Did you know that over 500 million people live within about 6 miles of a disc golf course? Yep, UDisc’s post here, disc golf is BOOMIN’ and new players are signing up to start playing every day. But that’s just on their app.
Innova Discs’ article here estimates that there are over four million disc golfers across the world that play regularly. That’s pretty wild.
But for those new players, it’s critical to learn how to play the game correctly. If that’s you, you’ve come to the right place. My 7 years of course experience and thousands of hours put into this site will help you improve your game quickly.
You just need a few tips. Here are the only 7 disc golf tips you’ll actually need to become a great disc golfer.
The 7 Best Disc Golf Tips
1. Daily practice
2. Do your field work
3. Focus on technique
4. Become an expert on putting
5. Learn the numbers on a disc golf disc
6. Throw the right discs for your skill level
7. Have fun out on the course
Why You Need These Tips
1. Building the foundation: when you’re relatively new to disc golf, it’s important to build a proper foundation before you start learning more advanced throws, strategies, and tips. As the old adage goes, “you need to walk before you run.” Understand the basics before you tread into complicated concepts.
If you try to immediately throw distance drivers, attempt flex shots, and play the hardest courses with zero throwing technique, you’ll surely fail pretty fast. But if you start with easy-to-throw discs, simple backhands or forehands, and learn proper throwing technique, that’s a recipe for success.
2. Understanding these tips will help you improve quicker: once you start building your foundation, your progress will start to speed up. You might start out slow and it might take you some time to learn, but if you do it the right way, you’ll start hitting your disc golf goals faster and faster as time goes on.
3. You won’t improve properly without these core fundamentals: if you skip the fundamental concepts of disc golf, and don’t learn the game properly, you won’t improve. If you do improve, it won’t be much. I highly encourage you to take the learning process seriously and learn the game. You’ll thank yourself later.
The 7 Best Disc Golf Tips
1. Daily practice
If you’re truly looking to improve your disc golf game, you’ve got to practice. Obvious, of course. Because one of the basic premises of improving in any sport is to practice and get better.
But if you want to improve quickly, try practicing daily. I’m not talking about playing full rounds every day. Instead, you should be working on all parts of your disc golf game. For example: strategy and rules, field work, learning technique, putting practice, distance work, understanding how to approach, making sure you have the right equipment, drills, and a variety of other skill sets.
For daily practice, I’ve developed a weekly routine that I try to stick to. Here’s what that might look like:
Monday – Putting practice
Tuesday – Approach work
Wednesday – Disc golf workout in the gym
Thursday – Technical knowledge & rules
Friday – Field work
Saturday – Full round Sunday – Rest/miscellaneous practice or study
Obviously you can make whatever scheduled routine me that works for you. If that’s too much, back off to 3-4 days a week. The key is to stay disciplined and consistent with your practice every week. It’s okay to take breaks to rest and recover. You also might not be as competitive as some.
If you do go the competitive route, daily practice is essential. Once you get competitive, this is how you take your disc golf skills to the next level. So get your practice in. Put in the work and you’ll see results in no time.
For more on practice, check out this post here – The Complete Disc Golf Practice Guide: Driving, Approaching, & Putting!
2. Do your field work
Field work is simple – find a huge, open field, grab your discs, and start practicing your throwing.
But don’t just go out and randomly throw. You want to be working on a specific part of your game every time you hit the field: whether it’s consistency, accuracy, distance, power, release angles, flights lines, or whatever you’re trying to work on that day. You should have a goal every time you go out.
Field work should just be one small part of your overall practice schedule.
For more on field work, check out this post – The Ultimate Guide to Disc Golf Field Work: 7 Tips to Use Today!
3. Focus on technique
Learning and understanding disc golf technique is one of the most important concepts in disc golf.
If you don’t learn technique, you won’t throw discs correctly and this can lead to major problems down the road. So learn proper technique right away, because it’s easier to learn it and improve it than it is to correct poor technique months or years down the road.
What I mean by good technique is a proper throwing motion with a disc golf disc, whether throwing backhand, forehand, or other more advanced disc golf shots.
For simplicity, I’ll talk about just a typical backhand throw (for right-handed throwers). There are seven steps to proper backhand technique:
- Find the proper grip. Whether power or non-power grip, pick which grip you like best.
- Work on X-step and hip rotation. This is critical for balance and power on your throw.
- Good reach back. You want a full arm extension at about a 45 degree angle.
- Look away from line of sight. Sounds counterintuitive, but it will help with your rotation and momentum as you go forward with your throw.
- Strong final step. Once you get to full reach back, your front foot should plant for the upcoming foot rotation.
- Lead with your elbow. Come through with your elbow first as you rotate your foot and throw.
