Slow Down and Throw Far

It's one of the most difficult aspects of disc golf, because it's so utterly counter-intuitive.

This is what we call the 3:00 - 4:00 (on a clock) position.

To get the most out of your drive, you have to hold the disc as late as possible. A problem, with holding late - is that we mortal humans only have so much grip strength. It's easier to hold thinner rimmed discs for sure, in fact putters are the easiest to hold onto because the rim is deep and thin.

If you create a powerful amount of momentum with your hips, a solid arm extension that is getting boosted with a great plant and shifting of your weight... guess what?! You can very easily bring more hand speed through the extension, than you can actually use.

Case in point: me slipping the disc out of my hand. I shot some footage of my fieldwork to review, which I do religiously.

I'm supposed to be holding the disc!

Looking at that, I was immediately dismayed. I'd worked very hard on getting my form improved and what immediately caught my attention was the disc was NOT in my hand. This was a shot that used my standard back-swing guided to the right pec, hand on the outside and with a very slow and controlled x-step that ends with a balanced and upright stance.

So why is the freaking disc out of my hand?!

Now here's the clue that helped me out:

Now I'm holding it!

Hold the phone, what changed?! I'll tell you: I was working on throwing with this back-swing form called "the wide rail" that guys like Nate Doss, Barry Shultz and Mike C use with great results. I'd been messing with the wide rail and seeing some big shots that were adding 50' to my drives.

Click to see the full image of the wide rail.

The thing is, this wide rail pauses hand speed pretty drastically as the disc changes directions and loads up your wrist. That makes the disc substantially easier to hold later, because you slowed it down mid-motion.

Slowing down is GOOD? What has happened here people?

Because of this statement: THE DIRECTIONAL CHANGE OF THE HAND ALLOWS YOU TO "THROW" THE ANGULAR VELOCITY IN THE FORWARD DIRECTION. - Blake T

BWWWWHAT!? The easy way to understand it is this:

Straight line back-swing, it's very easy to over estimate what you can hold on to and the disc slips out early, before you get to the magic part of throwing the disc.

The magic part of throwing the disc happens at that last 2" of the disc rim getting held tight. HELD. You're fighting to keep the disc in your hand because at the end of the release, you're pulling the rim to the 3:00-4:00 position.

I believe that the loading wrist elbow extension (elbow smack) promotes a similar thing - in that you are bending the wrist pretty late in the process, which slows the hand speed down and often leads to some booming shots. Coming into the start of the disc arc, with very little speed is fantastic because it means we're giving ourselves the best shot of holding onto the last second - when all the velocity of the disc is going to transfer forward.

And at that point, it's like a monster rubber band unloading! PINGGGG!!!!!

The point though, is that slow hands are able to undergo that violent redirection and maintain grip on the rim. Fast hands will most likely blow off the rim when it comes time to pull back to 3-4:00.

"But you can't deny that the pros aren't coming into the extension with a metric ton of speed?!"

As your hands get stronger and stronger, you'll be able to take more speed into the extension and maintain grip on the rim. But if you're not holding onto the rim until 3:00-4:00 take the hand speed down until you can. You will 100% NO QUESTIONS ASKED get more distance by holding the disc later than you will be slipping out early with more hand speed. The difference between the first image of me slipping and the 2nd image of still holding was 50'. And it's that way every single time.

So each player will have to find the balance of how much momentum they can tolerate and balance with their grip strength so that they are not slipping early.

And that's just reason 103 that the disc golf backhand shot is so utterly confusing.

Paul McBeth throwing the wide rail hyzer.