The 'SNAP' or 'HIT' and how to get it

Many of us have seen the article Distance Secrets, but what I think may be the most important part of improving distance seems hard to understand and even harder to master-- from the article:

Your wrist should not continue forward to sling the disc out; instead it should come to an abrupt, steely stop. At this point your wrist should be stiff and held motionless, so try to stiffen your fingers, wrist, and arm as much as possible at the moment of impact of the snap. It's similar to a karate chop in that there is very little wrist motion. You don't want to keep your wrist stiff throughout the whole throw, though. At the beginning of the throw you want to only have enough tension in the fingers and wrist to hold the disc in launch position. You only become tight at the hit. Notice, too, that using the tendon bounce does not mean that your arm stops just because your wrist motion stops.

I've read it and read it but it doesn't seem to take yet. What has anyone else done to get good snap and learn what appears to be difficult muscle-memory?

[Jamie]

Footwork is important but forget snap...come on? i never noticed that...I always hear the fingers snap and I hear mad wind coming off my snapped drive!

[DaveD]

The most important thing to focus on, when you are trying to get a snap/hit, is the disc. Not your wrist. The stop of the wrist helps the disc rip off your fingers. Pulling through that action is the other part. What you're trying to accomplish is a heavy rip off your fingers. If the disc slips out it's not good. You need a good grip with good traction.

It also helps to discover where exactly the disc is ripping from, in your grip. Most of the time it is a finger pad or two that the inside rim wall rips from. If you are having problems with the rip/snap, you need to focus on the part of the rim ripping off your fingers or finger pads. Pine tar may help you to find and create a proper rip. Without this rip, you can't properly time, aim, or power your drive.

None of the other things you do to throw a disc are as important as the disc ripping from your grip. You can generate all the power and speed you want, (to go into the disc), but if you don't have the transfer from the grip rip, you lose it all in slip. It all slips away.

Right after the wrist stiffens, the disc rips off the fingers. The arm and shoulders pull through this rip until the disc is gone. The arm and shoulders are lead by the open hips. Pulling through the hit is so strong on a drive that the arm continues 180 degrees past the release point.

Just like snapping a towel, the wrist stops and the towel snaps. For a drive, the wrist stops and the disc snaps.
Have fun.

[DaveD]

I should also mention the position the wrist stops at. The wrist does not stop at a straight, (handshaking), position, but rather more open. This open position can be as little as 20 degrees open to more than 45 degrees. The more open the finishing position, the easier it is to get the nose down.

[Jim Reed]

Who wrote this article? Im not sure what I read makes much sense. In every other sport that involves throwing something, you use your wrist to add the last second extra power or rotation. The only thing I can think of where you are supposed to keep your wrist straight or tight when throwing something is in fly fishing, and that is because you have a 9-foot long fly rod that is designed to flex under pressure, then spring back, so essentially, the fly rod is providing the wrist snap for you.I throw sidearm drives, and backhand approach and putts, and I try to think of my throwing motion as similar to a bull whip- the motion travels from thicker parts,(shoulder, bi/triceps) down to the thinner parts, forearms, wrist, fingers. In a bull whip, all that energy is built up in the thicker sections transfers to the thin parts resulting in a sonic boom- it is not the whip hitting a solid surface which makes the noise, but rather the tip moves faster than the speed of sound which creates a sonic boom. imagine how much energy is required to do that, and how that principal can be applied to folf.

do what feel right and natural, if your trying and trying, but cant master what the article says, maybe its not you.

Personaly, I believe the wrist snap adds extra RPMs to a disc in flight, and the added RPMs increase stability, accuracy, and because the disc is spinning faster, it reduces air resistance which increases distance.

[Lowe]

"Who wrote this article?"

The ideas in the article are all from Dave Dunipace of Innova that he shared on the PDGA Discussion board. I organized all of Dave's posts, provided the outline, and collated his thoughts, so I was the editor.

-Lowe

[BJangsta]

your wrist shouldn't move. This is what creates the snap. you build up pressure behind your wrist as your pulling through on the disc. At the moment of release your wrist should be locked. Also, if you are wanting more Distance, you need to reach back further on your pull. The longer pull gives more time for you to accelerate through to the moment of release. My best analogy for a disc golf throw.

It's like pull starting a lawn mower.

