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Right-handed player learning to throw LHBH

Thediscgolferguy

Par Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2022
Messages
138
I've decided to really try to commit to learning LHBH, one reason is because I'm a form nerd and I'm just curious what the journey of learning it will be like and what I can learn from it. I also would like to be able to use it on the course (especially hyzers) since I believe the distance potential to be much larger than my forehand distance, and regardless of that throwing backhand with good technique should also be better for the body long term then throwing max power forehands.

What I've learned so far: Throwing lefty is super weird in the beginning, not only the arm throwing motion but everything else in the throw as well. I started doing shadow swings a lot in the beginning of this year, just getting used to the left arm throwing something, doing the X-step, bracing etc.. What I really like when working on my lefty is just to do a righty shadow swing first and then try to mirror it with my lefty, that really helps me get the right feel for it and gives me a really felt sense of how to do something that I'm working on.

I even do the opposite at times, there are a few things in my right-handed swing that I feel are just bad habits hard to break that have not been cemented into my lefty form, so when trying to break a specific bad habit with my righty I can do a lefty swing and feel what I'm doing differently. I've also experienced that changing something in my lefty form is generally much easier to correct, probably because of the lack of the engrained patterns because of way fewer throws with my lefty compared to my righty.

The conclusion is that I find learning lefty can help my right-handed backhand form; specifically, to get rid of habitual bad patterns, on the other hand already being able to throw righty fairly well it's not that hard to translate it to the left arm with a lot of shadow swings, analysis, patience and some throwing here and there.

What I've done: I started with shadow swings at home to get the body used to the swing, after a month or two of that I started doing short upshots from (20 - 50 meters) to get the body used to throwing a disc with the left arm. Then I've had a few months break but the last two months I've started to work on my lefty throwing form again mostly doing form work inside and sometimes doing fieldwork on a field. When I do form work I always record and review after a few throws, since my lefthanded form is so fresh and does not have a lot of engrained motions yet, my form can vary a bit from day to day, so at this stage, I'm trying to always review and see what I need to work on in order to efficiently learn good technique without battling bad habits that can easily get formed.

What needs work?

In my opinion, I see that I need to work a bit on getting the disc into my pocket with my hand on the outside of the disc more, as I tend to drag the disc a bit, my left arm can also be more active and get tighter to my body. That's a few things that stick out to me now in my current form. I'd love to get some input if there are other elements I should focus on at this point.

Side view:



Back view:






 
You are leaking too over your toes and going outside your posture. If your shoes have a raised heel that might be part of the issue being on the toes instead planting more into the heel - Crush the Can. You need to push your lead buttcheek back into wall in Buttwipe drill and push your frontside back away from the wall in Inside Swing Drill into power pocket(the wall will be in the way for swinging out of power pocket). Note how Simon centers everything right over the foot and Inside.
Screen Shot 2023-09-24 at 4.15.02 PM.png
 
You are leaking too over your toes and going outside your posture. If your shoes have a raised heel that might be part of the issue being on the toes instead planting more into the heel - Crush the Can. You need to push your lead buttcheek back into wall in Buttwipe drill and push your frontside back away from the wall in Inside Swing Drill into power pocket(the wall will be in the way for swinging out of power pocket). Note how Simon centers everything right over the foot and Inside.
View attachment 319142


My shoes are flat so should not be a problem, I'll try to stay more inside posture and get that glute into the "wall" as I brace.
 
I used to take 4 discs on my private home course and throw one of them rhbh, one rhfh, one lhbh, and one lhfh. Kept score and rhfh and lhbh remained virtually equal. Both rhfh and lhbh got better over time and at the same pace, but neither ever got close to as good as rhbh. Ymmv. Main benefit was I had more stance options for getting out of trouble.
 

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