Teaching a child how to throw

[Dingus]

Online learning makes me the gym teacher, and unit 1 is disc golf! My goal is to teach driving, putting, and then play a full round. Anyone have experience actually teaching kids to play disc golf? I want to teach them some actual form and good habits, not just encourage enough interest to muddle through a round.

Specifically for the younger kids, it seems like a traditional squared putting stance is very hard to work with. Any tips on putting? I would like some way to teach putting that will maybe carry forward as she grows.

For reference I have a girl in elementary school.

 

[pearlybakerbest]

I have helped my daughter learn and while she is great at driving, putting frustrates her with the lightweight mid she throws, as she has to use a regular style throw to putt such a large disc for her hands. To fix this I got her a mini jawbreaker challenger to putt with and that has made it more enjoyable for her. To start we just worked on throwing and slowly added putting by itself before merging the two for a course like experience. I can get her to play about 3 or 4 holes before she gets bored and wants to do something else, but she is only 4 and the course is in our backyard, so she has many activities close at hand to distract her.

 

[nothinbuttree]

I have tried to bring 4 of my kids into the game. Maintaining interest and a love of the game is key for them. Two have been won over and are constantly asking to play. The other two, not so much. They have to like playing, and I have noted that spending too much time worrying about things WE worry about can zap that fun. That tree hit made a neat sound. Wow--look at the scrape/dent you put in it that time. Stuff like that. Keeps them encouraged. Standstill is all I let any of my kids do. Too many moving parts in an X-step. Best to get consistency going straight first.

And 18 holes is a long round when someone is throwing 90-100+ times. I've played Idlewild, I know. Try 9 at a time at most, or just casual few holes here and there. Keeping score can be discouraging. Sometimes I just count 'good throws' and see how high they can go.

My 9 year old quickly took to sidearm style, so don't limit their style to your primary one.

Putting is hard for some reason for kids (mine anyway). I have tried many times to show them different ways to do it, they never seem to take. I think spin putting is likely easier, though I am not great at it--I am push/hybrid putter. Honestly, standing more sideways and having the putt be a quasi-throw/putt may be best once outside of 15-20' if they are real young.

We just have to remember they have a lot less power, on every type of throw. I did just get some 110g rocs, my 7 year old threw it farther than even the 150g stuff I had been using. Light is good for little muscles.

Good luck!

 

[Dingus]

To start we just worked on throwing and slowly added putting by itself before merging the two for a course like experience.

Day 1 of gym class just ended. I opted for the exact opposite; I started her putting very close and then moved her out slowly. Soon enough she was pitching it in from 50' and we played a little game seeing how many 2's she could get from that range. A weird thing I noticed was that the weight shift was far easier to teach on a short putt and it actually carried over fairly well to the longer throw. 50' was pretty much the max controllable D for today, tried stretching to 75' and it didn't take at all.

I think I may do the same exact every gym class until she is comfortable throwing inside C1 from 100'. Still looking for any other helpful thoughts :thmbup:

 

[Monocacy]

Based on my brother's kids, my only contribution is this: The fact that a kid is facing one direction does NOT mean that the disc will not fly at high speed 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

Protect yourself accordingly lol

 

[Dingus]

My 9 year old quickly took to sidearm style, so don't limit their style to your primary one.

Yeah I need to follow this. I am teaching her backhand because I suck at forehand, but I should at least see if she has a natural forehand ability first.

 

[pearlybakerbest]

Day 1 of gym class just ended. I opted for the exact opposite; I started her putting very close and then moved her out slowly. Soon enough she was pitching it in from 50' and we played a little game seeing how many 2's she could get from that range. A weird thing I noticed was that the weight shift was far easier to teach on a short putt and it actually carried over fairly well to the longer throw. 50' was pretty much the max controllable D for today, tried stretching to 75' and it didn't take at all.

