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The Method Docuseries is Live!

Joined
May 23, 2024
Messages
16
Hello all, hope you're well and enjoying the springtime!

A few months ago I posted to the main disc golf subreddit, /r/discgolf, announcing the impending arrival of a docuseries titled "The Method". This docuseries is a culmination of roughly two decades spent researching the enigma of "Pro Form". It is complete, and available online for free. I haven't spent much time on DCGR recently, but it seems there is a lengthy thread discussing the project on this forum.

Here is the main site for The Method: www.learndiscgolf.com

Since roughly 2004, I've been obsessed with understanding why 99.99% of disc golfers throw one way, and fewer than a thousand in the world throw 500 feet or farther. More importantly, I wanted to feel what they were doing in my own body. I wanted to watch the disc fly out of my hand like an artillery shell, hissing with energy.

I toiled away at this problem relentlessly, through my 20s, my 30s, and well into my 40s. I employed the advice and teachings of dozens of form gurus both online and in person. I studied my form, recorded and analyzed it hundreds of times, and threw hundreds of thousands of practice drives. I wasted months of my life hunting for lost discs in the bushes and trees at Mineral Springs Disc Golf Course here in Seattle. I employed range finders and pocket radars and high speed cameras. I didn't even actually play disc golf much, all I did was try to solve the puzzle.

None of this work made me any better, once I had plateaued in the same spot as countless others. I was stuck for over a decade throwing right around 60 MPH.

When the huge breakthrough finally came in early 2023, I knew I had to communicate my discovery to the community. I was aided in that by an incredible team of collaborators, including my documentarian and director Marc Ostrick. Marc is extremely accomplished in mass media production, he has been the chief creative force behind Discovery Channel's Shark Week since 2016. He has also directed and produced numerous shows and series on major streaming platforms. I also had help from two close friends, who are fixtures in the docuseries. When you view it, you'll see some other familiar faces as well.

The Method is a completely "Free to Play" system. The information in my work will never be monetized. The entire project is a gift to the global disc golf community, that has given me and so many people so much.

The instructive information in the series is meant for both beginners and for amateurs who are capped in their progress. In my experience, this demographic is roughly 95% of regular golfers. The 16 core videos and 10 bonus features comprise something I'm currently calling "Chapter 1" of our docuseries. Work is already well underway for Chapter 2, tentatively titled "Adding Momentum".

The Method's docuseries contains case studies featuring three disparate athletes. However, the system has completely transformed my own form as well. In the span of the roughly eight months since we filmed the documentary, I've gone from the standstill form you see on screen to this:



I'm confident my team and I can teach anyone, in almost any body, the biomechanical sequence and balance on display in that clip. I can throw the disc in the low 70 MPH range, with enough energy to exceed 550 feet. I'm able to do this at nearly 50 years of age.

I've been teaching this full system to students for free since earlier this year, with astonishing results. One of my remote students, named Jason Erbst, went from years of 400 foot stagnation to throwing over 550 feet in a little over a month. Another recent student, named Reegan, came to me from Reddit as a total beginner, with only a few rounds of golf under his belt. He was so green he couldn't even spell "McBeth" correctly. In 90 minutes of total phone instruction, and a little over a week of work, Reegan increased his driving power from 150 feet to 450 feet. His crazy growth trajectory will likely see him crossing the 500 foot threshold within a few more days.

I have a brand new Youtube page up featuring not just videos from the docuseries, but longer clips I filmed in my lab at home. Here is a link to playlist with those, I'd love to hear your feedback if you want to check some of them out:



I would have posted this announcement on /r/discgolf, but unfortunately I've been banned from there for a month for the egregious offense of linking a few of my non-monetized Youtube videos to people seeking specific form advice. The mods there are really something else, it's mystifying and frustrating. I'm hoping this community is more level-headed and tolerant of a new voice.

Thank you so much for your time, and I hope you enjoy our project. I'm immensely proud of all the people involved, and can't wait to begin work on the second chapter.

Sincerely,
Brian Weissman
 
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This place is way better than reddit. The only hidden agenda on this platform is the site owner actually responds to feedback to improve it. Lots of monotized coaches chilling round these parts and nobody has been banned for posting their own videos.
 
