I was hoping someone could give me some shoulder-turning advice. I am not sure how far I should be turning my throwing shoulder, as well as my hips.

I'm no expert and I would like to get more opinions on this myself but this is what I do. I start my right shoulder approximately 110� away from the target at the start of the pull. Then I start by pulling the disc directly towards chest as If I were actually going to pull it in like a football catch. That is when my hips turn followed by my shoulder to move my body out of the way. Then I continue my arm on a straight line passing right by my chest , when I do this right I can actually feel the power band that people talk about, and I get a 'wooosh' sound as the disc is leaving my hand, so I think I doing something correctly. However doing this my plant foot is not 90� away from the target as many instructional articles indicate it should be, infact my foot is pretty much aiming at my target so maybe I'm just not fully swinging my hips open? And robbing myself of some power. Another question I have for you guys is on the pull through do you lunge forward with your chest or do you tend to stay very upright.

as for shoulder turn there is something important. first off, it is only the right shoulder which must turn all the way back during the reach. secondly, do not treat your back as if it is a rigid object, that is, if the right shoulder turns X amount, the left shoulder does not have to mirror that turn and remain on the same plane. think about it as reaching as far back as you can with the elbow, and the shoulder should follow. just remember that your back doesn't have to form a perfect rectangle with the turn, it will probably have a bit of twist to it.

the opening of the shoulders should be similar and start with a lead of the right shoulder and elbow. the left shoulder will come through on its own and if it comes through too early, it can lead to anhyzer tendencies or your upper body conflicting with the pull line.

as for hip turn, everyone has their "critical angle" that will give them the most hip explosion where turns less than or greater than that point will yield less power/acceleration. a lot of this depends on leg strength. a lot of players will find they need to turn their hips completely away (this is manipulated by the direction of the toes during the cross step). for a full turn away, the toes during the cross step (left foot for rhbh) will be pointed completely away (180 degrees) from the target. i can say that 90 degrees away is too small of a turn for a max D drive but may be useful for finesse/accuracy upshots where you do not want to lose sight of the target and power is not the main concern. practice with varying angles, probably try 180 and 135 degrees away and see which one yields a quicker, stronger, more explosive feeling.

as for the hips opening, if you look across most of the players with great distance, their hips are almost facing forward by the time their pull starts. read as: get the hips through before your upper body really gets going (although you will start moving a little bit forward at the start of the hips due to the turning of the spine). you just don't want to have your upper body through before the hips.

keep in mind this through as a sequence to it. the x-step consists of 3 steps but 4 motions: step, cross, plant, pivot. the plant is the start of the hips, the pivot is where the hips finish. your pull will begin after the plant but probably just before the pivot is complete (right foot toes pointing straight ahead). if you have a bad knee or find it painful to pivot after the plant, you can adjust this by having your right foot plant at an angle less than 90 degrees away from the target (open stance), even as close to the target as 45 or less. however, this will rob from some of the potential explosive acceleration which is generally given credit for the power of the bigger throwers.

hope this could help, sorry i didn't get around to it earlier, have been busy.

Sweet advice. I've printed out the tips and will bring them to the practice field tomorrow. I think I am almost there. Thanks!