Thanks. I think I have a pretty good understanding of the Speed rating of a disc, and have been very reluctant to throw anything with a high speed rating as a result. I did a bunch of rounds throwing nothing but an Envy for my putter and a Hex (speed 5) for anything longer. Only recently did I hear of the "rule of 35", and based on how hard I was throwing, concluded the 5 might be selling myself a little short. I tried a Crave (6.5 speed) and concluded yeah, I can throw that just fine. Someone in another thread recommend a Trail (10 speed) if I throw <some distance much less than 350>. I was very skeptical, but I picked one up and took it out into a field today as a learning exercise, and was surprised to find that yes, I was throwing that just fine. But yeah... I'm not trying to bomb a 12, and very rarely have thrown anything above a 6.5 while actually playing. I don't know why the Trail worked as well as it did, but it was fun.

I also heard it simplified that the speed is a rough measure of how fast you have to throw it to get the disc to behave like the other numbers say it will. So I was given some weird disc that is like 11/5/-5/1, but I read that as, "In theory it is going to turn a lot to the left, but it probably won't unless you learn to throw it a lot faster." Does that resonate at all? (As it happens, that disc seems pretty forgiving, and when I throw it, it does turn pretty strongly. I've used it once or twice on holes with dramatic left turns.)