Can someone explain snap to me?

Snap is a mystery to me. I think I know what it is, at least I recognize it when I see it but I'm not sure what causes it or how to improve it.

My backhand snap is weak. My forehand snap is not. This is not a recent condition. I have played disc golf competitively for 15 years. My backhand snap is better than when I started but still weak and feeble compared to the average amateur tournament player. It makes no sense to me. When I played racquetball and ping pong I had good snap on both forehands and backhands but when I play disc golf I only have good snap on a forehand.

Why does my wrist work one way but not the other?

[Lotto]

im in the same boat as mark...

when i throw backhand, ill get an audible "snap" every once and a while. but forehand i get it everytime, it just like snapping your fingures, except when throwing forehand instead of your thumb pressing against your middle finger, its the inside rim of the disc. once the middle fingre slips off of the disc, creating a hell of alot of spin, aka "snap", its snaps against your palm.

[aaron diehl]

Hey Mark im only 15 and im throwing my backhand like 450. i think the way you make snap is all in the grip and release. This is not the same as the up shot grip and release when you want it to be soft. You must grip hard so you can see the dent in the disc then on the release dont open your hand all the way at the end of your shot like you do on a upshot.you want your hand to almost close again after you let go of the disc that is where the snap comes from. I throw gateway so the discs i use for long shots are the Illusion,Assassin, and Saber for more control shots

[Ken]

I have found this helpfull http://www.discgolfreview.com/resources/articles/bentelbow2.shtml
http://www.discgolfreview.com/resources/articles/distancesecrets.shtml
Ken

[don]

Mark, I myself didn't think I was getting any snap on my disc but all the people I play with say that I am. I am unable to hear it when I am throwing. However I can hear other players when they throw. My friends and I have been talking about this and discussing why I would not be able to hear my own snap off the tee. We came to the conclusion that under the intense concentration on the tee that I am not picking up on small sounds. This could be what is happening to you? I don't quite understand it all myself.

[Travis]

i only throw about 325'-350' backhand but and i have had this conversation with fellow golfers who throw well over 450' and to my frustration still do not understand how to create this snap. although, when i throw forehand i have the ability to turn over some of the most overstable discs on the market. i have been told to tighten my grip but when i focus on tightening my grip i get really bad grip-lok and i shank the disc. One thing i have noticed is that i get more of a backhand snap out of smaller rimmed discs like the teebird, xs, etc. than i do with the new wider rimmed drivers that are coming out.

[Blazo]

I believe I have a pretty good idea of what snap is. The sound is what Brandon Ballou (first post) said - the finger tips hitting the palm of your hand. Its just like snapping your fingers in that sense. Aaron Diehl mentioned how important gripping the disc hard is in relation to snap. He's right - the harder you grip the more pressure put on the disc (between your fingers and your palm) and so (think in slow motion for a second) as the disc-in-hand increases speed and therefore resistance to your hand, you SLOWLY decrease the pressure on the disc (rather than increase the pressure on the disc which would be necessary to hold onto it). When the speed of the disc outweighs the pressure of your grip, the disc releases from your finger tips, which are all very tense, and your fingertips smack your palm from 1/3" away (my guess for rim height). That's how it works for backhand.
Forehand is the same idea but you have only one or two fingers rather than four and to counter that they have a lot further amount of space to travel before nailing your palm.

Travis said:

i only throw about 325'-350' backhand but and i have had this conversation with fellow golfers who throw well over 450' and to my frustration still do not understand how to create this snap. although, when i throw forehand i have the ability to turn over some of the most overstable discs on the market. i have been told to tighten my grip but when i focus on tightening my grip i get really bad grip-lok and i shank the disc. One thing i have noticed is that i get more of a backhand snap out of smaller rimmed discs like the teebird, xs, etc. than i do with the new wider rimmed drivers that are coming out.

[Blazo]

oh yeah and you played ping pong mark? i played in the kalamazoo table tennis club a couple years ago...i know my way around a pong table. i never played anyone who could beat me until i joined that club. some guys there could smoke me like i had never played before. i'm around a 900 rating i guess. what about you?

[mark ellis]

Blaze said:

oh yeah and you played ping pong mark? i played in the kalamazoo table tennis club a couple years ago...i know my way around a pong table. i never played anyone who could beat me until i joined that club. some guys there could smoke me like i had never played before. i'm around a 900 rating i guess. what about you?

In ping pong I am no more than a marginal basement hack. I was referring to my backhand power, not my control.

The snap I am referring to is not the sound generated by the throw but the throw itself. I mean snap as the ability to rocket a disc out of your hand even with slow arm speed and little body movement. I know some folks with good snap make a sound but others with as good or better snap do not.

Players with good snap can putt firmly even when they are new to the game. They can generate speed and power without using much arm or body, it is all wrist. Someone with good snap can throw over 100 feet or over 200 feet without a run up or a lot of arm movement. Their wrist does something mine does not.

Some of the articles confuse the heck out of me but I'm going to study them to see if I can make sense of it.

I suspect it has something to do with the angle of release or the motion of the release.

[discpimpn]

hey mark, i'm just sitting here an envisioning what I would do for max distance an control from a standstill. If u want to try something that may sound odd or not but... I'm thinking if you spiral up a wet towel and practice snapping it against a spot on the wall or just in the air but you would have to practice this whip from the angle you would release a backhand an slowly start to more your arm further back esch time til u have a full range motion an obviuosly pull in tighter to the chest when coming across like startin a lawnmower an extend the energy into your wrist. and that in a nut shell is what my wrist does when i drive and i usually throw the most overstable but slightly beat in discs....btw thanks for the first run xtra I got off u it's startin to pay off

[Donny Olow]

Snap is Cool !!!!

[Bill]

Mark, I was able to improve my wrist flexibility with a series of stretches a physical therapist gave me when I was seeing her about a shoulder issue. Unfortunately, it has not yet improved enough to go out and see if the added flexibility has made any difference.

[Bill Burns]

Mark,

I thought you were referring to the sound at release, but now I read that you are not. Your last post refers to seeing good snap with putts as well, so I am interpreting snap as the disc having very little to no wobble when released, whether it is a putt or an approach or a drive.


The two main "drivers" (pun intended) in the release of the disc are:

1) Vector change between hand and disc

2) Release of the disc by the hand


For a putt, good snap would be to not only have good angular rotation of the disc, (via wrist supination)but also to have intentional release of the disc, with your fingers acting like they all have the same electrical charge and are wanting to get as far apart from each other as possible at the point of release.

For a drive, I believe it is true that the disc is not so much released by the hand as it is ripped out of the hand by the momentum of the disc, as the vector of the hand changes. In this case, snap would be enhanced by a pronounced vector change of the hand at the desired point of release.

Finally, an approach shot would be a combination of the two. The vector of the hand changes, but not as drastically as a drive, so there has to be an intentional release of the disc, but again, the release is not as drastic as that of a putt, since the vector change is aiding in the release.

Uh oh, I got that feeling that this might be another one of my thread killings posts. Sorry.