Throwing a disc golf disc is incredibly tough…especially if you’re new to the game. The art of the throw, which is basically just being able to throw a disc golf straight or accurately in the direction you choose, takes time, patience, and considerable skill.
Now back just a couple of years ago, I couldn’t throw a disc golf disc to save my life. I was terrible at the game. Every time I went out, it was the same old hit-that-tree, miss-your-line, fade-like-crazy round that I would come to expect. I got so frustrated that I almost quit disc golf. ALMOST.
But that’s not me. I’m the guy that drudges through and fights through the challenging stuff. So I started researching until I found some things that would help me improve my accuracy on the course. There wasn’t much to go on, but I found a few things that worked and now I’m much better at disc golf.
Today, I’m going to share those things that I learned that helped me not just improve my accuracy, but become a better disc golfer. By no means am I a pro at this game, but the seven things that I’ve included in this post will undoubtedly help you take your game to the next level. So let’s go!
The 7 best accuracy tips
1. Finding the problems in your accuracy game
2. Disc selection
3. Disc physics
4. Quiet eye and mental focus
5. Perfecting your technique
6. Practice equipment
7. A couple of good accuracy drills
Why is it so hard to be accurate?
Tiny spinning disc: first off, you’re using a tiny little spinning disc and trying to get it to fly how you want it to hundreds of feet with precision and accuracy. That is not always an easy thing to do. If you can manipulate your disc’s accuracy how you want it to, you will succeed in disc golf. But you have to get that disc to go straight.
Course layout: every hole on every course in the world is different in some way. Accuracy is hard because you have to be able to successfully navigate every angle and small difference in your path.
Obstacles: even further, obstacles make us rethink being able to throw straight and force us to strategize all the shots we have to throw. You have to continue to be accurate through all of that.
So through all of that, we have to learn and improve our accuracy. The seven accuracy tips in this post should help you grow your accuracy game and immediately be able to implement what’s being taught today. Take the following seven tips and get out on the course!
The 7 best accuracy tips
1. Find the problems in your accuracy game
The very first step in improving your accuracy is to find and understand that you have an accuracy problem. I’ve been playing for multiple years and I know that I still have accuracy issues on my drives. I recognized the problem and I’ve been working consistently to try and fix it. The first step in improving your accuracy is to simply recognize that you have accuracy issues and find out where they are in your game.
Having trouble finding out where your accuracy issues are at? Answer the following questions:
- Do you have an accuracy problem or are you just trying to improve your accuracy?
- Is it general to all of your throws or specific to a certain part of your game?
- Do you have trouble off the teepad?
- Do you have trouble during woods golf or in open fields?
- Do you have trouble with tunnel shots?
- Do you feel like your grip is the issue?
- Is your technique the issue?
- Could it be your disc selection?
- Do you understand how discs fly?
- Are you distracted while you play?
- Is your mental focus off?
- Do you practice and/or play enough?
- Are you practicing correctly?
- Are you using drills to help you get better
- Are you learning everything you can to help you improve your accuracy?
I know, it seems like a lot. But you can figure out all of those things by simply going out to play a few extra rounds. Make sure you focus on your game now so that you can figure out where your problems are with accuracy. Then use the next 6 tips on this list to help you improve your game. Just understanding that you have a problem with accuracy, though, is a great first step to fixing the issues.
2. Disc selection
One of the biggest issues most new players have with accuracy is because of their selection of discs when starting out. Disc selection on the course is absolutely critical to being able to throw a disc with any shred of accuracy. So I want you to try to gauge your skill level. Are you a true beginner (first day out), beginner, amateur, intermediate player, or advanced player? You’re probably not an advanced player, but if you are, you can still learn from this post. So what is your skill level? Whatever your skill level is will determine the discs that you need to use. So check out the posts below ⬇️.
Beginner
- 37 Best Disc Golf Discs for Beginners (You Need These)
- 17 Best Disc Golf Putters for Beginners
- The 17 Best Disc Golf Mid-range Discs for Beginners
If you’re a beginner, I recommend you stick with putters and mid-range discs to help improve your accuracy. These discs are easier to control. Don’t move up in discs until your accuracy is spot on for each disc type.
Intermediate and advanced
- 17 Best Disc Golf Putters: Cut 10+ Strokes Off Your Score!
- 17 All-Time Best Disc Golf Mid-Range Discs
If you’re an intermediate or advanced player and you’re having accuracy issues, I would go back to the drawing board. Grab some putters or mid-range discs and don’t move up in disc until your issues have resolved.
Overall, your disc selection is extremely important, so make sure you’re picking out discs that are appropriate for your skill level. You can grab a couple of our recommendations, as they’re best suited to each skill level. Or you can pick out some on your own. But with that, you need to understand “disc physics,” or how discs fly.
3. Disc physics
Another downfall players have while trying to work through accuracy issues or just trying to improve their accuracy is not understanding the physics of disc flight and how disc golf flight ratings affect discs. Disc flight can be fairly complex but it’s really not that difficult to learn. Here’s a quick rundown.
Discs fly through the air using something called gyroscopic inertia (basically, the disc is spinning and continues spinning) as well as speed, attitude (pitch), lift, spin, torque, roll, and aerodynamics. So, you know, like a couple of things keep your disc moving. Now you don’t have to memorize exactly what gyroscopic inertia is or all of the factors of disc flight. I know I don’t know all that by heart. But you do need to understand at least a couple of things.
