Fieldwork the Secret Ingredient of Paul McBeth’s Dominance?

By | December 12, 2013

The world’s #1 disc golf player, Paul McBeth has just been dominating the tour this year and this past weekend was no different. McBeth dominated the the Charleston Classic with a dominating four round -54 and 15 stroke win over Matt Dollar and Schusterick. Having played Trophy Lakes course this summer I can tell you that it is long, tight and full of tricky water shots so shooting an average round of -13 is ridiculous.

If you happen to follow McBeth on twitter (@Paul_McBeth) you’ll notice he’s always practicing and his recent youtube video gives you a little insight to part of his practice routing, fieldwork.  Fieldwork is one of the most underrated ways to improve your disc golf game. I know my fellow disc’rs here at HyzerFlipped scoff at me when I ask them to hit up a field  but it has helped me tremendously. In McBeth’s video men mentions one little tip that has made a huge difference in my throw, finish where how you want the disc to fly.  Sounds simple but let me elaborate because it was something I haven’t heard before from all the other videos out there.

The idea is to keep the disc on the plane/angle you want it to fly on. So, if you want to throw a hyzer, as McBeth so often does, you’ll hold the disc at a hyzer angle and finish with your hand up high moving on that same hyzer angle.  If you look at this screenshot you can see the angle of the disc and Paul’s arm angle are in sync.

Paul McBeth demonstrating his ridiculously smooth form and the perfect hyzer angle

Paul McBeth demonstrating his ridiculously smooth form and the perfect hyzer angle

(Here’s the throw in video form and if you watch the whole round you’ll see a ton of these shots.)

I’ve found the same thought process works for anhyzer shots, start higher and finish low. As well as straight shots, I imagine finishing level all the way around. I suggest taking a few putters or neutral discs (like a new person fav of mine the Mako3) and practice this concept in your local field. Don’t worry about distance, just concentrate on the angles.

Here’s Paul’s entire field work session and towards the end you’ll see how he demonstrates the importance of these angles when he’s able to throw a flippy beat to hell Roc and keep it on a hyzer. Great stuff here and I hope to see more videos like this from Paul and other pros.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1BXp0-v4vs]

One thought on “Fieldwork the Secret Ingredient of Paul McBeth’s Dominance?

  1. TooNA

    No one ever wants to put in the time to do the needed “fieldwork”. It is a step in the more serious direction. It pays off in the long run.
    I will be playing at Cliff Stevens Park for the Fabulous Florida Tour. It is a great place to practice filed work.
    I plan on putting more and driving more to work on my form and to prevent injury

    Reply

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