Disc Golf Beginner Tip: “Miss Right”

The beginner tip to disc golfers of “miss right” is applied to Right Handed Back Hand (RHBH) players, and can be used as “miss left” for the opposite handed player. “Miss right” is a simple phrase I coined when I first began playing, and one that I still use to this day to encourage players to snap their wrist at release. “Miss right” may not be the best technical advice, and we understand that, but it encourages players to do whatever it takes to turn their disc over, and gain distance through greater disc rotation.

The Wolf is an understable mid-range in DX plastic that helps beginners move the disc to the right with proper snap.

In a nutshell, “miss right” means don’t miss left. So many RHBH players grab drivers when they begin, throw with their entire arm and wonder why the disc breaks hard to the left. Besides that fact that they probably shouldn’t be throwing a driver this early in their disc golf career, the reason it breaks hard left is because it takes a tremendous amount of wrist snap to give the disc the amount of spin it needs to fly straight — eventually breaking left when it begins to slow down.

After starting my disc golf career with a Valkyrie, I eventually moved down to a Roc and started saying “miss right” just before I threw. “Miss right” allowed me to get in the frame of mind that I would do whatever it took to NOT lose it left. If the disc immediately flipped over and rolled out, at least I didn’t miss left. Eventually I would hone “miss right” down to a reasonable level so I wasn’t throwing rollers all day every day, but it did help me to really focus on snapping my wrist. The more “snap” I put on the disc, the faster the disc rotated — meaning it would be more prone to move to the right (for RHBH) before eventually breaking back to the left at the end of its flight.

Getting a disc to move to the right (for RHBH) means increased distance. As you grow within the sport, you will learn all the associated flight patterns of your discs, but the rough rule of the thumb is that it will start out straight, move a little right and gain distance before breaking back to the left when the disc slows down. Many beginners believe that the disc breaking hard left is just an inevitability of the game as they continue to throw monstrous hyzer lines into the basket. While “miss right” is definitely not applicable on every shot, it has helped us get players to understand that they need to put a tremendous amount of snap on the disc for it to reach its desired line of flight.

Brian explains the flight angle of the disc and how “miss right” can not only be beneficial to your game, but provide some comical shots as well.

For those of you who know disc golf techniques well, this article may not be for you, but it may be something you use on your beginner friends. Obviously if they hold a putter in their hand, there needs to be less emphasis on “miss right” than if they have a driver, but the principle still applies. I use this example because I have been with friends who get some pumped up to “miss right” that they literally put all their might into throwing a putter directly into the ground right off the tee.

While there is endless advice for disc golf technique, “miss right” is more of a mental check than anything. Some beginners understand what it takes to achieve increased distance through throwing the disc on its intended flight pattern, but many just throw swooping hyzers that never exceed 150’ off the tee. While “miss right” may not apply to one person, it could send another player’s game to a whole new level as they needed that extra “boost” to their throw just before release. I, personally, always needed a little extra pick me on the course — I’m rather mellow and even keeled when I play, so “miss right” really fired me up to understand what I needed to do to get the disc to turn over and avoid repeating the phrase, “why does my disc always break to the left?”