How Discs Fly - A Beginners Guide to Disc Golf

you most beginners throw their discs off to the left or up in the air and then off to the left come on understanding how discs fly and make disc golf a lot easier and more fun like that let's look at the different types of golf discs how they fly where to use certain discs and how the weight and the wind will affect their flight after all that you should be able to select the right disc for the shot you'd like to throw to keep this as short as possible we'll assume you are throwing with your right hand using a backhand shot if you throw with your left hand or use a forehand shot just reverse everything you see here there are different types of discs for different types of shots you might want to start out using only one or two user-friendly discs until you get the general idea then you can begin throwing some of the higher-speed discs with a little bit of knowledge some of these high-speed discs are much harder to throw and they can be very discouraging if that's what you're using to learn with a typical disc golf starter set might consist of three discs a driver a mid-range and a putter golf discs have a beveled edge that generally defines what the disc is best used for the sharp edge discs will cut through the wind faster and go farther these are called drivers just like traditional golf mid-range discs have a more blunted edge than the drivers they won't fly as far but they tend to fly straighter than most drivers putters have the widest and roundest edge they are generally used for close-up shots they won't go anywhere near as far as drivers but they do tend to fly straight even when they are not thrown hard now let's use a backhand throw to illustrate a typical disc flight we'll start with a driver notice how the disc starts out straight then turns to the left as it begins to slow down at the end of its flight for a beginner most drivers will generally have more early left-hand turn than a mid-range or a putter especially if they're not thrown very hard a mid-range disc will also turn left as it slows down but it should hold a straight line longer it won't go as far as a driver but will generally fly straight over the early part of its flight a putter will fly even straighter but it may still fade left at the end of its flight the word stable is used to describe a disc that is designed to fly straight some discs are designed to be over stable an overstable disc will fade off to the left fairly quickly unless they are thrown hard there are certain discs that are under stable that means they're designed to turn over to the right instead of the left during the early part of their flight in some cases understable discs will still fade off to the left at the end of their flight you can use an understable disc when you want to turn your disc over to the right using a backhand throw there are speed and stability charts on the web that describe all the flight characteristics of every single disc known to man the discs are arranged on horizontal and vertical axes to indicate how each disc will fly at a specific speed the left-right axis represents the stability of each disk for example disks on the left side of the chart are considered over stable for a beginner this means that they will typically fade hard to the left early in their flight unless they are thrown with a lot of power or speed the stable disks in the center of the chart should fly more or less straight they will still fade a little bit at the end but should maintain a straighter line over most of their flight the understable discs on the far right side of the chart are designed to turn over to the right if you throw them hard enough the other important part of these charts is indicated by the vertical axis at the bottom of the chart are the slowest speed discs slow speed discs require much less power to throw them the way they are designed to fly the high speed discs at the top of the chart will go much faster and much farther and everyone wants that right the only problem is that high speed discs require a lot of power or speed to throw them straight for example if you only have enough power to throw 200 feet which may be pretty far for a beginner any attempt to throw a high speed disc from the top of the chart will probably fade early and hard to the left until you can throw around 300 feet or more you should stick to the discs in the lower section of the chart lower speed stable discs are much easier to throw straight and will keep you out of trouble some disk selection charts include a four number series that provides more details on high speed stability and early and late fade of the disc to help you match your power level to your specific needs you can study these charts to learn more about any discs you select but the important thing for beginners is to stay within your power or speed range and choose the disc stability that allows you to control the disc the way you want the flight of any disc will be greatly affected by how hard or how fast you throw the disc if an overstable disc is thrown really hard it won't start fading off to the left for considerably longer than if it was thrown with less power or spin as you develop more speed you can throw over stable discs straighter for example when you throw this over stable disc with a medium amount of speed it will fade to the left fairly quickly but if you throw that same over stable disc with a lot of power notice how it goes straight for quite a ways before it starts to fade off to the left when you do start to gain more speed you can eventually overpower certain discs and make them turn over to the right and stead up to the left beginners should start out with lower speed stable or under stable flying discs until they develop enough power to turn these discs over to the right at that point you may want to upgrade to slightly more stable higher speed discs the lower speed discs that you learned on will still come in handy for specific shots that you have already mastered disk weight will also have an effect on how a particular disk will fly for example if you throw the same style of disk that weighs 10 or even 20 grams less you'll notice that it probably won't fade quite