Prodigy is Slowly TAKING OVER MY BAG! (Part 2)
Part 2 - A Continuing Trend
If you haven't already read the first part, what are you doing?!?! Go back and read that right now!
Get it? Because what I'm about to talk about are control drivers. Terrible pun, I know.
Continuing the trend of Prodigy discs finding their way into my bag, the next category in line was the "Control Drivers". When I say "Control Driver" what I'm talking about are discs that fall between 9-11 Speed within the flight numbers system. Some popular examples include... Axiom Insanity, Discraft Undertaker, and Innova Firebird.
You'll find many arguments online as to what constitutes a "Control Driver". Some companies call 9 and 10 speed discs "Fairway Drivers" such as Dynamic Discs [6-10 speed] while others consider them "Distance Drivers" such as Innova [9-14 speed]. For me, I have categorized discs into the following categories listed with their respective speeds.
- 1-3 Putt and Approach
- 4-5 Approach / Mid-Range
- 6-8 Fairway Drivers
- 9-11 Control Drivers
- 12-15 Distance Drivers
When companies give a disc a "Speed" rating, the speed of a disc is typically determined by the width of the wing. But as I stated in my first post in this series:
Flight numbers are truly imaginary, even Dave Dunipace (one of the founders of the Four number [Speed, Glide, Turn, Fade] flight numbers system) talks about how people misinterpret flight numbers all the time! Flight numbers should only be compared within a single company's / producers products.
Anway, let's get back to how I ended up with my first ever Prodigy control driver in my bag.
Understable Control Drivers
Traditionally speaking, I had thrown an Innova Roadrunner and then later a beat in Innova Pro Plastic Beast to fill this slot but I had a love hate relationship with the Beast. Sometimes I could throw it great and other times I felt that I had no control over the disc. I bagged three Beasts to fill three different stabilities within my control driver slot (Star = Overstable, Champion = Neutral, Pro = Understable) and bagged a Firebird for that utility very overstable slot. But with the inconsistent experiences I had with the Beast, I decided to sell them off and search for some other control drivers to try out.
Play it Again Sports... The Motherland of Prodigy Discs
If the Play it Again Sports (PIAS) stores around you are anything like mine, they basically only carry Gateway, Innova and Prodigy discs. That's great if you like those brands, but not so great if you don't. After my recent experience with the A3's, this time I was willing to consider some Prodigy discs too.
I spent quite a bit of time feeling the (unfortunately minimal) understable control driver options they had in stock to see which one I liked best. I really wanted a 9 speed control driver so I was being limited by that choice. What I found were the Innova Roadrunner, Innova Sidewinder and the Prodigy H5. I ended up narrowing it down between the Roadrunner and the H5 because they both felt best in my hand. I was bagging the Innova IT at the time which is basically a slower and smaller version of the Roadrunner in both design and feel so I was leaning more towards the Roadrunner. After closely comparing the Roadrunner and the H5 more, I had a slight preference for how it felt in my hand over the Roadrunner and decided to commit to buying a 750 Plastic H5 and a 400 Plastic H5. I bought two H5's because whenever I buy a new mold / disc I always want to have at least 1 backup I can keep in my collection.
The H5 In Action
This 👏 disc 👏 is 👏 flippy 👏!
And that's exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that was going to be fast but reliably understable and the H5 fits the bill perfectly. I don't use this disc much unless I have a major tailwind or if I'm trying to throw some backhand rollers but for each of those purposes, it works beautifully! As a matter of fact, I managed to throw a 480 ft backhand roller with it and that absolutely blew my mind and cemented it as a staple in my bag.
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