World record in Fast Catch for Manu

We are very happy to present you the World Record made by Manu in Fast catch.

Congratulations Manu .

Here is an article on How to improve your throw and your booms for the fast catch / endurance event..

This article was made by Manuel SCHÜTZ (in english), 5 times World champion of Boomerang and i want to send many thanks for sharing his precious experience .

THANK YOU MANU !!

The 2 most common misconceptions

Mistake 1: Take the fastest boomerang possible. This is wrong except if you attack record scores. The first thing you need to learn is simply to catch your fast catch boomerang 10 or 20 consecutive times.

Mistake 2 : For Fast Catch and Endurance (5min, maximum number of catches) you need the same boomerangs. Remember that in Fast Catch you need to be able to throw and catch 5 times at the first attempt.

In Endurance you have 5 minutes. Nothing severe happens if you drop the first catch. But you need to stay fit for 5 minutes.

Plus: Your second round is as good as your first round. If you aren't able to do a safe first round, your fastest boomerang doesn't help for your second round. Too much pressure then without a solid first round.

Similar to tennis, where you need a solid second serve in order to risk without pressure at the first serve.

The right choice

As said before, it's not important to have the fastest boomerang but you need a boomerang that is accurate and easy to catch.

A very good choice can be an accuracy boomerang. With this one you can do  less than 30 seconds.

Materials

My favorite materials are: Eric Darnells Nylon Triflies with 9% Glassfiber and translucent Polypropylene sheets (4mm). Plywood (4mm) can be an option for very fast boomerangs but:

- It's difficult to tune,

- it breaks at hard impacts

- plus it hurts a lot at the catch

There are legendary material: The old "Glow in the dark" by Darnell. But I can say that the new Nylon Triflies can replace 90% or my best Fast Catch boomerangs.

Shape

Funny, how all over the world people throw Fridolin Frosts IceRunner or Adam Ruhf's WR model. Sure, the first thing is to copy every interesting boomerang first. But either Frido and Adam started at zero as well and developed their shapes. And that's what you need to do as well!

You need to find your personal shape! It's not so important how exactly your boomerang looks like. There is one exception: The wingtips have to be adjusted such that the boomerang fits well into your hand for a controlled throw.

Airfoils and Holes

Or: Endurance boomerangs are different than Fast Catch booms! Fast Catch boomerangs need to be slow. Yes, slow! At the last part of the flight they need to reduce speed and spin. Otherwise you miss the catch. So my fast catch boomerangs usually are quite blunt, especially at the wingtips. Remember: -Blunt leading edges at the wingtips reduce the spin. Right image: Reduces spin very strongly at the end!

Left: Rounded leading edge near center. 2nd: trailing edge: As blunt as possible for safe boomerangs! Third and 4th image: Leading and trailing edge of my fastest boomerang (14.84s). Sharper but not sharp as a knife! Rather similar to the nose of an airplane

For Endurance I mostly prepare my boomerangs in a different way: I close one or two holes in order to throw with less power. The dangerous thing is the start of your round: With adrenaline in your body you have to start carefully! Otherwise the boomerang flies back over your head... Deadly in Fast Catch, you can still survive in Endurance if your boomerang works with less power.

Strategy

You need a safe first round. During your warm up minute focus on being regular. Take the boomerang you think, you're able to catch every time! If you didn't catch three in a row during the first 30s you did the wrong choice. Take the slower boom.

Slow boomerang, scores 25-22s in Fast Catch (first round). Wings swept back, thus I need to bend down the wings.

How to practise

In fast catch a lot is "mental". First, you need to measure your boomerangs.

Certainly the range, but also the flighttimes.

Let's say you have tested your boomerangs and found: Boomerang A flies 6s, you can catch it 10/10 times within 4meters, within 6m if it's windy.

Boomerang B: 4s, catch within bullseye. 8/10 catches in no wind, flies over your head if there is a wind gust.

Boomerang C: 3s, catch within bullseye. 8/10 catches in no wind.

Transition time: 1-2s from catch to throw.

Boomerang D: 2.5s, catch within bullseye. 6/10 catches in no wind.

Transition time: 2.0s from catch to throw.

The potential of these boomerangs is:

Boomerang A: 5 x 6s plus 4 x 1-3s transition = ca 34-42s.

Boomerang B: 5 x 4s + 4 x 1-2s = ca 24-28s

Booomerang C: 5 x 3s + 4 x 1-2s = ca 19-21s

Boomerang D: 5 x 2.5s + 4 x 2s = ca 20.5s

One thing is certain: A boomerang flying less than 4s only makes sense if you are able to to transitions of <1.5s. So: If you want to be fast you need to practice transitions. Otherwise it doesn't make sense to take the faster boomerang!

Boomerang D: You need to practice transitions with this one. You win nothing compared to the safer boomerang C.

Important: At the catch, your left hand is leading! The boomerang should stop at the thumb. So it is always at the same position and you can grip it very fast. Never loose the sight of your boomerang, otherwise you have stupid drops.

Make videos of yourself and measure the transition times for every boomerang in your pocket! Practise with a stopwatch and maybe a camera.

With camera only it's "dangerous" since very often this happens: Bad first throw, start again... Important: Practice under pressure. I do it often this way at virtual tournaments: Press the stopwatch, drop the watch in the bullseye and count "start=0,1,2,3..." throw on "4"! That throw has to be a good one, otherwise... After the fifth catch count "catch=0,1,2,3.." and press the stopwatch on "4". Subtract 8 from the stopwatch score and you know your score.

Going for <20s or even <18s?

Transitions transitions... You need to start with a slow boomerang, maybe 3-4s. Are you able to throw and catch 10 times with transitions of 0.9-1.3s? Take the next boomerang with 2.5-3s, repeat the whole thing... Remember: If your transitions are 1.0s on average, that's 4s for the round. If you are at 1.5s on average, that's 6s for the round. You lose 2 seconds with this "detail"!! During my ER round (14.84s) I "lost it" at the first catch. 1.6s transition time. A "detail" only. Consequence: No WR (14.60s)

Some "scenarios" based on F = flighttime and T=transition time. Then your score is Score=5F+4T

Going really fast?

In this case you need to practice very hard 2-3 weeks before a tournament. My rule of thumb is: You need to be able to do three consecutive rounds once. Then, you might get through that round at a competition. Every detail counts. You even need to practice how to tune your boomerang! Usually if during practice I realise: "This one always rises at the end, annoying to always bend it down..." I heat it up with hot water (50°C or more, need to test!) and bend down the wings in this case. That has to be re-done each season for some boomerangs.

Once again, a special "MERCI" to Manu who took the time to write and share this article !

Great champions does not only makes great scores ...