I think I may do the same exact every gym class until she is comfortable throwing inside C1 from 100'. Still looking for any other helpful thoughts :thmbup:

I'm not sure how big your daughter is, but lightweight discs are key for good distance with such small levers. My girl throws a 127g optimizer, which is pretty much a roc knockoff. It was really surprising to me how easy it was for her to get weight shift; I imagine since kids haven't learned to strong arm things yet with their nonexistent muscles it comes more naturally than adults. She is left handed and can crush it 50ish' RHBH because she learned imitating my throw. If she can learn so easily with her off hand I think the potential for throwing both ways has to be there long term. She has already started to throw LHFH as well, next step is to get a lefty over to play so she can see how backhand is done with her dominant hand.

 

[Dingus]

I'm not sure how big your daughter is, but lightweight discs are key for good distance with such small levers.

I have a couple lighter discs around that I have had her throw randomly. Today I just did my gigantic stack of backyard putters. It surprised me that she was getting better spin on the max weight putters than she usually does with the lighter weights. it was deffinitely distance limiting, but seemed to build better form. Then again I never had her doing reps with a stack of 100g drivers before so who knows opcorn:

 

[nothinbuttree]

Yeah I need to follow this. I am teaching her backhand because I suck at forehand, but I should at least see if she has a natural forehand ability first.

The funny thing is I never showed him that. He just...did it. I rarely threw sidearms when he first started coming out.

My 4 year old bless his heart does some weird sidearm with his fingers on top. I've tried 10 times to show him a more normal style. He only wants to drive (30' or so) and putt (3' or so). But he has fun...

 

[Gaprofitt]

Three words for under 10 - Latitude Opto Pearl

 

[acrosley]

So my friend asked me to do a little hour long basics of disc golf class for around 20 kids in his home-school co-op. I'm assuming they'll be around grade school age.

I was going to just bring in my basket and a bunch of putters and do a little demo on "proper" (do as I say not as I do) backhand mechanics and putting then let them all throw/putt. Anyone got other ideas or games I could maybe incorporate? Ring of fire might be fun but could be a little dicey with 20 kids

 

[Sheep]

So my friend asked me to do a little hour long basics of disc golf class for around 20 kids in his home-school co-op. I'm assuming they'll be around grade school age.

I was going to just bring in my basket and a bunch of putters and do a little demo on "proper" (do as I say not as I do) backhand mechanics and putting then let them all throw/putt. Anyone got other ideas or games I could maybe incorporate? Ring of fire might be fun but could be a little dicey with 20 kids

This is like the level of scary that is cool.

Cause if you got engineer brain like me, you want everyone to do it right and good and proper.

You're gonna demo the basics of say... a stand still throw and have them give it a try.
And its going to be NOTHING like what you just showed them and if you got a brain like mine, it screams and goes AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

But you cant do that.

Kids are interesting, because I kind of help one that is 12/13 right now, but he throws mainly forehand. But he doesn't really ask for more advice. he Just kinda doing okay on his own. I dont' want to over burden him with instruction so he continues to enjoy the game.


If you had 2 baskets, you could split them into 2 teams and do a putt off, where they are competing to see which team can get all their putters in the basket.

 

[BillFleming]

So my friend asked me to do a little hour long basics of disc golf class for around 20 kids in his home-school co-op. I'm assuming they'll be around grade school age.

I was going to just bring in my basket and a bunch of putters and do a little demo on "proper" (do as I say not as I do) backhand mechanics and putting then let them all throw/putt. Anyone got other ideas or games I could maybe incorporate? Ring of fire might be fun but could be a little dicey with 20 kids

Wow, 20 kids. Not sure how to handle that many....but here's my experience with my grandkids.

I gave them a disc and we went to a practice basket. I said the object is to throw the disc into the basket. And I let them try from 5 feet. When they were making that, we moved back a few feet. We stopped at 10 feet. While they moved back, if their putts were off, I gave them advice - like where to aim, make sure they are releasing the disc the same way - level, hyzer, anny, whatever they do. Basically, I let them find their own putting style and just helped with the aiming part.

If possible, find some light weight putters for them. My local shop has 122 gram discs, not PDGA legal but for kids that really doesn't matter right away. My grandkids found it was easier to putt/play with the lighter discs.