You need to understand how disc speed affects whether you should throw a particular disc or not (you remember disc selection from #2), how lift or glide can help a disc stay in the air longer, how the angle of a disc can affect the flight trajectory, or how discs differ because of their type and aerodynamics (drivers are thin and fly faster – putters are thicker and fly slower).
Discs also fly according to flight ratings, or the series of four numbers on a disc. These flight ratings show disc golfers the disc’s unique “personality, “ or how that particular disc should fly. These four numbers show you how hard a disc must be thrown to fly correctly (speed), how long a disc can stay in the air (glide), how much a disc turns to the right (for right handed backhand players – high-speed turn), and how much a disc fades to the left (right handed backhand players – low-speed fade).
So yes, you need to understand all of these factors in order to become and expert in disc flight and in order to help yourself improve your overall accuracy on the course. If you neglect disc physics, your game will suffer. You can learn about disc physics and flight ratings by checking out the two posts below ⬇️:
4. Quiet eye and mental focus
The “Quiet Eye” concept and the idea of mental focus might be foreign to you, but they’re definitely worth it to learn about. They’re also definitely something to look into if you’re trying to improve your accuracy on the course.
The Quiet Eye concept basically says that Elite players in a sport train or fixate their eyes on a ball or a target that they’re aiming for. If this was adapted for disc golf, elite disc golfers could pick a spot on the course, focus their eyes on that spot for a decent amount of time, then throw their disc.
If you do that, this concept believes that you will most likely get your disc closer to your target spot. Kind of an “aim small, miss small” ideology. The author, Professor Joan Vickers, believes that if you consistently do this, you’ll be more likely to hit your target and become an elite athlete in the process. Kind of a strange idea, but talk about improving your accuracy if this does work! If you want to read more about this, check out BBC.com’s post, “Why Athletes Need a Quiet Eye.”
That concept, your mental focus on the course, and a positive mindset while playing can not only help you improve your accuracy, but make you a better overall disc golfer.
5. Perfecting your technique
If you’re a newer player and your technique is suffering, chances are your accuracy is, too. Proper throwing technique is extremely important in disc golf and can make or break how accurate you are with your discs. So learning technique should be high on your list of things to do to improve accuracy or address any issues you currently have.
The video above shows four different disc golf pros all using good technique. All four of them have throws that are extremely accurate. And not surprisingly, all of their throws look very similar. It’s because they’re technique is on point. Yours can be, too. If you want to start perfecting your technique, check out our post, “7 Steps to the Best Disc Golf Technique and a Perfect Throw,” here on the blog.
6. Practice equipment
Another phenomenal way of improving your accuracy involves buying some at-home practice equipment. Before you jump from getting some practice gear, though, you want to make sure that you’ve been through the first five tips on this list and are implementing them appropriately. Once you do that, go get some of these practice items.
- Practice net: the standard practice net can help you throw unlimited discs and practice until your arms fall off…or until your accuracy improves (your choice). Grab the one I bought here on Amazon.
- Hula hoop: this can actually be used with the practice net to form a circle in the middle of the net to work on accuracy. You can do that or check out the video below from Flying-J Disc Golf and try hanging that hula hoop from a tree about 50 feet away. To try this out, grab a Wham-O hula hoop here on Amazon.
7. A couple of good accuracy drills
On top of buying good practice equipment, you should also be practicing and working on your accuracy by engaging with different disc golf drills. Check out the following drills that can help you with accuracy.
Field Goals/Laces Out
In this drill, you should strive to make all of your field goals. For those who don’t know, a field goal is simply a set of upright posts on a football field. Normally, a kicker will try to kick a football through them. For you, though, they will be used to develop both accuracy and distance. For this drill, only use putters and mid-range discs. Drivers can be thrown too far for the field you will be on.
Grab your discs and start on the 50 yard line (60 yards or 180 feet away from the field goal). The goal is to throw your discs from the middle of the field through the field goal posts. Once you can consistently do this, move back 10 yards to the other side’s 40 yard line (210 feet away). Continue moving back until you are on the complete opposite field goal post. This post is roughly about 360 feet from the post on the other end of the field. If you get good at nailing these throws, your game will improve tremendously.
You can check out the drill by Shoot Lowe in the video below ⬇️.
Don’t Hit the Marker/Wormburners
This is a really great drill to work on your accuracy if you’re somewhat new to disc golf. Shoot Lowe explains it very well in the video below ⬇️.
Take a marker cone or target and set it out on the flat ground about 30 to 50 feet in front of you. The name of the drill spells out what you’re trying not do — hit the marker. Aim and throw your disc with some force at the marker. Try to get as close to the marker as you can without hitting it. The goal is to be able to get all of your throws really close without touching the marker, thus continually improving your accuracy. For newer players, this will help you learn how to reach back and throw a straight shot. Not something that will fly straight up into the sky (like what happens with most brand new players).
You can check out the drill below by Shoot Lowe.
Grab a set of marker cones here on Amazon.
You can also check out more awesome drills in our post, “The 50 Best Disc Golf Drills to Change Your Game Forever.”
In the end, disc golf is just hard
Like I said earlier, disc golf is a game that takes considerable skill and a lot of time and patience. I mean, disc golf is just hard. And it’s okay if you’re not that good yet. Just don’t quit. Keep practicing, keep, learning, practice some more, learn some more, and you will get better. I promise you that you’ll get better. Alright, now get back out on the course!
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Thanks for reading, disc golfers!
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