Disc Quan Do Class Excerpt | On Flexing Discs

This is an excerpt from Tuesday Afternoon Disc Quan Do class. This segment was based upon a need for disc placement and trajectory issues stemming from a video submitted by Oleg where, due to space limitations and disc choice, his throws to his dog were not likely to elicit a leap. We’re looking to develop methods utilizing disc throwing principles to reinforce leaping in disc dogs.

What Was the Situation?

Oleg posted a video of a Zig ZagA Zig Zag is a series of catches in smooth succession that forces the dog to move back and forth across the field. Usually performed at a distance of 8-20 yards, the Zig... More, a skill that is developing nicely with his young dog and team but is not resulting in a leaping catch.

There were several reasons for this:

• Disc choice
• Space limitations
• Dog/Handler/Team experience
• Throwing technique

Disc Choice

Oleg is throwing Super Sonics. Great discs, but tough to float and hover for shaping a leaping catch, especially if you’re working at short distances. This is why I have two types of discs in this video.

In class I threw some Super Sonic 215s to demonstrate the flight principles of his chosen discs. Super Sonics both fly and fall faster than Xtra and Aero 235s, which makes throwing for leaping catches with new dogs in tight confines a difficult task.

Note the difference in speed and float/hover between the two disc types.

Space Limitations

Floating and hovering discs at a short distance is no simple task. That ‘laser beam’ floater I’m chucking out there is a typical method for making discs hover and float. Lots of Zs (Zs = spinSpins and Twists are tricks where the dog spins 360 degrees in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion. Spin is clockwise and Twist is counter clockwise so it is important to have a... More) and a snapping back of the hand at release are required to make the disc hover at shorter distances. This is tough to do with Super Sonic 215s.

Dog/Handler/Team Experience

The experience level of the dog/handler/team also has great bearing on the difficulty of shaping a leaping catch at short distances. It’s not very easy to do in general, let alone with an inexperienced dog/handler/team.

Disc Throwing Technique

Proper technique is required to make this happen which is what this lesson is all about. There are several ways to accomplish this and we’re focused on two of them: throwing a floater, a disc that pops out and hovers at a distance and throwing a flex shot that doesn’t quite hover, per se, but does hang out in space and time a bit and does reinforce the leaping catch.

In this lesson we are also countering the typical disc throwing technique employed for throwing short distances which is something I call the Dart Toss.

Flexing the Disc

Discs have some interesting flight principles. One of these interesting principles is Flex. Flex can be thought of as the switching of the disc from anhyzer to hyzer.

As a disc slows down, it wants to fadeOverstable discs are likely to hyzer out. That means they are likely to fall away from the direction of the spin. For clockwise spinning throws, the overstable disc wants to fall to the... More, in the opposite direction of the spin – it sort of falls off it’s flat trajectory, and in the case of the backhand throw, dives off to the left this is also known as hyzering out.

If the disc is thrown with a slight anhyzer angle, the disc will eventually slow down and start to shift from anhyzer to flat, and from flat to hyzer. This transition or flex point can be manufactured, planned, and adjusted with some practice, understanding and experience.

In the video I demonstrate altering the flex point and contrast the flex shot with a simple floater. The full lesson from class included the whole process with the dog, dogs line, and placement space and time included, but the video doesn’t really go into that much detail.

Want more? Perhaps you should consider enrolling in class… Did I mention that Patrons get free access?