The internet is a crazy place. It's crazy that we live this way, but we do. It changes our interactions, it changes where we meet, who we meet and how we meet them. I still chuckle about the time I was throwing some fieldwork and I saw a fellow fieldworker on the other side of a large field. I was walking out to find my discs when I hear, "Heeeeyyyyy, are youuuu Jaaaaaaason?!!"
That was my new buddy Chad. We had an impromptu form pow-wow and I forced my beliefs on him about bracing and the instep. Next thing you know we're facebook buddies and a couple days ago I get this message: "woohoo! hit ~500' with my cannon today at birdsnest on the last hole. past the pin on the right" .
I absolutely love this aspect of having a website. I started writing here as a way to remember the things that I was learning the hard way. Fellow disc golfers kept finding HeavyDisc, and I kept writing, all the while, trying to badger my friends into writing as well (though that's never easy, is it Michael and Dustin?).
Then I did something stupid: I started throwing forehand all the time and field worked it into a horrific case of tennis elbow. It was bad enough to sideline me for a couple months.
June 5, 2014 - Chatting with HeavyDisc non-attorney / part-time editor, Kyle.
Kyle had this conversation with me for a long time before I actually stopped. Ask Kyle how stupid he thinks I can be and you'll get quite a chuckle out of him.
I met Kyle through the mighty internet. We are now good friends and even do non-disc golf stuff together. Coming back from this elbow disaster, I decided that I'd put some real effort into my form. That's when heavydisc.com started becoming a real dumping ground for my form research.
That's also when I noticed that some of my articles were getting some traffic and I thought, "Hmm, Adsense is tied right into blogger - I wonder if I can slap a few ads on the site and retire in style?!" Har, har - where will I spend all these riches? [/sarcasm]
Besides the fact that Adsense never really kicked up enough shekels to make my Maserati payment (let alone buy me a coke out of our 25¢ soda machine at work), I never liked the fact that I had advertisements for random stuff on the site. But I figured that I'd put whatever coin came my way into discs to review.
Somewhere along the way, Matt Siri and I also became internet buddies. He hit me up after reading a post and we started chatting. Apparently I'm a chatty dude. I interviewed him when he told me he was about to become the owner of HyzerBomb, and now we chat all the time. He's a tournament director, an avid disc golfer, a promoter, he works in the DG industry, and he's genuinely a really nice guy. I even tore apart his backhand form and yelled at him about elbow extension. YOU CALL THAT DRIVING YOUR ELBOW?! DROP AND GIMME 20 SIRI!
So then about a week ago, I pitched him that I would ditch all the Adsense-nonsense, and we'd just barter for a couple Hyzerbomb bags in return for a year of promotion. His exact words, "I definitely like it! I’m up for working something out, definitely!"
If feels right, I like it and who doesn't love a good barter?
Matt is everything that is awesome about our sport. He raises added-cash for his tournaments to levels that will actually support professional touring disc golfers. He runs a company that makes an incredibly well built product. You'll not hear him speak an ill-word towards anyone. I couldn't be happier to announce that Hyzerbomb is the first Heavy Partner.
I hope you strongly consider them for your next bag or disc, visit their store and tell them that you're a HeavyDisc'er that is happy to support a bad-ass company. Soon you'll start to see Hyzerbomb.com's logo on the site - and as the new Flak-X hits the shelves we'll hopefully have some stuff to review.
Pretty awesome, right?! I thought so. I also wanted to share this too from a DGCR user who shared this with me:
Originally Posted by SpringDgLover (original post)I just have to say that I have in the past been critical of these technique forums and even stated earlier that I avoided them around tournament time.
Well I have to eat crow today because HyzerUniBomber (aka HeavyDisc) you just fixed me.
I went out to a field today and was just spraying shots everywhere. Let me preface this by saying that I've had the weight transfer and hip part of my throw down for a while but my biggest problem was my release and namely grip lock.
Well today after frustratingly spraying shots everywhere I opened up an old video (I think he meant this one), it was one of his older ones and it was about his routine for practice.
The first thing I noticed was he finishing at 12'oclock on every throw whether it was a drive or upshot. I also noticed that I never did that, I then remembered how he had mentioned that with the proper elbow drive and hand slap that you could never grip lock. So I decided to give it a try and just stand still and focus on finishing as close as I could to 12 and guess what?
No more grip locks every shot started going where I wanted. Mind you I've thrown 550+ in distance comps but my disc golf distance had always maxed at about 410'.... well after about 50 throws finishing at 12 I lined up and threw two perfect Destroyer, disc golf shots 500'+ I was blown away?!? It was the moment I've been looking for, for the last 6years of field work.
Wow, right?! And here's the big man throwing some INSANE bombs:Thank all you guys for what you do, I know I have thousands of hours of practice ahead of me but finally I feel like I'm the right track and it's all thanks to these threads!
I'll also say this: I appreciate the kind words and the people who compliment me - but there's a simple reality. You guys are fixing your form, not me. You're the ones in the field busting your butt, dealing with the frustration of unlearning muscle memory and hunting for discs that seem to excel at hiding in plain sight. I'm glad to help unlock some mysteries (as they unlock for me) and hopefully my self-torture helps, but you guys deserve the credit. It's hard work, it's time, it's learning your own kinetic chain and then making micro adjustments until you see the magic. So I compliment you. You guys kick ass.
Still, I thought that was really cool. Lots of cool stuff. And if you're truly bored - here's a few minutes of me throwing fieldwork, mostly from a stand-still and trying not to smash my hand into a fence and trying to show that the hit does all the work.
Glad to hear it Jason! I try to promote your site to everyone I know. I am improving because of the guidance you provide on here and DGCR.
ReplyDeleteThank you BW - I very much appreciate you sharing/promoting. Did you ever do a form review on DGCR?
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