Top 10 Discgolf tips

For this first tip, I want you to understand that in order to improve at disc golf, you need to be throwing with the right discs. This is something unique to each person. So you’ll have to assess your own skill level and go from there. Not throwing the right discs can be seriously detrimental to your game. I want you to assess your current skill level. Right now, where are you at? True brand new Beginner? Beginner? Intermediate? Advanced? Don’t let your ego get in the way. If you’re reading this post, you’re probably between a beginner to intermediate player. So you need discs in your skill level. This means you want putters and mid-range discs. Check out my beginner discs post as that post in awesome and has discs for beginner to intermediate players. As a beginner, you’re going to want to skip the drivers because they’re normally too hard to throw. Intermediate players can start to throw fairway drivers but should stay away from distance drivers at first. As you progress, you can gradually work up to these discs. If you’re throwing drivers, I want you to disc down, or move down in disc from drivers to mid-range discs and putters. If you’re brand new, I recommend using putters to play with for at least a month or two. Another thing I would suggest is to learn the disc golf flight ratings or the 4 numbers on the front of a disc golf disc. These 4 numbers show you exactly how a disc is supposed to fly and can help you pick out beginner disc golf discs. Check out my disc golf flight ratings post here to learn all about how to read the numbers on a disc golf disc. Lastly, just make sure you find discs that feel good to you and that you like to throw. If you hate how a disc feels, don’t throw it. Find a better one. If you need some other recommendations, check out that list above. It has 37 of the best discs for beginners. If you’re looking for the absolute best beginners disc golf discs, I’d recommend the Discraft Buzzz mid-range or the Dynamic Discs Judge putter.

Now this tip won’t make or break your rounds but can be a good way to help you play better on the course. It can also help you solidify your footing on the course in almost every single situation. Any kind of tennis shoe can be fine for casual rounds. But once you start playing more competitively, or you just want to get better at the game, I would invest in a much better pair of sport hiking boots/shoes specifically for your disc golf rounds. The reason you want a good pair of sport hiking boots/shoes is because you’re normally trekking pretty rough terrain and essentially hiking a mile or more while you play. You want shoes that have tremendous grip to allow you to maneuver and throw discs from any kind of terrain on the course. Slipping is not an option if you want to play well. And sport hiking boots/shoes can completely solve that issue for you. I would also emphasize the need for finding a very comfortable pair of shoes. Comfort is definitely needed due to the length of walking you will put into each round. Some courses are 3+ miles in total steps taken and uncomfortable shoes can really hurt your game. You don’t want that. I would also try to find a pair of shoes that are waterproof. This isn’t a need, but can be a huge benefit in the rain, snow, or early morning dew. If you’re looking for a couple of good options, check out the following two picks:

• Adidas Terrex Swift R2 GTX sport hiking shoes (link to Infinite Discs). If you can’t find them on there, you can get them here on Amazon.
• Merrel Yokota waterproof sport hiking boots. You can also check out my post here with 27 of the best disc golf shoes in the game today.

A lot of people have criticized some of my other posts because I’ve put practice as a disc golf tip. Well, duh, you have to practice! But I don’t just emphasize practice and leave it at that. I want you to take it to the next level in order to be a next level disc golfer. I want you to practice every single day. Again, if you’re only out on the course for casual rounds, you don’t have to spend huge amounts of time practicing. Just work on your game and improve over time. But I want to improve quickly. And I’m sure you do, too. If so, you’ve got to put in the work required to rapidly improve. For this, you’re going to want to practice daily (or as much as possible) and play at least 1-2 rounds per week. You also need a good practice routine. A routine is a sequence of actions regularly followed or in a fixed program. In this case, it’s practicing disc golf. You want to establish an everyday regular practice routine that can be repeated daily. It can be as easy as working on a different part of your game every day. Monday putting, Tuesday driving, Wednesday workout, Thursday approach, Friday field work, and a Saturday round. Then I would rest on Sunday or skip Saturday and play on Sunday. And you don’t have to practice for long. 15-20 minutes can really up your game if you practice every day. I would also recommend that you buy some personal practice equipment to help you with practice. We’ll go over this is #9. The last thing I want to say is to make sure you are consistent and effective with your practice. Screwing around won’t make you better. Check out our disc golf drills section in #10 for some good ways to practice different parts of your game.

