Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Celebrate Pancake Catches

pancake frisbeeThe casual participant of National Pancake Day may think the flying disc is closer related to a pancake rather than a pie; they would be wrong. Notwithstanding, "pankcake" still makes a name for itself .

Whenever possible, catches should be attempted two-handed, with the palms facing each other. The pancake style is close to the body, with hands at right angles to each other. The receiver should attempt to get their body behind the direction of travel of the disc. It has the advantage that if the catch is mistimed, there is a good chance that the disc will hit the body of the receiver and still be caught between the hands. This is the style that should be used for the majority of throws as it is least prone to error.

Not to be confused with the Crocodile Catch: 
The crocodile style is out in front of the body with arms almost parallel, and often with some of the impact being absorbed by the fore-arms. As for the pancake catch, the receiver should attempt to get their body behind the disc. The reason in this case is to get the arms in line with the direction of travel of the disc. The main use for this type of catch is when the disc is travelling at speed relative to the receiver. The forearms provide a longer area to decelerate the disc over, and hard throws are less likely to be dropped. The disadvantage is that because the arms are roughly parallel, the disc has a tendency to flip out sideways if the arms do not move directly up and down towards each other.

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