Heavy's Discs

I get asked from time to time about what I'm throwing: weights, plastics, molds and so I thought I'd do a run down on the most regular occupants of my bag. It changes quite a bit with wind conditions, but this is what I'm throwing. 



I own 2 bags - and like them both quite well.

Flak X - (Shop Link)
Price: $199
Recap: Great bag for fieldwork artists. Super easy to get a ton of discs in and out quickly. Well though out design - but lacks straps for stools or umbrellas. I use this bag most often because of the amount of fieldwork I do.

Flak 4 - (Shop Link)
Price: $199
Recap: Cushy, great room up top, straps for stool. Knock this bag over and the discs will not fall out. I use this bag for long courses where comfort is at a premium.

Gateway Organic Wizard - (Shop Link)
Recap: This blend is money for my putting putters. I have nothing but good things to say about wizards - like way they fly, but organics seem to be tackier than most other plastic types. They beat in fast and stick to chains - and you'll pry them from my cold dead fingers. Max Weight (175g)

Prodiscus Jokeri - (Shop Link)
Recap: Throwing putter. 170g Prodiscus Premium plastic. This disc isn't quite the glideless brick that DGA Breaker is - but it can take quite a bit of wind without any concerns of flipping. That's not an insult. I love a glideless brick: nothing is worse than staying up when you want to go down. Accurate upshots all day with the Jokeri. The premium plastic will take years of abuse without changing flight characteristics. I have hit plenty of trees and it looks like new.
Speed: 4.0
Glide: 3.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 2.0

MVP Ion -(Shop Link)
Recap - If ever there was a putter that thought it was a mid-range, it's the Ion. MVP plastics across the board, kick butt and simply take abuse for years. I like them around 170g, with the max weights being slightly more stable. I bought 5 Ions and 5 Anodes at the beginning of my fieldwork season of 2014 and threw them a million times. At this point, I give the nod to the Ion over the Anode mainly for being more predictable.
Speed: 3.0
Glide: 4.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 1.0

Innova-Gator - (Shop Link)
Recap: My buddy Ian Millard turned me onto the Gator and for that, I'm ever grateful. A 175g Champion Gator will stand up to any wind and get to the ground safely. You can MASH a Gator with 400' of power and it'll drop out of the sky at 300' over and over. This disc makes a 300' hole absolutely brainless and has lowered my score by at least 2 strokes on windy days. ABG... Always Be Gatoring.
Speed: 5.0
Glide: 2.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 3.0

Emac Truth - (Shop Link)
Recap: FINALLY Dynamic Discs has fixed the Truth. The EMac Truth is everything that the original Truth was known for. I like to joke that the Truth thinks it's a fairway driver. Predictable, long, and fits in the hand like magic. Love this disc at 173g in Lucid.
Speed: 5.0
Glide: 5.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 2.0

Innova Roc - (Shop Link)
Recap: Tried and true the Roc is impossible to ignore. I bag an older DX Roc that is warped to the point of absurdity for low power hyzer flips and anhyzer shots. I also bagged a new KC Pro Roc 168g that has beat into a nice turning midrange disc very quickly. KC Pro will take more more abuse than DX so I would give that disc the nod.
Speed: 4.0
Glide: 4.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 3.0

Discraft Comet - (Shop Link)
Recap: If beating a KC Pro Roc until it turns to your liking is too much of a pain, the Comet is the turning midrange of choice. The glide on a Comet is like nothing you've ever seen. In a tailwind they will stay afloat like the goodyear blimp. Having a midrange that will turn under power or flip to flat is essential for shaping shots.
Speed: 4.0
Glide: 5.0
Turn: -2.0
Fade: 1.0

Innova TeeBird - (Shop Link)
Recap: I typically have 3 TeeBirds in my bag: OS Star 175g, Neutral GStar 171g and turny EchoStar 159g. The Brinster touring TeeBirds and the AJ TeeBirds are going to be seriously overstable. GStar makes for great laser straight shots and a lighter EchoStar will be great for uphill shots.
Speed: 7.0
Glide: 5.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 2.0

Legacy Phenom - (Shop Link)
Recap: If you want to try something other than the TeeBird - the Phenom by Legacy is slightly longer with a touch more turn off the shelf. I've been very impressed by the Icon plastics and 171g is a great weight.
Speed: 8.0
Glide: 5.0
Turn: -1.0
Fade: 2.0

Innova Tern - (Shop Link)
Recap: Champ plastic... 175g... this disc will go far. They fly like a well beaten Destroyer but with more glide. This disc feels like cheating. I've gone as low as 165g for tailwind shots and been very impressed.
Speed: 12.0
Glide: 6.0
Turn: -2.0
Fade: 2.0

Discmania DDx - (Shop Link)
Recap: Newest disc to my bag. Discmania NEEDS to get more of these on the shelves. They're playing the "build the suspense" game and it's stupid. People want them - let us buy them. Stable and long. Very long. I bought 2 before they went out of stock and I wish I would have bought 10.
Speed: 12.0
Glide: 6.0
Turn: -1.0
Fade: 2.0

