On holes with water or other trouble behind the basket, you want to be able to trust that disc and watch it come down to the ground comfortably. For this example, we will reference a disc golfer who is right handed and throwing backhand RHBH. Turn can also be described as high speed stability.
When a disc gets up to speed, it will want to start to turn to the right. The more it turns to the right, the more it can be considered understable at high speeds.
In our previous example, the FD has a -1 rating for turn. This means you will likely see a little bit of movement from left to right when thrown at full power. As a comparison, the Discmania FD3 has a 0 rating for turn. Without even throwing the two discs, you can expect more turn on the FD than the FD3. One reason why you see most beginner discs with negative turn ratings is the result if you aren't able to get a disc up to speed. Using the Discmania CD3 as an example, when thrown at full power, or more specifically, the speed that the disc wants for it's desired flight, you'll see a good turn begin and the disc will move to the right at the start of the flight.
Let's say you aren't able to get the CD3 up to full speed. You might see a little bit of turn, but more importantly, you'll see a pretty straight flight. Straighter flights are far more desirable than one that might fade out too early. Turn ratings also come into play when you consider the wind conditions you're playing in. Discs with turn ratings of -1 to -5 will perform better in tailwinds than headwinds.
Fade ratings range from 0 to 5. Fade ratings help describe the end of a disc's flight. The higher the number, the stronger the fade. Continuing to use the comparison of the FD to the FD3, the FD3's fade rating of 3 means that you'll see a stronger fade with that disc than with the FD which has a fade rating of 1.
Fade can be also be described as the low speed stability. As the flight of a disc begins to end and the disc begins to lose power, the fade will begin. For discs with a higher fade rating, like the Discmania PD2 , you might see the fade begin earlier than a disc with a lower rating and you'll see it finish harder.
The harder the fade, and the higher the fade rating, the more overstable a disc is. Discs with a higher fade rating will tend to be better options when throwing into a headwind. The wind will want to send the disc to the right as the disc itself wants to move to the left.
Stronger fades will fight the wind easier than those with lower ratings. Click to open as PDF. Especially putters have remarkably lower fade than drivers, which makes putters easier to throw straight than drivers. Discs with a high fade rating are predictable even in wind. View the Innova Disc Selection Chart. Login Email. Log in. Did you forget your password? Service center Beginner's guide to disc golf How to choose right disc?
Instructional videos Shipping methods Payment methods Log in Did you forget your password? Create account Club orders International. A skip shot is when the disc hits the ground and bounces up to fly again, before finally settling. A spike shot, or a spike hyzer , is the kind of shot that hits the ground vertically, and stops dead in its tracks. Now that you know how the Flight Ratings System works, it is also vital you know what can affect your disc numbers. Let us start with plastics, shall we?
Different types of plastics can really throw the number system off. Long drivers really are impacted the most because of the thin plastic construction. The latter named discs keep their characteristics year after year, while the Champion and Glow Champion may start to breakdown soon rather than later.
If you are a fan of some of these disc options, it may be worth it to you to carry a few of the same model that have different wear-and-tear. This way, you will have discs for a variety of situations, if you find yourself in need.
But those pros do have a few valid points. The most disappointing thing about flight numbers is, there is no universal standard for how they work. Simply put, they are an estimation from the manufacturer about how the disc should fly.
So in reality the numbers should be fairly accurate for comparing discs within a given manufacturer, but not across all of disc golf. Some companies may choose to number based on the post-break-in intended flights, whereas others might use the brand-new flights.
To help you and the rest of the disc golfing community compare discs across manufacturers, we created our disc golf flight chart site. Our experience throwing a lot of different disc golf discs combined with a significant amount of research on each disc helps us to accurately depict the intended flight of a disc across manufacturers.
We even have an adjustment for different arm speeds. The specific plastic used to mold a disc can change its flight characteristics enough to warrant a different flight number. For instance, the Innova Tern has a different turn number for Star and Champion plastics. This is rather rare however and most manufacturers just stamp the same numbers on each run of the disc.
For example, an Innova Thunderbird has a rim width of 1. Per PDGA technical standards , the widest rim a disc can have is 2. So the fastest speed rating is technically a 16 although none are labeled as such at this point. A couple years back we did an analysis on the average rim width of discs manufactured each year. The analysis showed a heavy trend toward producing faster discs.
The speed rating is also used to generally classify discs again with some exceptions. Speeds from 1 to 3 are usually considered putters. Speeds from 4 to 5 are considered midrange. Speeds from are fairway drivers while speeds are control drivers. Finally, speeds 12 and up are distance drivers. When searching for a disc, understand that the speed rating is not necessarily how far the disc will go for you but more of a distance potential rating.
We prefer to use the speed rating to give us an idea of how hard a disc will need to be thrown in order to achieve the desired flight path. Discs with higher speeds are usually more difficult to throw and require a lot more arm speed to achieve their great distance potential.
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