If you’re looking for the best disc golf tips for women, you’ve come to the right place. Because this post is packed with everything you need to start crushing it on the course this year.
But I first just want to start out this post by saying that I’m not a woman and I’ll obviously never be one.
So the question you might ask is: why would I take disc golf advice for women from a man? Well, here are a couple of reasons.
First, I’ve built a pretty substantial blog here on DiscgolfNOW.com. I’ve tailored my site to all disc golfers of every skill level, especially beginners level players and those that need help improving. If you want to get better, no matter whether you’re male or female, the tips in this post and on my site will help you do that.
Second, because women are well connected. If I can help you get better, you’ll probably introduce some friends to disc golf and help the #discgolfcommunity to #growthesport.
Third, because my wife has taken an interest in disc golf. But she’s had a lot of trouble improving and I’ve had some trouble explaining how she can get better as a female player. So I researched and came up with 11 practical tips that she can use to improve every aspect of her game (and so she can read this and not have to get annoyed with me explaining it to her).
These 11 tips are exactly what I gave to my wife and would give to any other female that wants to start playing disc golf or just wants to get better at the sport.
Lastly, because I saw that there’s really a void in this space. Women want help, too, with improving their game. And there’s really not a lot of help for women on the internet. That’s very disappointing to me and so I’ve scoured the internet. I’ve researched for hours and have found almost every tip imaginable for helping women take their game to the next level.
All of the tips in this post come from different women across multiple posts, forums, and articles that I’ve read about on the internet. So hopefully this all-inclusive resource helps you out, as a woman, on the course.
The 11 best disc golf tips for women: how to crush it this year!
1. Disc selection
When my wife started playing, I almost immediately knew that disc selection was going to be important. After the first round, she was struggling with throwing the same 165-175 gram discs that I can easily sling 300+ feet. But that’s not her fault. I’m a 5’10” 165 lb. male that lifts weights 4-5 days a week. She’s a 4’11” 105 lb. woman that does a lot of cardio. Clearly there’s going to be a strength and power difference there. So there’s going to be a couple of reasons why disc selection is important.
The first reason is about disc weight. It’s important that you pick and choose discs that are lighter than normal. Why? Well, most women simply don’t have the strength to throw heavier discs. I’m not saying that you can’t build up to that, but start light. If you can throw heavy, go for it. But I would recommend finding discs that weigh anywhere from 140-160 grams. Once my wife got ahold of discs that were lighter, that really helped her.
The second reason disc selection is important is because women often have smaller hands than men. That’s not true in every situation, but for most women. My wife’s hands are much smaller than mine, so we have to find discs that she can grip and throw. The focus here is going to be on finding discs with smaller rims and those that are easier to hold on to. For more, see our best discs for women section below.
The third reason disc selection is important is because newer players, especially newer female players, need slower discs. The speed of a disc is huge factor when starting out. We’ve already talked about men having just a bit more strength. This translates directly into how hard a disc can be thrown. Because most women aren’t as strong, they can’t throw discs as hard. And discs with higher speed ratings need to be thrown much harder. So find discs with a speed rating of less than 9 or 10. Above that speed, the discs are much harder to throw for any new player.
If you’d like to learn more about speed and the other flight ratings, check out my post, “What Do the Numbers on a Disc Golf Disc Mean?”
The fourth reason disc selection is so important is because newer players in general need to throw understable discs. No matter what gender you are, if you’re relatively new to disc golf, you need to throw discs that are easier to throw for beginner-level players. Understable discs are easier to throw, will fly straighter for you, and won’t break hard in one direction at the end of flight (ending fade). You want more high-speed turn and less low-speed fade.
If you’d like to learn more about understable, stable, and overstable discs, check out my post, “The Complete Disc Golf Stability Guide.”
2. Keep it simple
For any player just starting out, finding discs can be a nightmare because there SO MANY DISCS to choose from. I mean literally thousands of choices. That can be overwhelming for anyone, but especially for women because disc selection is so important.
With that, I recommend that you keep it simple with your disc selection. Only choose a few discs at first. Don’t pack your bag with a bunch of discs that were recommended by friends and might not be suitable for you as a beginner. Don’t carry around 15-20 discs when you’re brand new to the sport. I would find 3 or 4 discs that you can appropriately throw. Use those discs for anything and everything you throw until you start to get the hang of them.
