Guys,

I'm hoping that someone can give me some ideas on what to work on to become solid at shorter upshots. Shots under 150 feet.

I have no problem hitting my lines when I'm making a full throw, but when I take some off of the throw, I lose accuracy in a hurry.

What can I practice to get the right feel. What things should I make sure to pay attention to in my throwing technique and what should I avoid doing?

Thanks for any help.

Matt

play Triangle. play Triangle. play Triangle.

take four discs of the same type to a field. pick a spot out there somewhere and throw to it. throw the second disc as close as possible to the first. throw the third as close as possible to the first two. this will form a triangle. your first goal is to make this triangle as small as possible.

you second goal is to throw the fourth disc so that it ends up inside the triangle.

i promise this works.

firstly, sandalman taught me this and it does, indeed work. Secondly, once you've gotten straight shots down, try doing 4 hyzers, 4 annehyzers, 4 s shots, etc...

This saved me about 5 strokes this wednesday at Hudson Mills due to me being able to confidantly take a long 150 foot annehyzer line to park an upshot.

One thing you might want to try is to get onto a football field. The lines come in handy to measure distances. Set targets (bags, bottles, whatever...) out at diffent distances. 80', 100', 120', 150', etc.

One game you can play is to take one throw at each target. See at what distance your accuracy breaks down. Practice that distance until you get in the groove.

Another game is to grab all of your discs and throw at the shortest distance until all your shots (or 3/4 of them) land inside a comfortable putting range (20'?). I like the suggestion of throwing hyzers, anny's, straight on, skip shots, etc. If you do not get a high enough percentage into this imaginary circle, rinse and repeat.

Another thing to work on when doing field work is to imagine the exact airspace in which your disc will travel and work on consistently hitting that line. Also, if it is windy, make a special point to go out and practice in the wind. Experiment with disc flight patterns in every direction relative to the wind.

Doing these things will help you learn all your discs. Lots of people only approach with approach discs or putters. There is great benefit to know the increased hyzer and skipping tendencies of drivers, especially the higher tech more slippery plastics.

Technique-wise, work on a smooth release. Work both on a small x-step approach, a one step approach and a stationary approach. IMO, the short range is all about intuitive feel that is simply learned through repetition and redundancy.

Guys,

I'm hoping that someone can give me some ideas on what to work on to become solid at shorter upshots. Shots under 150 feet.

I have no problem hitting my lines when I'm making a full throw, but when I take some off of the throw, I lose accuracy in a hurry.

What can I practice to get the right feel. What things should I make sure to pay attention to in my throwing technique and what should I avoid doing?

Thanks for any help.

Matt



2 things you can use to limit D without changing power level: height and angles (both nose and hyzer/anhyzer).

as for technique revision, decreasing grip strength to give less of a rip and more of a slide out of the hand helps a lot. on shorter shots, you may even want to let go of the disc as you would on a (long) putt.

Do you try the same swing/stroke/throw with your short game? If so, you might want to try a different type throw altogether. At that distance, you can pretty much just use a wrist pop/slightly nose up throw.

No reach back is needed. Just do a 1-step or no-step with your upper body already open to the line, hold the disc up near eye-level and just wrist pop it and float it in. It is easy to aim and the increased spin allows you to float it in at a slower speed.

In addition to the above, a good idea might be to ask around and see if there you can find a couple of good solid pros who were once in your position and what they did to figure out a less-than-full throw. If you can't find the above, next try to find an old pro who has a good short game and see if he can give you some pointers. It's always best to try to find hands-on help for throwing problems.

Alternatively, you can find someone with a short-game throw that appeals to you, and if his body-type is pretty close to yours, simply try to copy the throw. That means same stance, same grip, same swing. Have a 3rd party compare the two swings and if they look very alike, then you simply fine tune it until you think you've 'got it,' then establish a practice routine until it feels comfortable and second-nature.

In general theory, there's all kinds of ways to throw less-than-full-distance shots. Here are just a few that come to mind:

Less backswing
Similarly, a more open stance (body facing more towards the basket)
Slower backswing and foreswing (usually trickier than "less backswing" for most people I would think, but more elegant and stylish)
Locking a lever - usually that means a throw where the wrist or elbow doesn't unhinge during a throw.
Locking the legs/torso - legs/torso stays still and you flick the disc with your arms only.
Different grip (e.g., fan grip, or no fingers on the rim/lip)
Less tension on grip at release
Fatter disc (super puppy, birdie, rattler, etc)
Throwing something sickly overstable that dives to the ground.
Throw lower with much more nose up (air bounce)

Another way to think about this is to liken it to baseball pitching. How is it that a pitcher can use the same delivery and yet have one pitch (fast ball) go 90mph and another pitch (changeup or curve) go 70-75mph?