This place is way better than reddit. The only hidden agenda on this platform is the site owner actually responds to feedback to improve it. Lots of monotized coaches chilling round these parts and nobody has been banned for posting their own videos.
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! It's honestly a relief knowing I can post without a constant threat of being banned. I guess if I was advertising a paid system, or shilling for Techdisk it would all be kosher there :rolleyes:
 
Hello all, hope you're well and enjoying the springtime!

A few months ago I posted to the main disc golf subreddit, /r/discgolf, announcing the impending arrival of a docuseries titled "The Method". This docuseries is a culmination of roughly two decades spent researching the enigma of "Pro Form". It is complete, and available online for free. I haven't spent much time on DCGR recently, but it seems there is a lengthy thread discussing the project on this forum.

Here is the main site for The Method: www.learndiscgolf.com

Since roughly 2004, I've been obsessed with understanding why 99.99% of disc golfers throw one way, and fewer than a thousand in the world throw 500 feet or farther. More importantly, I wanted to feel what they were doing in my own body. I wanted to watch the disc fly out of my hand like an artillery shell, hissing with energy.

I toiled away at this problem relentlessly, through my 20s, my 30s, and well into my 40s. I employed the advice and teachings of dozens of form gurus both online and in person. I studied my form, recorded and analyzed it hundreds of times, and threw hundreds of thousands of practice drives. I wasted months of my life hunting for lost discs in the bushes and trees at Mineral Springs Disc Golf Course here in Seattle. I employed range finders and pocket radars and high speed cameras. I didn't even actually play disc golf much, all I did was try to solve the puzzle.

None of this work made me any better, once I had plateaued in the same spot as countless others. I was stuck for over a decade throwing right around 60 MPH.

When the huge breakthrough finally came in early 2023, I knew I had to communicate my discovery to the community. I was aided in that by an incredible team of collaborators, including my documentarian and director Marc Ostrick. Marc is extremely accomplished in mass media production, he has been the chief creative force behind Discovery Channel's Shark Week since 2016. He has also directed and produced numerous shows and series on major streaming platforms. I also had help from two close friends, who are fixtures in the docuseries. When you view it, you'll see some other familiar faces as well.

The Method is a completely "Free to Play" system. The information in my work will never be monetized. The entire project is a gift to the global disc golf community, that has given me and so many people so much.

The instructive information in the series is meant for both beginners and for amateurs who are capped in their progress. In my experience, this demographic is roughly 95% of regular golfers. The 16 core videos and 10 bonus features comprise something I'm currently calling "Chapter 1" of our docuseries. Work is already well underway for Chapter 2, tentatively titled "Adding Momentum".

The Method's docuseries contains case studies featuring three disparate athletes. However, the system has completely transformed my own form as well. In the span of the roughly eight months since we filmed the documentary, I've gone from the standstill form you see on screen to this:



I'm confident my team and I can teach anyone, in almost any body, the biomechanical sequence and balance on display in that clip. I can throw the disc in the low 70 MPH range, with enough energy to exceed 550 feet. I'm able to do this at nearly 50 years of age.

I've been teaching this full system to students for free since earlier this year, with astonishing results. One of my remote students, named Jason Erbst, went from years of 400 foot stagnation to throwing over 550 feet in a little over a month. Another recent student, named Reegan, came to me from Reddit as a total beginner, with only a few rounds of golf under his belt. He was so green he couldn't even spell "McBeth" correctly. In 90 minutes of total phone instruction, and a little over a week of work, Reegan increased his driving power from 150 feet to 450 feet. His crazy growth trajectory will likely see him crossing the 500 foot threshold within a few more days.

I have a brand new Youtube page up featuring not just videos from the docuseries, but longer clips I filmed in my lab at home. Here is a link to playlist with those, I'd love to hear your feedback if you want to check some of them out:



I would have posted this announcement on /r/discgolf, but unfortunately I've been banned from there for a month for the egregious offense of linking a few of my non-monetized Youtube videos to people seeking specific form advice. The mods there are really something else, it's mystifying and frustrating. I'm hoping this community is more level-headed and tolerant of a new voice.

