3 Tips I've Learned from Throwing Hundreds of Golf Discs

We've been doing forehand throw distant tests now for several months, and we're almost done. We have about seventy different drivers that we're throwing, testing, and attempting to review.

Everyone has a slightly different form, technique, and grip when it goes to throwing golf discs. The fact is we are all built differently, and its easier to get results for some than it is for others. Here are a few observations I've made, and things I've learned from throwing hundreds of golf disc drivers.

1. Good Discs for Backhand Throws Are Not the Same As Good Discs for Backhand Throws

For someone of my skill level, less stable, or discs with high "turn" ratings are usually best for distance back hand throws. My favorite backhand discs include the Innova Roadrunner, and the Millennium Astra. For forehand throws, overstable discs are best. With forehand throws, so much of the power behind them comes with the big wrist snap. This snap causes understable discs to turnover and crash into the ground well before you want it to.

More overstable discs, will stay level for much longer and will then fade at the end of their flight.

2. Hard plastic is better for forehand throws, grippy plastic is better for backhand throws.

At least with the way I throw golf discs, the hard Champion, or Z-Plastics perform best for me for forehand throws. I guess it works best to have a nice quick exit release. For backhand throws, I like a soft grippy plastic. Discrafts ESP, Millennium's Sirius, and Skyquest's, and even Innova DX plastics are my favorites. With my backhand release I really like a disc that I can grip to and hold on, that won't slip out of my hand.

3. Throwing with all your might, does not equal max distance.

My best throws are the ones where I am under control and have nice level releases.

I'm still learning the game, but by experimenting with more than a hundred different golf discs, and trying thousands of different throws I'm getting much better and learning some valuable insight.

The Plastics Test....

After performing a few dozen test throws forehand I came to the quick conclusion that I could not throw discs with grippy plastic forehand. Every time I tried, they flipped to the side and became rollers. Now at times these discs rolled really far, but unless you're playing a course with flat even ground, you don't want your disc to do this. And lets be honest, I live in the Rocky Mountains, there aren't many courses around here on flat level surfaces.

It was really interesting, the discs that came in Star and Champion plastic, I was usually able to throw forehand.

I soon came to the conclusion that with the way I release my sidearm/forehand throw, a sticky grip lead to my discs doom. The statistics clearly showed that my Star Plastic, Champion plastic discs just plain flew further. But the question arose, was it just this certain type of disc that lead to the crash and burn? Or was it actually the plastic?

So I went out and purchased 4 Innova Valkyries, and 4 Innova Beasts, of the same weights in each of the major plastic types that Innova Makes: Star, Champion, Pro, and DX.

Sure enough, for my forehand throws I could throw my Valkyrie just fine with the Champion/Star/and usually the Pro plastic discs, but the grippy DX plastic nearly always rolled out on me.

But what about Backhand throws?

Most disc golfers throw backhand. I couldn't get as much distance on backhand throws as I could on forehand, but I thought I'd perform the tests.

For backhand throws the results were surprisingly different. They were almost exactly the opposite of the forehand throws. The Champion and Star plastic discs faired worst, while the DX and Pro plastic discs performed best. After 16 test throws with each disc, the DX Valkyrie clearly provided the best distance for me. It was as if the DX Valkyrie stayed on my hand just long enough to sail further to the right, and glide a little further before ending its flight with a hard fade left.

The Test Lab Blog

Last year a disc golf course was built in Providence Utah, right by my in laws neighborhood. I started playing it on a regular basis, and got hooked. In college I was an avid Ultimate Frisbee player, so disc sports, and throwing Frisbee's was not something foreign to me. Compared with most most of the people I played with, I was a pretty good disc golfer right from the beginning.

Initially, I thought that there were just three different kinds of golf discs: drivers, mid range, and putters. I had know idea that there were different brands, different weights of discs, and different plastic types until just a few months ago. I quickly learned that the plastic quality of my beginner set of "Frisbee Golf Discs" purchased from Al's Sporting goods was not of high quality. The plastic on those discs got dinged up with huge gashes after just my first round using them. That's when my eyes were opened to the vast selection of different types of golf discs and plastics.

With so many types of golf discs to choose from, how are we to know what the best discs are?

 Nobody wants to buy every disc possible just to find the best ones.... Well, nobody except for me.

That's the purpose of the Disc Golf Test Lab. I have acquired more than a hundred different disc golf discs from manufacturers such as Innova, Discraft, Westside Discs, Ching, Vibram, Millenium, and Skyquest. With my colleague Kirk, we are going through a serious of tests where we are using statistical analysis to help you determine the best disc golf discs, so you will know what to purchase. 

This blog will provide updates and insight on how our disc testing is going. If you like what you read, please subscribe, or follow the RSS feed.