where you are already beginning to open your hips.

 

[Rmwyatt]

The video of Espen is beautiful. I can see a clear form, and I understand a little better what you're all saying. I did this video in my living room working on the upper body rotation and the pull though. I feel like it is more correct that when I actually go to drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llqZxxbgdoc

 

[sidewinder22]

Hurm...I know exactly what you are doing, I've been there. Your body is still getting in the way of the throw. In ball golf terms you aren't staying inside the shot. Your rear knee is locked so you rotate on the wrong axis. Need to bend the rear knee going to plant so its more squatty, so you can push your hips forward from the inside of your foot while your feet are planted. This is easier to feel on hyzer plane with a low to high pull line, more like a golf swing or hockey shot.

Try using a hammer and grip it backwards so you would be hammering nail backhand out to the target, or throwing the hammer out to the target. You should get the feel of the weight of the hammer and let your body get out the way so you can release the hammer's weight/momentum out to the target instead of hitting you. The Sledgehammer vid in the link below kinda goes over this.

Read and watch the vids in the thread:
https://www.dgcoursereview.com/dgr/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24009

This whole vid is good stuff especially the hip drills:

 

[BionicRib]

Hey guys, I did some driving today with Mids and Putters. I tried to make some of the changes. I'm having trouble I think putting the weight forward. I understand it and what it should be like, but knowing what it physically feels like is giving me trouble. Hope this video of a few drives has at least a minuscule level of improvement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fozrzYxgVAo

Try to get a video from behind. I could be wrong, but on your reach back (and it is hard to see from this angle) but it seems as if your right arm is going to far across your body, which may be causing you to have that right arm not exactly pulling across your chest. I like to call it windmilling. You will lose distance dramatically with this. (also your accuracy will suffer). I used to max out at about 360 about 4mths ago, but a friend of mine pointed this out to me and I finally made the plunge to change (it is hard to change bad habits) now I'm throwing 390 to 430 range pretty consistently......the accuracy is not quite there like it was before, but that will come with time.

Also on your reach back try practicing with a towel in hand. Let the towel hang down loose (in place of the disc of course) and do your normal throw. Listen to the sound the towel makes, if it makes a woosh noise you are definitely windmill because your arm is to far from your chest. You want it to be almost quiet till the last 3rd of your throw........Which leads me to my next point. Concentrate on accelerating at the last moment of your throw. (you may here people refer to it as "the hit") When you start to come forward with your arm with the towel it should still be hanging freely not trailing parallel to the ground. If this happens you are accelerating too early and losing distance..............Try this out, I'm not an expert, but this really helped me, I don't have any videos to post right now, but if you have any questions feel free to ask, Hope I helped (and I apologize if I butchered the explanation, but it makes sense to me)

 

[sidewinder22]

We're all saying a lot of the same thing, just a little different and slightly different ways to go about it. Where BionicRib is saying the arm reaches too far across the chest and windmilling(and I agree), I'm saying this is happening because the body is in the way of the arm and so your arm crashes or collapses into against the chest. Maintaining width of the upper arm from the chest into the backswing and back through the hit only happens when the body gets out momentum's way, so you stay inside the swing/shot.

Throwing a hammer/sledgehammer helps exaggerate the body getting/clearing/pivoting out of the way into the backswing and back through while also helping create a feeling of tossing the weight of the disc into the backswing so your arm stays relaxed and then teaches you to create lag into the downswing assisting the hammer's/disc's momentum out to the target using your body. Also fencing for width is a good one. I think a lot of people really struggle with the towel drill because it doesn't instinctively teach you to get your body out of the way or really use your body. I use the towel drill as a warm up during tourneys though.

 

[BionicRib]

We're all saying a lot of the same thing, just a little different and slightly different ways to go about it. Where BionicRib is saying the arm reaches too far across the chest and windmilling(and I agree), I'm saying this is happening because the body is in the way of the arm and so your arm crashes or collapses into against the chest. Maintaining width of the upper arm from the chest into the backswing and back through the hit only happens when the body gets out momentum's way, so you stay inside the swing/shot.


That is a much better way to describe it.......Body in the way of the arm.....If your right arm is too far passed on your reach back it has no where to go, but away from your chest......."thus windmilling"

If you get a good video from behind your tee shot we can take a look and see where you are and go from there

 

[jenb]

Follow through is the big thing to look at. Seems like you're not really pivoting.

Watch Big Jerm throw this 700 footer for a $100 bounty on longest drive.



See how he accelerates very gradually and transfers all the momentum to the disk? He's just left hanging there on his pivot foot.

One thing you can't show in a video is timing the pinch down in your grip. If you pinch hard the whole time, the disc starts pivoting late, because the force of static friction has to be overcoming. But of you start out loose, and time the pinchdown to occur at the crtitical moment, you can get something amazing.

 

[jenb]

Here's some more footage of the top pros throwing some 500 footers. These guys were holding back, btw. I saw Nikko put some drives in the street on this hole at a clinic a couple of days before. Any one of them could easily have overdriven this hole. The order is Nikko Locastro, Paul Ulibarri, Nolan Grider, Eric McCabe (AKA EMAC), and Jeremy Koling (AKA Big Jerm).