- Follow through. Simple and easy. Allow your arm to continue swinging through to maintain momentum and avoid injuries.
For more on technique, check out this awesome post – 7 Steps to the Best Disc Golf Technique and a Perfect Throw!
4. Become an expert on putting
No matter how well you throw, how much distance you get, or how close you can get your disc to the basket, you still have to know how to putt. Because as the old disc golf saying goes, “drive for show, putt for dough.”
Distance driving might look awesome, with 300-400 foot drives and incredible distance discs, but putting is where you win. Putting is what makes you the money in the end.
So I highly encourage you to work on putting as often as possible. Not just throwing a few discs at the basket but a variety of different ways to amp up your putting game: such as finding the perfect putter for you, getting an at-home practice basket, and any extra practice using various drills and games.
For more putting tips, check out this post – The 12 Best Disc Golf Putting Tips for Beginners!
For some awesome putting drills and games, see this post here – The 11 Best Disc Golf Putting Drills and Games!
5. Learn the numbers on a disc golf disc
The numbers on a disc golf disc represent the flight ratings of each disc and tell you how a disc is supposed to fly. The numbers show you the characteristics of a disc including the speed, glide, turn, and fade of every individual disc.
They’re super important to know, first off, because you need to know how to pick out the right discs for your skill level. We’ll talk about that in the next tip (#6).
Second, you need to know how to read the flight ratings to understand how each disc flies. Once you understand how flight ratings affect disc flight, you know when to throw each disc, what to throw on specific holes, and you’ll be able to start learning how to throw more advanced shots like s-shots, hyzer flips, flex shots, and many others.
Lastly, learning the flight ratings can improve your game super fast. Out of all the technical knowledge I’ve learned, learning how to read the numbers on a disc golf disc is probably the best, most practical info I acquired about disc golf.
For more on flight ratings, check out this epic post – What Do the Numbers on a Disc Golf Disc Mean?
6. Throw the right discs for your skill level
In disc golf, if you’re a newer player, you have to throw discs that are appropriate for your skill level. That’s because a lot of discs are too hard for beginner disc golfers to throw at first.
If you’re a brand new player, you need beginner discs. These discs are easy and generally fly straight. Easy discs allow you to learn technique, practice correctly, and improve your overall game with no limitations on disc flight. A beginner should stay away from all drivers and overstable discs.
Check out the post below for a few recommendations for brand new players:
The 7 Best Disc Golf Discs for Beginners!
Newer players and amateurs should look for easy-to-throw putters, mid-range discs, and control drivers. Once you get to this level, focus on continuing to develop good technique and throwing correctly.
Check out the posts below for a few recommendations for newer and amateur players:
The 17 Best Disc Golf Putters for Beginners!
The 17 Best Disc Golf Mid-range Discs for Beginners!
The 17 Best Disc Golf Control/Fairway Drivers for Beginners!
Intermediate and advanced players can throw just about anything they want, so once you get to this level, you’ve become more selective based on preference and shot selection.
So even though you might have your disc selection locked down, here are a few recommendations:
The 11 Best Disc Golf Discs for Intermediate Players!
The 7 BEST Disc Golf Discs of ALL-TIME!
The 101 Best Disc Golf Discs in the Game Today!
7. Have fun out on the course
Lastly, no matter how good you want to be or how much you practice, don’t forget why you’re playing disc golf: to have fun. Even if you have high aspirations of becoming a pro disc golfer, you should still aim to have fun out on the course.
If you feel like you’re burning out, back off just a little bit or focus more on just playing and keeping the fun in the sport that we all love. So don’t forget to have some fun whenever you’re playing or practicing disc golf.
Because the more fun you have, the better you’ll play.
The Disc Golf Player’s Manual
After you’ve gotten a chance to take a look at the 7 tips above, I highly encourage you to start putting them all into action. Along with these tips, I also want you to check out my book: The Disc Golf Player’s Manual.
This book is packed with over 200 pages of tips to help brand new disc golfers really learn the game in detail. If the tips in this post aren’t enough, I’ve put almost 100 other tips in this amazing book. So definitely check it out here if you get the chance.
Finally
Disc golf is an amazing sport. Over the years, I’ve experienced fun, joy, anger, contentment, highs, lows, laughter, and just about every other possible human emotion (except the happiness of getting your first ace – just hasn’t happened for me yet 🤷♂️).
Over the years, my game has grown from learning all of the tips on this list. But what’s taken me many months and years can be easily learned and implemented just from reading this post.
So bookmark this page. And use it wisely. Because you’ve already improved by simply reading through the tips above. Now it’s time show other disc golfers what you’re made of.
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101 Disc Golf Tips to Take Your Game to the Next Level