Thank you so much for your time, and I hope you enjoy our project. I'm immensely proud of all the people involved, and can't wait to begin work on the second chapter.

Sincerely,
Brian Weissman


Welcome! Thanks for coming, Brian. DGCR has its strengths despite being somewhat niche these days.

You'll find that this community on average tends to be conversational, though a minority of us will tend to be quite direct about debates about fundamental mechanics.

I do so publicly because I am an academic by day trade and only care about the content, concepts, and their effects relative to high level pro motion regardless of the source. I attempt to understand, review, and critique content similar to how I approach problems in that context at DGCR. Though I'm a little goofier around here than my day job, and slightly less goofy than I am when I play disc golf.

Sometimes people become a bit... passionate around here. For my part, I generally try to take a "technically neutral" stance when evaluating concepts on the market. I only care about the mechanics.

If your intent is, as you state, primarily to help the community I'll invite you to respond to some points that were raised recently on the forum.

If you had not encountered it yet, there was an entire thread here triggered by your recent Reddit post.



You may find that thread interesting (though it meanders like threads on DGCR tend to) and choose to read it or not. Specfically, I don't mind calling out my own post after I decided to make it public. This one in particular reviews some of the actions you tend to use at some points in your demonstrated movement that conflict with other models of high-level mechanics, including balance. The relevant part begins at "All again in the spirit of curiosity/learning..."


I would be curious about your response to this critique. I would also be interested to know, if addressed, what effects they have on your movement, speed, and real-world performance.

I find it important to mention influences. My driving mechanics are coached by @sidewinder22 and I share authorship on the document we somewhat boldly called "Fundamentals of Disc Golf Backhand Form" linked in my signature. Clearly he continues to heavily influence me, but I also take it upon myself to have an independent approach to evaluating concepts and claims in disc golf mechanics. I also speak with multiple people in the coaching space from time to time.

Once again, because I find it so important these days, I will repeat that anything I ever write is never personal (unless I'm personally thanking someone). I'm always just trying to learn, too.

70mph is far from trivial no matter where it comes from, so congratulations on your development after many years of struggle.

Hoping we can chat here!
 
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Hey Brian, been awhile. Is Lee aka username slowplastic on here?

I've expressed concern about Jason's form and potential for injury on FB a few times. IMO he's way too staggered and countering with the rear leg too far behind, his rear leg is perpendicular with rear knee way behind front knee in the followthru putting more stress on the spine. Note how Simon and I have the rear leg inline/parallel allowing the lower body to pivot freely with the upper body. Hard to tell from video but I think Jason has a massive ape index/wing span.
Screen Shot 2024-05-24 at 10.47.49 AM.png
 
Hi Brian. I looked at your method video and it seems very simple. How do you generate the force that makes your rear hip rotate? Do you drop your rear side body weight down or do you use pressure from your front leg?
 
Hey there Sardonyx, thanks for your question! I'll be responding in the main thread that began in February shortly, which is long overdue. But to address your question, I've been incrementally making that weight shift from the trailing side more explosive through repetition and improved balance. If you look at my form in the docuseries, it was still a major work in progress. Back in October of last year, I could only really feel proper balance and sequencing from a standstill. On top of that, as you can clearly see in the outdoor throws, my brain is calibrating a release trajectory about 20-30 degrees to the right of the target. My form pretty much degraded as soon as I tried moving laterally, which is why you only really see me doing standstills in the film. Method 2.0 will be a different story, at least.

The reason for this is quite simple: I wasn't activating my arm enough in sequence, which was causing what people observed as "shoulder collapse", even though I would still recover into a leveraged position later. This is why I'm sort of rotating to the right a bit during the swing, rather than being over the weight of the disc and braced up against it. The camera angle I was shooting at hid a lot of the leverage mechanics in front of my body, which caused a ton of confusion for seasoned form observers. I regret not shooting from several vantage points.

I talk extensively in my Youtube videos about the idea of creating "The Bullet", so I'll refer to the inertial mass of the accelerating disc as that from now on. When you try to throw hard, whether you know if or not, your brain will look around for the bullet. Once you've felt it a few times, your brain will naturally seek it out to feel "powerful". If you're not activating your arm with the right intention to find the bullet in the proper spot, you'll go hunting for it later in the swing. This is a bit why people often get their longest distance when they "grip lock".