After you master these couple of discs, and start to get more competitive on the course, start building your bag for competitive play. But first, focus on keeping your 3-4 selections light, easy to hold on to, and simple for your game.
The 3 best discs for women
• Innova Aviar: this disc is phenominal for almost any player. It’s super easy to throw and can easily be handled by female players. Grab one here on Discgolfunited.com.
• Discraft Buzzz: the Buzzz is another “all-around” disc meaning that whoever uses it or whatever it’s used for, it’s just “all-around” awesome. When my brother first started playing, I gave him a Buzzz. When my wife went out for the first time, I gave her a Buzzz. So this disc is great for just about anybody. Grab one here on InfiniteDiscs.com.
• Latitude 64 Diamond: a favorite for a lot of players, but absolutely phenomenal for female disc golfers. Why? Easy. Doesn’t need to be thrown very hard. Has a lot of glide. Understability that is perfect for slower arms. And this disc won’t fade on you very much. The Diamond should be your go-to control driver as a female player. You can get one here on InfiniteDiscs.com.
For a better selection of discs, check out my post, “The 11 Best Discs for Women.”
3. Love ’em or leave ’em
So at this point, you’ve either picked up a couple of discs, or have had a few good discs recommended to you. This next tip is super easy and a rule that I always go by for my game: I always make sure that I like the discs that I throw. ALWAYS.
Make sure you like the grip, how it feels in your hands, the shape, how big or small it is for you, and how it throws. If you hate anything about it, stop throwing it. Find another disc you like. My bag for rounds contains only discs that I like to throw and that feel good to me. If not, I either give em away or store them with my disc collection until I find something to do with them.
So if you’re looking for something different than the 3 recommendations above, check out our post, “The 11 Best Disc Golf Discs for Women,” here on the site.
4. Change your mindset
So up to this point in the post, you’ve been able to pick out some discs and have probably played a few rounds on the course. But you might have noticed that being a woman in disc golf might come with some mental roadblocks. Let me explain what I mean.
Did you know that the sport of disc golf in 2021 is about 85% male dominated? Yep, according to the Professional Disc Golf Association’s 2020 Year End Demographics here, the male to female ratio of members is 66,264 members to 4,752 members. That comes out to 13.94% or 14% of members are female. 86% of members are male. According to parkeddiscgolf.org’s article on the demographics of disc golf that you can read here, women make up about 15% of all disc golfers.
But why does that matter? Well, with so many men playing disc golf, sometimes women will feel like they don’t belong or that this is a sport for males only. It also might get frustrating at first if you don’t have much power and can’t put a lot on your discs. So there really is an issue with mindset on the course for a lot of women. Again, not all women in the sport. But it seems like quite a few women feel this way. The wrong mindset can be a huge obstacle if you feel like you don’t belong.
All I can say is that that is so far from the truth. Disc golf is for everyone. Everyone belongs in this sport. You have to change your mindset when playing. This might be tough, because there’s always going to be that mental aspect of being a woman in a sport dominated by guys. Or not being as strong as you’d like to be…or as confident. If you face this, it’s okay. You CAN work your way through this. Here’s how:
Real quick, remember our statistics from above? The part that I left out was that the female disc golf community grew by over 20% from 2019 to 2020! The ratio of male to female players went down from 87% to 86%. And Parkeddiscgolf.org stated that it went down again to around 85%. That means the female population is growing!
So you have to change your mindset. Here’s a couple of things you can do:
- First: start by knowing that the female disc golf community is growing every year! You need to get the “mental aspect of being a woman in disc golf” out of your head. You’re strong and you’re confident. Also, invite other women out as often as possible so we can increase the number of female disc golfers!
- Second: as a matter of fact, don’t get too much in your head at all. Just go play disc golf.
- Third: cut out anything competitive. Start out by playing casual rounds. And if it gets too overwhelming, don’t even keep score. Just practice.