[Bill]

here's the Champ's take on the wrist at about the 4:10 mark- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAlgk3_QyDA

[Stormy]

I read somewhere that one should keep his wrist stiff when pulling the disc through and during the "snap". This is supposed create a spring type of tension and get you more distance more accurately. Hod does the "wag" fit into this technique?

[Jamie]

If you havent firgured out by throwing thousands of disc by now how to snap or wag or drag or spin than you probally will never get it? Hope this helps!

[eric beich]

just my 2 cents, but this is very important.
I've seen some players who dont seem to have much of a step-up or a very 'hard' looking throw that can stil get good distance off what I would consider a very poor looking shot. just because it doesnt 'appear' like they are putting as much effort into a drive as others do.
quite interesting. good discussion.

[Stormy]

Here's a link to an article that covers this subject thoroughly. Give it a good read and then let's hear your comments.

http://www.discgolfreview.com/resources/articles/distancesecrets.shtml

[Lyle O. Ross]

Wrist stiffness -

For me, the concept of keeping your wrist stiff is a misnomer. Let me preface this by saying that I'm 47, and I limit out at about 400 feet with my longest throw ever being 430 feet last year. That said, the stiff wrist thing is a distraction for me.

The theory is that as you pull through, your "stiff wrist" acts like a spring (think one foot long, very stiff). Now, if you pull that spring, i.e. bend it and then let go, well it springs forward. This is the wag, you pull the spring towards you, it wags and then springs forward slinging that disc out there!!!!

Now does this really occur? Well Dave Dunipace writes it does and no one knows more about the throw than Dave; the theory makes sense, but I've never seen any video footage showing said wag. Of course such video footage would be hard to obtain.

My view is that this is irrelevant and you can get way to focused on it (written from experience).

My most effective throws occur when I put a motion on my arm that builds a snap into the release. I'm not thinking about wag, wrist stiffness or wrist spring, I'm thinking about that snap like the tip of a towel snapping as it hits "your" backside.

Getting that snap at release is tough and requires a proper pulling motion. whether you use a bent elbow or a reach back motion, it is essential that you don't really mean it until you do the part called unwinding your elbow. If you start pulling hard before that point, you've given up any real hope of getting a snap.

Here's a little exercise to try, bend your arm at the elbow and point your elbow at your target. Go through an abbreviated throwing motion twisting at your waist and pulling your arm through. This isn't full speed or really hard! The object is to put a "wag" or "snap" in your throw as you go through this abbreviated motion similar to what you get when you snap a towel. It isn't enough that you snap your wrist outward, your hand should come in, wag, and then snap out at the point when your extension is at it's fullest. The motion is natural, that is you aren't "making" your hand wag and snap.

Exercise two: Stand in and throw. To get any kind of a decent throw while standing in you have to have good snap. You can't rely on body torque and forward motion. Think about snapping your wrist at the release. Again, it's not enough just to push your hand forward at the release ( I actually use this type of a throw on upshots to limit distance and increase accuracy) you have to snap your hand.

Finally, from the perspective of the reach back throw. When I reach back, as I begin to bring the disc forward, I find that the forward movement of the disc has nothing to do with arm pull. The disc moves forward because I am a) twisting my torso, and b) pulling with my shoulder. What this does is keeps my arm relaxed and not committed to the throw until I need it to be. As I'm twisting and pulling with my shoulders my elbow is bending, again, this bend is not due to muscle flex as much as keeping my upper arm aligned with my shoulders. The natural motion of my forearm is to come in as the elbow bends. Once I get my body twisted around and my shoulders pulled through to a point where my elbow approximately points at the target, then my throw becomes "real." I start what Dave calls the unwind or the unbend where I straighten my arm at the elbow. I bear down on my grip, my muscles in my forearm flex, and the focus is on speed.

Now, I cheat - as I'm turning my torso and shoulder to bend the elbow, I use just enough control to make sure the disc floats in on an s curve towards my chest. What this does is it puts the wag in to the throw. My wrist bends as the disc comes in, hence setting me up for the "unwag" and snap. Once more, all of this is very relaxed. It's fast but I'm not pulling with my arm in any way. You can see that this is how I gain the stiff wrist wag, litterally by putting the disc on a line to result in that wag no matter what I do. Then by having a firm grip