The Method Docuseries is Live!

[Brian Weissman]

Haha, understood Chris! I am who I am, and I know that can sometimes be a bit much for people. It's the same way in person, and always has been. Basically, the urge to story tell is overwhelming, at all times. It's a constant torrent I have to temper through willpower and discipline. A bit of a blessing/curse kind of thing.

If you can throw 500 feet now and you used to throw 85 feet farther, it's probably two things. First, it's your brain throttling your force output, in a protective way, as you've aged. There is a critical biomechanical feedback loop between creating lower and upper body offset through momentum, and the way that offset shortens the acceleration interval of the disc. The shorter you can make what I call "T" in that equation for G-forces, the heavier the throwing lever and the disc become. The heavier you make that mechanism, the more your brain will understand it can lay into it with your whole body without breaking something.

My guess on the second reason is that as you've gotten older, your instincts to protect your body are causing changes to how you move to stay in balance. If you become protective of your body in any way compared to your youth, your brain will make micro-adjustments to retrain your movement algorithms. The consequence of this is that your old balance positions won't work anymore, you'll be slightly off-balance during different stages in your footwork. This has disastrous and amplifying consequences down the road.

So I suspect you need to retrain new balance, to the point where you can confidently go hard again. When you can swing harder with confidence, the biomechanical leverage feedback loop reappears, and you can "Find the Bullet" again in your drivers.

To that end, three videos for that:

How to properly X-step Part 1. The left side frame.

How to properly X-step Part 2. The pesky back foot

Feeling the Bullet. How to adjust angle of attack to throw full power in a straight line.

On a side note, congratulations for throwing 500 feet at 40 years of age, and for almost hitting 600 in the past! Those are incredible accomplishments, putting you way inside the 99.99th percentile among global disc golfers.

Work on Method Chapter 2 is already underway, and I'll be making formalized video versions of most of my instructional series. These will have the same production value as the first series, and my director will edit down all the words to temper my garrulous instincts.

 

[Sheep]

Haha, understood Chris! I am who I am, and I know that can sometimes be a bit much for people. It's the same way in person, and always has been. Basically, the urge to story tell is overwhelming, at all times. It's a constant torrent I have to temper through willpower and discipline. A bit of a blessing/curse kind of thing.

Don't worry, I cruise around in that boat also. Just people tend to get sour with me over it.

Enjoy the love you getting. =)

 

[Kennets]

Hi Brian. In glad to see you here on dgcoursereview.

I know my tone with you have been harsh and i apologize. It's to easy to talk smack on the interwebs and i should have kept a civil tone.

A few questions and keep in mind that it's not a dig, more of a question of me understanding stuff.

1. Did you switch the "method" from a "rear foot twist" to a "rear thigh twist ish" thing in the last few weeks or am i hallucinatiting.

2. Do you think that "the method" is something people need to conscious do or would you believe its a byproduct of a well established brace and posture? Or right in the middle?

3. Do we actually need to "snap" the rear side (hips/whatever) to add momentum to our throw? And how much more momentum do YOU feel it adds to YOUR throw.

While you shortly say "do the method after you brace" i think you need to put more emphasis on it in the future, since people will look at it as a "squish the bug" move.

You "advertise" that it could yield nearly everybody a good amount of distance, im curious. How would you approach teaching it to a guy like me for example? 6.1, long levers with a decent amount of chronic pain issues in neck/back. Would "the method" classify as a "effortless" throw or more in the Athletic/violent throw?

 

[Jaani]

It's astonishing that the back leg disc golf style just won't die.

First it was the Spin and Throw, which faded away. Josh and I were aboard that, too, for a brief moment.

Then it was and still is the Slingshot, and now The Method.

Again, I really don't care if people want to twist and jerk their limbs and it makes them feel better. If it helps, go for it. I'm just curious why the most simple and easy solution is so often so neglected.

 

[TiltedFlipCurves]

All I have to say is that you may need to make it clear this is not Scott Stokley's Disc Golf Method.

 

[ChrisWoj]

[COLOR=var(--text-lighter)]2. Do you think that "the method" is something people need to conscious do or would you believe its a byproduct of a well established brace and posture? Or right in the middle?[/COLOR]

I don't think I have encountered an expert on the mental side of sports that has promoted being conscious of your form while in the act, if that's what you're asking. Obviously you're asking Brian, but man I hope he's all for drill it until you dont have to think about it anymore!

