When you plant your right foot (RHBH) as you release, what direction are your toes pointing.

I'm having huge problems getting the disc to release in the direction I want it to for straight shots. For the most part, the disc is flying really nice and straight...just not in the direction I need it to go (like into a tree 20 ft. away instead of the fairway.)

This isn't as big of an issue for open shots , but for narrower fairways lined with trees it's a big problem.

they say you should plant your foot at about 90 degrees from your target.. so perpendicular.. the lesser the angle the easier it will be to open up your hips, but i find it harder to aim because i open up so early.

my problem is that i plant my foot at like 120degrees which puts excess strain on my knee and also causes me to pull discs from over rotation..

about 90 is preferred and possibly rotating off the ball of your foot and not your heel. You'll get used to it.

-Scott Lewis

quite a few people recommend more like 60-45 degrees and i always condone an angle less than 90 as it will relieve knee strain and force your hips to fire. from my experiences when i am throwing well and with good leg explosion, my toes are pointed almost forwards (following the pivot) when the disc actually leaves my hand.

if you know your tendencies to throw drives off line it may not be based upon this.

120 degrees will put less strain on your knee than 90 degrees if you're rotating through your throw.
In order to aim with this technique, the x-step should proceed on a diagonal from the back right corner of the tee-pad towards the front left corner, or even a bit inside the corner.
The end result should be that your foot is at 120 for your throw, but the angle to the target is at 90.
Hope this makes sense.
I'm still learning myself.

I don't know the frame of reference in degrees, but my right foot, starting foot, is pointed ~30-40 degrees from perpendicular away from the target, so that when I make my second step my hips and back are almost completely facing away from the basket. This allows me to get the maximum rotation I can currently get from my hips and shoulders.

Take a ballroom dance class, and learn the Cha-Cha. THAT will teach you hip turn! It helped me. :D In the rain when I wear my old ballroom dance team waterproof wind breaker. Everyone teases me about it until I throw the disc over 400ft, then they stay quite. /msgboard/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

The end result should be that your foot is at 120 for your throw, but the angle to the target is at 90.
Hope this makes sense.



actually, it doesn't really make sense to me unless someone is prone to jamming thier pivot foot...

120 will definitely FORCE a pivot, but assuming you get a clean pivot, it seems to me the less time you spend with your foot twisting on the ground with friction is going to be less strain on the knee.

Here is a link to a PDF illustrating the X-step by Dave D.

X-Step Chart (http://www.innovadiscs.com/downloads/xstepchart.pdf)