Form Foundations - Footwork

hey guys Hunter here with Foundation disc golf and in today's video we're going to be starting a series on form workk and breaking down the backhand form so today we're going to be talking all about footwork and the xstep uh you might notice I have this net behind me when you're doing form work this is a great investment this is just a baseball net we picked it up at played Again Sports um you can typically find them from like I think 50 bucks to 100 somewhere in that range not crazy expensive but it's nice to be able to work on your form throw tons of shots and not have to walk far to get your discs so yeah without further Ado let's jump right into breaking down the xstep all right so we're going to break down the xep actually starting before the xstep um when I demonstrate this I'm going be using Putters mid-ranges and drivers um because I want you to see that your X step doesn't change your footwork stays the exact same only thing that will change slightly is what happens before the xstep so for instance with a putter here my xep getting into my X step I take two small steps and you'll notice probably 90% of the pros do as well I think Eagles just start sideways but the reason for this is because you want to have that muscle memory that builds in because you'll notice with drivers Pros are like full sprinting they're like one two into their xep with a putter you don't need all of that momentum buildup you just need a little one two to get your X step started so that's step one you don't really need to drill work on that cuz you're just walking step two is my target line is this way so I'm starting here with my little one two then the first step of my actual X step is going to be with my lead foot for me as a right-handed player that's my right foot and it's going to be perpendicular to my target line so essentially it's turning my hips from facing the target to facing sideways all right so that's important the whole point of the X step is to get your hips set up to throw so the first step is is getting your hips sideways which is your front foot being sideways all right then the next step of the X step so that's point two to focus on is your first step try to get it sideways a lot of people have it open that's not good it's going to throw everything off get it sideways so now that we have the one two a sideways step next thing you want to do is your left foot come behind and your left foot's going to be facing this way too but what it does is to get your left foot even in this position your hips have to start turning backwards so my hips have went from straight to about you know what is this 903 something degrees this way 135 45° off of this line essentially this way almost straight back so then now that my hips are here this is the final step and this is the one that people get really tripped up on really messed up um you go here here this last foot as you reach back and everything with your upper body which we'll talk about in a later video the last foot needs to have the sole of your shoe facing your target line and it turns your hips completely away so my hips are facing here right so then what happens is now all my weight's loaded on this foot my heel is facing my target line my hips are turned away because of it this is all based on footwork my pointer foot is facing this way as my weight transfers I push down here and then I rotate out as I come through so so the X step essentially just sets you up to do that motion so we're going here here and then lace away push forward and then transfer all your weight and then the very last thing is probably the difference between the amateur and the proel distance throwers right so we're here a lot of people get here a lot of people can do this the next part bracing is one of the most important things um the only thing that should cross the plane of your front foot when you turn is the disc the rest of your weight and everything else should stand behind your toe it should not cross that plane shouldn't break that plane what does that do it allows all the momentum that you just built up in your X step to be transferred straight into the disc so players most of them brace with a straight leg um I know players like germ brace with a little bit of a bended knee cuz he's some a lot bigger um but regardless you don't break the plane until you follow through and then you break the plane to catch your balance but but when the disc initially is thrown you brace and then you come through so that's the generic basics of an xep um I'm going to demonstrate it some and then I'm going to teach you some drills to work on each individual part of it so the first throw I'm going to be demonstrating is going to be with a putter um so like I said with a putter I'm just kind of taking a few steps just for muscle memory purposes and then getting into my X step uh so the putter footwork will look something like this all right next up we're going to be going with a mid-range it's going to look very similar to a putter um the only difference is I'll put a little bit more effort into it a little bit more uh speed more so than anything but the initial start and everything like that will look very similar to the the normal uh putter xep I just showed all right last but not least we're going to be throwing the driver um this is one of the farthest drivers in my B the D1 so I'm really when I have this disc in my hand I'm really trying to crank up on it so that means the steps before the X step change um they're the same they're just a lot longer and I put a lot more effort into it so yeah my first two steps are going to be bigger and everything after that probably going to be a little bit bigger a little bit more explosive um but the same movement is what I want you to see in this so yeah let's go ahead and do it all right so now we're going to go over some drills um I want you to get a putter uh this one's a pa4 just a straight putter will do though um pretty much anything just straight and slow is what you want when you're working on your form initially cuz it'll show you your errors if I throw this and really crank over on it it's going to like roll if I put Hiser on it's going to hold the Hiser if I throw it flat which is what I want to do it's going to do it um with footwork angle sensitivi is not really that big of a deal we'll get into that later um but you do want the putter just for purposes of feel flight and stuff like that especially if you're in open field and don't have the benefit of a net so what we're going to do with these drills is you're going to work from the release backwards it's kind of like