- Fourth: don’t compete against anyone, especially guys, until you’re comfortable with competing. Work on your skills and play your rounds. Improve and then start competing. Once you’re a skilled disc golfer, you might just find that competition helps you get better.
- Fifth: if you’re struggling physically, check out how to improve your form and technique in tip #5.
5. Focus on form and technique
When you first start out, it might feel like you can hardly throw the disc. Your accuracy will be bad. Your distance will be bad. I mean, everything will be bad. But it’s okay. That’s everyone starting out in disc golf. No one is truly a natural in disc golf. It takes tremendous practice and patience to get better.
One huge piece of the puzzle, though, especially for female disc golfers, is understanding your form and improving your technique. But how can you do that?
Let me start this out by saying that improving form will lead to more distance, better accuracy, and a better overall performance on the course. However, learning proper form and technique is very difficult. So I want you to pick one type of throw, whether backhand or forehand, and stick with that at first. I’d recommend the backhand and just build your game from there.
Backhand Tips for women:
• Know your obstacles: really quick, I just want to point out that, depending on your body, you might throw the backhand a little differently. Some women have a bigger chest and this can cause a problem when trying to bring the disc straight through to your throw. A lot of women won’t have this issue, but quite a few will. If you’re not able to bring the disc straight through, see the second part of the straight pull* tip for how you should throw.
• Grip: you want a nice firm grip on the disc. The easiest grips are the power grip (see first picture – all 4 fingers wrapped around the inside rim of the disc) and the modified non-power grip (second picture – 3 fingers wrapped around the edge of the disc and your index finger on the rim of the disc). Either grip is fine. Just pick the most comfortable grip for your throws.
• X-step: the X-step is a 4 step walkup to get you ready for your throw. If you’re not prepared for this and you just want to throw from a standstill, that is absolutely fine. But if you can master the X-step, you will improve much faster.
The steps work like this (for right handed backhand thrower – RHBH):
• Your first step is with your left foot at a 45° degree angle to the basket.
• Your second step is with your right foot at a 90° degree angle to the basket.
• Your third step is with your left foot and this foot steps behind your right foot to make an “X” with your feet.
• Your fourth step is with your right foot out from the body and toward the basket.
Check out the pictures below to see how to perform the X-step.
• Plant foot: your plant foot is very important. Once you complete the X-step, you land on your plant foot. If you’re a RHBH thrower, your plant foot is your right foot. Once this foot comes down, you’ll be on the ball of your foot. You want this plant foot to turn as you come through for your throw. This foot will turn from the ball of your foot to the heel of your foot.
• Reach back: your reach back should be at the same time you step with your plant foot. Remember ➡️ reach back/plant foot…reach back/plant foot. Your reach back needs to be a full extension before you pull the disc through for your throw.
• Straight pull*: so I put an asterisk on this one because your straight pull through might work a little bit differently depending on what I said earlier. Some ladies have a bigger chest area. Obviously, if your boobs are bigger, you probably won’t be able to pull your disc straight through across your chest. They might get in the way. So you have to improvise AND still use good technique. So to fight this problem, disc golf world champion Paige Pierce says to bring the disc down from the shoulder at a slight angle over the boobs and this should help. Then you can perfect your technique from there. You can check out Paige’s Tips here on the Dynamic Discs Blog.
If this isn’t a problem, simply learn all of these tips as instructed by most players. For the straight pull, keep the disc tight to your chest as you pull it through into your throw.
For a great video on straight pull and follow through, check out disc golf pro Hannah Leatherman’s video below ⬇️.
• Follow through: this last part of your technique is super important. Even though you may not think so, your follow through can make or break your shot. If you cut your follow through short, it will do a couple of things:
- Cause injury – not completing the follow through can cause unnecessary strain on the shoulder muscles and could possible cause a tear or a strain. If that happens, no disc golf.
- Limit distance – not completing the follow through can limit distance because you’re stopping your throw short instead of letting your arm continue pushing the disc through. And you definitely don’t want to limit distance!
If you do all of those things, you will undoubtedly develop a nice backhand. For more, check out Paige Pierce’s video, “How to Throw a Backhand with Paige Pierce,” in the video below ⬇️.
6. Field work
The next tip on this list will help you put everything you’ve learned up to this point together with practice. The next tip is to get out in the field and do some field work!
