You might not be able to mimic your way to a World title, but you can certainly get better.

June 28, 2022 by Steve Andrews in Instruction, Opinion with comments

In an interesting conversation with Overthrow Disc Golf, Drew Gibson had strong opinions about copying the swings of the pros.

In the interview, Gibson says that “no one’s who great at something copied someone else.” He argues that everyone has their own natural mechanics and, rather than emulating a pro, you should dedicate yourself to finding how your body works best. Copying a pro’s form might work, Gibson says, “but you would probably have learned to do it more efficiently on your own.” He talks about how so many players have copied Paul McBeth’s putting form but none of them can do it as well as he can. Gibson concludes that he doesn’t think “you should ever copy anybody doing anything ever in your life.”

While many professional players like Gibson have focused on building a unique swing that works for them, lots of other top players seem to have at least peeked at the homework of other pros. When Anthony Barela first showed up on tournament coverage, people noted the similarities between his swing and McBeth’s. While Barela’s swing has evolved since then, he’s not the only player to be compared to McBeth. The 2022 Las Vegas Challenge featured the DGPT debut of Jacky Chen, the Taiwanese player who jumped onto the disc golf stage (and got his first ever PDGA rating of 1040) when he beat Philo Brathwaite, Nate Perkins, and James Conrad in the 2020 Asian Open. Terry Miller, in discussing Chen’s surprising Asian Open win, said, “He clearly has mimicked, in so many ways, Paul McBeth.” On the 2022 commentary from Vegas, Brathwaite went even further, “The first time I saw [Chen] I thought I was looking at Paul McBeth. It was like the Matrix or something, right down to the mannerisms. It was crazy.”

Some players have also worked with other pros to refine their swings. Bradley Williams’s smooth swing is a thing of legend, and he has worked with top Texas players like Valerie Mandujano and, while it is not fair to say that Mandujano swings just like Williams, she does have the same great rhythm and similar mechanics. Mason Ford, another Texas pro who has broken into the top ranks, also toured with Williams. So, even top players seem to show the impact of other pros. Sometimes, that influence can be seen in just a…