First off, my definition of short midrange is inside of 100' (~30 meters). It seems that once I get inside this range, my accuracy drops significantly. If I'm outside of that range, and within around 150', I can usually get within about 10' of the basket. The problems occur when I'm inside 100'. I just can't seem to get it close. I'm trying to decide whether it'd be better to try to learn a long putt for that range, or just practice approaches. Either is going to require a good deal of practice. I currently use either a Comet or an MRV to approach, and either backhand or sidearm depending on which is more likely to give a good leave. My normal bad lies come from the disc turning hard, which I understand to be natural at lower speeds, then it flips up and rolls for me.

Pat

(p.s. woohoo, finally had my account verified, now if I can just get my pdga number after 6 years of discin, I'll finally be a true addict)

There are some old school folks who prefer to throw conventional frisbees in that range. Might want to try it. A Zephyr or Gopher are more golf-like frisbees that might be a good choice if you don't want to carry a frisbee.

Don't take any advice from me, because I'm not so good at this game, but from that distance something in the Rattler, Birdie, Putt'r style of mold is useful. They are all straight and slow. You can give the chains a scare but not go too far past.

From 100 feet out I like to use a 150g putter. If you warm up by playing catch it will help you get the feel for that shot. Back in the day I used to play catch for hours and I am very accurate from that distance. I don�t try to putt from that distance.

first, learn to putt from within 120'. with a putter. its ok to jump/fall forward. my own preferred technique has me keeping myfeet planted in a straddle putt position, pushing hard thru the putt, and falling forward almost on my face. ugly but effective.

next, forget the MRV and go to the Glide and/or Breeze. you want less stable in that spot (assuming no wind, etc, etc, etc) so the disc stays true to its release line.

dont feel alone - that range can certainly be tricky. blowing 100 footers and taking extra strokes is extremely painful. but its not too hard to achieve 100% within your gauranteed putting range from that distance.

ps - you will see a lot of old school frisbee'ers taking a one step approach and flying a putter right to the pole. an excellent technique, but for me anyway a lot more difficult to learn and control than a falling putt.

The Zephyr seems like the sort of disc that could help. Are conventional discs tournament legal? I play midfield in an Ultimate league and 100 feet is a relatively easy shot with a normal 'lid'. I think the option that seems like it'd suit me best is playing catch with a putter. This would be extra beneficial as my sister is an aspiring disc golfer, but always gets frustrated with her approach shots.

Pat

Conventional discs are legal. However, there are a few discs floating around that might be too heavy from old school collections

www.pdga.com/discs.php (http://www.pdga.com/discs.php)

Bend your knee's a little and a smooth release with air bounce right to the basket. I use a Pro Aviar or beadless Aviar. You can practice this by playing catch, that's how us older players began.

next, forget the MRV and go to the Glide and/or Breeze. you want less stable in that spot (assuming no wind, etc, etc, etc) so the disc stays true to its release line.



I see the Glide and Breeze are available in Z plastic. Are they able to keep them from becoming overstable in it?

oh yeah. i doubt that anyone would ever accuse the Breeze of being anything close to stable. :) the Glide less understable / more stable (depending on which side you like the butter on. i prefer the Glide for my upshots unless there's a serious headwind. both feel very very good in the hand. the rim shape of the glide is different from a putter, but feels great even from 15'. give 'em a shot. you just might like them.

well, I'll keep my eyes open this weekend. I'm gonna be in a memorial day tourney(isn't everyone?) so I don't want to put any new plastic in my bag right now. Next week though.

Pat,

inside 100' your best bet to approach at this range will probably be a putter-type disc for most situations. there's around 947 ways to approach from 100, ideally you'll know about 50 that you can execute with some proficiency and probably end up with 5 or 6 default shots that you can execute with a very high level of consistency and accuracy.

i agree that 100' and in can be a touchy range but after a while you develop a feel for how to vary power and use height and angles to limit distance.

my own default shot selection inside 100' usually consists of jump putts, gentle hyzers, steep angle hyzers, touch annies, air bounces, skip shots, and low line drives that land short of the pin and slide and i choose them based upon the wind, available lines, how well i've been throwing that day, etc.

with some experimentation and practice you should be able to nail down a few that work with your style of play.

ok, thanks all. Looks like my plan is as follows:

Play tournament with the game and discs I know.
Pick up some stable/understable mids.
Take my practice target into the woods across the street and force myself to shoot some decent straight shots.
Force myself to learn some good {an,}hyzer shots.
Early next week, try a round using some sort of long putt.

