Dear Liz,
I noticed that your column debuted just
as pictures of that gorgeous chick started popping up around the website. I have
already tried writing to her several times and she has never answered me. Can I
get a hand here? What is her name and how I can meet her? Where does she golf?
By the way, how do I get started with this drilling thing you wrote about?
There are not many pros at my home course and they go off and play by
themselves. How do I learn the shots?
Limpin' Larry
Larry,
The woman is just some model whose photos Brian Sullivan found on the
Internet. Probably stole 'em from a porno site, knowing Brian. Forget about her. You will
never see another photo of her and for sure you will never meet her. It is
time to concentrate on drilling.
(Editor's note: The Lizard guy is a bit out of the loop. The woman Limpin'
Larry is referring to is Bridget the Frisbee Girl. Here's
another sample, courtesy of your favorite frisbee site. You may see lots more of her.
By the way, Bridget's fan mail is running 10 to 1 over Lizard Tales.)
Drilling is the fastest route to increase your skill. Recall that in a drill
you isolate one particular shot, perfect your form in that shot and practice
it repeatedly.
The starting point of a drill is to develop good form for a shot. There is a
saying that "practice makes perfect." This not totally true. If you have
terrible form then your practice just cements in place your terrible form.
The saying should be "perfect practice makes perfect." Imagine if your
putting form was to face away from the basket and throw a shot between your
legs that skips on the ground and tries to go in the basket. Granted, if you
put in 100 hours of practice at that shot and you will get much better at it.
However, you would never be a good putter with this form.
Most players are not willing to change their form. Even beginning players
want to stick with their natural form. It just feels so… natural. And it
works, sort of. And, of course, they have no idea what it really looks like
since they cannot see their own shots. Players with habitually poor form
believe that pros must have some special vodoo working for them. Or maybe
the pros are just lucky or something. So the average player keeps the same
pitiful form and buys a new frisbee, hoping that will solve the problems.
The pros are not lucky. They are good. Most have excellent form. The few
with poor form could be much better than they are.
How do you know if your form needs some serious work? C'mon, you already
know if your form needs work. The strongest evidence is that you suck and
your scorecard proves it. If your driving distance is inadequate, then your
form needs work. Weak distance is primarily caused by poor form. If your
consistency is sad then your form is likely to blame. If you are playing
the same weak game you had last year and the year before then it is time to
try something new.
If you are willing to change your form, be aware that you will get worse
before you get better. So do not try to learn new form on the morning before
a tournament. Rather, assume it will take you two weeks of solid practice to
get back up to your old level. The good news is that if you keep up with it,
you will keep improving far beyond your old level.
The easiest way to develop good form is to have a good pro as a coach who
watches your shots and make adjustments from shot to shot. This may not be
possible in your situation, but you can probably find another player at your level to work
with. This provides immediate, invaluable feedback.
If you do not a have a skilled coach, then it is more difficult but still
possible. The first step is to find out what good form looks like.
There
are two videos which can help. The first is John Houck's
Learn
To Play Disc
Golf. It is excellent. The name implies that the video is just for beginners, but it's
valuable for most golfers. I had been playing for several years when I first
saw the Houck video and it helped my game a lot, improving my backhand
anhyzers more than any other source.
The other is the video
from the Discraft Worlds 2000 by Alacrity Productions and available through
the PDGA (pdga.com or 416-203-9628). This video follows
the lead groups of Amateurs and Professionals during the final round of the 2001
World Championships. Especially valuable are the slow motion replays of the
driving form of the top four Open players: Ken Climo, Barry Schultz,
Jesper Lundmark and Dr. Rick Voakes. Do these guys have superb form?
Absolutely, or they would not be in the finals. Anyone can play a great round
or get every lucky break for a round or two. No one makes the finals of
Worlds on luck.
When you watch a video or a good player in person, you need to train yourself
in an art know as visualization. Rather than paying attention to where and
how the disc flies, study the form of the player. This seems like a simple
thing, but it is not. Typically when you watch a player throw, your vision
follows the shot. It is almost as though we are hypnotized to automatically
ignore the player and follow the frisbee in flight. But for visualization
purposes, where the shot goes does not matter. The form of the player is
what is important. You want to memorize exactly how they throw from start to
finish. Following the form to the finish is important because the very
ending of the shot- the follow through- is a critical part of the shot and
often the weakest part of the shot by an Amateur player.
As you are watching a video of a shot, replay it numerous times.
Concentrate on a particular aspect of the shot. Watch the feet on the run
up, release and follow through. Replay it several times just watching the
feet. Then do the same thing while paying attention to how the cross-over
step from the footwork allows a greater body turn. This body turn generates
lots of power (adding a cross-over step to your run up will add another 50 feet
to your drives). Then study the swing plane, watching it time after
time. See how the throwing arm comes straight across the chest and the
follow through goes way past 360 degrees. Notice that the throwing arm does
not create a wide arc until the follow through. It is more that the throwing
arm goes straight back then rips forward in a straight line, turning in an
arc at only after the release. Watch how the shoulder turns. Watch it and
memorize it. Then study the knee on the plant foot. See how much it bends
during the plant and release. You want to study every aspect of the shot
until you are confident you know just how to make it yourself. After
watching the same shot for many minutes, you will have burned into your memory
exactly what that perfect shot looks like. Does this somehow transfer to
your shot? Yes. That is exactly the idea. When next you try this shot your
goal is to perfectly mimic the form you have memorized. Throw smooth with
perfect follow through. Just like you were posing for the camera.
It is expected that this new form will feel unnatural. When Climo drove he
threw straight across his shoulders. When you throw, you dip your shoulder
down and your hand is even with your belt buckle on release. Sure, it
feels funny to throw straight across your shoulders. At first, you get no
power and no control this way. Hey, if you want to play Am II forever, keep
doing it your way. If you want to be good, you need to break it down to build
it up.
A useful tool is a video camera. Video a dozen shots. Find out what you are
really doing. Go practice your form for a week then video again and see if
your form is improved.
Once you have developed the perfect form, you need to practice the shot to
develop muscle memory so you can make the shot time after time. When you
throw the shot that flies just right, pause for a moment after the shot and
memorize just what you did to make it fly properly. Eventually you will
learn to make that shot under pressure even when you are mentally and
physically exhausted. Only then have you truly mastered the shot.
So stop fantasizing about gorgeous women and put your mental imagery to good
use.
Send feedback to lizard@disclife.com.
And Bridget the Frisbee Girl