Innova Destroyer - (Shop Link)
Recap: I wish I could say that all Destroyers were created equal, but that's just not true. I think that's one of the reasons that Legacy created the Outlaw. They wanted a consistent destroyer! I have been bagging a Star Destroyer (Avery Jenkins mold with the signature) for about 2 years. It's overstable and can take full power in 15mph headwinds. If you play in the wind, you know how important it is to have a driver that can take power and not decide to turn into the ground. 175g for my wind disc. Echo Star and G-Star Destroyers are nothing like star or champ destroyers... it's a shame there's not more consistency, but there's still a ton of great Destroyers to be had.
Speed: 12.0
Glide: 5.0
Turn: -1.0
Fade: 3.0

Innova Firebird - (Shop Link)
Recap: REAL WIND? Get a fire chicken. Thumbers? Flat-top 159g Champion FB will make you a believer. Meat HOOK city.
Speed: 9.0
Glide: 3.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 4.0

Latitude-64-XXX - (Shop Link)
Recap:  171g Opto - hands down the longest thumbers of my life have been with this disc. I'm no thumber master, but 300' consistently with the XXX is pretty common for me. (Video) Probably the best thumber disc I've ever seen.

Speed: 7.0
Glide: 2.0
Turn: 0.0
Fade: 5.0

Water Bottle Drill

By Jason

By using a water bottle with a finger loop lid,
you can start to feel how a disc should act upon release.

The first time I threw a disc and it felt noticeably heavy, I knew something was different and, judging by how much further the disc went, it was a good thing. I’d stopped playing rounds in order to take to a field near my office and try to emulate Will Schusterick’s form, which he’d been kind enough to post on YouTube.

I’d stumbled into the process of changing my own form. For those of you that have spent time trying to fix form problems, you know how hard this can be. If you are new to the sport and want to do things the right way from the get go, then welcome aboard.

What I didn’t know at that time was the size of the can of worms that I was opening. I didn’t have anybody to take lessons from, so I began to head to a field each day, armed with a stack of putters and a stubborn streak to keep me from giving up.

I started documenting my findings during each fieldwork session on note cards. Sometimes my cryptic hand writing would say “SLOW” or “HOLD THE RIM.” At others I’d just draw a picture of a hammer and then lay awake in bed at night, trying to imagine what would be the best way to throw a hammer as far as possible.

No joking, I dragged a hammer out to a field and most likely scared the high school kids who were busy smoking cigarettes and nervously laughing at me on their lunch breaks.

It turns out that the correlation between a disc and a hammer is very strong. The way we throw a disc is more like applying leverage to a lever than it is flipping a beach Frisbee. Once you start visualizing things like levers and hinges, it actually makes quite a bit more sense. You can see it pretty clearly in this slow-motion Paul McBeth drive:

One thing that slowly (and I do mean slowly) started to click in my head was that just swinging the hammer alone was only going to eject it at a certain speed, and that speed wasn’t impressive. In order to accelerate the hammer, I was going to have to use my arm in a way that would bring the hammer head inward, toward my right pectoral. The hammer would load up substantially as I caught it on the inward pull if I timed it with bracing my weight against my plant foot.

The inward pull would max out with my elbow in front of my leading shoulder, and if I then opened my shoulders and extended the hammer forward I’d created a strange little physics experiment. The hammer would eject forward and – here’s the kicker – it would fly twice as far.

I even inadvertently pinged a putter off a car in a parking lot by getting the physics experiment very right. I’d been intending to hold the disc, but it turns out that was impossible. Luckily, there was no dent.

I realized that grip lock could not be an issue for me any longer because, quite simply, I couldn’t hold the disc anymore. It was coming out, even if I clamped down on it. It was violently ejecting from my hand.

And that’s where “HeavyDisc” was born. When a disc redirects properly, it feels very heavy for a split second.

To be perfectly clear, I’d watched all the videos I could find and read Disc Golf Review’s archives over and over trying to grasp what was happening, but it was a bust. I was lost and frustrated. The existing information on the internet was not helping me, and so I started my own site in order to document what I was trying.

I’d spend hours in a parking lot near my office recording videos, trying to slow down this little physics magic trick and pull it apart. I started teaching it to my disc golf buddies and spent countless hours hemming and hawing about what I should do with my wrist and how best to grip the thing. We debated it endlessly on DGCourseReview.com, drew diagrams, and conversed with people all over the country who’d emailed me asking for more help.

Most commonly I refer to it as “hand on the outside of the disc at the right pec,” assuming you are throwing right hand backhanded. It is the single most powerful mechanism that a disc golfer can develop. It is the bow to our arrow.

All of the rest of the back hand motion is about adding power to the physics experiment, or the “magic.” Whatever gets added, it must be added in a way that protects the magic.

So let's get to the goods (direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv8TijwSIJ0)

The easiest way to feel the magic for yourself is to grab an empty water bottle that has a loop on the lid for your finger. Find a nice open area where you don’t have any TVs or windows to hit and start by swinging the bottle back and forth.

