On throwing long, here is what I always try to tell people I'm coaching, and what I try to remember for myself.

1) The long throw depends on your making your body act as a whip. The fingers are the end of the whip, the legs are the base. Therefore, any really long throw has its origin in bringing your weight forward at the legs. In turn the hips swing, the torso twists, the shoulders open out, the upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, and fingers then complete the snap of the whip. (Since the mechanics of a very long throw require the whole body, it may be difficult in a game to arrange a situation in which you can get off this throw unimpeded. That's as much of a problem as is simply generating the distance.)

2) Inside-out throws travel farther. More precisely, the disc's instability -- or desire to turn over -- often carries otherwise flat throws off-course. Inside-out throws which "plane out" as a result of this effect travel farthest.

3) That said, you want as little instability as possible, so that the disc does not have to be released *too* inside-out, and is flying close to flat for most of its flight. To do so, the plane of motion of your swing should itself be tilted, as an inside-out disc is. Otherwise, you're swinging flat while throwing the disc with a tilt. That means more resistance and wasted energy. Tilting your swing involves leaning over slightly from the waist. Make sure your follow through remains in this plane as well. A too-high follow through pulls the disc over early.

4) Keep your form! Bad form makes the disc unstable and shortens the throw. Zeal and enthusiasm, at the expense of form, only make for wildly unstable throws.

A caveat: A good throwing motion depends on the precise coordination and timing of dozens and dozens of muscles in ways which we cannot adequately describe -- certainly way too many factors to encapture in a short note. So, these broad tips may only be useful to someone with an otherwise good throw who may just have overlooked one or two details.

-zaz