Disc Selection

The Starter Set

The three discs every new player needs.

Why it matters

Three discs genuinely covers the whole game for a first season, and carrying three rather than fifteen makes you better faster — because improvement comes from knowing exactly what a disc does, and you only learn that by throwing the same one several hundred times.

How to do it

A putter: speed 2 or 3, something comfortable in the hand. It putts, it approaches, and it is the most accurate disc you will own.
A midrange: speed 4 or 5, straight and forgiving. This should be most of your throws for the first year.
A fairway driver: speed 6 or 7, slightly understable. This is your distance shot until your arm catches up.
Buy them light — 150 to 165 grams — so they fly properly at the speed you actually throw.
Many brands sell exactly this as a three-disc beginner set, which is both cheaper and better chosen than picking individually from a wall of 400 discs.

Common mistakes

Adding a distance driver to the set because it is the exciting one.It will fade hard left for a right-handed backhand and teach you nothing. Add it when the fairway driver is reliably going 300 feet.

Buying a bag of fifteen because a set was on offer.Carrying fifteen discs you cannot distinguish is worse than carrying three you know. Expand slowly and deliberately.

Replacing a disc because somebody said a different mould was better.The mould matters far less than the reps. Throw yours until you know its flight before changing anything.

Key points

A comfortable putter for putts and approaches.
A straight, stable midrange.
A controllable fairway driver (speed 6-7).

The drill

Drill · Three discs, one month — every round for 1 month with exactly 3 discs. Play a month of rounds carrying nothing but the three. You will be forced to shape shots rather than reach for a different disc, which is the skill that transfers. Almost everybody scores the same or better while learning considerably more.

Watch: Best Beginner Disc Golf Discs to Get You Started! — Swanky Disc Golf