 

[Kennets]

I don't think I have encountered an expert on the mental side of sports that has promoted being conscious of your form while in the act, if that's what you're asking. Obviously you're asking Brian, but man I hope he's all for drill it until you dont have to think about it anymore!

English aren't my first language, so bare with me.

Everything becomes muscle memory at some point (ish), but there is a vast difference between "firing" the offside (think "double move") in any manner, that being the foot, leg, thigh, arm, whatever like trent advocates, or having the offside reacting due to a brace/posture/whatever. One a happening as a byproduct of other mechanics, one is initiated/assisted. Does that makes sense? Its hard for me to explain properly.

I just wanted to know if Brian leans more to a "back leg disc golf baby, gotta stay Athletic" approach or what. Its hard to tell from a 8 minute long video.

 

[ChrisWoj]

English aren't my first language, so bare with me.

Everything becomes muscle memory at some point (ish), but there is a vast difference between "firing" the offside (think "double move") in any manner, that being the foot, leg, thigh, arm, whatever like trent advocates, or having the offside reacting due to a brace/posture/whatever. One a happening as a byproduct of other mechanics, one is initiated/assisted. Does that makes sense? Its hard for me to explain properly.

I just wanted to know if Brian leans more to a "back leg disc golf baby, gotta stay Athletic" approach or what. Its hard to tell from a 8 minute long video.

I suppose that makes sense. For me all the thinking is pre-runup. I don't want to think about initiation/assisting or anything. I just want to feel the disc in space and rip it through space. If I'm thinking about initiating, I'm probably going to be inconsistent with my release.

 

[Brian Weissman]

Hey Kennet, good to meet you!

No worries on tone or whatever, I understand we all enjoy sparring online, as it livens up the process and keeps things interesting. I can be adversarial too, but generally only when I'm pushing back against deliberate, selfish duplicity and outright lying. Not much of that is going on in disc golf, thankfully.

To address your questions:

"1. Did you switch the "method" from a "rear foot twist" to a "rear thigh twist ish" thing in the last few weeks or am i hallucinating."

One important thing to understand is that the videos presented in Chapter 1 of the series are meant to be extremely remedial. They're meant for either total beginners, or for people who have thrown a while without any kind of bracing, and have that habit so deeply-ingrained they're in need of complete reprogramming. I don't know if you've taken the time to read any of the video descriptions on the website, but I go into specific detail about why The Method is different, and why it's so effective.

Instead of typing up the whole idea, I'll paste what I wrote for chapter four of the series:

"The chief insight of The Method is that in order to learn a new motor skill as an adult, you first have to start fresh in the brain. The instant you stand on a tee pad, your adult habits and your "handedness" betray you.

You're used to doing everything in your life with your dominant side, but you cannot begin the disc golf swing with your arm. If you do that, you get your upper body ahead of your legs, and you accelerate the disc slowly. When a light object accelerates slowly, it doesn't gain any extra weight. This is a problem, because your brain doesn't trust it can add energy to a light object.

This video shows you how you can begin to reprogram your brain, to remove your adult instincts and find the organic feel a child might find naturally. It shows how to perform the simplest motion, a one-legged twist with the trailing hip into the balanced and stable dominant leg. The Method teaches a feel, it's a bit like riding a bike for the first time. If you learn to do that exact motion correctly, and find that feel, you can then build on it to create an organic swing.

Once you create that swing, you will quickly understand how to add energy to it with your legs. That increases the acceleration, which in turn increases the weight of the disc. Once the disc gets heavy, your brain will understand when it can add energy with the throwing arm, and the whole mechanism comes together in an instant."

Looks can be deceiving. From a normal vantage point, an intention of twisting the back foot and twisting the trailing hip look basically the same. You can't peer inside a person's neurology to see what they're doing, you can only look at the result. But I assure you, I've been teaching a hip activation this whole time. If you watch my tutorials with my case studies, you'll see me telling them they MUST be on the tippy toe of their back foot the whole time. This puts 99% of their weight onto their brace leg, and makes "squishing the bug" impossible. The entire purpose of the exercise is to let the throwing arm and shoulder move in sequence from what the back leg is doing, which is vital for keeping the mechanism free of tension. Any focus on any part of the arm mechanics will immediately find the dominant side of the brain wresting control, and from that point you're basically fucked. You'll grip the disc tightly, your head will come forward early, your shoulder will collapse, and your arm will fill with tension. You'll instantly regress to subroutines you built before, that prevent you from sequencing properly and generating leverage and weight.

