Hi everyone! Today I’m going to be guiding you all through the actual throwing of the disc in disc golf; we’re going to talk about the different types of grip, the difference between forehand, backhand, and unique throws, and the angles and flights to expect while throwing. Hopefully, this will give you a brief understanding of how a disc is going to fly when you throw it correctly.

First, we’ve got to talk about the 3 main types of grips: Power Grip, Fan Grip, and Putting Grip. Also something to keep in mind, all of these grips are for backhand throws.

Power Grip:

This grip is utilized mostly when throwing less controlled, powerful shots. You usually see players throwing drivers and sometimes midranges with Power Grip in order to get the most distance out of them. The way to hold a disc with power grip is by placing your palm on the side of the disc, resting your thumb on top, and curling the other four fingers around the bottom of the disc.

 

Fan Grip:

Fan grip is used mostly when throwing touchier approach shots with less power. Approach discs and putters are usually thrown with fan grip by experienced players. The way to hold a disc with Fan Grip is similar to how most people throw an Ultimate Disc, by placing a finger on the rim of the disc and “fanning” the other 3 on the bottom of the disc.

 

Putting Grip:

Putting Grip is used when actually getting the disc into the basket from close range. As the name implies, you almost exclusively throw Putters with this grip. I’d say that it’s very similar to Fan Grip, except you keep the 3 fingers under the disc together to add control to your putt.

A pro named Avery Jenkins has a website where he further elaborates and provides visuals and videos for beginners if that’s something you’d like to take a look at.

Next, we’ve gotta talk about the different styles of throwing, mainly forehand vs. backhand.

As this video explains, a backhand (for a right-handed player) is thrown by rotating your body to the left to “load” the throw, then pulling the disc across your body and releasing. Backhand throws tend to fade left at the end of their flight. Forehand throws, on the other hand (see what I did there), are performed by holding the disc with a different grip than for backhand.

The closest thing I could relate throwing a disc forehand to is when a baseball player throws a pitch; it’s actually a really similar motion, but a bit less overhead. Forehand throws will fade right for a right-handed player. It’s important to be able to throw both forehands and backhands as a disc golfer because of how they fly in opposite directions.

 

Last, but not least, let’s talk about angle control. There are 3 ways you can throw a disc on an angle, those being on Hyzer, flat, and on Anhyzer.

As this graphic shows, shots thrown on hyzer are performed by angling the disc toward the ground; this allows the disc to fly further left out of your hand, and are useful when you really need to get a disc to curve. Discs thrown flat will go mostly straight, but will still fade left at the end of their flights (This is called “hyzering out”). Discs thrown on anhyzer will have the disc angled away from the ground, and are used to “force over” a disc and have it fly to the right on a backhand instead of left. In my experience, beginners mostly throw on hyzer, and as you get more into disc golf, you’ll see experienced players using more of a mix of the three styles.

 

That’s going to wrap things up for this article, so thanks for reading! If you noticed, I said earlier that I’d cover unique throws, but I’ve decided that that topic could be it’s own post so keep your eyes peeled next week for that!