The Challenge of Transitioning from Ultimate Frisbee to Disc Golf

[NOTE: I’ve written on this topic before. But it’s worth exploring further here...]

I recently threw some disc golf discs with a friend who plays ultimate frisbee. He’s an excellent ultimate frisbee player, and he was curious to see what disc golf is like.

When he first threw a backhand with a disc golf disc, he merely tossed it. It quickly faded off to the left. After that, he tried to throw with more power. But generally, his throws sliced off to the side.

What struck me was that, the first time I tried throwing a disc golf disc, I had the same experience. I was expecting the disc to just float along, like a regular frisbee. But that’s not what happened. The disc just died out. And then, when I tried to throw it further, it still didn’t travel far.

The point is that a golf disc performs very differently than an ultimate disc.

It’s not just the difference in how the discs work, though. There’s also the very different throwing styles that the two types of discs require.

I grew up throwing an ultimate disc. And what I learned back then was you needed lots of arm. Essentially, you tossed an ultimate disc on a steep hyzer (slanted) angle. And you threw it with a somewhat upward trajectory.

I can really throw a backhand with an ultimate disc. I can send it a long way, and on a fairly predictable, straight line.

But if I take that throwing motion, and attempt to do it with a disc golf disc, it won’t go very far.

The problem for me—and for many frisbee enthusiasts—is that we have a heavily ingrained throwing style from years of ultimate frisbee. When we try to shifting to disc golf, it’s hard to break the “muscle memory.” Essentially, we have to un-learn everything, and start all over.

It’s very frustrating, to have a solid ultimate frisbee throwing motion and find that it’s somewhat useless when it comes to disc golf. Even now, I often revert to a my decades-old approach of a low-to-high throwing motion and an innate hyzer angle.

Ultimate frisbee generally requires shorter, punchier throws. And even having a good game of catch with an ultimate disc still means lobbing/floating the disc—rather than using the whole body to hurl the disc.

In contrast, disc golf requires more of a full-body rotation. The power and stability comes from rotating the hips and legs, then moving forward and “unwinding” that rotation to develop power.

The unfortunate thing is that this kind of technique feels unnatural and awkward for an ultimate player. And when we get frustrated and try to “muscle” a throw, we often automatically revert to our old ultimate frisbee “arm throw.”

I’ve been working to adjust, to gradually make the change. But it’s a process...

If you’ve taken up disc golf recently, and always played ultimate frisbee, just know that it will take time to adapt.

Keep at it.