Should I Blow Up My Form and Start Over?

[SonicGuy]

If the basket is 400 feet away, and you can only throw 375, the closest possible putt you can have is 25 feet, and that's if you land the disc exactly in line with the basket. You only have a 46 foot wide landing area if you want to be inside circle 1.

If you can throw 400 feet exactly, now you have a 60 foot wide landing area that all leaves you inside circle 1, and a perfect throw means a drop in. That seems like a significant difference to me.

It is a significant difference if you are a pro level player and you can pull off those shots. No way a touring pro can sustain sub 400' power without otherworldly putting skills. But for the rest of the tournament players, not enough people are scoring on those 400' holes to make it that big an advantage. Going from the 46' wide landing area to the 60' area only results in a marginal stroke advantage.

This is all semantics. If you could simply choose to throw 375 vs. 400, clearly you would choose to throw longer. But I wouldn't be choosing the 400 distance primarily to reach those 400' holes, because even with my newly minted 400' power I still wouldn't cash them consistently. Instead, the 400' power would allow me to throw my putters and mids on longer holes, and would allow me to take more creative lines on those finesse 300' holes.

 

[drk_evns]

What a great discussion!

I should mention, I'm 6' 4-5" and played sports almost my entire life. I'm a big dude, so I'm sure some of that translates to distance. That being said, I still think 400' is pretty fair for average Joe.

My furthest drive on flat ground no wind is 519'. That's a driver on forced flex line.

I can reliably throw big hyzers (relatively high golf line and hyzer the whole way) with drivers that land at 400-425 feet. I just recently started getting more accurate with this distance, and I'm starting to see it pay off a lot. I can throw 500 feet, but that doesn't translate to a bunch of birdies on 450 foot holes. It translates to throwing hyzers on 400 foot par 3s that I was trying to reach (usually unsuccessfully) with a flex before.

Obviously I did it this way so I'm biased, but the more distance the better. If your maximum distance goes up so does your maximum reliable hyzer distance.

Rest your shoulder until it's 100%. I had a small injury that lingered for months that I'm just recovered from. I had just "cracked" my form before that so it was really hard not to throw. It sucks.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I have a feeling I won't be able to stay away from putting league this Saturday. Shoulder feels just fine now. I'll be paying close attention to Sidewinder's videos before I set out for the field this time.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I think a lot of the discussion is more about if the risk to injury and potentially lost time and interest is worth trying to gain another amount of distance that may or may not actually help scores.

In my case, YES, another 50 feet will be absolutely significant. Somebody who's already 960-rated will likely get better and score better from more consistency with what they already have, better course management, and better putting. But me? It ought to drop my scores from where they are a lot. That's why I'm motivated to do this.

 

[sidewinder22]

I think a lot of the discussion is more about if the risk to injury and potentially lost time and interest is worth trying to gain another amount of distance that may or may not actually help scores.

In my case, YES, another 50 feet will be absolutely significant. Somebody who's already 960-rated will likely get better and score better from more consistency with what they already have, better course management, and better putting. But me? It ought to drop my scores from where they are a lot. That's why I'm motivated to do this.

IME typically better form = less injury risk. Throw same distance with half the effort.

Practice/compete with a learned attitude of indifference to the result. Focus on the process of getting to the goal/improvement, rather than focusing on a goal number and whether you hit or not.

 

[drk_evns]

FULLY agree with SW. The only reason I was getting hurt is because I was strong arming the disc.

Good form shouldn't cause pain. It feels pretty fluid.

That being said, if you already have an injury, even good form can agitate it. I tried to start playing again too early and prolonged the injury longer than it needed to be.

Wait until you feel zero pain to throw, and make sure you warm up.

 

[drk_evns]

IME typically better form = less injury risk. Throw same distance with half the effort.

Practice/compete with a learned attitude of indifference to the result. Focus on the process of getting to the goal/improvement, rather than focusing on a goal number and whether you hit or not.

Sorry for double post but this is a great tip for your practice "mental game."

