1

Brodie Smith is a flying-disc trick-shot performer. He claims to have successfully thrown a Frisbee disc to be caught by someone zooming by on a zip-line.

A Vine video (advertised by Smith's Twitter account) shows the stunt.

It appears, from more angles and in higher resolution, as the first stunt on this YouTube video.

It was also reported in the media, such as SB Nation, and in SportsCentre's Top 10.

Did that throw happen?

Improve this question
6
  • 8
    Welcome to Skeptics! Given that: (1) you have seen footage of the stunt from various angles in high-resolution, (2) it is in keeping with other skills Brodie Smith has demonstrated and (3) there is nothing that appears to be out of the realm of feasibility here, what sort of evidence could appear in an answer that would convince you that the video was real?
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Aug 17, 2015 at 5:07
  • 2
    Also, though I speak from a position of ignorance when it comes to how difficult it is to throw a frisbee, to me, this doesn't seem to be that far-fetched of a feat, any more than "shooting ahead of the duck" is. You estimate how fast the guy is going, in what direction (for a zip line, that's trivial), then aim where the guy is going to be, and throw it at T-(speed of moving target / distance to intersection point) (and it doesn't hurt that if you're off by an arm radius or less, the other guy will do his best to reach for the frisbee).
    – Dan Bron
    Aug 17, 2015 at 12:09
  • 2
    As you can see from this behind the scenes video, most of these stunts took multiple tries.
    – tcrosley
    Aug 17, 2015 at 17:35
  • Voting to close. Such questions tend to dilute the value of this SE.
    – Larry OBrien
    Aug 18, 2015 at 21:11
  • -1 because the question seems to be demonstrating unwarranted skepticism about the veracity of the videos. Not VTCing since it does seem to be a notable claim.
    – March Ho
    Aug 19, 2015 at 2:06

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

In this behind the scenes video, Brodie and the other participants describe the feat:

after every throw, we had to reset, and it was like a 15 minute reset

[...]

Seth is getting tired [...] cause he's done it 10 times [...] so we threw in Stratacous [...] and what second try... third try, Brodie nails it

Improve this answer
0

Trick shot videos rely on a simple adage: if at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Any talented disc thrower who rented a zipline for an afternoon and made repeated attempts would eventually manage it. Vine, of course, does not show you the misses. There could have been dozens.

See also similar shots to a moving car and to a water skier.

It's not nearly as difficult as it looks, if failures don't count. I personally have made throws to moving skaters at similar distance (~40% success rate) and Mr Smith is surely better at it than most people (including me).

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    This doesn't appear to be an answer. Just that there is nothing that appears to be out of the realm of feasibility, which I think would make a good comment, but I already made it!
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Aug 18, 2015 at 14:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .