May 18, 2022 by Steve Andrews in Instruction, Opinion with comments

I hate wind. In all honesty, I would rather play in a foot of snow than wind. And I’m from Tampa.

I am a control player. I do a ton of field work to be able to know exactly where my shots will go; I obsessively tune my bag and plan out my rounds before they start. My approach to the game is about rigorous preparation and eliminating variables. And then the wind blows and all that goes out the window and it’s basically ‘hold on, improvise, and hope for the best.’ I know there are players who love playing in windy conditions. I envy them.

Having played a few Glass Blown and Dynamic Disc Opens, I watched the 2022 DDO in white-knuckled sympathetic terror for players helplessly watching their most overstable discs flip out of bounds. I had to step away from the coverage for a while when a James Conrad eight-footer blew backwards out the chains. To me, planning a tour event in April in Kansas feels like kicking off the tour in January in Minnesota at the Preserve, but that may be my wind trauma talking.

Unfortunately, whether we love it or hate it, wind is something that every player must endure, so finding an approach to handle the wind is essential.

How the Wind Affects Your Disc

I played traditional golf for decades before I ever tried disc golf. In ball golf, the wind is annoying but straightforward. The wind affects a golf ball the way you would intuitively think it would – headwinds make the ball fly shorter, tail winds push you longer, and right or left winds shove you in that direction. There are some weird effects related to spin, but most of the time what the wind will do is clear.: In a…