One of the most difficult things in disc golf is throwing a disc perfectly straight. It’s easy to get one that flies left or right, but a straight flying disc is useful almost all the time. Whether you’re throwing through a tunnel or you just want to work on your form, today I’m going to share with you a few tips on how to throw straight flying shots, and which discs can help with that.
Disc Down.
If you’re looking to throw straight the first thing I want to talk about is slower speeds. Since you’re throwing high speed drivers at high speed you’re adding extra power to your flight. Look at the flight numbers for almost every high speed driver, they usually have a higher fade and turn than slow discs. Using a slower disc means there’s less high speed turn and fade.
Here are my favorite discs for hitting a straight shot with
Discraft Rattler: Perfect for short shots where you want glide and no left/right movement.
Innova Mako3: Really great for shots 75-225 feet. Lots of glide and 0/0 Turn and Fade.
Innova TL3: A point and shoot driver. It doesn’t glide so where you aim it will go and stop.
Manage your expectations.
You won’t get the same distance throwing a straight shot that you will by throwing a high speed driver. Because discs that go far utilize lots of turn to get more distance. If you need to go straight and far the furthest you can realistically throw is about 300, unless you’re a pro. So if you need to throw straight for 400 feet it’s easier to break it up into 2 shots. We have a long hole here at SDG, 9 on the Hawk. It’s 519 feet and about 10 feet wide the whole way. So I break it up into a short drive of about 250 feet with a mid, then I throw another mid 250 feet to try to get a putt. Trying to drive 519 feet would land me in trouble all the time, this way I get looks at a 3/4 instead of a 5/6.
Throw through your target.
This is something I discuss when giving lessons. When you ease up and try to throw soft you sometimes ‘fluff’ your shot and the disc will fly nose up and fade out much earlier. It happens often on putts when you try to be dainty and the disc then just starts fading right out of your hand. To stop this you throw through the target. Try to hit something past your landing zone. If you’re trying to throw through trees, aim for the one behind them.
There’s 2 stumps on the ground on either side of the fairway (red). I want to hit that gap. So I aim for the yellow sign about 40 feet behind and I focus on that point. If you can’t throw that far don’t worry, aim for the yellow sign. Focusing on hitting a point is much easier than focusing on hitting a gap.
Focus and take your time.
This is important because a bad shot here costs more than one stroke. If you miss a putt, you’re likely able to clean it up and only lose 1 stroke. If you have a bad shot here you could kick badly and cost yourself 2 strokes. So as always, relax and take a breath. Then visualize what your disc is going to do, where it’s going to land. Then take your shot.
Throwing straight is a great feeling isn’t it? There’s nothing like when you pure a gap. Try these discs and tips out and you’ll be throwing through gaps with better success. If you’ve got any questions let me know in the comments.
May your discs miss all the trees,
Andrew Streeter #70397