Over a thousand hours in the field and all I got was this stupid form.

[sidewinder22]

 

[pjsb1]

Yep, it's another one of those videos I watched a long time ago and didn't take away all the important points. Lol.

 

[pjsb1]

Alright got 2 backhand videos and a forehand.

The first backhand video is a slow-mo followed by the same throw in full speed. I'd say this an accurate representation of a good throw for me.
https://youtu.be/5aA047W_AY0

The second video I'm throwing a high slight anhyzer with a putter and fan gripped. I mess up some of the lower body stuff I think, but I uploaded it because my arm path looks really good to me.
https://youtu.be/GqPS7tee3rs

And finally this is a forehand where I was focusing on not reaching back too early as I do often. Felt pretty good but still unsure about what to do with my reachback.
https://youtu.be/QFgj4Z3Vj50

I'd say across all of these one of the things I need to work on most is my rhythm. I'm curious what else I can tweak. My backhand can reach up to 450 now on a full crush, but on the course my max is generally 420 with 400 being consistent. Forehand... is still very new, I have thrown it 380 but also sometimes I try to throw it far and it goes 300.

 

[sidewinder22]

You bend your knees too much and go into anterior pelvic tilt with back extended/butt out. Stand up taller and relaxed with spine in flexion. Your walk up into x-step looks really unnatural and uncomfortable posture.

FH - your arm is going into pronation and vertical to the top of backswing instead of supination and loading the scap more horizontal.

 

[pjsb1]

I think the backhand spine problem stems from me trying to get my butt out and leading with my hip when I go into the plant. I think staying more relaxed should help with that a lot. I think this should be a fairly simple fix as long as it doesn't ruin anything else when I try to fix it.

As for forehand, I always knew that I was getting my arm too high and it's a bothersome habit I've been having trouble kicking. I thought if I didn't reachback early I wouldn't reachback so high but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll keep working on this.

I didn't realize my hand was pronating in that position so I'll think about that when working on my reachback. That one should be a little easier I think.

I threw a forehand on flat ground and got one to 375' with a slightly flexing distance driver, so I'm pretty happy with my distance right now. I think fixing these things you pointed out should help a lot with accuracy and I'll be in a good spot with my forehand.

Thanks a lot again, I've come a long way from last winter.

 

[pjsb1]

I've been making a lot of progress without posting an update. I don't have a video to post today but I thought I'd post my findings for posterity's sake.
For my forehand: I lost the ability to forehand far again and I was quite perplexed. I spent 2 hours playing catch with a guy just throwing soft forehands and then for the next few weeks I couldn't throw hard forehands anymore. Apparently when I throw soft forehands I leave my arm facing up to the sky the whole time for touch. When I throw hard forehands my arm should be facing the target/slightly down, Nate Sexton is a great example of this I think. I figured that out and immediately I could throw hard forehands again (that weren't just hyzers). I could still throw hyzers hard with my arm facing up.

For my backhand : I finally started trying the plant step like how Simon does it where he sort of picks up his right leg and bends at the knee slightly while bringing his leg over his left foot and then out towards the target. That helped me keep my weight and momentum moving directly towards the target. Didn't realize that bending at the knee and picking my foot up like that would help so much. That also made my brace actually straighten out completely after I plant, which I could never do as consistently before now.

If I turn my shoulders back early I turn into a sprinkler system, need to keep that timing together with my plant step.

Something I had figured out a while ago but sort of left behind (passively, not on purpose) as it wasn't as helpful when I couldn't brace well, you need to keep your weight ahead of your back foot/leg such that once you put your weight on your back leg, you shouldn't be working against it. If your weight is behind your back leg when you put your weight down on your back leg, it'll be harder to move forward past it and you'll be off-balance. If your weight is in front of your back leg when you put your weight on it then you'll propel yourself into the plant step. Simple stuff but I had forgotten to make note of it after I changed my brace.


Still making progress on the backhand and forehand. I'll post again whenever I'm stuck or hit a big milestone like 400' forehand or 450' (consistent) backhand. Putting got worse but doesn't it always?

 

[pjsb1]

Had some trouble bracing for a few days, I tried to work on the things I normally do to help with my brace like:
Moving my plant leg from the hip
Getting my center of mass ahead of my cross step
Keeping my feet together and knees apart as move into the plant

Nothing was working which was unusual.