2. "Do you think that "the method" is something people need to conscious do or would you believe its a byproduct of a well established brace and posture? Or right in the middle?"

Actually, it's neither. All The Method is, as it's currently taught in chapter one, is a path to a specific feel. It forces a person into a balanced frame with all their weight on their plant leg. From there, assuming they keep the upper body completely loose and free of tension, they can create a swing in their arm by focusing their intention on that trailing leg twist. If they can reproduce what I'm demonstrating while staying perfectly balanced, they'll feel how their arm swings on its own. That is the critical first step that unlocks everything else. As they play around with that swing, and start doing it a bit more aggressively, they will feel weight in their throwing arm and hand for the very first time. This weight is the consequence of biomechanical leverage, it is a feeling you cannot get unless you sequence properly. That heaviness is the key to everything, it gives your brain cues about when to actually engage the arm and upper body to add power at the right time.

Another big reason The Method works is because it helps you write a brand new subroutine in your brain, that begins on the non-dominant motor control side. By the time you're an adult, you've used the dominant side of your brain so much it will automatically activate the instant you even think of holding or throwing a golf disc. No matter your intention, it will take over and it will not let you find the brace or the sequence. The Method has you focus on a part of your body controlled by the other side of the brain, so you can begin to write an entirely new subroutine there. Once you've started writing that new subroutine, you can layer better balance and more momentum on top of it until you're bombing the disc 500 feet or farther.

I am a huge advocate of doing drills and working on body positions without a disc. You can learn so many good intentions and habits simply by leveraging the weight of your arm. Once you have that locked in, you start adding the weight of the disc to the mechanism, and once you've "found the bullet" with the weight of the disc, you can start adding momentum. As long as you stay perfectly balanced at all stages of your footwork, the added momentum will actually make things much easier. More momentum increases the critical offset between the upper and lower body, which decreases the acceleration interval of the disc. The faster you can accelerate it, the heavier it gets, and the harder your brain will trust it can lay into it.

3. "Do we actually need to "snap" the rear side (hips/whatever) to add momentum to our throw? And how much more momentum do YOU feel it adds to YOUR throw."

The idea of "snapping" the rear side is simply a mental queue for beginners in standstill, to help the non-dominant side of their brains begin the sequence. I even have people close their eyes and form a mental picture of their trailing leg. When they focus on that, and it becomes the catalyst for all the subsequent mechanics, they have laid the first foundation of what will eventually be a biomechanically-correct throw. There are no shortcuts here, it has to be done incrementally, and if you've spent years ingraining the wrong mechanics, it may take a while.

When I throw now, after a steady eight months of practice since we shot the docuseries, my only focus is "Swing the disc as hard as I can to form the bullet where I want it to appear". Everything in the lower body, from the X-step, to the backswing, to the bracing of the off arm is a direct consequence of my intention to swing hard. This is because my brain understands it's about to push all my kinetic energy into the disc, and it anticipates that by bracing up against the impending weight. My mechanics basically look like Paul Mcbeth's now, at nearly every stage of my footwork and swing. I guarantee you Paul is only thinking "Throw the disc hard down my intended line" when he starts his run up. Everything is autonomic from that point onward.

To answer your final question, how "violent" you are has a ton to do with how far you intend to throw. Because of the critical feedback loop between "violence" and heaviness, you can only get so much result by trying to be delicate. If you look at Mcbeth throw, you'll see his biomechanics rarely change, whether he's throwing a 550 foot bomb or whether he's throwing a 250 foot upshot. He does the same swing, with the same tempo every time. The difference is that he has figured out all sorts of ways to bleed energy out of the system, so that the disc doesn't come out as fast. Watch Paul throw a lighter touch shot, and pay attention to what he does with his brace leg. You'll notice he keeps it completely bent the whole time, and he never stands up. But the leverage is all still there perfectly, even when he's essentially doing a standstill.

My co-collaborator Lee Wence's approach to his mechanics focusing entirely on efficiency and economy of movement. Where Sebastian and I are more athletic and powerful, Lee's form is so delicate it barely looks like he's even doing anything. Yet he can throw 420-430 on a rope with an 11-speed, and he can thread tunnels effortlessly. It really depends on what your goal is, whether you want to simply play great golf, or whether you want to impress onlookers.

