Papelbon

[Joe Yaskis]

This section is dedicated to sick saves on bad drives.

Advice.
There is a shot at every location no matter how bad it seems.
Look forehand, back hand, tomahawk, roller, flick etc.

When throwing down hill, on really fast greens with steep declines, throw the disc upside down so that it slides down on its face. This allows it not to catch edge and roll far away.

Any other saves out there?

[Matt Aubin]

two shots come to mind:

flick roller. it's not a hard shot, but having confidence in it to save yourself is the biggest thing. when there is just NO air shot to be had, a flick roller can really save your ass. with practice they can 'fade' both left and right.

'pancake' overhand. usually with a beat/understable disc, an overhand that flattens out and lands on it's top so it stops dead. a lot of times people think 'overhand = overstable' and the disc stays upright and bounces or rolls far off target. it's a great tool to throw a sub-100' overhand that rolls over and plays dead.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Not even sure what to call it.......... local GM Greg Kurtz has been pushing me to try this RHBH shot with your back to the target when you need to throw around an obstacle. I've been resistant to trying it up until this year and i'm finding it works really well with an anhyzer release.

[Eric Kevorkian]

One of the craziest "save" shots i've ever seen has to be Craig Gangloff's sidearm/chickenwing toss. I caddied for Sean Jack during the first couple rounds of the Vibram last year and Craig was on his card. After the round he broke it down for me, but I couldn't fathom pulling off that shot without tearing a tendon or ligament!

Anyone else see the throw i'm talking about?

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Anyone else see the throw i'm talking about?

Is this the one I've seen on youtube at Wick ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLMbyr_UTcw

[Drew Smith]

Doubles @ Pyramids w/Brinster ... airport hole ... we were almost to the corner, tight left (before the allies were there). Off his knee, leans out, and RH upside-down thumber. It hyzered out and skipped under the pin.

[Eric Kevorkian]

Anyone else see the throw i'm talking about?

Is this the one I've seen on youtube at Wick ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLMbyr_UTcw

that's not it.

[Joe Yaskis]

One shot that has saved me a lot of times is the tomahawk with a putter that fades left to right.

Hold disc in the right hand with a tomahawk grip. Angle the disc so it is about 45 degrees, release on that angle and get it up in the air. Takes a little practice, but well worth to have in the bag.

[Dave McHale]

not sure what shot you're talking about kovo... can you explain the shot more? I'm having trouble picturing what a "sidearm chickenwing" even looks like

still love the vid jeffW linked to. that's such an awesome drive

jeff, are you talking about the "patented"? back to the hole, putting your non-weighted foot behind your lie so you can stand out to the side more?

[Jeff Wiechowski]

still love the vid jeffW linked to. that's such an awesome drive

the verbal response from the cameraman is priceless!

jeff, are you talking about the "patented"? back to the hole, putting your non-weighted foot behind your lie so you can stand out to the side more?

Yes.... It always felt really unnatural to me. Now that I've tried it a few times, it's becoming one of my options when I'm stuck with "that lie".

[Craig Smolin]

Jeff - big key with the "patent pending" is to put your toes behind your mini and not your heel. If you use your heel and it comes up during your throw you've just foot faulted.

[Matt Stroika]

Jeff - big key with the "patent pending" is to put your toes behind your mini and not your heel. If you use your heel and it comes up during your throw you've just foot faulted.

Not necessarily true. If you keep your foot on the line, you can lift your heel and still have a legal stance when you throw... unless the distance from your heel to the ball of your foot is greater than 30 cm.

[Mike Dussault]

I have seen Gangloff throw a thumb roller that seems to come out of his armpit. It is amazing to see, and I would imagine ripping my arm off if I ever tried it.

I will just keep them on the fairway and make the save easier.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Jeff - big key with the "patent pending" is to put your toes behind your mini and not your heel. If you use your heel and it comes up during your throw you've just foot faulted.

Not necessarily true. If you keep your foot on the line, you can lift your heel and still have a legal stance when you throw... unless the distance from your heel to the ball of your foot is greater than 30 cm.

30cm is about one foot. Just not MY foot.
Smolin must've taken note of my shoe size.......... size 13 shoes=15" or 38.1cm.

[Josh Connell]

Jeff - big key with the "patent pending" is to put your toes behind your mini and not your heel. If you use your heel and it comes up during your throw you've just foot faulted.

Not necessarily true. If you keep your foot on the line, you can lift your heel and still have a legal stance when you throw... unless the distance from your heel to the ball of your foot is greater than 30 cm.

Pretty sure Smolin is referring to a stance in which your foot is perpendicular to the line of play. I've seen it happen plenty of times. Player puts his foot on the mark, checks it for legality and sees that his heel is on the LOP, then stretches out to make his shot and in the process lifts his foot so it's resting on the ball instead of the heel. The ball of the foot is not on the line of play in this instance, so 30cm long foot or not, it's not a legal stance.

It's often an unconscious thing, not necessarily an intentional attempt to cheat an extra few inches to get clear of an obstacle. And because of that, it's something that you probably won't catch yourself on because more often than not, if you double check, you'll stand more upright to turn and look and your heel comes back down to the ground. I try to point it out before the player throws if I can, so he can correct it without me having to call a foot fault. Never met with an argument. The simple solution to avoid it is as Smolin points out, to make sure it is the ball of your foot that is on the LOP when your foot is flat on the ground, that way when you stretch and the heel comes up, you're still legal.

As to the original question of the thread, I'm going to add the grenade to the list. That's flipping the disc upside-down in your hand and throwing it with a spike hyzer. I've found it's very good when I need to cover a short distance straight up and over something. One might say that a tomahawk or thumber might work just as well, but I find when it's a shorter distance or not a full power throw, the overhand shots will tend to drift more if you throw them more lightly...sort of the effect Yaskis is describing in tomahawking a putter.

While a disc right-side up on spike hyzer will tend to follow a continuous arc (so RHBH would tend to drift right to left on its way to the ground), a grenade tends to come straight down once it reaches its apex or even fight back the opposite way (back to the right on a RHBH) if it is thrown high enough. And when it lands, it won't skip or roll much at all. Very effective at sticking near a basket on a well protected green.

[Craig Smolin]

Josh explained what I meant. When your entire foot is on the LOP it doesn't matter. But perpendicular (which I find makes the throw so much easier) you will need to put the ball of your foot on the LOP.

Learning how to throw a thumber with various angles will help, as will throwing putter forehands.

[Dave McHale]

turbo. you don't have to be a turbo master, but being able to throw one so it at least FLIES, even if only 30', can save your ass