Swinging upward nose down.

sidewinder22

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Ezra giving a good tip or demonstration of swinging downward nose up vs swinging upward nose down.

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Mostly makes sense, but I don't get the idea of starting your reachback low and going on an upward trajectory in order to get the disc nose down. Seem like a lower start with an upward angled pull would make it harder to get the nose down?!@?!@?

(unless I use my Comet and then every throw obeys my every command)
 
Mostly makes sense, but I don't get the idea of starting your reachback low and going on an upward trajectory in order to get the disc nose down. Seem like a lower start with an upward angled pull would make it harder to get the nose down?!@?!@?
Think about how your wrist naturally lags behind your swing. If you are swinging downward your wrist will lag upward/nose up. If you are swinging upward your wrist will lag downward/nose down.
 
I really like this guy.

Great technique and knows how to teach it and I'm a big fan of short easy to digest one item at a time form videos. Sense of humour too which never hurts!

Looking forward to more and more on tour as well.
 
This gets exaggerated when slower discs are thrown. If you watch how Ulibarri throws a mid, the apex of his throw happens maybe 1/3 or less into the flight. Spin takes over after that. Same flight shape as Heimburg's putt. The most exaggerated version is a high release backhand in ultimate, a classic break throw which gets done with a straight arm and is released above shoulder height.
 
Great tip by Ezra. However, I see a lot of pros throwing with a "dip-" as in, starting high in the back swing and swinging down into the hit. Thinking of Seppo Paju, Calvin Heimburg, and Ricky. Am I seeing that right?
 
Great tip by Ezra. However, I see a lot of pros throwing with a "dip-" as in, starting high in the back swing and swinging down into the hit. Thinking of Seppo Paju, Calvin Heimburg, and Ricky. Am I seeing that right?

So these guys are using gravity to accelerate the arm during the throw. Pendulum/Dingle Arm style to varying degrees. When the disc leaves their hand, the nose is down relative to the angle it begins its flight. What Ezra is trying to help prevent is essentially air bouncing the disc on release which will eat a big percentage of distance off every shot unintentionally. His tips on low reachback and the disc being level with forearm are his best methods for preventing that. Any of the guys you mentioned obviously have no problem with distance :D.

Feldberg is the most extreme example opposite of Ezra I can think of for this idea. Despite a "high" reachback, he releases the disc on a slightly upward trajectory with the nose of the disc angled slightly down. Still following the basics of Ezra's advice, just using his natural swing.

 
Great tip by Ezra. However, I see a lot of pros throwing with a "dip-" as in, starting high in the back swing and swinging down into the hit. Thinking of Seppo Paju, Calvin Heimburg, and Ricky. Am I seeing that right?

Yes, it's absolutely possible to have a nose-down release from a high reach-back. Ultimately, the path the disc takes into the power pocket doesn't matter much as long as everything else is moving in the right directions.

Ezra's tip is great que to counter-act the common amateurs' mistake of swinging down when we mean to swing "flat". When someone with the bad habit of chopping down on their swing tries to implement the low reach-back and high follow through, they usually end up with a much flatter swing, and the body naturally tilts the nose down. It's almost a psychological trick.
 
Would it be fair to say that a proper nose down throw is a mini reverse air bounce? As in, instead of bouncing downwards to upwards/flatter, it bounces against the top of the disc, from upwards to flatter?
 
That is too much nose down, but not a bad thing to exaggerate for drill.
 
There is a video out there that advocates what I think is an external shoulder rotation component to getting nose up. I can't link to it from this system but maybe after work.

At any rate, he shows the disc being dangled vertically from the hand on the back swing, and the back edge flipping upwards as the disc rotates onto plane during the throw. Sort of a pronate to suppinate thing i guess, but consciously done.

The thing is, when I watch video of pros throwing I don't really see that happening, but then it's a 3D swing so I'm not sure.
 
Ezra giving a good tip or demonstration of swinging downward nose up vs swinging upward nose down.

QKASDtt.png


Can someone explain HOW this is reality? I've NEVER understood how these photos make any sense. All I see is the first guy with his disc nose down, and PP's disc nose up right before the discs launches from their hand. And I understand that the body balance, swing plane, body positions, etc make a difference. But just looking at the two discs right before they come out, the guy on the left has his disc nose down, and PP is nose up. If I were to just look at this and not know anything about throwing a disc (which sometimes I still don't think I know as much as I should, haha), it looks like PP will throw that disc into the stratosphere, and the guy on the left right into the ground.

So how does this work out in reality, because I obviously know PP's throw is not going to be nose up, but I just don't understand how this works, and something I still continue to not understand or know how to correct.

Doesn't matter how perfect I put the disc in my hand and grip it, then tilt my wrist down, I usually throw with some tiny or medium amount of nose up and know I'm loosing distance from it. It feels SO awkward to try and tilt your wrist down, hold on to the disc tight (but somehow keep a loose arm and grip till the last sec) and throw a great shot. NONE of the disc golf swing feels natural or powerful and continues to baffle me, haha.
 
Think of the nose angle when they are extending. If the guy on the left swings his arm out, the part of the disc that's pointed at the target would be nose up. If PP extends her arm, the front of the disc pointed at the target would be nose down.
 
Nose angle is relative to trajectory, not the ground.

When you swing downward, the only way not to throw into the ground is for the disc to be released nose up relative to it's downward trajectory and you get the classic airbounce where the disc needs a lot of lift to reach it's apex and stalls out from all that lift induced drag and will not penetrate or glide forward on the way down from it's apex.

When you swing upward with the nose down relative to trajectory it is more like tossing a ball to it's apex and doesn't need much lift if any and therefore doesn't slow down nearly as much without lift induced drag and can carry much more speed through the apex and glide out nose down on the way down.

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There are some weird directions this one goes, but I wonder about the actual forearm rotation into the hit.

Thing is, I don't see that rolling in the pros, but they do flip from vertical to on plane.

 
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