Field work consists of you taking a bunch of your discs out into a large field and working on different parts of your game. Or you could just be working on your backhand throw. Ideally you want to make sure that you’re working on something in the field. As long as you are, that works for me.
For women, there are three things that you should be working on:
- Technique
- Backhand throw
- Distance (after technique and backhand work)
Here are some other tips for your field work:
• Practice field work often: field work is extremely underrated. It can singlehandedly improve your game more than any other practice you can do. A lot of players don’t do field work, and surprise, they don’t get better at disc golf. If you’re a female player, and you want to improve, you need to make field work your best friend. You should try to fit in field work AT LEAST twice a week and one or more rounds per week. If you can be consistent with this, your game will improve very quickly.
• Stretch before you do field work: before you head out to the field, or at least when you get there, I want you to make sure you stretch before you really start throwing. If you don’t, and immediately start throwing as hard as you can, you can injure yourself. That means no disc golf. So start slow and stretch first. You can check out my disc golf stretches post here.
• Have a goal in mind: remember when I said you should always be working on something when going out to work on field work? Well, this is what I’m talking about. You should always have some kind of goal in mind when going to the field. It doesn’t have to be anything excessive or crazy. It can just be – “I want to improve my backhand today” – or – “I want to increase my distance by 20 feet today” – or – “I want to work on, and improve, my approach shots today.” It can be simple and easy. You should try to get more specific if you can, but just make sure you have a goal when you go out. For more on goals, check out my post, “11 Powerful Reasons Why Goals Are Important in Disc Golf.”
• Practice how you play/compete and take it seriously: I’ve been an athlete ever since I was little. I started out playing baseball at 5 and have played almost every sport you can think of to some extent. And one major theme across all of them was to “practice how you play or compete.” This just means that you need to take your practicing seriously. If you mess around while you practice, you won’t do well in rounds or when competing. But if you take it seriously every time you go out, you’ll learn a lot, improve even more, and be ready for when you actually play. I still want you to have fun, but take your field work seriously if you want to get better.
• Focus on technique: we’ve already spoken about technique at length in this post, but you need to always be thinking about your technique when you do field work. Maintain good form and technique and you will get so much better during your field work!
• Work on power, distance, and accuracy, too: don’t forget about these three.
• Learn all of your discs: it’s important that you learn about all of the discs in your bag. You may not have that many in your bag up to this point, but you should get to know all of them well. Learn them on the backhand. Learn them on angles (hyzer and anhyzer). Learn how far each will fly for you. Just learn those discs. Then when you get to the course, you’ll know how they all fly and you can play with more knowledge. Knowing your discs will allow you to know what to throw and when. That will undoubtedly improve your game.
For more on field work, check out my field work tips post here.
7. Practice equipment
Another easy way to improve is to buy some practice equipment. This is stuff you can get to practice your game off the course. When it comes to practice equipment, there are three things you can buy ⬇️.
• Practice net: a practice net is a great way to work on your throws while at home. I’ve got one that I set up in my garage and can easily get some extra throwing practice in if I can’t make it out to the field. Check out the net that I got here on Amazon.
• Practice basket: a practice basket is a perfect way to work on your putting (and approaching if you’ve got the space) at home. If you do buy one, make sure you buy a quality basket that lasts. Check out my list of the 17 best disc golf baskets here.
• Propull system: the propull system is a really cool system created using resistance bands and a disc with the intention of helping you improve your technique, speed, and strength. To see what the ProPull is, check out the video below ⬇️.
If you’d like to give the ProPull a try, grab one here on Amazon.
8. Only work on improving 1 thing at a time
The last tip I’m giving in the practice section is to make sure you’re not overwhelming yourself in practice. I want you to only work on one thing at a time. Why? Well, because if you try to make everything better at once, nothing will get better. You need to focus on one thing and improve that thing. Then move on to the next. Don’t try to improve all aspects of your game at the same time. You have to be patient when it comes to improving.
