How Many Flicks Does it Take?

That is a burning question in my training right now.  Ever since I began playing disc golf, this shot has been difficult for me, and because it was difficult, I focused more on the backhand throw.  Every time I attempted a forehand or flick, it was pretty pathetic.  So I never used it.  Now, I am fine tuning the backhand, while I’m still in the novice stage of the forehand.  Sounds like a good

So, I’ve watched videos, like the one below:

I’ve watched others throw at the disc golf course to get a concept of what I’m not doing correctly.  I’ve gone in the field and tried to learn the sequence leading up to the throw as well as the actual throw.

In the trunk of my car I have a milk carte filled with discs that aren’t a part of my regular disc bag.  I use them to practice shots in the field – whether it’s a sidearm, backhand, or roller.  There are 26 discs in that crate and I usually throw them all out, go into the field and throw them back to the starting point, and repeat that routine about four times per day.  That gives me about 200 tries at getting a particular shot embedded in my muscle memory.  Even with all that practice, I still throw a flick awkwardly and not with much accuracy or distance. 

When I’m playing with Danny or any other player who knows how to throw a forearm well, I watch closely how they are executing it.  I’ve even taken videos of players throwing the flick and viewed them on my Ubersense App so I can slow it down to analyze the parts of the throw.

The bottom line is, I still haven’t reached that magic number – when the throw becomes an extension of my arm, and is a natural motion from the tee to way down the field. Or I still haven’t seen that perfect video that will cause that “click!” in my brain that will make me finally understand the “how”of the throw.

Things I have working in my favor to learn the throw are determination, and a large dose of stubbornness.  I know that I can do this if I just get that motion down.  I have been practicing disc golf steadily for months now—daily in recent weeks—and I know that practice eventually makes perfect.  Or, if not perfect, at least I should attain acceptable performance.  Factors working against me would be a lack of natural athletic ability, and strength.

So, how many flicks does it take to learn this throw?  For me, the answer is still unknown, something along the lines of how many licks does it take to get to the middle of a Tootsie Rolll!