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Beginner’s guide to Shot Shaping | Disc Golf Tips



What does it mean to shape your shots? In this video you will begin to understand the importance of knowing how your discs fly in order to shpae the type of flight you want out of them. I will talk about the three basic types of discs… Overstable, Stable (Also Flat or Neutral – Straight), and Understable. Now don’t get hung up on any terminology… that will come in time. Just understand what the discs are trying to do and how that can help you make shots that go beyond the basics.

*Editors note: I picked a bad day to film out at George Ward in Birmingham. So many noises, people and distractions. Sharp eyed viewers will spot my attempt to mask out the guy who decided to walk his dog right behind me… let’s just say, it was one of those days. As such, my edits and points I am trying to make are a little clunky, so please ask me to clarify anything in the comments.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:25 What is shot shaping?
01:48 throwing each disc
02:39 Stable or Neutral/Flat discs
06:16 Overstable discs
08:38 Understable discs
10:52 Anhyzer shots with each disc
11:21 Conclusion

Hey folks I’m Pete Collins and today I’m going to talk to you about shot shaping and what it’s all about and why you might want to add some extra shots to your bag we’re going to talk all about it right after the Intro okay real quick shot shaping what is it it really is taking your disc that you have and making them fly maybe a little bit different from their natural tendency for instance I have an axm pyro here which is overstable so if I throw a right-handed backhand and throw it flat

It’s going to want to dive to the left it’s overstable then I have an axium hex that if I throw it backhand straight flat it’s going to want to travel mostly straight at the basket it’s going to fly nice and straight and then I have an MVP

Uplink if I throw it flat it’s going to go out and it’s going to want to turn to the right now everything I’m going to talk about I’m going to talk about from a right-handed backhand throw but this applies to forehand as well you’re just switching to the other side of the body

You don’t need a forehand disc and a backhand disc any disc can be used for either one of these now some tend to operate a little bit better for your type of throw but you could use this pyro for both a backhand and a forehand just like you could use the Uplink the

Same way backhand and forehand so I’m going to discuss just simply a a right-handed backand but you can now flip that in your mind if you’re left-handed or if you’re throwing forehand it works the same way the principle is the same once you understand the characteristics of the

Disc you can then start to shape the shots that you need uh with the knowledge of how the disc is going to react okay so now I’m going to demonstrate and I’m not going to try to crush these but I’m just going to throw these nice and flat right out

There straight to the basket and then fade off to the left now the hex straight straight straight now the Uplink I thre that a little like this but pretty flat you get the idea it’s going to turn back to the right all right let’s break them down

One disc at a time now just I’m just using these discs as examples so whatever dis you have once you understand what they want to do you can start to shape different shots with it so I’m going to start with the hex because it’s the most neutral basically

If I throw it flat it’s for the most part going to fly pretty flat now because I’m a right-handed thrower the spin of the disc is going to want it as it finishes it’s going to want to naturally pull it a little to the left so straight Flyers will go pretty

Straight but often they will end a little bit to the left unless you go with something like the Uplink that’s going to want to pull it over even farther to the right but so we’re just going to use this one as a neutral example and so what that means is it’s

Great that I can put it on any line like I can throw it flat or if I throw it like this on angle it should just hold that angle and not do a lot of maneuvering around that’s both good and bad let’s say I want to go around

Something but I actually acally tweak it over a little too much what’s going to happen is it’s not going to fight back to the left it’s just going to curl over die maybe turn into a roller great if you want a roller but if that’s not what

You’re planning that can be death to you so understanding that the neutral disc is pretty much going to fly how you put it online so that means you’ve got to have good disc control out of your hand so that you can make sure that you’ve got it right online with what you need

To do same thing on a forehand if I do that I’m going to need to make sure I throw it nice and flat or whatever angle I’m going to put it on it’s not going to do a lot of maneuvering around that’s a great dis to start to learn to shape

Shots because you now have to be precise with your throws to get where they need to go sometimes when you use other discs they can kind of mistake or mask your mistakes by just their stability or what they’re doing you don’t really know how well and how crisp you’re throwing when

You throw a neutral disc it’s really if you throw a bad shot it’s usually up to you oh one more thing when we’re talking about these things sometimes you can get the same or similar flight from a couple different discs but you would choose one over the other based on the Wind because

Right now we’ve got a little bit of a tailwind and so that means if I’m throwing something that’s stable it’s going to want to be a little more stable so I might need to not need that much stability so I might need to throw something more neutral or understable

Just to counteract the wind wind wanting to drop it off to the left conversely let’s say we’ve got a headwind if I’m throwing the Uplink which wants to flip over into the wind it’s really going to want to flip over the wind’s going to take it and want to pull it over so

