New to Disc Golf

Your First Discs

Three forgiving discs that make the game easier to learn.

Why it matters

The single biggest cause of early frustration is a disc that is too fast for your arm. A high-speed driver thrown at beginner speed finishes hard left for a right-handed backhand no matter how well you throw it — so it punishes good form and bad form identically, and teaches you nothing. Picking three forgiving discs is the cheapest improvement available to you.

How to do it

Read the four flight numbers printed on most discs: speed, glide, turn and fade. Speed is how much arm you need; turn is negative when a disc wants to bend right for a right-handed backhand; fade is how hard it finishes left.
Get a putter, around speed 2 or 3. It is for putting and for anything inside about 150 feet.
Get a midrange, around speed 4 or 5. This should be the disc you throw most often for your first season.
Get an understable fairway driver, around speed 6 or 7 with a turn of -2 or -3. That is your long shot.
Choose lighter weights — 150 to 165 grams rather than 175. A lighter disc flies further with less power, which is exactly your situation.

Common mistakes

Starting with a speed 12 or 13 distance driver.Nothing above speed 9 is useful until you are throwing a midrange about 250 feet. Put it in the cupboard and come back to it.

Buying at maximum weight because heavier sounds more stable.It is more stable, which is the opposite of what you want. Go light until your arm catches up.

Borrowing a strong player’s overstable disc, throwing it badly, and concluding you cannot throw.Their discs are matched to their arm speed. Try the same shot with a light understable midrange before you judge yourself.

Owning ten discs before you can reliably tell two of them apart in the air.Three discs, thrown a thousand times, teaches more than ten discs thrown a hundred times each.

Key points

Start with a comfortable putter and a straight midrange.
Lighter, understable discs fly farther with less power.

The drill

Drill · Learn what yours do — 10 throws with each of your 3 discs (30 total), into an open field. Throw each disc ten times at the same target with the same effort, and watch where it finishes rather than how far it goes. You are learning the shape: which one holds straight, which one fades left, which one turns right first. Knowing those three shapes is most of course management.

Watch: How to Throw Your FIRST Disc Golf Discs (Nate Sexton’s Beginner Guide!) — Innova Discs