Control Grip for Distance?

I throw my discs with two fingers under the rim and average about 325 ft. I've seen alot of big arms put all four fingers under the rim and just crank it. Do you need to use all four fingers to gain maximum distance?

[[e-mail]]

I can't tell if this is a LOST or a FOUND?

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

It's all relative to your ability and your comfort zone....however....backhand...you should have all your fingers under the disc..Your grip should be strong enough...whereas nobody should be able to easily pull the disc from your hand.

[mark ellis]

Not necessarily. Everyone has hands of different size, shape and strength. Scott Stokely set several world distance records and he used a pinch grip (sometimes called a fan grip) with no fingers curled under the rim.

While you should try every grip, eventually you need to find what works best for you.

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

True that.....it's about what your comfortable doing....building off your strengths

Personally...I don't really curl my fingers up tight to the rim...mine are flatter...middle is pinching against the fat part of my palm at the base of my thumb....thumb is positioned back from the edge about 2 inches for my power grip.

If I'm throwing a turn over touch shot...or I should say if I want to lead the disc over early in it's flight..I'll position my thumb closer to the edge...release point is definitely higher.

An example of what Marks saying.....

Today I played with some newer players...one has been playing about 6 months the other was playing like...her 5th round ever..both have incredible ability all ready. We talked about some grip things...A couple of mental pointers, concentration & line pictures....and of course I instructed them to check out Marks videos.


Anyway the guy who is learning RHFH as his primary throw...is also learning both right and left handed backhands...His LHBH is good up to about 250+...his RHBH is sick....when he hits one just right.Today with a 2 finger pinch style grip....he blew past a 338 foot hole by 30 with a 175 Star Boss. That's what he's working on building off that snap...that comfort level. His RHFH is already pushing 400+


If you can snap like that...adding that kinda spin....the disc will sail for ya!!


Of course using Stokely is an extreme example of a pinch grip snap....at a foot over the rest of the field...knuckles draggin.....j/k.....probably genetically engineered in the secret Discraft labs...lmao....Scott could likely 'bottle cap' snap a disc and be competitive.



I helped Diane, I believe was her name, out with her grip a bit...she had 2 fingers curled up under the edge of the rim for a forehand shot...I showed her my grip for a forehand shot....two fingers straightened flat under the dome of the disc up against the rim (middle and fore finger) pinching the disc between those digits and her thumb....she was comfortable doing that and it added 50 feet to her drive.

[Steve]

4 fingers for max distance, thats it. Period.

[Tony Colombo]

It sound like your talking about forehand, and I typically use two fingers when throwing forehand.
Backhand, I use many different grips depending on the situation and disc. The Power Grip (all four finger pads on the disc) for drives, Fork Grip ( three finger pads on the disc, ring finger stacked on top of pinkie), this grip is good for more accurate drives, and finally I use the Fan Grip for approaches and putts.

These work for me.
I recommend looking up different grips, experiment with them, and find what works for you.

[Chris Hernandez]

Sorry for the confusion, I do throw backhand and thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Donny Olow]

Four fingers tight to the underside of the rim with thumb on top edge.

[Ian Macpherson]

I haven't seen any really big backhand arms throwing with much besides a power grip although Climo supposedly uses the fork for every single shot..

[mike p. kurtz]

yes, think so, in fact i use a four finger grip for all my throws. it puts more spin on the disc. you gotta "spin to win",.
BUT, i can't throw it 325 so you tell me

[Tha Big Hamm]

I will assure you that you will sacrifice control if you put the rest of your fingers under there man. The reason i say that is because if you are throwing 325 with that control grip, you MIGHT get to 400 with power but not at all easy to switch and maintain consistency. If you want to use it for distance contests fine, but otherwise keep practicing that control drive. With your current distance, your an animal already. If your control sucks, change the whole thing to power. I doubt thats the case though.

[AK Discer]

Like a lot of people have said it is about comfort and that a lot of us are made different. Recently this summer during the Alaska State Disc Golf Championship we were graced with the great Feldberg. He put on some clinics like he teaches at U of Oregon and he was giving tips on D for driving. He was just messing around and used one finger and bombed the disc nearly 400' w/o effort (at least it looked that way). Most people I've seen do use 4 fingers (I do), but really...try them all and see what works best for you. All things new seem awkward at first, but that goes away with some time and practice. Just give everything a best effort and see where it takes you...if nothing else, you'll learn something from it and be better for it.