It ended up being a problem I had fixed in the past by thinking "Move my leg from the hip" but that's not super specific and so I didn't totally understand what I was actually doing when I was thinking that. It turns out that what that's doing is getting my hip angle in line with my leg relative to the ground. For years when I would plant my problem was that my hip was almost straight up and down and my legs were diagonal. This would make it so that when I hit the ground with my foot, my hip would keep moving forward until my hip and my leg were at the same angle (almost straight up and down) and then I would throw from there. I suppose this is why I initially developed a throw without a real brace, so that I would just spin through it and I wouldn't have that awkward brace happen. Now if I just move my hip joint out far enough (by lifting my leg directly sideways) to match the angle I want my leg to hit the ground, I will end up with a perfect brace. I have no doubt that I had this problem to begin with due to my very narrow hips and my very long legs relative to the size of my body.

Now that I understand that on a deeper level I think it should be easier for me to make consistent throws.

I also figured out that putting is much easier if I just hold my shoulder forward as far as I can and swing from there, gives more mobility and it's easier to control everything (angles, speed, reachback). I don't think this will give me higher highs on my putting, but I think that's something that will help to think about when I have putting woes.

 

[pjsb1]

Alright time for another post about, you guessed it, bracing troubles!

In this edition it's about which way the hips are facing relative to the target when you brace. Once again, I was having trouble bracing correctly, first I was over-rotating my hips as I moved into my plant and causing my plant to be quite open and I couldn't quite brace well this way. Then the next day I worked on not letting my hips open up so early and totally over-corrected. "But what's wrong with keeping your hips closed? How can they be too closed?" Some of you may ask. Well, I figured out that when I reach back, I turn my hips back as well naturally a lot of the time. I think there's something in this thread previously about me doing that. Anyway, when I turn my hips back with my reachback, and I don't turn them back to perpendicular to the target, I end up in a position where my plant leg is almost facing away from the target and I can't plant. So by trying to correct my over-rotation I went back to under-rotating.

The simplest answer to this problem is probably to not turn my hips back with my reachback, but a lot of pros with great form turn their hips back and then turn them forward again. And I was just thinking, "why do I have this problem suddenly? How come I was fine a few days ago but this has just appeared? And what do the pros do that I'm not doing?

I think the answer is that I messed up while iwas trying to squat into my throw more. When I was doing that I wasn't applying pressure to the ground with my left leg, so when I move into the plant my hips are stuck facing back as I'm just squatting without applying force off my back leg into the throw. As for my initial problem of over rotating, I think that was just being unaware of what i was doing wrong. It was pretty easy for me to stop over-rotating once I realized what I was doing wrong. It just kinda backfired.

Now, I haven't totally worked this out but I feel i've come to a reasonable conclusion. I'll come back with an answer, and it could be that I should just keep my hips facing perpendicular to the target, but I want to see whats most comfortable for me and what works best.

 

[pjsb1]

Well, I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole. I'll start off by saying that what I was doing wrong was that I wasn't keeping my right hip turned out enough when I plant, which is something I had been doing automatically for a while since I had fixed it. When I went back to keeping my hip back I sort of forgot how to keep my right hip turned out when I plant because it had been automatic to me at that point. Then while I was realizing this I was watching old videos of me throwing before I "learned how to brace properly" and to my surprise, I was actually bracing quite well, it was just that I was bracing very late in my throw. So I went to compare my old throws to eagle mcmahon right as he braces, and then I compared my best newer throws to eagle right as he braces. It turns out in the old throws I would have my shoulders turned early and I would be pulling through by the time I'm braced, and then in the new throws I wasn't pulling through early but my shoulders were still turned early by the time I fully braced. This made me realize that the hip shoulder separation doesn't matter if you can't maintain it all the way to the brace. I needed to reachback later and activate my core more while turning my right hip out when I planted to fix this problem. I needed to get the feeling of the inside swing drill https://youtu.be/FWasFdvnGio?t=365

Now I recorded a few throws of me trying this and it caused a bunch of weird things to happen in my form, but I was throwing just as far as I was before and I think if I can hone my form while doing this I'll be able to throw farther.

Me trying new form, 2 throws both in slow-mo and full speed: https://youtu.be/8Vjn8DaKS58

Me October 2nd: https://youtu.be/8MCRKxGjdxk

Me October 25th: https://youtu.be/mfcRLRjYnQM

You can look at where my shoulders are when I'm first braced in each of these videos and see how big of a difference it is between the 2 throws from today and the 2 throws from October. Of course, the throws from October look cleaner besides that one key point.

