I'm going to be very... critical in some of the things I say here, just forewarning.
The biggest challenge was resisting my ingrained tendency to pull the disc and simply allowing my body turn to set the disc into the slot. Unlike the straight extension swing, in which I was always struggling to synchronize my arm pull and body turn, the wide rail's reduction of the importance of the pull made the timing infinitely easier.
I say reduction because there can still be a feeling of pulling in a wide rail, but for me it doesn't seem to happen until late in the swing – as the disc is coming out of its position close to my body. Some wide rail players really emphasize a late pull or ejection to add power, but I haven't found it necessary to think about it to throw good shots.
The key here is he keeps using the word "pull" over and over again, he makes mention of it not being a "thing" but language is how our brain controls our actions.
When we activate our bodies with better language, our bodies will perform those actions more naturally vs the bad language which activates incorrect movements.
Josh at Overthrow Disc Golf also made a great video about his "twirly bird" drill that helps to engrain this feeling.
Twirly bird, or noodle arm as I call it, is about allowing your body to flow and get rid of the mindset of "pull" and allow your levers to flex. Combined with the box drill, which teaches the shoulder angles this builds the basic upper body mechanics and lower body mechanics of allowing the disc to swing into the pocket and swing out of the pocket keeping the shoulder in the correct position.
So, what he's getting at here, despite using this whole thing incorrectly, is that he learned to be more loose with a wide rail because of how un-natural it can feel when learning to throw the wide rail because you're focused on other mechanics, so your arm will naturally fold at the elbow as you're more focused on the shoulder position. which... is another bad thing which causes most issues with wide rails when people are learning them.
Look at this swing from Doss. In his backswing he takes the disc back on a straight line, but that line is drawn from where he sets the disc in his forward press – distinctly away from his body:
This is one of the main reasons to not copy pros. The forward press, or waggle, a lot of golfers have is just that a waggle.
And this is why i hate the term "reach back" because pro's are not really reaching back, they are walking the disc out. So when players start the disc in a waggle ahead of them, they walk passed the disc.
Bad language explanations of this cause players who are learning to emulate these things and they start over exerting muscles as they reach forward then reach the disc back using all sorts of muscles that don't allow them to stay loose and flowing.
I generally tell people that waggles like this are something you have to decide if you want to do or not, maybe it helps you, but the less fiddling around you do trying to look cool and emulate others and the more simple you make your swing, the less mechanics you have to pay attention to. You, theoretically, want to perform the least amount of actions possible to get to the key points in the swing. The less steps to get through the swing and hit the key points for leverage of the throw, the easier the process will be.
In 2012, McBeth's swing had a very distinct forward press that went outward almost like Philo's. After this press, however, he did not follow a straight path backwards like Doss. Instead, he brought the disc back in towards his body and then back out into a wide rail position. This curve remained a feature of his swing for years.
Since then, McBeth has tightened his swing and seems to have deemphasized the forward press. You can still see traces of his forward press, but he has minimized the out, in, out curve that was so apparent in 2012.
Mcbeth simplified his swing and gained WAY more accuracy and consistency.
However, this, if you ask me, is the method to wide rail the best, but its SOOOO hard.
This is why I personally like this method that paul does, but its super advanced.
Paul sets up his swing the same every time, this allows him to get his shoulders into the shot properly, which wide rail can cause you to have lazy shoulders and lazy hips if you don't know what you're doing.
He hits the reach back and pops his arm out into the wide rail after his body is setup. I've tried this method and when I'm successful with it, its very rewarding swing. However, getting the timing for it was SO hard.
Your goal should not necessarily be to copy any pro...
Correct
... but to focus on getting into a wider position and realizing that there are lots of ways to get there. What feels most natural for you will depend on your strength, flexibility, and – perhaps most importantly – how long you have been throwing with your current form. If you have been throwing with a straight extension and a forward pull for a long time, throwing with a wide rail will feel very strange. It may take a while to sense how to "get your body" into the shot.
There are many teachers and analysts who have been working on breaking away from the long-common wisdom that a straight extension is the best way for every player to throw a disc. There have long been discussions about other ways to swing, whether they are about the wide rail or what was called the "Swedish style." Even some instructors who championed the importance of a very linear swing path, like Lindahl, have softened their position.
Generally, teachers who deemphasize the pull and argue for more body rotation are advancing ideas that work well with learning the wide rail (even if they don't directly teach a wide rail swing.) Bradley Walker's Spin and Throw can be a little dogmatic in its technical recommendations, but it also teaches a lot of drills that help eliminate the tendency to pull.
Lindahl as an example has made a lot of good content, but you got his content along the way as he was learning, which he's learned more over time and made corrections.
However, he's stressed the importance of a standard swing as its the most basic of things, and yes, the wide rail is more advanced.
I like that this article is bringing light to the wide rail, but the issue comes from "this worked for me" but he doesn't understand how. The reason the wide rail is taught as advanced technique as it generally sets newer players up to throw a rounded shot as they are not knowledgeable enough nor practiced enough to set their body up for the wide rail shot.
For your larger players with less flexibility, I believe the wide rail could be more effective. I will say teaching swing timing with larger framed players who have less flexibility is very difficult as the standard things we all teach are not there, but at the same time. sidewinder/seabas has a ton of good video's on how to get more out of your swing using the mechanics available to you, and I don't think any of those really have anything to do with the wide rail from what i remember.
I like that this article is trying to de-stigmatize the wide rail, but the information provided is very uneducated. I'll come back to that.
Conclusion
I found that a wide rail swing was a more comfortable and repeatable way to throw a disc. While I didn't immediately see a huge increase in power, it was easier to have a consistent swing path and release when unwinding the big muscles of my legs and hips controlled my timing. For me, simplifying my mechanics has made it easier to play good golf.
If you have a swing you like, then don't change. An unnecessary swing change is a solution in search of a problem. But if you have been struggling with some of the same things that made disc golf so frustrating for me – rounding, inconsistent timing, falling back, or difficulty in getting into (and out of) a straight extension position – then give the wide rail a try.
I think what ended up happening here with this whole situation was he was struggling with poor explained mechanics and when he tried something new, it was easier to forget those bad ingrained mechanics as he was focused on completely different things which allowed him to actually get a swing going, vs a muscled pull. Which, that's fantastic overall.
But this brings me into how language we use is so important in teaching and helping players. I've re-explained concepts to players with 0 examples and no throwing and watched immediate improvements from them as the language I used had instant impact to how their body responded to what they were trying to do.
I personally feel that things like this are how we take teaching and coaching to the next level in disc golf as the old ways were just different and not thought out well. It was a bunch of dudes having fun throwing frisbees.
Now were taking this stuff super seriously, and other sports are working hard at correcting bad behaviors with language and teaching techniques, why should we not also do the same?