When we shot in October, my remedial swing mechanics forced me to hunt the bullet much later. This was the direct consequence of a gradual decoupling of what I called "dominant side intention" during the learning phase of the mechanics earlier in the year. Quite simply, the only way I could actually feel the heavy chunky leverage initially was to completely disengage the arm from the mechanism, and let my legs throw it for me. This worked to find that critical feel, but it removed a ton of energy and consequent weight from the system. This decoupling is vital to teaching beginners and amateurs how to sequence properly, in my experience. Most people first have to feel how they can leverage the weight of the arm before they can add a disc back into it.

When I throw now, as you see exhibited here, , my intention is simply "Go as hard as possible". Because I'm so well balanced, I'm able to compress my trailing side instantly into the brace, while keeping the entire mechanism linear. So my rear hip is rotating inward from that impact with the ground on the plant leg, and dynamic balance into the brace. I am de-weighted so early in the swing that my rear hip has nowhere to go but inward. I'm also taking a mental que from the impending weight of the disc, so I'm bracing up my entire frame expecting it. This causes a feedback loop, where the more I anticipate the brace and the subsequent weight of the disc, the harder my brain lets me swing to create the bullet. When you don't add enough energy to the system, your brain doesn't trust it can throw the weight of the disc and your arm hard, and the bullet becomes fuzzy or vanishes completely.

I'm going to go comment in a other thread a bit, but I hope this explanation helps somewhat. I'm happy to answer more inquiries :)
 
Hey Brian, been awhile. Is Lee aka username slowplastic on here?

I've expressed concern about Jason's form and potential for injury on FB a few times. IMO he's way too staggered and countering with the rear leg too far behind, his rear leg is perpendicular with rear knee way behind front knee in the followthru putting more stress on the spine. Note how Simon and I have the rear leg inline/parallel allowing the lower body to pivot freely with the upper body. Hard to tell from video but I think Jason has a massive ape index/wing span.
View attachment 340668
Hey Andrew, it's been a while indeed! I think your point is valid, in as much as a normal person would want to release some of the energy from the brace during follow through. One thing to consider is the co-efficient of friction in the two surfaces pictured above, Simon's grass and your smooth concrete. I suspect neither of you is planting anywhere as hard as Jason, due to not trusting the surface to hold you. Jason is throwing on a grippier surface, and his balance and sequence are so good he's able to get most of the energy from his short hop into the disc. I think he's moving in a way that's very natural and comfortable to him, the big counterweighting is a consequence of balancing all that weight out on the end of his giant whippy lever arm. He's certainly not thinking "better put my rear leg here to balance. It's just happening automatically. Jason is 6'1", so about Simon's height, and I do think his ape index is unusually high.

Right now Jason's form looks a ton like mine did a few months ago, as I was gaining balance, confidence, and slowly adding momentum. As he speeds things up and gets his brain to trust going fast while staying balanced, I think you're going to see more energy bleeding out after the disc is away. I think he will look increasingly like Sebastian the faster he goes. Speaking of Sebastian, here he is throwing around 80 MPH with enough energy to fly 700 feet. He's bracing as hard as he possibly can, but he can't put all that kinetic energy into the disc.



One thing I'm feeling right now is that the harder I go, the more the inertial mass of the disc is ripping me off the ground during the swing and follow through. It's like being attached to a discus for a second, it literally pulls you off the ground. This causes another mental que you can isolate and anticipate when you activate the plant quad, causing another energetic feedback loop. A player like Barella is the ultimate embodiment of what I'm describing.

Looking forward to chatting with you in various threads in the days to come. Thank you for all the hard work you've put in to teach the community.
 
