If a lifetime of ball golf has taught me anything, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to athletic movements such as this. Even if there was, it would take one many years to find it articulated in a way that made sense to them. I've had certain "breakthroughs" and have been able to look back at professional lessons and see where they may have been trying to get that breakthrough advice across, and it just didn't make sense to me at the time, and thought "why didn't they just explain it like 'this'...?"
This article is kind of hilariously like almost every conversation you have at the disc golf course, but it’s always something different. The reach back position, the power pocket, the elbow angle, the follow through, pouring the coffee, turning the key, etc etc etc.
If _only_ it were as simple as one thing. But the truth is that distance can be achieved through a multitude of athletic motions which vary drastically player to player.
Interestingly, when throwing objects (especially discs), the ideal angle to maximize distance might not be 45 degrees for two reasons: the object might fly better at specific angles and different human muscles come into play at different angles. The optimal angle might therefore vary by athlete.
For ballistic objects (so objects where air just acts as drag), the optimal launch angle is less than 45 degrees due to air resistance.
For aerodynamic objects like a disc, the optimal launch angle will be complicated because a disc's flight path is far more influenced by "secondary" (such as angle of attack and spin) compared to say a baseball, or even golf.
An "optimal" description of disc release angle that a player would likely be interested in (I say this as an ultimate player) would be given in terms of release angle, angle of attack (ie: how nose up), spin, and forward velocity.
And then once converted into human terms for all but the most elite athletes, release angle will probably instead be simplified down to windup position and release position/height.
Right. Even something that seems simple (such as a golf ball) is not trivial to model: the rough surface and spin end up creating lift -- the ball is essentially flying.
I mentioned this article to a guy that’s essentially a pro and he said the grip is different based on distance and type of disc and “a bunch of other factors.”
He said an article like this is misleading and incomplete.
It can't be misleading in that way, since it isn't clearly isn't leading towards a conclusion of one grip being the best in all situations or thumb placement being the only factor that matters. It says that when controlling for thumb placement on a "mid-range" disc, "placing the thumb about 3 cm from the outer edge yielded the best results for all the participants in terms of simultaneously high average spin rates and launch speeds."
"Lindsey cautioned that this is a preliminary finding since they only studied one type of disc and plan to conduct further experiments with other disc types. "Considering the lack of data relating to the various details of a disc golf throw to resulting performance, we hope that this study serves as a catalyst for similar research... at other institutions," he said."
If a lifetime of ball golf has taught me anything, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to athletic movements such as this. Even if there was, it would take one many years to find it articulated in a way that made sense to them. I've had certain "breakthroughs" and have been able to look back at professional lessons and see where they may have been trying to get that breakthrough advice across, and it just didn't make sense to me at the time, and thought "why didn't they just explain it like 'this'...?"
This article is kind of hilariously like almost every conversation you have at the disc golf course, but it’s always something different. The reach back position, the power pocket, the elbow angle, the follow through, pouring the coffee, turning the key, etc etc etc.
If _only_ it were as simple as one thing. But the truth is that distance can be achieved through a multitude of athletic motions which vary drastically player to player.
Interestingly, when throwing objects (especially discs), the ideal angle to maximize distance might not be 45 degrees for two reasons: the object might fly better at specific angles and different human muscles come into play at different angles. The optimal angle might therefore vary by athlete.
For ballistic objects (so objects where air just acts as drag), the optimal launch angle is less than 45 degrees due to air resistance.
For aerodynamic objects like a disc, the optimal launch angle will be complicated because a disc's flight path is far more influenced by "secondary" (such as angle of attack and spin) compared to say a baseball, or even golf.
An "optimal" description of disc release angle that a player would likely be interested in (I say this as an ultimate player) would be given in terms of release angle, angle of attack (ie: how nose up), spin, and forward velocity.
And then once converted into human terms for all but the most elite athletes, release angle will probably instead be simplified down to windup position and release position/height.
Right. Even something that seems simple (such as a golf ball) is not trivial to model: the rough surface and spin end up creating lift -- the ball is essentially flying.
But each of those things will affect your throw. As will thumb placement.
I was wondering what to expect until met with a diagram depicting holding a disc normally…
I mentioned this article to a guy that’s essentially a pro and he said the grip is different based on distance and type of disc and “a bunch of other factors.”
He said an article like this is misleading and incomplete.
It can't be misleading in that way, since it isn't clearly isn't leading towards a conclusion of one grip being the best in all situations or thumb placement being the only factor that matters. It says that when controlling for thumb placement on a "mid-range" disc, "placing the thumb about 3 cm from the outer edge yielded the best results for all the participants in terms of simultaneously high average spin rates and launch speeds."
"Lindsey cautioned that this is a preliminary finding since they only studied one type of disc and plan to conduct further experiments with other disc types. "Considering the lack of data relating to the various details of a disc golf throw to resulting performance, we hope that this study serves as a catalyst for similar research... at other institutions," he said."
Reading this article makes me think that I just throw weird compared to the pros. But who cares! I'm having fun.
If you’re not getting paid to do it then that’s all that matters.
Sweet, will have to play around with this. It's incredible to watch the people who know how to actually play.