2017-02-07 Filming Part 4 The next video session was conducted, again with success. My focus was on my hand and index finger positions. In the last days, I came to realize that I should keep my hand on the away side of the disc during pull through. This -- so I hoped -- would help to get rid of pulling the disc to the right at the point of release. The reason is that I can compensate my arm moving right and thus my hand moving right by the disc starting to spin around the pivot point between my index finger and thumb. This way, the disc would still go straight, although my arm and hand have begun to go right. I changing my index finger grip position from with the finger pad to the inside of the rim, like my other fingers, to with the first joint below the rim. The finger is much more spread out and separated from the other three, now. This was necessary because of two reasons. First, it is much easier to have the hand on the outer side of the disc this way. With my old power grip I would have needed to bend the wrist hard to achieve the same. Second, the index finger now sits right below my thumb, creating this pivot point. And for different reasons, but equally important, this counter pressure to the thumb is expected to reduce the wobble. I suspect that it mainly comes from my thumb pushing down and my fingers pushing up, but at different position, thus tilting the disc's plate out of the flight direction. My session was organized like last time: seven discs, ten rounds (with not filmed back throws), on a soccer field. This time I threw most straight shots with X-steps, trying to maintain a strict right-cross-right step sequence. That worked consistently enough. Putter throwing was more successful from a standstill. Those annies and hyzers that I practiced were also rather thrown from a standstill. I felt quite some advancement in the throws from my body feed- back. Some shots felt just good ... or let's say ``better''. ;-) Also, the wobble was much less. And in consequence, some shots went really far: X-step, hand on the away side, straight pullthrough, and good body weight distribution resulted in 80 me- ters with my Teebird and 70 meters with the Comet and Buzzz ... not each time, but once. That's a good improvement. Well, the distance is not the main goal, but here it is the consequence of my improved technique, and that's the goal. This hand-on-the-away-side thing did not only lead to a straighter pullthrough and release, but to more spin, as well. Furthermore, it helped me feel how it should be and thus improve with my approach shots. I've never understood how Paul throws them, although I've watched him a lot of times in slow motion. Now, I know that the trick is having the hand on the away side of the disc ... and at once all his motion became clear to me, but only after I've experienced it myself. Standstill throws became different to me with that little thing changed. Wow! This opened the door to putter throwing for me. I didn't care much about where to I threw the discs. I tried to release straight, but if they went left or right, I didn't care, because that's often only a release angle question. (You cannot focus on several things when practicing technique.) Nonetheless, I went to perform some annies and hyzers after I got bored by the straight shots. The hyzers are easier to throw, because most discs fade on their own, but it is much harder to throw nice hyzers, ones that fly on smooth curves. As well, the variance in my hyzers was greater. The annies, in contrast, need a more acu- rate release angle, but resulted in more constant flight lines. The exception was the Aero, which was in every case difficult to- day. Completely different the P2s, which flew such nice anny lines! Let's look to the next video session. What am I going to focus on then? There's no such painful mistake standing out this time. Good! :-) I think I could do some training without filming first. I should build up more consistency in what I've got already. Throwing a lot and keeping an eye on the release point, which de- fines the direction the disc goes, could be a next goal. Maybe I should go heading for target areas. Currently, I always aim straight and have the hyzers land left, the straights straight ahead and the annies right. Better would be having all of them land on an area straight ahead, but change my direction of throw- ing, because that's what you need on the course. Yes, course ... I'm looking forward returning to the course, after all this field work. Hence, this appears be the end of my first video feedback series. Clear is, there's nothing more helpful for working on your tech- nique than filming yourself and watching that in slow motion. If you haven't done it, do it! http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke