Out of the thousands of discs available for a person to use, many people find it hard to find what the correct disc for them is. Personally I do not think there is a single disc for one person. I believe that there are perfect discs for perfect situations. Today I want to go over the different flight characteristics of discs using the Innova flight characteristics scale. Different disc manufacturers have different scales on which they base their discs off of. Innova is simple enough to understand and divides the flight characteristics into four categories: Speed, Glide, Turn, Fade.
Speed: This is how the disc flies through the air. With a higher speed, the disc will gain more distance through the air with the same amount of force than a lower speed disc. For a beginner, I would recommend having a few discs with various speeds. One driver with a high speed rating such as 10 or 11, a mid range disc with a speed of 4 or 5 (most mid range discs have a speed of 4 or 5 so speed is not the largest factor when it comes to shorter range discs.), and a putter with a low speed no higher than 2. The reason for the low speed in putters is because as a beginner it will be hard to find a solid form for putting. Putting may be difficult at first, so a disc with less speed has less chance of blowing by the hole and adding frustrating strokes to a score. Innova speed range (1-14)
Glide: I like to look at glide as hangtime for the disc. Faster disc DO NOT inherently have more glide than slower discs. A high amount of Glide is valuable you want to shoot over terrain that is undesirable. Say you need to shoot over a 150 feet pond in length. If the pond was 15 feet in front of you, a disc with a lot of speed would be the obvious choice. However if the pond is 100 feet in front of you, you would want a disc that will hang up in the air long enough to carry over the pond. Innova recommends discs with a lot of glide for beginners because the glide will add distance to your drives. Personally, I use discs with a lot of glide because I like the flight pattern and the straight line discs with high glide tend to hold. As soon as you have a throwing rhythm you like, then I would recommend finding a disc with a good amount of glide that fits your playing style. Innova glide range (1-7)
Turn: Conceptually I believe this concept is the hardest for beginners. Turn is the tendency of the disc to go against its natural flight pattern. There are high speed turn and low speed turn (the difference being high speed occurs right after the disc is thrown and low speed occurs after the disc has lost velocity and is attempting to land). For this post, we will not distinguish between the two. The real question is what is the natural flight pattern of the disc you are using? there are two factors that determine this: How the disc is made and how you throw it. Some discs are made to turn more than others. Just like some clubs in ball golf are made to put more spin on the ball than others. How you throw the disc determines which way the disc will finish when it loses its spin and speed. For example, if you throw backhanded with your right hand (RHBH) or forehanded with your left hand (FHLH) the disc will naturally tail to the left when it is finished. If you throw backhanded with your left hand (LHBH) or throw forehanded with your right hand (FHRH) the disc will finish to the right. A lower turn score means the disc is more likely to turn. This is better for beginners because it will help them gain distance while they are learning how to put more spin on the disc (spin will keep the disc straight). Innova turn scale (-5 to +1)
Fade: This stat determines how hard the disc will finish in its natural direction. Innova refers to fade as how hard the disc will hook when it begins to lose speed and starts to land. Fade can be helpful if you have a dog leg on a hole and you need to curve your disc to get towards the hole. A high amount of fade will balance out a high turn number (even though there are not many discs that are high in both stats). For a beginner I would recommend a disc with as little fade as possible. It will be easier to learn to throw as well as gain more distance by staying straighter. Innova Fade range (0-5)
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