First, thanks to all who respond to this post. Hopefully, it will help more than just me. I have been playing seriously (tournaments), for about 1.5 years, and seem to have reached a point where my discs (specifically drivers) are going all about the same distance. The weird thing is, is that I am experimenting with different weights (150-175g) and that doesn't seem to make a significant difference. Also, it really doesn't seem to matter what driver I use (Valkyrie, Starfire, Teebrd L, Orc, Beast, Sidewinder, XS, Z Express), they all are ending up roughly at the same point (I average about 325 ft depending on wind). Or what plastic I use-I�ve tried them all.
I can get some discs to turn over, flip flat, and s curve. Also, I use a four step x-step delivery but without a major reach back (rhbh throw). I have read numerous articles and watched instructional videos but it seems I have reached a dreaded plateau.
Is this problem unique? It is frustrating to see all the different ratings (speed, glide, etc) for the discs to find that it really doesn't matter, at least right now, with my drives.
I am suspecting this is a snap issue but hey I could be wrong! At least I can hear my own snap but it isn't loud enough to be audible by the other players.
Thanks for any tips!! Also, I have videotaped my delivery and can email you a short mpeg if anyone is willing to take a look. Thanks! Bernie #23932 bernie19@wowway.com

Most likely its because you can't generate the arm speed that some of those drivers require to fly as designed...stick with the XS or TeeBird to better smoothen out your technique...when you start seeing more distance out of THOSE, then check back in on the wide rimmed drivers...and then get an Illusion! :o:D:)

I do agree with discin'. I think that you aren't quite generating enough spin/arm speed to see a significant difference from the newer distance drivers.. They are faster, but you need more spin especially to keep them from dying out and fading hard.

Definately stick to the Teebird as that is the main driver for almost all Innova sponsored players on their website. It's consistent and doesn't have the high speed turn like the beasts/valks/flash/orc/crush/ etc so they are much more accurate in my eyes. I only throw teebirds as my drivers and i usually average around 350 or so but can get a disc out over 400 if i need to(not much need at my home course).

DO you feel what the disc is doing during your pull through? do you feel what your wrist is doing? I didn't start really noticing this until this season and I started to notice it by throwing putters very lightly. I don't throw hard at all. I just throw as softly and effortlessly as i can and i throw much further and more accurate than ever. NOw when i throw i can feel my wrist bending and unloading and i can feel what the disc is doing before i release it.

You can send me a video of your throw if you want. my email is Greatzky@rocketmail.com and i'll be more than willing to help you out.

-Scott Lewis

Do you ever turn your head away from the target on your 'reach back,' or backswing? If not, you can add a great deal of power by turning your head 180 degrees away from the target due to the fact that this movement will permit your whole torso to rotate and potentially deliver more disc speed at release. This technique adds about 50 feet to my throws when I get it right.
The down side is you must take your eye off the desired path for a split second.

Firstly, hearing the snapping noise is not indicative of snap. Its indicative of a somewhat tight grip I am pretty sure, and that grip could be the lock fingers and not the rip finger. I view snap as something one shouldn't worry about until they reach the 350+ ft plateau consistently. What really helped me get more distance (when under 350) was slowing down my throw and just focusing on my grip and the clean release. I figure it doesn' t matter how much power you put into your throw if its not going to be transferred to the disc. A solid grip and clean release will enable that to happen.

In addition to what Blarg said, which I agree. Make sure that you are turning your whole body. Arm speed starts with the proper hip turn and your body will unwind from the bottom up creating the needed arm speed for the wider rimmed drivers. After the second step of my xstep my buttocks is facing towards the target, like I am about to moon it.

Do not worry about the snapping sound as it is a tight grip issue, but a tight grip is good unless you grip lock.

And if you can throw 325-350ft accurately you have nothing to worry about. Even on one of John Houcks 9000ft championship courses there were no holes that you had to throw over 400ft on to do well.

Get that hip turn down and work on being smooth, it is just like ball golf, if you try and throw it too hard you will end up shanking it. My furthest throws ~450ft were the most effortless, where if I try to push it I will only get 390-415ft the rest of the time.

Good luck.

well, first off, do all the different discs have the same flight path when they go the same D? or are they differentiable from one another?

the problem you are having is not unique, but you are still about 25-45' short of the common plateau.

if all your discs hold the same flight path the reason you are capped is more likely different than if your discs fly significantly different but just happen to go the same distance.

if it's the latter, you also aren't throwing drivers that are substantially relatively longer/shorter than one another (with the exception of maybe the xpress), so it would make sense to me that you probably won't see much more than a 2-10% distance variance amongst each disc.

you can email me your video clip assuming it is 4mb or less.

All the above is the advice I was going to add based on a similar plateau. The only thing I can add is this. In addition to turning your head away from the target make sure you are not holding the disc with your left hand on the pull back as I was. Once I dropped my left hand down I was able to regain balance as well as turn a bit farther away and add quite a bit of potential energy into my form. The rest is just the ability to transfer as much of that energy to the disc through practicing proper form. As stated above, my longest drives have also come from not putting 100% effort into it.

Word to the Blake! Im getting much better D now, As usual, what u said is what it was. Dont teach Bernie to good as im tired of losing to him! But seriously, Bernie is not listing his D using the message board scale. Ive seen him throw 325 and further consistantly and (much more importanty) accurately. Bernie, If you unlock just 50 feet, thats the difference between a sweet drop in birdie and a 50 foot putt on a 375 ft hole. Dont do like i did tho, even if your playing league or even a tourney and you get some pain from tweaking your form, dont play hard through it. My sidearm AND tommy is STILL hurting! And for god sake, if your just doing reps at the soccer field and get some pain, GO HOME! We got the whole summer to get great! Remember, alot of the scores were chasing are posted by veterans with years of exp on us.

Word to the Blake! Im getting much better D now, As usual, what u said is what it was. Dont teach Bernie to good as im tired of losing to him!



for $100 i'll make sure he's throwing 50' less than before! :o

kidding of course :p

glad to hear something i said helped in some way, although i don't recall what it was or what it pertained to :)

my theory on why all the discs are maxing out at the same D after watching the video:

my guess is that you have good enough form to get a nose down trajectory and decent power to make most of those discs fly stable... however, you aren't generating enough
power to make these discs fly to their potential. for example, you most likely fall into the power range where a valk will still fly stable (not enough to significantly turn it), but a beast will just fly stable, so both will fly straight. however, you likely aren't getting enough power to keep either of these discs moving beyond what you usually throw on a good pull
and i'm guessing they just sort of drop out of the air once they are a bit past 325'.

with your current form, it is most likely that you will be able to get the best consistent d potential out of the TL and finding a line/height that will get the most glide/flight with your current throwing power/speed.