Henna Blomroos, 2022 USDGC. Photo: Chad LeFevre

Improve Your Distance 

What made you fall in love with disc golf? Was it the first time that you saw someone throw a disc farther than seemed possible? Your friend took you out to the course, ripped one over 300 feet, and you thought, “Wow. I have to learn how to do that.” 

Nothing in the game is more epic or beautiful than a full S-curve slung to max distance. In this article, we provide some form tips to help you throw farther. Adding distance is often a game of taking one step back in order to move two steps forward. Be ready to scrap form elements that are working in pursuit of form elements that work better. 

The first step to throwing a great drive is being intentional about your desired flight path. Closing your eyes and ripping it as hard as you can isn’t going to add distance. Picture the line you want the disc to take from your hand to the landing zone. If you are throwing an S-curve, at what point in the flight do you want it to start turning? What angle do you need to release on to make that happen? Pick checkpoints in the sky that you want your disc to cross through on its way to your landing zone or the target. Visualize the shot that crosses through those imaginary points in the sky and then execute. 

This will also keep you honest in your assessment of how each throw went. Did you park the hole, but completely miss your line? If you visualized the shot beforehand, it will be harder to be results oriented. On the flip side, if you hit your line exactly as intended, but catch a branch that you couldn’t see from the tee, you can still take confidence knowing you threw the disc as intended. 

One of the biggest flaws in many players’ forms is throwing before they have planted the front foot. Some players try to throw and plant at the same time, essentially releasing during the wrong step of the run-up. Plant the front foot first (the right foot for right handed players), then push off the back leg, open the hips, drive with the shoulder, and rip it. 

If you try to pull the disc forward as your front foot hits the ground, you lose out on hip rotation and power from your back leg. Think about hitting the peak of your reach back at the same moment that you plant your right, front foot. 

There are many players who learn to throw fairly well and decently far…