Keep your arm and shoulder loose and get a feel for what kind of pendulum you have for an arm.

Initiate the swinging motion with your hips, with your knees squeezed together, and leave the arm loose. It’s key to learn what this initial motion feels like.

Next, bring the bottle inward, as if you want the bottom of the bottle to hit your right pectoral. As the bottle gets to the right pec, the forearm begins to extend forward, redirecting the bottle and unleashing the momentum forward.

In this case, the water bottle emulates the inward pull of your drive, where the disc comes into the right pec. The outward ejection finds the disc redirecting to extend forward.

The reason I said empty bottle is because force equals mass times acceleration. We are now accelerating the snot out of the bottle, and if you have water in it, that force is going to be big. I inadvertently did this drill with a half full bottle and nearly took my index finger off.

What’s truly shocking about this drill is how distinctly we can feel where the acceleration takes place. It has nothing to do with the back swing and everything to do with the arc that happens from the right pectoral forward.

I’d like to address the many versions of the “snap the towel” drill that have been suggested by some prominent names in the disc golf world. I personally don’t think it is a good idea. A disc is basically a lever, not a loose towel. A water bottle and a hammer are levers. How a lever redirects and accelerates is very different from snapping a towel.

Finally, I will strongly suggest that you don’t do this drill in your office, house, or near a Ming vase. As you start hitting the angles right, that bottle is going to start taking on some serious force, and I don’t want anybody putting a bottle through a window on my account.

"Feet Together" Drill Brings More Balance To Your Swing

By Jason

It’s fun to throw a disc, pure and simple. The better I can throw, the more I enjoy it and, in my not-so-humble opinion, improving at something is where quite a bit of the joy happens. Plateaus and stagnation are not fun.

Let me be clear: I am also a work in progress. I am not touting myself as having perfect form; I do stupid stuff all the time, but I do work on it and I try to catch my issues and fix them. As is very common, I will improve in one area, only to give up gains in another area. With that in mind, the drill we’re talking about today has helped me to battle an issue that I have struggled with for ages and, hopefully, will be a tool for you.

Working on form is a bit of a catch-22. What starts as a casual foray into a soccer field with stack of putters to work on your swing can be an emotional roller coaster of frustration. It is tough and counter-intuitive to develop a reproducible, controlled, balanced, and powerful shot. As we start messing with form changes, whatever consistency we had will dry up like a wet thing in a dry place.

Metaphors are not my strong suit.

So let’s kick off this series with a video that focuses on forcing you to do a couple fundamental things correctly. This is the “Feet Together” drill and you may have seen similar instruction for baseball or ball golf to promote a balanced front side plant foot to brace your weight against.

I really like this drill. (Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pleUjYKwf0g )

When I’m giving a lesson, I use this drill to force a player to find his plant foot instep and to stop him from swaying from behind his back foot. It also helps with learning to brace your weight to stop you from catapulting past the plant foot.

Let’s break down the “Feet Together” drill and five fundamentals that it promotes.

1. Shifting into the brace, leading with your backside

Lightly moving from having weight on the ball of the back foot to the toe of the plant foot is not just a forward movement. You want to drive the hips forward with the trailing hip moving forward, then as the plant foot goes “toe down, heel down,” the hips brace up against your femur. This is easier to see and do than it is to describe.

2. Braced weight against the front side

We focus on staying inside our invisible A-Frame so that we don’t tilt our spines forward or backward. By bracing our weight against the instep of the plant foot with our plant leg being firmed up, we should be able to push as much power as needed into the system and remain balanced and in control. A vertical spine from the top of the backswing through the extension will help tremendously with balance. Note that this doesn’t mean that you don’t lean over the disc to various degrees to throw hyzer or anhyzer. This just means that you don’t want your axis of rotation smushing back to front.

3. Weight on your insteps with the squeeze between the knees

How we connect to the ground is a fundamental aspect to generating power and staying balanced. I’ve personally worn out the phrase “back heel OFF the ground” while giving lessons. I know it feels comfortable and balanced when you’re standing still to use all of your back foot, but as soon as we turn this into a dynamic movement, flat feet wreck the whole burrito. This drill will force you to squeeze the knees together and keep your weight on the inside of your feet.

4. Posture with your booty out to counter-balance your upper body

As I noted in point 2, you can see that my spine is tilted forward and over my disc. Sticking your butt out with bent knees creates a solid lower body counter-balance to the upper body that is rotating. If you’re trying this drill and you can’t maintain balance after you extend your arm forward, then stick your booty out.

5. Balance from start to finish

Once your brain knows that the body will remain balanced and in control from start to finish, it stops worrying about “What will happen next? I’ve got to protect the body. Where am I going?” and it relaxes to let you focus on disc angles and trajectory. Most importantly, it lets your muscles stay loose and fast. Next thing you know, you’re throwing accurate shots and your muscles are nice and chilled out.