That’s when I may need to throw something neutral that’s going to actually flip over a little because of the wind or something more stable that’s going to fight that wind and hold it longer and not get turned over so that’s why understanding your disc is really

Going to make a difference in and the shot selection the shot shape you make okay so now I’ve got the hex here it’s nice and neutral let’s say I want to get to that basket but I want to get around a tree but I want it to land soft okay

If I had my pyro I know I could throw it around here and that it would naturally curl back a little bit because of the stability so I could throw it a little lower and Trust the stability to get it over there with the hex I’ve got to put

All the touch and control on it so I’m going to need to throw a little higher so that it gets time to get up and starts to flatten out and just plop at the basket it’s a much touchier shot but if you can Master it you can really get

Some great runs at the basket without having to Bomb by it so understanding what a neutral disc does is a great base to start shaping some different shots now let’s talk about a little more stable disc and this is where a lot of people go especially uh a lot of people

Are learning to play the disc golf using forehand and a stable disc will handle forehand better than an understable disc or even a a flat disc uh you learn how to kind of give it that snap and get that curve uh and so it’s a really important disc especially when you need

To get around stuff so what I was saying earlier you know a lot of times you just need to go up and around and dive back to the left for instance if I needed to really go around the corner and not go super far I would just pull out my

Stable disc throw it up nice and easy like this and let the disc just naturally pull over there but remember I said there’s also the opportunity to throw some anheiser shots that are going to go up and then they’re going to float out and they’re going to

Start driving down towards the basket we call it carryer pushing down the line now depending on how stable it is if it’s super stable you could throw it over like this and in no time it’s already turned and cut back this way that’s when you’re in a say a wooded

Area you got to get around one tree and then you got to get around another tree you need need to make an S curve that’s where these come in really handy is something overstable even more stable than this that you can throw around one tree and then let the natural stability shape the

Shot back and curl around the second tree and get over to the left whereas you have no shots Straight Ahead you’ve got to use some stability to be able to maneuver the disc now here’s the other thing that you might not think about with a stable disc like this let’s say I

Have a tunnel shot it’s something low that I need to get straight for a little while and get out but I still need some power to get through it that’s where if you can take a stable disc like this overstable disc like this and throw it

Low on a little bit of anheiser what’s going to happen is that initial speed is going to keep it on a nice straight line hopefully for the length you need it down the tunnel and then kind of straighten up and help push you down the

Line a little bit more if you have a flat disc or a understable disc if you try to put that power on it you’re probably going to roll it over and burn it into the ground so a lot of times that stability is going to help you hug

The ground and keep it off the ground instead of burning into the ground so just another way that you need to kind of be aware of what can happen with a stable disc and finally we get to the unsung hero of my bag I love understable disc

And a lot of people don’t really take advantage of them because they use a lot of overstable disc and maybe some flat discs but they use the overstable disc for their back hands and then if they need to go the other way they use them for their forehands but if you have to

Play in the woods or you have to make specific tight shots the understable disc is your friend because what happens is along with just throwing it regular flat and letting it pull over to the right you also have the ability to do what’s called the heer flip and what

That means is when I throw it if I throw it down here like this because remember this disc wants to turn over like this if I throw it like this it’s going to pull up and if I throw it right it’s going to pull up to flat and then

Because it’s fighting going this way because it wants to go that way it’s just going to hold straight and go nice and straight long down a tunnel you’ll see this a lot in the woods these uh Pros will come up and they’ll throw something like this and it’ll just pop

Up and ride right down the tunnel for a long way and doesn’t crash off to the left cuz remember an understable disc is trying to pull to the right even though the spin is trying to pull it to the left that tension actually allows it to to fly straighter longer

Um and so the other option the other thing with it is that people forget is once again throwing around something and then letting it push farther down if I put this on enough Edge on Heiser I can get it to still go hard to the left but

If I throw it a little bit less I can get it to go up around it’s going to carry around but then it that flip up is going to pull it up and get it to sail farther down so so often we misjudge that we think we need to use a stable

When we really could use an understable disc and get a little more movement out of it I think the understable disc has most the most shot Potentials in it just because of all the things you can do to flex it around because you’re working with both the right and the left

Attitude of it uh it really is a great disc to start working on so that you can shape some amazing shots so that’s just a quick overview of kind of shaping shots but I think the more you understand about what you can do with your disc the better player you’re

Going to be that’s our our getting started with understanding shot shaping thank you so much hope this was helpful for you if it was please make sure to like And subscribe and I hope to see you out on the course

4 Comments

  1. I understand a lot of concepts already but your shot shaping experience is very valuable. Good nuggets of knowledge Pete!

  2. Well done, Pete. I’m a beginner and admit I’ve been lazy about learning the dynamics of the different discs. You made it easy to understand, thanks so much.

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