One of the most important concepts in all of disc golf is correct throwing technique. If you have poor technique, everything else really doesn’t matter. But developing good technique is hard. Below, I’ve outlined the 7 steps to the best disc golf technique:

• Grip: loose grip or grip lock can absolutely kill your shots. Find a balance between too loose and too tight when throwing. Too loose and you’ll release too early. Too tight and you’ll end up like Richard in the video below. Link to video on YouTube.
• X-Step: an extremely important part of the throwing process. The “X-Step” is a series of 3 steps that you take before you throw your disc. For a RHBH thrower – start out by stepping with your lead foot (same side as the arm you throw with – right-handed throw = first step with right foot). Your next step will be the opposite foot crossing behind your lead leg for the second step. Then the 3rd step will be the big final 3rd step out as you throw. Check out Danny Lindahl’s X-Step video below to help you out with this. Link to video on YouTube.
• Good hip rotation and reach back: good hip rotation is essential to get the proper reach back. The more you rotate, the more momentum you can get from the reach back.
• Look away from line of sight: it may seem counter-intuitive to look away from your target…but do it anyway. Look away toward the direction of your reach back. That head turn will guarantee the maximum momentum from the reach back to throw.
• Lead with the elbow: As you come out of you reach back, you will start your throwing motion. From here, what you do is crucial to how your throw will come out. When coming around for the throw, you will want to lead the throw with your elbow out. The next motion needs to be more of a straight line through the throw and less of a circular motion. You want the leading elbow to push through the throw. You also want to keep the disc close to your chest. This allows for maximum control and velocity of the disc. You will be able to get a “whipping” motion on the disc
• Big, strong final step: this is step 6 of a good technique but is actually the final part of the X-Step. As you come through with your elbow to throw, you want a firm final step. Big but not too big. Take that step and use your back leg to push off as you turn and throw.
• The follow-through: after you throw you want to let your body continue through the motion and allow yourself to follow naturally through the throw. Don’t just throw and abruptly stop your body from turning. This could mess up the shot and could cause injury if you’re not careful. For more, check out my post, “7 Steps to the Best Disc Golf Technique and a Perfect Throw.”

If you’re a newer player and you’re looking for serious improvement on the course, mastering the mental side of disc golf can really help you get better. Here are a few quick mental disc golf tips:

• Better physically = better mentally: the more you focus on yourself physically, the better you can be mentally. Proper hydration, enough sleep, and a few exercise workouts off the course can really improve your mental state. We’ll focus on exercise later in #11 but you can read about why water is important for your disc golf game here.
• Confidence: the more confidence you have in your abilities, the better you will play.
• Focus: No matter how you play, who you may be, or what kind of round you’re playing, disc golf is a game of focus. This tip kind of builds off of the last one. You need patience in your game and focus on your game. In disc golf, your ability to focus on each and every shot can potentially be the deciding factor on winning or losing that round. “I will crush this drive,” or “I’m going to nail this putt,” should be what you tell yourself whenever you seek to find the point of concentration for each shot.
• Positive mindset: keeping a positive mindset on the course can help you crush rounds and turn them around when things go wrong.
• Don’t rush – practice patience: in order to take that step up in your mental game, you need to practice patience and focus on each and every shot.
• Goal-Oriented: (we will focus on this in #21) If you’re interested in the mental side of disc golf, check out my posts below ⬇️. “The 7 Best Mental Disc Golf Tips to Crush it on the Course.” “11 Ways Patience Will Help You Win in Disc Golf.” “The 9 Characteristics of Successful Disc Golfers.”