Here’s an analogy: think about yourself making a to-do list to clean your place (a clean home is like an improved disc golf game). In order to clean your house (improve your game), you need to vacuum your house, do the dishes, and make your bed. If you try to do all three things at the same time, you’ll never get any of them done. Instead, you make your bed, then you do the dishes, then you vacuum. If you focus on one thing, that thing gets done and you can move on to the next one.
With disc golf, it works the same. If you try to improve your entire game at once, your whole game will lack improvement. But if you work on putting first for a few weeks, driving second, and approaching after that, your game will improve tenfold.
9. Find a female mentor or join a female league
Next up on the list is one of the most important tips that I can give you today. This is really a two-part tip that kind of intertwines nicely. First, I want you to try and find a mentor…but not just any mentor. I want you to find a female mentor to help you take your disc golf game to the next level.
Finding a good mentor is crucial in all areas of your life, but finding one on the course will help you improve your game tremendously. Your mentor will show you, in person, how to throw different kinds of shots, teach you the game, and help you develop different parts of your game until you’re ready to really take on better players.
For more on mentors, check out my post, “7 Reasons You Need a Mentor in Disc Golf.”
If you’re having trouble finding a good female mentor, you have another option: try finding and joining a female disc golf league in the area. A lot of major cities will have a couple of leagues and most smaller areas will have at least one nearby. For a really good resource in finding nearby women’s leagues, check out this PDGA resource here.
If you can’t find any leagues nearby, check the local disc golf facebook groups that we’re going to talk about in the following tips to come. Or you can make your own league! If you know a few women that like disc golf, start your own league up. UDisc.com has a great post here that will show you why and how to start a womens disc golf league.
10. Find an exclusively female group online
Another great tip for female disc golfers is to find an all-female group of ladies online. Some women are okay with discgolfscene chats or the r/discgolf subreddit on Reddit. Both of those can be fine, but sometimes you might want a place where there’s no pressure and no judgment from the guys who play. You really need to find an exclusively female group online.
If you’re having trouble finding a good mentor or finding a league nearby, you can try joining some of the local groups online (mostly on facebook). They will help you with anything you need in that regard.
But for everything else, including tips, form and technique critique, and general disc golf discussion, you can try joining an all-female disc golf group online. Facebook and Instagram have some and the majority of them and are run by either professional disc golfers like World Champion Catrina Allen or other really good female disc golfers. Also, these groups normally do not allow any men, even pro male players, so there’s always a no-pressure kind of atmosphere for ladies.
Check out the best disc golf group for women ⬇️:
Catrina Allen’s competitive.cat Instagram group
You can also just check Facebook groups for local groups or get a vibe from the r/discgolf reddit group. That’s not exclusively female, but you can get a lot of good tips from other female disc golfers in the 160 thousand plus member subreddit.
11. Go watch a female tournament
So I have to say upfront that I haven’t seen a professional female disc golf tournament. But I’ve been to see the pro guys play…and wow, they are good. Plus the atmosphere is absolutely electric and there is SO MUCH to do. There are a ton of disc golf companies selling their stuff on the cheap, clinics to attend, and a bunch of awesome people in the #discgolfcommunity that you can meet. It’s so fun. And I’m sure it’s the same at the female tournaments. So check out the schedule here on PDGA.com.
You can also Google, “women’s professional disc golf tournaments,” and find the tournaments of the current year.
So to close this post out…
Hopefully you’ve been able to take away something from this post. I really put a lot into the post because I wanted the female audience to get a lot out of it. From what I’ve seen, the female disc golf community is very under served and you ladies deserve some epic content, too. I want you to take these tips and keep learning so you can continue to improve your disc golf game. Don’t think about what is holding you back or what you can’t do right now. Just keep your head up and keep making progress in your game. That’s the secret to being great at disc golf.
Thanks for reading, ladies.
Related content
9 Weird Tricks to Improve Your Disc Golf Game (Forever)
101 Disc Golf Tips to Take Your Game to the Next Level
The 27 Best Disc Golf Distance Tips for Beginners
The 12 Best Disc Golf Putting Tips for Beginners
Don’t forget about the book!
Before you go, don’t forget to check out the best beginner disc golf book on the planet, “The Disc Golf Player’s Manual.” This ebook is packed with over 200+ pages of the best tips, tricks, and advice for new players