The Best Disc Golf Drills for Form, Organized by Fault

Drill lists are everywhere, and most of them miss the first step: knowing what you are fixing. A drill for rounding does nothing for a weak brace. This guide organizes disc golf drills by fault, tells you what each fault looks like on video, and gives you a drill or two that targets it.

Directions assume a right-handed backhand (RHBH) unless noted. Mirror them for left-handed throws.

First, find your fault on video

Before choosing drills, film three to five throws from the same spot. Side-on shows weight shift, plant timing, posture and the brace. From behind, looking down the target line, shows rounding and where the disc leaves your hand. How to film your disc golf throw for form analysis has the full setup.

Then use this table to match what you see to a drill.

Fault	What the video shows	Best angle	Drills
Rounding	Disc swings wide of the chest on a curved pull	Behind or front	Pause-at-the-pocket, line reach-back
Early release	Disc leaves the hand right of your line	Behind	Slow release reps, target-line throws
Nose up	Disc climbs, stalls and drops left	Side-on (flight)	Level-wrist pull, nose-down putter throws
Weak front-side brace	Body keeps sliding forward past the plant foot	Side-on	Plant-and-stop throws, posted-up finishes
Timing (plant, hips)	Arm fires before the plant or before the hips turn	Side-on	Standstill throws, step-and-hold
Forehand elbow and lag	Elbow flares away from the body; disc pushed with no lag	Front or behind	Elbow-close flicks, wall-side reps

Full disclosure: I build Disc Golf Form Analyzer. The drills below are written so you can use them with any phone camera.

How to run any drill

A few rules make every drill work better.

1. One fault at a time. Two fixes at once usually means neither sticks.
2. Low power first. Do the drill at an effort where the shape holds. Add speed only when it does.
3. Body cue to learn, outside cue to keep. Research on attention suggests that focusing on the effect of a movement generally helps learning more than focusing on the body (Wulf 2013). Learn the drill with "elbow leads," then throw with "pull the disc along the rope."
4. Review video in batches. Feedback after every rep can make you depend on it (Anderson et al. 2005). Film a set, watch it at the end.

Drills for rounding

Rounding is when the arm swings out and around your body instead of pulling the disc close across your chest. How to stop rounding your backhand covers the causes in detail.

Pause-at-the-pocket

Without releasing the disc, move from the reach-back to the point where the disc passes your chest and freeze. Check: disc close to your body, elbow bent and leading toward the target. Hold for a second, then extend toward the target. After a set of dry reps, do the same motion without the pause and throw short shots.

Line reach-back

Lay a rope, stick or row of discs on the ground along your target line. Reach back so the disc travels back over that line, letting your shoulders turn, and pull forward along the same line. This fixes the wide reach-back that often causes a rounded pull.

Drills for early release

An early release on RHBH sends the disc right of your line. It often comes from the arm starting before the body, from rounding, or from gripping too loosely so the disc slips out. Coaches widely treat grip pressure and grip lock as causes, but that is coaching consensus rather than measured research.

Slow release reps

Throw at about half power toward a clear target, such as a basket or a tree trunk, and focus only on the disc leaving your hand pointed at it. Make the hand finish toward the target. Speed comes later.

Target-line throws

Set two markers a few feet apart, a few steps in front of you, forming a gate on your line. Throw low, flat shots through the gate. The gate gives you an outside cue that rewards releasing on line instead of early.

Drills for nose up

A nose-up release makes the disc climb, stall and fade left early, and it costs distance. A phone camera can't measure nose angle to the degree, so judge this one mostly by the flight and how the disc sits in your hand.

Level-wrist pull

From the reach-back, pull through slowly while keeping the top of your wrist level and the disc flat, with your thumb on top pressing slightly down. Do dry reps first, then short throws, and watch whether the disc flies flat.

Nose-down putter throws

Throw a putter at a short distance with the goal of a low, flat line that lands flat and rolls little. A disc that climbs and stalls tells you the nose came up. Nose up, off-axis torque and early release explains how these three faults are linked.

Drills for a weak front-side brace

The brace is the front leg firming up at the plant so your hips and chest can turn against it. Without it, the body slides forward and the arm takes over. Hips, brace and weight shift has more on why it matters.

Plant-and-stop throws

Throw at half power and try to stop over your front foot, balanced, without stumbling past it. Your body should turn on top of the front leg, not drift forward.

Posted-up finishes

After each throw, hold your finish for two seconds on your front leg. If you can't, the brace or the balance before it was off. It is simple, but it gives you instant feedback without a camera.

Drills for timing

Timing faults are about order: the plant happening too early or late, or the arm firing before the hips turn. They are the hardest to feel and the easiest to see from the side.

Standstill throws

Remove the run-up completely. From a standstill, start the forward move with weight shift onto the front foot and a hip turn, and don't let the arm move until the hips have started. If timing is clean from a standstill but breaks with a run-up, the footwork is the issue. See standstill vs x-step.

Step-and-hold

Take one step into your throwing position, plant, and pause with the disc in the reach-back. Then throw from that position. The pause separates the plant from the throw so you can feel that the plant comes first.

Drills for the forehand

The forehand has its own faults, most commonly the elbow flaring away from the body (often called the chicken wing) and pushing the disc with no wrist lag. Disc golf forehand basics covers the mechanics, and how to fix a forehand chicken wing goes deeper on the elbow.

Elbow-close flicks

Hold a putter or midrange in a forehand grip with your elbow tucked near your side. Make short, wrist-driven flicks at short range, keeping the elbow close. The goal is spin from the wrist and forearm rather than a big arm swing.

Wall-side reps

Stand with your throwing side next to a wall or fence, leaving a little space. Make slow, dry forehand motions without touching it. The wall keeps the elbow from swinging out and gives you an outside reference.

Checking whether a drill is working

A drill is working when the fault appears less on video, not when it feels different. Film a check set from the same spot every two weeks, with the same disc and effort, and compare it with the previous one.

Comparing two clips filmed on different days is easier in 3D. With 3D form analysis, each throw becomes a 3D body you can turn to any angle, including straight down from above, with a hand trail that draws your pull path. Put an old throw next to a new one, synced at release, and see whether the pull got tighter or the brace got firmer.

To fit drills into a full week alongside field work and putting, see the disc golf practice plan. If you are just starting, the disc golf backhand for beginners gives you the basic shape these drills refine.