Okay, that's nearly 2000 words typed up here, I'm going to move on to some of the other questions. Thanks so much for your curiosity, I hope others on this forum can benefit from what I've written.

Talk later man, be well.

 

[Brian Weissman]

It's astonishing that the back leg disc golf style just won't die.

First it was the Spin and Throw, which faded away. Josh and I were aboard that, too, for a brief moment.

Then it was and still is the Slingshot, and now The Method.

Again, I really don't care if people want to twist and jerk their limbs and it makes them feel better. If it helps, go for it. I'm just curious why the most simple and easy solution is so often so neglected.

Hey Jaani. Have you watched the videos in the series, and specifically paid attention to the three case studies in the middle? If you haven't, please go listen carefully to what I'm explaining as I'm teaching those three people. They have 99% of their weight on their plant leg, and are only perching on the very tippy toe of their back leg. I am having them divert all their attention to the back leg, because to do otherwise allows the dominant side of their brain and all that ingrained habituation to take over. If you let the dominant side of your brain run the show, you'll begin with tension in the throwing arm, the neck, and in the head long before you begin to sequence properly.

I only have people focus on internally twisting the trailing hip for a little while, just long enough for them to feel how that intention causes the loose throwing arm to move on its own. Once they start to feel that, it's like riding a bicycle for the first time. When their arm is loose and it's accelerated by the trailing hip, it gains weight rapidly. That weight provides a mental que they can add to, first by extending the plant quad in sequence, and then later by swinging the arm again hard under leverage.

I do think you're being a bit presumptive about what we're teaching here by comparing The Method to Spin and Throw and to Slingshot Disc Golf. Neither of the people associated with those projects had any understanding about the underlying physics, so they don't even know what they're describing to their audiences. Bradley Walker, the guy behind Spin and Throw, couldn't even produce any biomechanical leverage in his swing. Like so many form instructors out there, he literally had no idea what he was talking about, and it's no surprise the system was worthless to almost anyone.

I have a call scheduled with Josh later today, and I hope to give him some thorough explanations of what I've been up to. Will report back later on, thanks for your feedback!

 

[Brian Weissman]

All I have to say is that you may need to make it clear this is not Scott Stokley's Disc Golf Method.

It's literally called "Brian Weissman's The Method" all over the website. I think that avoids any confusion about trademarks

 

[Nick Carroll]

So I want to preface what I say here is that I am personally not interested in form coach vs form coach drama - especially if it's intentional. We all realize that controversy can drive people to watch these videos, read posts, etc. But that benefits students the least. I'd prefer "101+ feet gained with this one simple trick" to that personally, because at least that drives the intended audience to view.

With that said, Bradley (Spin and Throw), Coach T (Slingshot) weren't/aren't completely in the dark about what they were teaching, but some of what they taught didn't line up with conventional theory (which in and of itself has evolved). That said there are a lot of people they helped over the years, even with some flawed material, and they don't execute exactly what they teach. I would throw Josh (Overthrow) in that camp, too, and I bet most good coaches today had a rough time when they first taught.

Every one of these coaches have tried their best, and some more than others have evolved, and I think that's ultimately what we want to see what happens. Are some of them still teaching flawed mechanics? Probably most are to some extent. But I am amazed how how so many students and learners seem to work past those imperfections, and I think the form community (such as it is) would benefit more from promoting what they think works, make allowances for things that work for some (if not others), and focus on being respectful over disagreement.

 

[Kennets]

Thank your for your time Brian, i appreciate your (long) answer. It doesnt seem that we disagree that much on stuff.

I'll go more in depth with a response later, when im back home.

 

[Sheep]

So I want to preface what I say here is that I am personally not interested in form coach vs form coach drama - especially if it's intentional. We all realize that controversy can drive people to watch these videos, read posts, etc. But that benefits students the least. I'd prefer "101+ feet gained with this one simple trick" to that personally, because at least that drives the intended audience to view.

With that said, Bradley (Spin and Throw), Coach T (Slingshot) weren't/aren't completely in the dark about what they were teaching, but some of what they taught didn't line up with conventional theory (which in and of itself has evolved). That said there are a lot of people they helped over the years, even with some flawed material, and they don't execute exactly what they teach. I would throw Josh (Overthrow) in that camp, too, and I bet most good coaches today had a rough time when they first taught.