if you ever watched the old uh I think his name is Dan beo drill it's called from the hit backwards it's focused a lot more on upper body kind of the same idea with the footwork so what you're going to want to do is line up like you just took your last step in your exep so what does that mean um essentially for when I'm just standing here my hips are going to be f here I'm going have this the biggest thing you want to make sure is the sole of my foot the middle here middle of my foot should be in line with the toe of my back foot I want them staggered why because if you're coming through an X step and you go into that last step they're going to be staggered that's how they need to be that allows your hips to turn back this is in front I can't get my hips to turn back without being really off Balan when I'm back that's another thing and one thing I forgot to mention a little bit throughout this whole process you want to be low and you want to be in an athletic position okay but for this drill I'm going start with my front foot both feet facing this way and then I'll be low and as I reach back I'm going to turn my front foot like this and then I'm not going to throw yet I'm going just practice that just reach back and turn make sure my heel is facing that way and my hips are facing that way and that's going to be what I'm doing just get comfortable with that for a little bit um it feels stupid it looks stupid it is stupid but it works okay so as you reach back you turn just keep doing that get used to it once you're used to it now what you're going to practice is the next step which is hitting right so that is my weight transfer as my weight transfers my foot should turn a little bit so when my foot hits the ground when my heel hits the ground my foot should be sideways again right so I'm going back and hit just like that okay I'm practice that a little bit so do each of these until you're comfortable until it feels like when you reach back you should be here and when you start to pull through you should be there so then what you're going to do is now you're finally going to follow through okay I would recommend using a towel or something I'm going just hold on to the disc um because I don't have a towel right now but I would recommend something like that first um just because it's going to feel weird the disc is going to be discouraging when you're throwing it it's not going to look great um just to get some feel for it I'm going just hold on to my disc and not let go but what you're going to do is you're just going to reach back and turn like we just practiced and then when you come through you're just going to follow through all right so I'm going just reach back and turn follow through and when I follow through I want to make sure that I'm not like falling out of frame falling forward like all of that I want to be balanced I want to my weight to transfer under my front foot whether my knee is bent or straight if you have knee problems you should probably bend it a little bit um keep it whatever though just you're you should always be balanced so I shouldn't be falling forward and uncontrollable so I want to just have it here reach back pull through all right and you're going to practice that a few times and once you get this down and you feel comfortable with it then go ahead and throw one yeah so now we'll work from there backwards a little bit all right so you got that down you got the stand still reach back pull through down what's next is you want to start like you're in the middle of your ex step okay so I'm going start my feet together right and then what I'm going to do is as I reach back I'm going step forward okay so I'm going to stand here and then as I reach back this is mimicking your last step in your X step right so in your X step you just want to bloop blop and this is mimicking this next step here right so we're standing both our feet together weird unbalanced position and we're just going to step forward and as you step forward you're going to turn your foot back and turn your hips back and then throw all right so it look like this you step forward here and then transfer there all right so I'm going to go ahead and toss one um um and this is probably going to feel uncomfortable it's not natural feels weird but it's a good practice to focus on getting your foot a staggered cuz you're going to be coming from together to here and also get in the like rhythm of when you plant your foot it should be backwards right so I'm going start together and then as I reach back go through it all right guys that's all the drills I have for you um once you master those then all it is is just adding in the first step or two to the X step um and then you'll be good to go uh one thing I would recommend is once you get it down if you do have a net it's a great tool but once you get it down with the net or without the net when you get out to the field try to use some straight Putters and mids this is a beat up M2 and a pa4 um but whatever brand you throw doesn't matter straight Putter and mids are where to go when you're first working on your form um you'll be able to throw them smooth you know power down on them and not worry about them tanking and really see how you're doing cuz if you throw a putter smooth and straight it should go smooth and straight especially something straight like this um if you're throw in a harp or you know something like that obviously expect different results um but once you step up to the driver don't focus on cranking up on it because once you try to like throw it as hard as you can you'll forget all that you just learned focus on still being slow and smooth you might have to disc down if you typically throw a D1 you might have to disc down to like a D4 or something like like that or if you typically throw destroyers you might have to start throwing leopards um really whatever you throw disc down throw smooth get used to it and then slowly build it back up um but that's all for the footwork uh make sure to subscribe if you want to also see us break down your hips and your upper body of a backhand as well as forehand and overhand they're all coming out um within the next few months probably all of them will be out so thank you guys so much for watching uh please subscribe and like this video comment down below um what you've been struggling with and what this helped you figure out about your ex step if it helped you with anything maybe you're perfect I don't know uh but thanks again guys and I'll see you in the next video all right guys so that's all the drills I have for you where is he freck me did you hit him yeah did you really yes