as quickly as the heavier version of that same disc there are lightweight models of most discs if you find a disc that you like but want one that has a little less early fade you can choose a lighter version of that same disc to compensate for your power level as you develop more power you may need to change discs to compensate when you start to overpower your favorite disc and turn it over to the right you could use a heavier version of the same disc to keep it from turning over quite as easily or you can choose a different disc that is slightly more stable so you don't turn it over to the right as easily throwing downhill will cause a disc to fly faster once again whenever a disc is thrown with more speed or power it will act differently the additional wind speed will counteract the natural left-hand fate of the disc and cause it to fly straight for longer a downhill throw could also turn over completely if the increase downhill speed overcomes the stability of that particular disc that's why you might want to use a slightly more stable disc when you throw downhill wind direction will also affect how a disk will fly when you throw directly into the wind your disk will think it's flying faster because of the additional wind hitting its face depending on how much headwind there is your disk might even turn over completely whenever you throw into a headwind you should choose a disk that is more stable so that it doesn't turn over to the right an understable disc thrown directly into the wind will likely turn over and dive right into the ground you might think that a wind at your back would increase the distance of the flight that's pretty much the opposite of what happens wind at your back tends to blow the disk down to the ground to compensate for a tailwind you may want to aim slightly higher but watch out that the disc doesn't get too high up in the air where it can get blown away by the wind lightweight discs will be affected more by the wind than heavier versions of the same disc in windless situations you could aim to the right with a stable or over stable disc and know that it will eventually fade back to the left and end up somewhere near the target but on some shots you may not have enough room to start out wide to the right and fade back to the left in that case you might choose a disc that is under stable so it turns over to the right during the early part of its flight before it fades back toward the target you can see why disc selection is the most important choice you make for each throw choosing the right disc is the key to staying in bounds and out of trouble ideally there is a perfect disc for each shot to compensate for your disc speed and wind direction if you are frustrated because your disc always fades off to the left try an understable disc or a lower speed disc and throw that new disc until you learn how it behaves and then move up to a faster disc that will fly farther when you develop more power now let's add one last detail to consider which is the angle that you release the disc releasing the disc on a flat angle is generally a good place to start but sometimes you might want to make a slight angle adjustment to reduce your discs tendency to veer off to the left or perhaps to compensate for the wind if every disc you throw tends to fade off to the left a slight upward increase in your release angle will help the disc turn over to the right before it eventually fades back to the left at the end of its flight the overall effect of an anhyzer release angle should average out to be a straighter and longer throw now let's say you're throwing directly into a headwind remember how the additional wind on the face of the disc can make it turn over to the right more than normal you can compensate for this by releasing the disc on a slight downward or hyzer angle if you release the disc on a downward or hyzer angle the headwind should turn the disc up a little and flatten it out if you throw that same disc into the same headwind but release it at an anhyzer or slightly upward angle the disc will probably turn all the way over to the right when there is no wind to consider if your typical throw fades off to the left and you're stuck with using that disc you can compensate a bit by releasing the disc at a slightly upward or Anheuser angle the more Anheuser angle you put on the disc the longer the disc should fly straight before it starts turning back to the left understanding how discs fly may seem complicated but it really isn't although it does take experience to learn the mechanics of the backhand and forehand throws and just as important the flight characteristics of specific discs you can get by with less than perfect mechanics but trying to make a disc do what it isn't designed to do is like trying to fly using an eggbeater and a feather duster hey good luck with that disc selection is critical especially for beginners more advanced players can generally compensate for any disc in any situation and figure out some way to make a decent shot but as a beginner it's much easier if you use a disc that is appropriate to the speed you throw and the shot that's required now you know how discs fly so get out there and throw some because now that you understand the basics you're going to avoid frustration and play more better and that is exactly what the Guardians recommend you

Channel: Guardians of Recreation

Views: 569,353

Rating: 4.8796682 out of 5

Keywords: Disc, Golf, Guardians, of, Recreation

Id: -GwdghSH4rk

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/jfrosty42]

The link for this video needs to be on the right side of this page. --->

So much useful information it could explode someone's head.

[u/LSUTripleC]

I cringed when he said "more better" at the end

[u/billtvshow]

It's a bit corny in parts, but really good to show to a new disc golfer.

[u/AnimeJ]

Just watched this in the other video on the front, it really is good information.

[u/theerootstrider21]

I've been playing for a few years now, but this is filled with really good info I was never taught.

[u/Scorpionflame101]

WHY YOU SAY "MORE BETTER" AT THE END!!!! Ffffuuuuuuuuu

[u/inbounds]

This vid is also featured in the latest Disc Golf Live.