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Comment by frankhorrigan | Hacker News Reader

This article is kind of hilariously like almost every conversation you have at the disc golf course, but it’s always something different. The reach back position, the power pocket, the elbow angle, the follow through, pouring the coffee, turning the key, etc etc etc.

If _only_ it were as simple as one thing. But the truth is that distance can be achieved through a multitude of athletic motions which vary drastically player to player.

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Interestingly, when throwing objects (especially discs), the ideal angle to maximize distance might not be 45 degrees for two reasons: the object might fly better at specific angles and different human muscles come into play at different angles. The optimal angle might therefore vary by athlete.

For ballistic objects (so objects where air just acts as drag), the optimal launch angle is less than 45 degrees due to air resistance.

For aerodynamic objects like a disc, the optimal launch angle will be complicated because a disc's flight path is far more influenced by "secondary" (such as angle of attack and spin) compared to say a baseball, or even golf.

An "optimal" description of disc release angle that a player would likely be interested in (I say this as an ultimate player) would be given in terms of release angle, angle of attack (ie: how nose up), spin, and forward velocity.

And then once converted into human terms for all but the most elite athletes, release angle will probably instead be simplified down to windup position and release position/height.

Right. Even something that seems simple (such as a golf ball) is not trivial to model: the rough surface and spin end up creating lift -- the ball is essentially flying.

I've seen the olympic women disc throwing event and it was quite astonishing that they had so many different body types (tall athletic gym type, "fat" strong, rather gymnasty etc.). And of course their results were all within a range of each other. Although disc golf is not quite the same, I think it is similar in that there's probably not (yet) a solved technique that's better than every other :)

But each of those things will affect your throw. As will thumb placement.

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