Another way to think the concept is to think: what makes my disc go far on my drive (there are many components in a swing to make a disc go far). Then experiment on removing one component and see how it changes your throw. Perhaps simply removing one component of a drive will be easier to fit into your game.

Be aware and careful about hurting yourself on these throws. Yes, it is possible for a person to rip 400-foot drives safely and then tear an elbow on a 100-foot flick shot.

Here is a technique I used.

It is a two fold method.

First determine where your solid putting range is, a putting distance of decent length but you walk up to it and say "yeah I got this". Make a circle with that radius out in an open field. This simulates where you want your approaches to land.

Second, take a stack of mids and other approach discs and using different angles of attack (hyzer, annie, sidearm, overhand) try to land your discs in this circle from distances of 100-200ft. Or go for gusto and do it at 300ft!

The reason it is two fold is because as you become better at putting your circle gets bigger. When I started this technique, I had to try and hit a 15ft circle, now I can go out to 30ft circles, which is actually a 60ft area. Of course as you get better at your upshots, you can decrease the circle size, say down to a 10ft radius.

Practicing this in the wind also helps. Good luck.

I always have problems when I do not use my driving motion for throwing the disc. Now, the motion is much slower but I still 'step through' and pull the disc through from the same position. I only use an X-step if it is needed. Try a zero-step throw but step through like you do a drive and see if that fixes anything...

i would try bent arm throwing.
more spin, less armspeed, less exacting on the step proceedure. I throw drives with the ripcord/pullthrough motion, this does not work so hot with midrages/ short shots. I switched to bent arm for upshots, presto!

I limit my distance without losing too much accuracy by using a putter and using the grip I use for putting (fan grip with the rim of the disc sitting in the crease of my outermost knuckle of my index finger) and then limit my torso movement. Once I get much within 100', but too far to putt I'll either throw like I'm playing catch but count on the disc hyzering out or throw a knife hyzer depending on the situation.

Are you using a power grip? If so try a fan grip with your thumb on the edge of your disc for control. Bend your knees a bit and try to rock with your throw. Works for me. I don't hit alot of them but I'm almost always within easy putting range.

Thanks for all of the replies. Since I posted I have found a local pro to run through some things with. My biggest problem is that sometimes things just get quick on me when I'm trying to slow things down for a touch shot. It's getting better though. I stuck a 100 foot approach in a mini last night and had several other smooth clean up shots from inside 100.

I guess the way I really want to learn is to be able to slow things down and throw at all different power levels rather than changing to a shorter disc or changing the basic throwing motion. I just feel it will make my game more complete if I can change power level at will.

Thanks again for the replies,
Matt

Don't get too locked in on the idea of using a mid-range disc for your upshots. I typically use either a putter or a really overstable disc because they just don't fly very far when thrown softly. The problem I've found with mid-range discs is that they glide a lot. Some times the amount of glide can be hard to predict. But putters and overstable discs (extremes and whippetXs are favorites) are pretty predictable.

i very strongly agree with what rich said.

I definitely agree too. I've been working much more on approach shots with putters. Getting that nice smooth glide. My problem is that I sometimes get really quick as if I was throwing a driver. It obviously causes some serious shanks that occur far more often than I'd like. It is basically the one thing right now keeping me from competing with some of the local pros more than anything. Just need more time to smooth things out and get that rhythm.

Thanks again for the replies.

matt

Don't get too locked in on the idea of using a mid-range disc for your upshots. I typically use either a putter or a really overstable disc because they just don't fly very far when thrown softly. The problem I've found with mid-range discs is that they glide a lot. Some times the amount of glide can be hard to predict. But putters and overstable discs (extremes and whippetXs are favorites) are pretty predictable.



I have worked with using different approach discs and found that my best success comes from using a disc with lower speed and less glide as well. I have read that you should try and use the slowest disc you can to achieve the goal when shootting an upshot. If I'm within 200ft I have a nice wizard that I have been using now. I was using a buzz which is very straight but the glide on that disc is insane compared to the wizard. I found myself putting the buzz up at the basket but a skip or just a bit to much power was getting me 25ft past in some cases. I can control the wizard much better and for me at least its much more predictable for approaches 200ft and in.

Practice playing catch with your putter. lot's of catch... use your putter for approach shots not a midrange disc. If possible throw the route to the basket where the wind blows on the top of your disc and not the underside.

i have been working on approaching with my putter as well and i've found that a gator works great for an overstable midrange that you can do a lot of things with. might want to try it. it helped my short game.