Hi everyone, in the last article I said I would cover all of the weird throws in disc golf that are separate from the common forehand or backhand. Most of these shots aren’t thrown very often by most players, but having a specialty shot that you are the master of is a huge advantage so some player’s take advantage of that. I would classify strange throws into two categories; Distance and Accuracy.
Specialty Distance Shots:
These shots are mostly thrown off of the tee or when your initial drive goes awry and you find yourself in an awkward position with considerable distance left to go. Most of these shots follow unique paths that can be used to weave through dense woods, so thats what they are usually utilized for. The four main specialty distance shots are tomahawks, grenades/scomahawks, thumbers, and pterodactyls.
Tomahawks, known colloquially in the Ultimate Frisbee community as a Hammer throw, is thrown when you hold the disc like a forehand and throw it over your head like a football. Although they don’t go terribly far, tomahawks are really useful for wooded shots because when thrown right, they mostly go straight up, then straight down. The tomahawk is mostly seen at an amateur level, but some professionals throw it, the prime example being Jake Monn, who is featured in the video linked above.
The grenade is closely related to the scomahawk, so I’m going to include both under the same heading. The Grenade is thrown by holding a disc like a backhand, flipping it upside-down, and placing your thumb on the inner side of the rim. The tomahawk is the same shot, but without flipping the disc. These probably go the least far out of the specialty shots, but they are almost straight up and down (With a little bit of right movement at the end) when thrown correctly. Arguably the most popular professional disc golfer Simon Lizotte is known for both the use of grenades and scomahawks.
The thumber also doesn’t go too far, but it splits the distance between the grenade and the tomahawk and pterodactyl. The thumber is mostly known for how painful it is to throw before you build up the thumb calluses necessary to throw them consistently. When thrown correctly, the thumber will go straight up and then fade right for the remainder of the flight. The professional that is most well-known for the thumber is Brodie Smith, who is also known for his YouTube presence and ultimate frisbee career.
The pterodactyl is by far the least used of the specialty shots, because of how hard it is to actually throw well. I personally have played disc golf competitively for over 2 years and I’ve met one person who can throw the pterodactyl more than 50 feet, and the kid I met who could do it could only throw around 60 (for reference, he could throw 500 feet with a straight backhand). There is only one professional that can throw the shot consistently, and that’s because he was the one who invented it, and that pro is Jeremy Koling.
I’ve realized that I’m nearing the word limit already, so thank you for reading and stick around next week to learn about all of the strange putting techniques.