Back Hand VS Fore Hand

[kprestel]

I am new to the sport (4-5 Months) and I am flustered. I have been ball golfing for 16 years (Started when I was 5) so I got that down, I am good at it and not being good at this is frustrating. I know its early very very early. But thats not the point of this post.

Today I finally gave up on my back hand drives, They go to high and hyzer out. When I catch it right I can throw close to 350. But Ive lost to many discs and its to inconsistent.

So I went to the fore hand and I must say I am doing much better with it. Is it a mistake to abandon the backhand drive? I can throw backhand approaches but is it a mistake to ditch it to early?

[Itchy]

It's best to be able to do both. I really try to avoid forehand drives because something must be wrong with my form... I get terrible pain in my elbow if I do it on every hole.

[fore]

Most beginners (especially kids) become proficient throwing forehand more quickly than backhand because it's more of a natural throwing motion.

That said, there are very few players at the top levels who are forehand dominant (Sarah Hokom and Sarah Stanhope on the women's side, Jeremy Koling and Geoff Bennett on the men's, to name a few). But all of them can air it out BH when circumstances dictate.

As Itchy says, it's best to be able to do both. There are times when a BH anhyzer will be a more prudent choice than a FH hyzer, and times when a FH anhyzer will be more prudent than a BH hyzer, such as a dogleg with the basket sits on the side of a hill that falls away beyond the basket or there's OB or a steep drop-off just beyond the basket, where an anhyzer will be stalling in and flexing back away from the direction slope/OB/drop-off, while a hyzer will be gliding in in the direction of the slope/OB/drop-off, increasing the risk of a skip away. Conversely, there are times when the skip will be advantageous. If you can throw both BH and FH, you have options when faced with those situations; if you can only throw one or the other, you don't.

[JR]

Nose up is your problem most likely in your BH form. That is the biggest hurdle along with putting for newer players. There is plenty of nose up advice across several threads. I just wrote some advice so search for me as an author and search words "nose up". You should absolutely learn to BH. Not only will it make you a very much better disc golfer in the medium term long term benefits are even better. Then there's the matter of long term health. Some can't FH safely some throw entire life. As a rule overhead shots are the most damaging to the body followed by FH and very few can't handle BH, which is the safest option for life time playing ability. If you injure yourself it will seriously limit your quality of life (multiple experience sick leave now after surgery -again). It can also cost you fuckloads of money and limit career options if you are employable even. Welcome to my world other than the employable part so far knock on wood.