Since I saw the finals of the Amsterjam I was very impressed, how some Players can handle the disc in really strong winds. Pipo Lopez showed me the basics of the cuffing technique and when I went home to Berlin, I tried to use it. But everytime I touched the outer rim, the disc just fell down or lost almost all the z’s.
What is the best way to learn manipulating the discs angle? Do I need a strong wind or is it possible to learn cuffing indoors?
Half the battle with cuffing is knowing what the disc is going to do when you
touch it. The other half is feel. Once your brain learns where to touch the
disc, it becomes instinct and you will see lots of cuffing opportunities.
You can practice indoors on your own. If you toss the disc up at a steep
sideways angle with medium z’s, you can cuff it. Touch the disc gently and
lift. The angle will change. Your cuff will change the disc’s angle one way
with clock spin and the opposite with counter.
Where do you touch it? Imagine the disc is a seesaw.
On one side of
you, the disc points down; on the other side the disc points up. Click on the
seesaw
link for a diagram. Try touching it at the very middle – the fulcrum (point G
in the diagram) – and see what happens. Then experiment.
To add a couple of additional points to AC’s reply: You can use any part of the body to cuff, but learn using the back of you hand and put some sunscreen on it to make it slippery or use ocean water if you are at the beach. This makes it easier to adjust the disc. Put your fingers into the center of disc without touching it, that way you can touch the inside edge of the rim, that is your cuffin surface.
I was forced into cuffin at an SB tourney in the 70’s because I had a cast on, courtesy of ultimate. Laerbs puts tape on his fingers to help the slip part of cuffing , try that as well.
Thank you Arthur and Z, now i think i got it.
The tips with the seesaw and the sunscreen were really helpful!
Now i hope for some nice weather to try cuffing outdoors 🙂