Every one of these coaches have tried their best, and some more than others have evolved, and I think that's ultimately what we want to see what happens. Are some of them still teaching flawed mechanics? Probably most are to some extent. But I am amazed how how so many students and learners seem to work past those imperfections, and I think the form community (such as it is) would benefit more from promoting what they think works, make allowances for things that work for some (if not others), and focus on being respectful over disagreement.

There is a bit of a miss-understanding as always as everyone always looks to defend themselves and not necessarily listen to others. Which.. the listening part is tough for everyone. I know I forget to, and I definitely watch others not listen to what I say constantly. Part of that comes from the inability of everyone to understand that not everyone speaks the same. Not everyone communicates as "kindly" as you want them to, or as "soft and wordy" as you want them to. They are more interested in being offended than trying to understand. I personally just give up trying to understand when I can see someone is more interested in disliking how I say it vs what I'm saying. Because they have went emotional with their argument.

We really need to ask more questions and be mentors to each other, but instead were a bunch of turds slingers. Such as one of my grips when I can clearly see someone doesn't understand me is they start attacking me, vs trying to understand what I'm saying. I'm flat guilty of it as well.

So, above here, Brian isn't understanding what Jaani is saying about spin and throw and double move mechanics.

He's making a reference to new coaches beating a dead horse over and over and over and over again. And when it's called out, its a huge fight. Every time. So instead of asking questions, he went into defense mode.

A majority of the conventional theory we have now is from building off other research and mechanics from other sports, watching pro players be successful and figuring out with big brain power what works.
I dont know spin and throw much, but I can say that Coach T does understand some things better than other coaches for sure, but his methodology was flawed. Which is a case a lot of the other newer coaches out there have that people get bent at me for pointing out. Which is not really understanding the root of the issues, then teaching it in a fashion of a reaction in the swing as an initiator in the swing. Which is why people generally hit squish the bug phases in their teaching. Or just don't quite have the knowledge giving form reviews to understand what is causing the glaring issue.

So in the end, does Brian's method work? no idea. I can't get passed the constant sales pitch and "trust me, I know what I'm saying." And.. I'm not trying to say Brian is dumb. He doesn't seem dumb to me. Overly enthusiastic for sure. What I see is someone speaking like I do about a topic and being rewarded for it constantly and given approval. While the same attitude from others like me is given disapproval. Did I not hold my mouth right when I spoke? Or did I just not sound salesman enough ish when I said It?

It's how I said it, not what I said. That's what you don't like.

Soap box aside.

I can't say there is any coaches out there that have brought nothing to the table. Even some of the more inspiring trying ones that dont know much, but are still trying. It's really hard to watch through their content as they get some things wrong to find those gems of information out there, but its there. Good god people get some better microphones. FFS. I could make 40 min video's talking about things. The hardest part is condensing video's down so they are palatable. Its SO hard. New folk struggle with that. I'm getting side tracked.

The problem maybe is that we don't quite understand as a community how to communicate in an effective manor about goods and bads about things we teach or talk about. That's what I see anyways. Some of the attitudes that I see from people are really clout driven as well. Unwillingness to accept someone because you might not have enough youtube subscribers.
But when we go to talk, everyone gets so emotional over defending their brand, or their method, or their whatever vs just trying to communicate and ask questions.
I had to think about it when I got shitty with Neil a few months back. I was looking at someone talking like I talk to people suddenly, and instead of being a mentor, I was an asshole. That wasn't right of me. The thing that jaded me about the internet DG community turned me into what I was upset about. And that wasn't fair.

It's why I'm just not interested in talking in huge discussions about form or other weird stuff anymore. People are to emotionally stuck to their opinions and not willing to give an inch.
So I try and come in here a bit more nonchalant when I post now, but... Nicks comments here inspired me to say something bigger about the community and he's right. The coach infighting stuff is silly. We can not agree about something, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean people shouldn't be friends.

I dont know brian or really am i interested in his brand or how he advertises it, but I still sent him a message to let him know of an audio issue in one of his video's.
He didn't respond, so I'm hoping he read it. .. Maybe he's to big for my kindness. I dont know. But regardless if I like his brand or not, that doesnt' mean I should just let his video eat shit cause it's got a bad audio issue.