Video/email lesson

At times I get requests to help a player out with their technique.
Here is the correspondence;

anyone else need help? JUST ask!

Dave:

I was wondering if you could take a look at my footage that I have posted. For some odd reason, I have lost a lot of distance over the past month or so. I was topping out at 345 last night. The first four throws were with element-x's and they were all around the 300 mark. The next couple were assassins and they were at about 330. The last were all Illusions and were all around the 340-345 range. I am used to throwing about the 380-390 range. Any info would help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtuTvbCEOf8

Thanks,
JT

MY reply:

First off I want to say that you are doing a great job with repeating your form in these shots.

I would say this is great form for tunnel shots of 250-300 feet.

It didn't appear your trajectory was ever higher than 20 feet at most, its pretty tough to throw much farther then 300 feet less than 20 feet off the ground, unless its with a spirit and you have KID or David MAC like power.

This is far from what is need for any shots over 300 feet!

Its is very controlled and you seem to have really good timing which equates to accuracy but it is very much lacking though in what I would call, key power areas.

Ok here goes,

I want to realize that you will probably throw pretty inaccurate shots for quiet some time if you try to implement one or all of these into your distance throw. Other than lacking power your techniques is pretty dam good!

You are going to need a little more of everything to throw farther.

I see several things that jump right out as "lacking in power"!!

1) you do not seem to have a really strong grip, meaning your wrist is not cocked very much. You are getting through the shot with your hand pretty well, but could create a lot more spin with your wrist cocked a little more. This might not be that important I would have to see how the discs are finishing.

2) You are not reaching back very far for BIG D, its more of a mid-range form as mentioned above. If you would reach back a little farther you could get more pendulum swing.

3) Your hips do not get turned away from the target much, again usually used for mid–range shots to LIMIT speed and gain control. If you reached your hand farther back away from your body you could get your hips turned more as well.

4) Your follow through momentum is way down. This is do to the fact that you are not moving so fast through the shot. If you increased your speed gradually through the shot you would propel through the shot faster at release and finish farther out in front of the tee. Most players who play a lot of golf on concrete tees have this problem. Your weight shift is stopping right after release and not allowing for a full follow through. For big D you would be almost hoping on your left foot 2 or 3 feet in front of your release

5) Check out my throw at the end of this clip, this is pretty good form for a controlled 450 foot shot! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC31OctXuUc

Most likely these suggestions will increase your power but without a doubt you will lose some control. The real trick to throwing really far is that it is within a split second of being completely out of control. Don't underestimate how difficult it is to throw far AND ACCURATE!!

Regardless of what anyone says it's much more difficult to throw longer with accuracy than shorter!

Dave:

Well...my distance problem is partially fixed. After raising my throwing arm a bit and cocking my writs, my distance all of a sudden started coming back. I switched out the Illusions in favor of the Blurr. So, the Blurr's were getting out to 400 with no problem. The Assassin's were hitting 350. The Sabres were about 330. I am going to continue to work on the items that you listed in addition.

Thanks
JT

ok,

not sure I mentioned raising your throwing arm but if it helped, all the better.

my biggest concern was that you were lacking power from almost every area. I want to remind you with changes like these there will be a big loss of accuracy for quite some time..

good luck!

It's funny...when I throw...it feels like my motion is hurried and has some decent power. But when you watch it on video, it looks like I am throwing in slow motion. The elbow thing was something that I thought I would try because every piece of video that I watched, it seems as though the persons elbow was significantly higher than mine(Exception being Climo). I watched the St. Louis Open dvd last night. I noticed in the long drives area, that both you and kid have a higher arm position than I do. As for power, that is the next thing to add into the equation. Hey...I will be giving you a call this weekend.

Thanks
JT