I think this also has to do with what I need to work on for more distance in my forehand, I can definitely get more tension in my core in my forehand throw than what I have right now. Very exciting for me right now.

 

[sidewinder22]

The second one looked better with the left arm.

Can Can / Kick the Can Drill - need to make a more forward move off the rear leg.

 

[pjsb1]

Got a new video of my backhand and forehand.
https://youtu.be/z7I1Tyw7ddc

I mostly focused on cleaning up my backhand now that I changed my posture when I plant. I think I can definitely make a bigger "move" off the back leg going into the plant, but I was more focused on cleaning up some smaller stuff. I made sure to squat into the throw and shorten my plant step for the "squeeze between the knees." I also relaxed my throwing arm some.

For the forehand I really just pushed my hips forward so my butt wasn't sagging behind me and it made everything easier, I dont know if I was actually throwing any harder but the posture felt improved.

 

[sidewinder22]

BH. When you land the left foot, you start squatting/shrinking instead of extending up onto it. So you end up pushing upward off your rear leg instead of dropping and your shift gets screwy and like you stop short on the front leg.

FH. Extend your left hand pointed to the target or slightly closed to target with thumb down before you start the throw, then retract/swim like holding beverage.

Step up onto left foot into x-step.

 

[pjsb1]

Ok so I need to smooth out the x-step. Step up onto the back leg without sitting into the step. Then after, I squat into the throw and make a move off the back leg. I think that's what you mean? And also not to stop short, that was honestly something I was doing on purpose because I felt like I was taking too big a plant step. I'll try to fix the x-step and then let it fall naturally from there.

For the forehand, I know exactly what you mean. It seems like I'm doing a very abbreviated version of that. I'll work on that.

 

[sidewinder22]

Unspill the beverage FH. So you start with off arm extended and beverage poured or spilled out position and then retract into don't spill beverage position with elbow tucking into hip which should leverage your opposite shoulder/arm/disc forward into orbit around it.

 

[sidewinder22]

I think you still have some anterior pelvic tilt - S posture going on which is creating havoc. Note how your spine is more extended and chest puffed out. Note how Eagle's spine is flexed and chest caved in relaxed shoulders and pelvis tucked into strong position with abs/glutes more engaged.

 

[pjsb1]

Ok I'm pretty sure I understand the FH off-hand movement. I can sort of move my off-arm out and tuck it in at the same time as I'm moving my plant leg out. I can bring my off-arm in right as I plant.

For the backhand, if I'm understanding this correctly, I believe I should be tucking my pelvis in more (as much as I can really) and letting my shoulders sag/relax forward (I guess that's the best way to put it). Changing that might also help my high reachback I'm doing. And then also what you said before with stepping up onto my back leg.

 

[pjsb1]

Wow, the backhand instantly felt better. I realized by slouching my shoulders and pushing my pelvis forward I'm compacting my core. I could also see my shoulder's outline through my hoodie as I reached back, which is something I didn't realize almost all the pros have happen and I didn't have that. The stepping up onto the back leg and then squatting/moving into the plant could still use some work along with the off-arm I think, but changing the posture I could tell right away was helpful and I was doing something different.

https://youtu.be/5VtpHcXzyg4

For the forehand, doing the off-arm thing added A LOT of arm lag. I think it's because my shoulder joints are extremely flexible. It totally threw off my timing but I think it will add power to the throw once I figure it out. I also know I'm not doing the off-arm movement perfectly, but even when I did do it right the throw was still off.

https://youtu.be/6dqdcQH-oDg

https://imgur.com/VS4kngq

The image comes from a different throw from the video. The throw in the video was the only one that had a release resembling an actual throw. The other ones sort of fell out of my hand one way or the other because I was so thrown off.

 

[sidewinder22]

Both look a lot better!

FH - your off elbow is going behind your back and looks too rotational. Need to keep it more in front or to the side of your body and tucking more inward tightening your core up, rather than going outward/around.

 

[sidewinder22]

 

[pjsb1]

Ok, I can tighten up that movement so I'm not over-rotating. That would explain why I had too much arm lag (not something I thought would be a problem for me on forehand).

For the backhand I think I need to take it out to the field or the course to work on it more. Feels pretty great right now.