Drilling is the fastest route to increase your skill. Recall that in a drill you isolate one particular shot, perfect your form in that shot and practice it repeatedly.

The starting point of a drill is to develop good form for a shot. There is a saying that "practice makes perfect." This not totally true. If you have terrible form then your practice just cements in place your terrible form. The saying should be "perfect practice makes perfect." Imagine if your putting form was to face away from the basket and throw a shot between your legs that skips on the ground and tries to go in the basket. Granted, if you put in 100 hours of practice at that shot and you will get much better at it. However, you would never be a good putter with this form.

Most players are not willing to change their form. Even beginning players want to stick with their natural form. It just feels so… natural. And it works, sort of. And, of course, they have no idea what it really looks like since they cannot see their own shots. Players with habitually poor form believe that pros must have some special vodoo working for them. Or maybe the pros are just lucky or something. So the average player keeps the same pitiful form and buys a new frisbee, hoping that will solve the problems.

The pros are not lucky. They are good. Most have excellent form. The few with poor form could be much better than they are.

How do you know if your form needs some serious work? C'mon, you already know if your form needs work. The strongest evidence is that you suck and your scorecard proves it. If your driving distance is inadequate, then your form needs work. Weak distance is primarily caused by poor form. If your consistency is sad then your form is likely to blame. If you are playing the same weak game you had last year and the year before then it is time to try something new.

If you are willing to change your form, be aware that you will get worse before you get better. So do not try to learn new form on the morning before a tournament. Rather, assume it will take you two weeks of solid practice to get back up to your old level. The good news is that if you keep up with it, you will keep improving far beyond your old level.

The easiest way to develop good form is to have a good pro as a coach who watches your shots and make adjustments from shot to shot. This may not be possible in your situation, but you can probably find another player at your level to work with. This provides immediate, invaluable feedback.

If you do not a have a skilled coach, then it is more difficult but still possible. The first step is to find out what good form looks like.

There are two videos which can help. The first is John Houck's Learn To Play Disc Golf. It is excellent. The name implies that the video is just for beginners, but it's valuable for most golfers. I had been playing for several years when I first saw the Houck video and it helped my game a lot, improving my backhand anhyzers more than any other source.

The other is the video from the Discraft Worlds 2000 by Alacrity Productions and available through the PDGA (pdga.com or 416-203-9628). This video follows the lead groups of Amateurs and Professionals during the final round of the 2001 World Championships. Especially valuable are the slow motion replays of the driving form of the top four Open players: Ken Climo, Barry Schultz, Jesper Lundmark and Dr. Rick Voakes. Do these guys have superb form? Absolutely, or they would not be in the finals. Anyone can play a great round or get every lucky break for a round or two. No one makes the finals of Worlds on luck.

When you watch a video or a good player in person, you need to train yourself in an art know as visualization. Rather than paying attention to where and how the disc flies, study the form of the player. This seems like a simple thing, but it is not. Typically when you watch a player throw, your vision follows the shot. It is almost as though we are hypnotized to automatically ignore the player and follow the frisbee in flight. But for visualization purposes, where the shot goes does not matter. The form of the player is what is important. You want to memorize exactly how they throw from start to finish. Following the form to the finish is important because the very ending of the shot- the follow through- is a critical part of the shot and often the weakest part of the shot by an Amateur player.

As you are watching a video of a shot, replay it numerous times. Concentrate on a particular aspect of the shot. Watch the feet on the run up, release and follow through. Replay it several times just watching the feet. Then do the same thing while paying attention to how the cross-over step from the footwork allows a greater body turn. This body turn generates lots of power (adding a cross-over step to your run up will add another 50 feet to your drives). Then study the swing plane, watching it time after time. See how the throwing arm comes straight across the chest and the follow through goes way past 360 degrees. Notice that the throwing arm does not create a wide arc until the follow through. It is more that the throwing arm goes straight back then rips forward in a straight line, turning in an arc at only after the release. Watch how the shoulder turns. Watch it and memorize it. Then study the knee on the plant foot. See how much it bends during the plant and release. You want to study every aspect of the shot until you are confident you know just how to make it yourself. After watching the same shot for many minutes, you will have burned into your memory exactly what that perfect shot looks like. Does this somehow transfer to your shot? Yes. That is exactly the idea. When next you try this shot your goal is to perfectly mimic the form you have memorized. Throw smooth with perfect follow through. Just like you were posing for the camera.

It is expected that this new form will feel unnatural. When Climo drove he threw straight across his shoulders. When you throw, you dip your shoulder down and your hand is even with your belt buckle on release. Sure, it feels funny to throw straight across your shoulders. At first, you get no power and no control this way. Hey, if you want to play Am II forever, keep doing it your way. If you want to be good, you need to break it down to build it up.

A useful tool is a video camera. Video a dozen shots. Find out what you are really doing. Go practice your form for a week then video again and see if your form is improved.

Once you have developed the perfect form, you need to practice the shot to develop muscle memory so you can make the shot time after time. When you throw the shot that flies just right, pause for a moment after the shot and memorize just what you did to make it fly properly. Eventually you will learn to make that shot under pressure even when you are mentally and physically exhausted. Only then have you truly mastered the shot.