Rinse, repeat as necessary.

and play a little catch with that mid range disc. I know that for some people it helps to think of throwing it to someone. Practice straight shots, hyzer, ani's and practice the disc landing at their feet. Good luck.



ok, thanks all. Looks like my plan is as follows:

Play tournament with the game and discs I know.
Pick up some stable/understable mids.
Take my practice target into the woods across the street and force myself to shoot some decent straight shots.
Force myself to learn some good {an,}hyzer shots.
Early next week, try a round using some sort of long putt.

Rinse, repeat as

necessary.

i would say a comet is understable and an mrv is stable. they are just a bit fast/long for 100' shots.

a disc like a wizard, challenger, aviar, magnet, etc. is more of the type that a lot of players gravitate towards since they will hold up okay in the wind and stable enough to hold a line 300+

as for your order of plans, i would suggest rearranging the priority of them a bit as well as differentiate between "straight" and "flat" shots. the flat/straight shot has a very small margin for error, especially if you can get D out of your putter. put it slightly too strong/too high and you are 40' long, put it slightly too weak/too low and you are 40' short. a hyzer line is more predictable and will yield more consistent results in varying conditions. a touch/finesse anhyzer is one of the straighter flying shots that doesn't need a lot of room to work and is very forgiving assuming there isn't a lot of wind. it's very good to be able to throw straight/flat, but i find that i rarely choose this shot unless i'm trying to make a legit run at the chains from a range longer than i normally would attempt from (often in doubles) or if the terrain dictates that is the only possibility.

also, a long putt that is meant as more of a layup than an actual run has one of the largest margins of error if you can execute it with moderate proficiency.

going back to something i mentioned earlier, there are situations where approaching with a midrange disc from under 100' is ideal (when you have to keep it very low, or fade shots that your putter won't perform well enough, it's super windy, etc.). but on shots where you have your choice of line, you are looking at a 9-iron type of shot, and are best off with a 9-iron type of disc rather than choking up on a 5-iron.

thanks for the added suggestions. I've never really tried the putter for approach shots so I will have to see how I can do with that. Maybe that's what I need to consistantly shoot under 54/72.

I have the same problem as you are having and I got 2 words to help you................. Champion Panther
I take one half step towards basket and throw it straight and flat and it goes straight and flat forever. great just outta putter range. It has helped me tons with this problem now if I could only putt too lol

I am fairly familiar with the Pentwater area, I have family in Hart and Muskegon (my home town), and with the orchards and the dunes the terrain can get fairly hilly.

I suggest sticking with the D/DX standard plastic for approach and putters, they tend to slide/skip less which can increase your margin of error on those 100ft approach shots.

Personally I try to take a hyzer approach on those shots. I usually pick an overstable putter, CT Challenger, regular Pro-D challengers are good enough. And try to land about 10ft to the right of the basket to account for a small skip/slide. Having a less stable putter is good for anhyzer approaches which is what most of our local pros prefer from that distance.

But which ever way you choose, the most important thing is to practice, practice, practice. Just practice your approach game in a field. Place your drivers in a 20ft circle and start throwing your mids and putters in there from various distances and angles. And PRACTICE your putts. That is where tourneys are won and lost. If you play Am, practice 20-25 footers, if your advanced, practice 30-35 footers.

Just practice. It will pay off.

I Putt within 100' and approach with putter up to about 250.
I'd highly recommend THrowing your slowest Disc whenever possible. Putters won't "dive" as hard at the end thus causin less rollers and bad skips off the ground.
Another reason you probably aren't as accurate is because you will lose some accuracy when you start to throw Way under your power level. If i threw a Driver at 50% i'd be way less accurate then if i just threw a putter 80-90% on the same shot. Just like in ball golf the golfers try to take a nice solid full swing whenever possible thus the many different clubs.

-Scott Lewis

thanks for the added suggestions. I've never really tried the putter for approach shots so I will have to see how I can do with that. Maybe that's what I need to consistantly shoot under 54/72.



I'd just start off with throwing your putter as if it were an Ultrastar and go from there. It may take a little bit to figure out how the disc flies but given your ultimate background it shouldn't take very long.

I'd recommend looking at the Aero. Available in DX and Champion plastic (for wooded courses). It has very little low speed fade and TONS of glide. It requires little effort to throw and holds the line.