The disc golf subreddit has been a place that's been pretty terrible for even the slightest brand, product, or service promotion - even if you follow the rules explicitly. It doesn't matter if what you're promoting is 100% disc golf related. I would promote my YouTube content within the rules and I still got some of the most hairbrained responses. Or if I brought up any common sense topic with suggestions or recommendations for improvements, and a huge chunk of responses were personal and unnecessarily destructive, and I even ended up with a stalker who created multiple accounts just to respond to me. So it's of no surprise to me you'd find resistance there. Despite the high percentage of really good people there, the fringe people there are certifiably insane, and I just don't think the mods have the heart, time, or resolve to crack down on them. I think the most visible targets are easier for them to focus on, and promotion (by design) is meant to be easily-seen. It's not that the mods are bad people, but Reddit is (by design) a "bad part of town" so it has "a high crime rate" for a lack of a better expression.
 
In other topics, I'm going to offer some constructive criticism here, and I'm mostly directing it at more of how The Method was presented over time, and less on the contents of it. Basically, from my standpoint, the way this unfolded could have been better. Content was largely released in suboptimal form on a YouTube channel that was pretty much just a personal / Magic The Gathering niche, that's completely unrelated to disc golf, and there was no changes to that channel to orient it around the new content created for it.

While I think it was good to share this information and drive engagement, I think from the beginning you should have created a "Brian Weissman: The Method" channel (or however you wanted to brand it) from the onset. I think the initial release of videos over time on The Brian Weissman channel should have come out there. Once this release came out on the second/new channel, some or all the content from the original channel appears to have been duplicated there.

In addition, when the initial release of the series came out, it was basically "everything at once" on a separate website than YouTube. I think the quality was great, from the page design, to the videos and surrounding text that essentially told a story. So I don't want my critique here to seem like I'm trying to fish for things to complain about, or ignore the substantial time, cost, and effort to produce everything. But it took me maybe a couple hours to get through all of the content. That in and of itself isn't bad. That's comparable to a movie or a TV mini series, or a good set of content to watch online. And as you say, this is only the first chapter.

However, there's no observable engagement on the site, and basically once you go through the content, you're basically done with it. Additional and bonus content can come out there over time, but it lacks a lot of the things that YouTube has to entice people to come back, who are using that ecosystem often for hours a day.

Lastly, when the final product of what appears to be this first wave of disc golf tutorial videos comes out, 1) everything previously released was removed from "The Brian Weissman" channel, and 2) 45 videos are dropped all at once on the "Brian Weissman" channel. And a day later there's a fraction of views across all videos - most with 0-1 views, and a very small number with 3 views. I'm sure the site got a lot more views and visits on the first day than this channel might receive in the first month. And that's because a lot of the promotion worked to get everyone interested to go to the website then.

I think there are lessons learned from this that can help you release the Chapter 2 series, but I think the foundation you built now could have been built better. I would say, going forward:

Release no more than a video a day on any of the sites you plan to do so, from learndiscgolf.com to your "Brian Weissman" channel. I realize you're not trying to drive a profit, and you want more reach, but I do think your reach and engagement would have been better to start producing all the same content you did on the "Brian Weissman" channel from the start, and I contend that by now that channel would have a lot more than the 9 subscribers it currently has, by now. Just looking at Social Blade that channel was created Feb 26 and I think all content from that point forward would have been best released over time there.

I would look to Overthrow and Slingshot disc golf in this content space, because regardless of the content, they did one thing extremely well: and that's producing a consistent stream of content over time that drove engagement and return visits that added up over years, and they're by far the most successful disc golf form instruction channels in terms of subscribers and views. And they have their own Patreons and YT pages set up for sustainability and success.

Scott Stokely and Paul Ulibarri had name recognition that helped drive their channel's growth, and basically any pro who produces content on even a semi-regular basis, just has to release a form video on nearly any topic, and they'll get a lot of views, clicks, comments, likes, and subscribers because of that. But they also drove a fair number of people to their training programs. You don't have that advantage, but you do have a goal of a complete disc golf training docuseries, so I think you should keep working on improving the YouTube channel, not just the learndiscgolf site.

Anyhow, I hope this criticism is received as intended. I wish you continued improvement and success, and I do want to let you know I enjoyed watching the series, and will be watching the videos on your channel that I didn't see on the site, and I'm looking forward to future content. 🙂
 
Hey Nick! I really wanted to extend my thanks for your extremely thorough, thoughtful, and well-written reply. I will consult with my marketer about your feedback, and write a comprehensive reply as soon as time allows. Suffice to say, we are just getting started, and the gradual trickle of people to my new socials should increase as we work to promote the project. We haven't spent a penny on ads, and there are many other forms of outreach and promotion planned.

