Top 4 reasons Ultimate Frisbee players have trouble with Disc Golf

[fish58320]

I would recommend that any ultimate player look up videos of Andrew Fish. He was a pretty high level ultimate player back in the day. I'm honestly not sure which he picked up first. In old videos he even does a little switch from forehand to backhand during his x step.

You can clearly see in his form that he still has some habits from playing so much ultimate, but he's pretty freaking good and rated 1020+, so I don't really see ultimate as a hindrance.

Aw, thanks! This is sweet.

Ultimate, like any other sport, gives a good baseline to start from in disc golf. But like baseball for forehands or tennis for overhands, there's obviously an adjustment. Having made the switch, and worked with several other regionals/nationals-level ultimate players who are learning to play disc golf, I empathize with the original video's problems identified. Even now, I'm working on a smooth reachback and finishing shots, especially forehands.

My usual "coaching" suggestions to ultimate players are:
1. Re-learn what "flat" means. "Flat" with an Ultrastar (slow, understable, glidey) is radically different from "flat" with disc golf-specific discs.
2. Pick the right discs. For me, this was/is flippy and straight midranges and fairway drivers. Don't be seduced by stability; learn to make discs do what you want by putting clean spin and power on them. This is, stated a different way, doing what you already know.
3. Learn the pacing of disc golf. It is infuriating how slow disc golf is. There is a ridiculous amount of time to think about your past mistakes and future objectives that quieting your mind is essential.
4. Be patient. You are an expert at throwing a specific disc for every shot. Now you need to learn to become an expert at throwing different discs for specific shots. That familiarity takes time.

Ultimate experienced a substantial growth about ten years ago in high school and youth leagues that resulted in a boom in the quality of college and club play. Don't be surprised if there is some fallout from that as retiring ultimate players pick up disc golf and have a really solid floor to start from, even if they haven't been playing for very long.

 

[biscoe]

Aw, thanks! This is sweet.

what happened to mullethead?

 

[fish58320]

what happened to mullethead?

Still exists.

 

[sidewinder22]

Still exists.

 

[Getty]

Ultimate experienced a substantial growth about ten years ago in high school and youth leagues that resulted in a boom in the quality of college and club play. Don't be surprised if there is some fallout from that as retiring ultimate players pick up disc golf and have a really solid floor to start from, even if they haven't been playing for very long.

I really miss being hacked up on the mark by BT every time I faked a throw...NOT!!

Yup, there's a few of us old Ultimate natties-level dudes who've taken up DG quite seriously. For whatever weird reason I had way more success throwing pinpoint passes to a streaking teammate for goals while having someone in my face trying to make sure that didn't happen than I do throwing unmarked to a basket just standing there 250 feet away.

 

[Disc Golf Doctor]

Everyone I know or know of who plays Ultimate and DG is a good golfer...soooooo?

I too started with years of ultimate. Like I said earlier in the thread, I am not saying that Ultimate players don't make good DGers. I am saying that there are a few habits that tend to hold them back from being even better. I have experience overcoming these and see them often in my friends who are learning the sport coming from an Ultimate background. Soooo?

 

[Grippenripp]

I too started with years of ultimate. Like I said earlier in the thread, I am not saying that Ultimate players don't make good DGers. I am saying that there are a few habits that tend to hold them back from being even better. I have experience overcoming these and see them often in my friends who are learning the sport coming from an Ultimate background. Soooo?

Well I am not and was never an ultimate player and cant attest to any of that. What O do know is the guys O have met with an ultimate background are amazingly smooth and .ake great shots look effortless.

 

[sky.]

Not to thread jack, but what would some advice be for an experienced disc golfer who wants to try ultimate just to mix it up and maybe have fun getting some cardio?

 

[Therealgoat]

Not to thread jack, but what would some advice be for an experienced disc golfer who wants to try ultimate just to mix it up and maybe have fun getting some cardio?

Staying with DG - mainly due to either squeezing in a round while the wife was home with our kid, or when I'm on a work trip and have only an hour before I need to head back to the airport - I've enjoyed some "cardio" rounds of DG in the past 5 years. Take what you can carry, a few discs and a water, and jog between every shot. Get a full round in amazingly quickly and an hour of exercise to boot.

Caution: if the course is crowded, this doesn't work very well unless the timing of catching and playing through groups is lucky.

 

[biscoe]

Not to thread jack, but what would some advice be for an experienced disc golfer who wants to try ultimate just to mix it up and maybe have fun getting some cardio?

Since you live in Eugene you should have no problem finding a game- I would start with checking for local FB groups.

 

[Disc Golf Doctor]

Not to thread jack, but what would some advice be for an experienced disc golfer who wants to try ultimate just to mix it up and maybe have fun getting some cardio?

I agree with Therealgoat. That is how I play the majority of my rounds. It is actually what got me to try DG out in the first place. I had the frisbee background and wanted a form of exercise. I started throwing only forehands, playing with a single disc, and running. Didn't even get my first putter for over a year after that. I still try to fit in rounds throughout the week by running with a handful of discs.
If you do really want to get into Ultimate for exercise, there are a lot of pickup groups out there. I would practice with either an actually Ultimate disc or a very understable putter.

 

[armiller]

Not to thread jack, but what would some advice be for an experienced disc golfer who wants to try ultimate just to mix it up and maybe have fun getting some cardio?

Agree with all the other suggestions I suppose. My only caution is that the grip on an Ultrastar is so different that you have to adjust. But I feel that an Ultrastar (or probably any ultimate disc) is even better than a Comet for pointing out form issues. As I've made improvements in disc golf form, I've noticed improvements in my ultimate throws, on returning to ultimate. We also talk about putter catch, but ultimate catch is great. Practice forehand and backhand, and don't forget to try some hammers (tomahawks) and other throws.

DG speed rounds are one thing, but I doubt you'll ever get quite the cardio workout you'd get from a competitive ultimate round.

 

[Suspect]

I see people using 2 discs and basically jogging to each shot. I let em go through. Ultimate is like soccer.....tons of running. I think you'll maybe gain strength in the legs if you visit courses with hills. Stretching out if you are in the "rough" on left or right will make you learn and help.

 

[Casey 1988]

Funny thing is I have seen what was probably an Ultimate player using only 3 discs, a Condor, a Zephyr, and a either a Wham-O fastback or a Sonic. The two group, one had just a Condor and Zephyr the other all three and they played though my 3 person group, we let them because they were not listening to us telling them to stop for a second so we could get out of the way they just played around us as if we were obstacles on the course as we were stopped for putting.

 

[Smigles]

Main problem is that you throw the ultimate disc with hardly any arm speed. Its all wrist snap. They need to learn to get the back, legs, hip into the shot.

Second problem is the understable ultimate disc, you mainly throw it nose up and airbounce and release it on hyzer. That combined with the low power will give you tons of 150 foot noob hyzers when you first try drivers.