Mastering the Flick Throw in Ultimate Frisbee: Step-by-Step Guide

what's up guys Kurt Gibson here today I'm going to  show you how to throw a flick in Ultimate Frisbee so with the flick this is probably the  most important throw in ultimate frisbee   if you want to contribute on an ultimate  frisbee team anywhere mastering the flick  

is probably going to be the most valuable  thing you can do to improve your game   and help your team win so the backhand obviously  want a throw that everybody knows but the flick   is so super important because defenders and  defenses will traditionally mark and try to  

force players to throw flick because they know  generally players are weaker at throwing the   flick than the backhand so your defender I'm a  righty so generally most players are righties so   the defenders will usually line up on a righty's  left shoulder and in doing so that prevents that  

backhand from being an easy throw to get off and  really leaving the flick space open so knowing how   to throw this will be really critical and crucial  for improving your game and getting on the field so when we talk about the flick the first part  will be the grip so the the first thing you  

want to do to get it in the right grip is to take  the edge of the frisbee and put it kind of in the   space in between your index finger and thumb  and put it really think about putting in that   groove right here you can see my finger my index  finger moving as I'm really putting it deep into  

the groove and underneath that knuckle and what  that's going to allow me to do is get the most   the the strongest grip on my fingers and  on both sides and really get it in there   so it doesn't wobble around too much okay so  when i look at my fingers here on the inside  

my index finger middle finger right here and  my two outside fingers are here as you can   see there's really not any space there it's not  like this or not all fingers it's two fingers on   the inside and these are there right next to them  and what that does is these are putting pressure  

this way onto the outside edge of the frisbee  and these are putting a little pressure that way   so that it can rest nicely and not move  around too much okay so the thumb on this side   is generally going to be right here as  you can see the thumb is right around the  

um red line right here and so you know just  whatever is comfortable some people might be a   little more comfortable like this or over here but  mine's pretty much perpendicular to the outside   edge of the frisbee okay so another reason why  this grip is really important is that when you  

move the disc over like this you'll see that it  kind of falls a little bit outside of my thumb   and if you remember my thumb was up here past the  red line now it's about an inch or a little bit   more than an inch away from that and so that's  why you really want to keep the disc like this  

when you're holding it upside down this is  actually really comfortable and exactly how you'd   want to release the disc that's going to give you  the most power and strength to be able to throw   any type of throw if you keep it like this and the  way that you do that is similar to the backhand is  

when you're here positioned to throw the flick  use your opposite hand to hold it here in place   instead of just keeping it out here because when  you keep it out here it's a little bit loose and   this is a really hard throw to have any type of  accuracy on so when you're positioned like this  

use that opposite hand similar to the backhand  to hold it in place until you're ready to throw   now we'll talk about the positioning so to just  throw a normal everyday flick my feet are probably   a little bit more than shoulder width apart but  whatever's comfortable so i can do two things  

your pivot foot as a righty will be your left foot  so you can either take a little bit of a step out   and lean over or step a little bit forward between  30 and 45 degrees that'll give you a little bit of   a power and start that motion to get the frisbee  going the other reason why i mentioned the lean  

the lean is important because as you get over  to throw the frisbee which we'll talk about in   a second you're going to want to get a little  bit inside out because that'll help the frisbee   throw straight get to the release so now  we've got the grip we take a little bit  

of a step either forward to the side we bring  our arm back we release from our opposite hand   get our shoulder back and start twisting our torso  and as we do that we'll bring our elbow through   and then the follow-through is  going to be to snap with the wrist  

now this is where the flick becomes really  really important uh the directions here   become really important because a lot of new  players when they throw the flick you'll find   that if you find anybody on the street and you  ask them to throw a flick it'll probably just  

flutter down like that going outside edge  inside down okay in order to prevent that   there's two things one when you're coming through  that lean is going to be important because when   you bring that elbow through you're going to want  to have that outside edge down the outside edge  

because it's farther away from my body this is  the inside edge because it's closer you're going   to want to have that outside edge down because  then when you release it the disc will naturally   start to flatten out and also cut out some of  the natural motion especially for new players  

that forces the disc to come over so when you get  that outside edge down and then get to the release   the last thing you're going to want to make  sure to do is to when you release that do not   pronate over your forearm and wrist when a  lot of players will do that similar to like  

a tennis motion or sometimes even a sidearm  baseball you'll kind of come over like this   but when you throw this think of kind of like  a a Spiderman where you're coming through   you're kind of shooting out web like that and  also your palm is up your forearm and palm are  

up they're not like this if you end up turning  like this the disc is going to come like this   and float over and not fly flat so when you're  throwing it you essentially want to come here   bring the the elbow through and get the  release and then you've got your forearm  

and hand up and that's going to give you  the best chance to throw a great flick thanks for watching guys i hope you can  use these tips to help improve your flick