Depending on your 'shot' circumstances/terrain/trees etc...and whether you wish to go for the shot of lay-up...an excellent weapon is a soft Rhyno. Because Rhynos fly differently you'll need to familiarize yourself with this brick of a disc...as it is unique in its flight characteristics. The soft plastic allows it fold on impact which is highly effective for hyzer appoaches. This is a disc which more requires a 'throw' rather than a finesse...but they will respond to the latter.

A Rhyno is a true 'stable' disc in that it flies really 'straight' when driven and will hold a nice line while dropping the whole time. The only time they suprise me is into a headwind...when they can sometimes over-glide. I carry both a soft and a DX...and both are an integral part of my approach game...and they are excellent headwind putters.

.02

I always jump putt from 75'-100' or so feet. I thought that's what almost everyone did??? 100' really isn't that far.

Try a medium wizzard. They are inexpensive and easy to replace. They hold a nice anny and will glide well.

Hi Pat,

I figured I would respond because I used to have trouble with shots from this same range. With your ultimate background, you might find the earlier advice of others to throw a lid-like putter (eg, Rattler or Polecat) straight at the basket with an air bounce. Experience has taught me to land upshots from this range 5--10 feet in front and left of the pole. Personally, I rarely run at the basket from this range.

What I have been doing lately is jump putting with a driver from 100-130 feet. It is certainly unconventional, but I am fairly accurate with it.

I hope this helps!

Ok, so last week, unknown to what this thread would yield, I ordered 10 misstamped wizards from gateway. I just spent about an hour learning that this disc flys a lot like a normal ultimate disc. I got to the point that I could consistantly land it into a garbage can at about 40 feet. Tomorrow I'm going to start throwing that style at a normal target and we'll see what happens.

Pat

Glad to hear the wizards are working for you. :D

ok, at 25 feet, I could get 3 out of every 5 wizards to land in the garbage can(this is over a 80 throw tally), with a general flight path that the drop angle on it would have brought it into the chains(throwing a sharp hyzer, or a high fader, depending on what I felt like). The other 2 were generally slightly too high, so as to likely skip off the upper chain support or skip HARD off the chains down and in. At 40 feet, the 'in' amount dropped to about 1 in 6, but the rest crossed the top of the can. I cannot believe how predictable the wizards are. This could have saved me so many putts over the years.

I also experimented with some anhyzer(how the heck is that spelled anyways) putting and while I was much less accurate, I could predictably get the disc to land flat right around the garbage can.

I was playing in my front yard, around a small island of trees, with the can pushed part way back into the woods, forcing me to hyzer it around. The second hole was from there, over my mom's car, and into a sandy parking lot with some decent ceiling blockage so I had to try 'alternate' shots as the high required for a decent fade was not available.

Pat

Short Mid Range - Champion Gator !!!!!!

Throw a challenger.

Well, I did end up switching my throwing up for the tourney yesterday. I used a medium wizard for approaches. INCREDIBLE. I ended up taking second in AM-III, which would have been 6th in AM-II. The person that won AM-III would also have won AM-II by 2 strokes, but it was the first tournament for all 3 of us on the AM-III leader card. I won a 180G white roc which I intend on using as barter, a 175G orc, which I've thrown a few times, and am happy with, and 2 discs which were needed in my bag. a Z Breeze, and a champion Rhyno. Everyone that said that noone would date call the breeze overstable was right. I threw my first round with it today and was amazed at how soft of an annehyzer I could put on it and have it hold it. It seems to like to hyzer out of a level shot, but it'll hold ANY other line I put it on. Excellent for me in the 80 foot range.

Pat

congrats on your success!

just one thing... its good when people give recommendations on which disc to throw. as you know by now, we are almost all fanatics about some disc or another. technique is transferable from disc to disc, so just remember - what really counts is how you throw your plastic, not what plastic ya throw.

Throw a challenger.



Or Challenge a Thrower :eek:

Throw a challenger.



Or Challenge a Thrower :eek:



This is actually something I'd've liked. My first round was a 79(24 holes) and it would have been better had I been paired against a few better throwers. They threw a 91 and a 98 for the 3 on our card. My second round was incredible. Me and 3rd place were tied for something like 19 of the 24 holes. I ended up taking him with a birdie vs a par on the 24th hole. We pushed each other to shoot a 73 vs a 72(I threw the 73, but I had a 2 throw lead coming out of the first round).