The next crucial tip on this list is to consolidate the amount of discs in your bag from 20-30 discs down to no more than 10-12 (less if possible).This gives you the opportunity to play with them more and get better with those specific discs. With 20-30 discs, you’re really a jack of all trades, master of none. By switching it up and carrying less discs, you become a master of all of the discs in your bag. This will force you to start really thinking about YOUR game, figuring out what you’re best at, and which discs you throw best. The overall result will be better scores and more improvement on the course.

Disc golf is all about strategy. It’s more than just throwing your disc at the basket. So from now on, whenever you throw, I want you to think about a few things:

• I want you to think about how you’re going to get to the basket
• which disc and type of throw will work best for this hole?
• which line are you going to take?
• disc placement – where do u want it to land?
• Is it better to play it safe or do you have a chance at a riskier shot? I know…It’s a lot to think about, but you have to think about all of these things if you want to get better on the course and improve your game. You need to think hard about every factor of your current hole and then build a strategy for your round.

Once your skill on the disc golf course starts improving, I want you to start looking into the technical knowledge side of disc golf. You can start learning technical knowledge as a beginner, but this really only applies once you start becoming a serious, highly competitive disc golfer. I want you to start learning all of the rules down to the small detailed rules. Understanding all of these rules will help you in unique situations and can definitely benefit you once you start playing competitively or in tournaments. For example: I was out on the course not too long ago and my disc ended up on top of the basket. Because I knew the rules, and actually wrote a post on this, that disc did not count as completing the hole. So I had to play the hole with one more stroke to finish and it added a stroke to my score. If you want to get more competitive, you need to learn all of the rules/technical knowledge of disc golf. Check out the Official Rules of Disc Golf here on PDGA.com.

The next tip on my list is a good one. Something I’ve talked about thoroughly since I started this blog: making sure that you have personal practice equipment at home. Because if truly want to improve your disc golf game, I’ve already said it, but you have to practice daily. And you can’t feasibly practice every day unless you have some practice equipment at home. Nobody can get to the course daily. If you can, go for it. But for the rest of us, there are three pieces of equipment that you should have at your home to help you practice.

• Personal practice basket: making sure you have a personal practice basket at home is essential for extra putting practice.
• Practice net: having some kind of large practice net at home is great for your ability to work on approaching, driving, footwork, technique, and anything else you can think to use it for. I’ve got one for my garage and it is awesome. You can get the one I bought here on Amazon.
• ProPull Disc Golf Trainer system: the ProPull system is fantastic for learning good technique using a resistance band with an actual disc golf disc on the end. So you can work on resistance band training while holding a disc. It’s the way to go. Check out both videos below. The first is disc golf pro Dave Feldberg showing you the ProPull and how to use it. The second video explains what exactly the ProPull is and how it can help you train. You can get a Propull system here on InfiniteDiscs.com. Link to video on YouTube. Link to video on YouTube. You can also check out a couple of our awesome posts below ⬇️. “17 Best Disc Golf Baskets (Get One and Win).” “The #1 Way to Improve Your Disc Golf Game This Year.” What I recommend for portable and less-portable baskets.

I absolutely love drills. Drills are a fundamental way to practice various throwing techniques and hone in certain skills on the disc golf course like putting and driving. And they can really comprise of anything and everything you can imagine. For example, check out the following drills below: Drill #1 – 10 in a row putting drill: This drill is simple and requires you to make 10 putts in a row from a certain spot before you move to a new more difficult spot. Drill #2 – field goals drill: for this drill, you will start on the 50 yard line of a football field. That means you’re about 60 yards, or 180 feet total, from the field goal posts (50 yard line + 10 yards of end zone). From here, you’ll work on your distance and accuracy by trying to throw you disc through the field goal posts. If you can consistently do this, back up 10 yards and start again. If you went the length of the field, you would be at the opposite end’s field goal post and your total throw distance will be 120 yards or 360 feet. If you can consistently make that 360 foot shot, your throws should look much better on the course. For more drills, check out my drills post below ⬇️. “The 50 Best Disc Golf Drills to Change Your Game Forever.”