It's a lot harder to do than it sounds, however. Some days I couldn't help but get frustrated with regression.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Just went outside (briefly because it's cold and WINDY) to putt and tossed a couple of 150-footers with understable putters on my way to the basket. Felt great. Going to be too busy to do much else all weekend other than go to putting league, and that's only if the ice storm doesn't happen.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Practice/compete with a learned attitude of indifference to the result. Focus on the process of getting to the goal/improvement, rather than focusing on a goal number and whether you hit or not.

I think maybe the biggest challenge will be recognizing the difference between natural not-yet good results because I'm doing it right and on the way there versus not good results because I'm not doing it right.

That's probably where my kids and their video-taking gadgets will be essential.

 

[UhhNegative]

I think maybe the biggest challenge will be recognizing the difference between natural not-yet good results because I'm doing it right and on the way there versus not good results because I'm not doing it right.

That's probably where my kids and their video-taking gadgets will be essential.

Yeah video is king. Even when you feel like you are doing something right, sometimes you aren't. My bag has a little mini pocket up top and I can usually film by holding my phone in there. Or you can buy a little $10 phone tripod or something like that. Then just get the kids to upload to youtube or something and post for review.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I dug into as many of the videos Sidewinder posted during my lunch break as I could, then I walked around weight-shifting for the rest of the work night!

 

[sidewinder22]

I dug into as many of the videos Sidewinder posted during my lunch break as I could, then I walked around weight-shifting for the rest of the work night!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1qav60rRSY#t=2m20s

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Got out and did 90 putter standstills today. First non-putting throws I've done this year. They didn't all feel right especially at first but I got better and better as the session went on.

I think in my old form when I did my reach back it was out a little too wide from me and I didn't realize it. Today I concentrated on pulling the Disc back so it would be more in line with where my chest and the power pocket will be and that helped a lot.

It's still weird concentrating on my hips instead of my arm. Going to keep working at it until it doesn't feel weird.

I've never in my life been able to power grip a putter, but for some reason today it felt right and good. Maybe good form is necessary for this? I was getting my best ones out to 200' cleanly today and that NEVER happened with my old form.

Hooray, I think I'm off to a good start!

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

A local pro at putting league last night gave me some tips for my putter standstills. One of them was very helpful, having my front heel up in the air then bringing it down to help shift the weight and that worked great in my field session this morning. Another tip I wasn't so sure about, hunching over somewhat during the throw. I've seen a lot of talk about being more upright and that's what I'm going to stick with for now.

I got some of the putters out to 79 paces today, the ones that felt real clean. Super happy with that!

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I got a tripod and figured out how to record myself. Here I am after over 1,000 throws so far in March. You can see I have a lot to work yet to do. (I'm already throwing these putters from a standstill as far or farther than I did mids with a full x-step last year, though!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bpm7e_Dru8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1AtJ_4MCgCiM7p29bOAuwn0l2XJ0K_uxJYpIZc5UCf2Bhlm6uj1UIZ8RQ

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

...a lot OF work yet to do.

Didn't catch that in time to edit!

 

[sidewinder22]

You seem overly concerned about your backswing or reachback since you never address yourself or swing forward to the hit/target. You are over-reaching back and swinging out of your shoes. I'm only looking away from target for a split second to watch my disc going to the top of the backswing. Pumping/swinging forward before the backswing really helps with a lot of things. Don't be afraid to let the disc swing.

Your stance is turned too backward and when you go to plant your front heel it starts spinning further away from target instead of striding targetward.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Thanks a million, Sidewinder!! I'll be back with more video when I successfully address these issues.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

when you go to plant your front heel it starts spinning further away from target instead of striding targetward.

Now that you mention it, my best ones tend to go about 30-50' right and I keep wondering why I end up facing that direction. I was guessing that maybe I was rounding a little. Thank you for that analysis too!

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I had a limited amount of time to throw 50 or 60 in the field behind my house before lunch and heading to work here. I focused on making it look more like yours. No power at first, but by the end of the session I was feeling it and even got a few out to about 230! (Granted, with a tail wind, but still, they felt great)...