The whole I/O Thing

I have already discussed what I am about to write with Scheid and other members of the summer team, but here it goes.

Back in the spring when the ultimate team started to get serious (hopefully we start that a lot earlier this year), we started to really look at throwing form. One of the people on the team that I respect a lot in terms of throwing is Kid. Now Kid seemed to be telling everyone to try and put I/O on every throw, and I started to work on that but never really understood why until I started played some disc golf earlier this summer and it sort of dawned on me. Understanding the "why", at least for me, makes it easier to convince yourself to do something rather than just blindly trusting the people who are better than you at it, so here it goes.

When you throw, especially a forehand, the tendency is for the disc to go O/I. I am not sure about why this is, but if you look at someone who is just learning a forehand (oh remember those days?) you can see that their throws often turn to O/I blades. Now, in disc golf, the tendency is opposite (don't ask me why, something with the physics of the lip of the disc or something), so all your throws will "naturally" go I/O. To get distance in disc golf, one method that a more experienced player told me was to try and throw the disc O/I. When this is done you can see the disc flatten itself out, and sometimes even go I/O as its natural tendency is. It is much more exaggerated with disc golf discs than with ultimate discs, but the theory is the same (except opposite). Throw with I/O and the disc will flatten itself out, and while this happens the disc is using its natural tendency to stay in the air rather than fly down (as the disc gets more and more O/I its flight pattern is more and more downward).

So that is my reasoning for why I/O throws are more stable and will go further with less force. Maybe this was very obvious to you before, or maybe it makes no sense, but this epiphany has helped me a lot in terms of a mentality of throwing, so long as it helps at least one more of you then this entry is worth it. I am not an extremist like Kid to say that you should put I/O on EVERY throw, but in general it is better. There are definitely situations where O/I throws are better for getting to a target, but it is still a less stable throw and you should take that into account before throwing it.

So keep working on your throwing form and I will see you clowns in the fall.

-Ravi