Looking forward to our dialogue, have a great weekend.
 
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This place is way better than reddit. The only hidden agenda on this platform is the site owner actually responds to feedback to improve it. Lots of monotized coaches chilling round these parts and nobody has been banned for posting their own videos.

Reddit is a sess pool of soft people who will downvote you if you dont conform to the narritive they want to push.


/r/discgolf was fantastic pre-coof.

Nobody follows rediquette anymore. They just disagree downvote on anything that doesn't give them a handjob as a comment.
 
I would have posted this announcement on /r/discgolf, but unfortunately I've been banned from there for a month for the egregious offense of linking a few of my non-monetized Youtube videos to people seeking specific form advice. The mods there are really something else, it's mystifying and frustrating. I'm hoping this community is more level-headed and tolerant of a new voice.

Yeah, there is a rule about self promotion on /r/discgolf....

4. Advertisements and Self Promotion

Advertisements are not allowed unless it comes with some benefit to the /r/discgolf community. This will be enforced at the discretion of the moderators. Self-promotion is acceptable, however this will be limited to a maximum of 2 self promotion posts in the last 30 days to avoid excessive/overt promotion. Self-promotion is anything used to promote a user's website, blog, product, YouTube channel, etc.

I'm not going to sit here and defend the mods one bit, I think they are a bit... Spechul personally and don't moderate in the right ways on some topics, but just outright go banannas on others.

Self promotion is a ... weird game overall.
You're looking at trying to promote your work to help others.
But at the same time, it can get really annoying when someone looks like a walking billboard where their only responses are "go to my website" which.. regardless of if its free or not, it looks like you're trying to get money out of people.

I'm all for self promotion, but people just overdo it.

Then there are other places where no self promotion is allowed and those places die over time because people get in trouble for trying to help others. "you're self promoting."
No.. I just happen to be the only person who's made a video on this subject and they asked a question.
 
and I even ended up with a stalker who created multiple accounts just to respond to me.

I love the people who use downvote bots to get you.

Comments will be -10, then the next day when everyone is caught up, your comment karma is back to like +10.

Now.
If you really want a good time on reddit though, the best forum is /r/castiron
 
Hey Nick! I really wanted to extend my thanks for your extremely thorough, thoughtful, and well-written reply. I will consult with my marketer about your feedback, and write a comprehensive reply as soon as time allows. Suffice to say, we are just getting started, and the gradual trickle of people to my new socials should increase as we put financial weight behind the project. We haven't spent a penny on ads yet, and there are many other forms of outreach and promotion planned.

Looking forward to our dialogue, have a great weekend.

I'm upset I didn't get a rare card in my pack.
 
Hey Brian,

Would love to chat by phone sometime and get the lowdown on The Method so I can understand your system.

If you're interested message me and we can exchange phone numbers via DMs
Hey Josh! So great to hear from you, I've been a big fan of your channel and your work for years. You guys produce incredible, informative content.

I would love to chat for sure, I'll send you my phone number via DMs, and we can go from there. Hope you're having a great weekend, talk soon.

All the best,
Brian Weissman
 
I love the people who use downvote bots to get you.

Comments will be -10, then the next day when everyone is caught up, your comment karma is back to like +10.

Now.
If you really want a good time on reddit though, the best forum is /r/castiron
To continue the time honored tradition of derailing threads... don't underestimate the awesomeness of /r/pomeranians (plural, not singular).
 
Brian, not a big fan of your marketing side of things - some of the videos are brutal and you come across pretty manic. I lose patience with them fast. So I just want to skip the background and such and get right into the meat of it - which of your videos do you recommend someone that already hits 500 with poor form start with (I've always taken advantage of long levers to overcome shite form)?

My power has dipped from about 585 (25' high slight turn and ride to fade shots with Lat 64 Blitzes) to 500 as I've approached 40, and I'm eager to clean my form up and regain some of the distance through better technique.
 

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