How to use a disc golf roller shot to lower your score

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When you see and hear players talk about throwing a roller shot, they normally are using it in a driving situation, and some people are extremely good at it. It takes skill and a lot of practice to be able to throw a roller and make it a useful driving tool. Using a roller on shorter shots is much easier to learn, and not learning how to use a roller shot on midrange and approaches could be costing you strokes.

If you think about where to use a roller on shorter shots, you can come up with many possibilities. The most common place where this shot will really help you is near the basket in the trees. How many times have you gotten close to the basket and your disc goes into some woods close to the basket? You have to get to the basket but trees are blocking your flight paths, so you try to sneak through an opening, hit a tree and you're still in the woods. The same situation can occur if you go off the fairway into the woods at any point. This is where a roller can really help.

The key to making it work is to pick a spot outside of the woods where you can land the disc in the open and get it rolling. The disc will roll and turn in the direction toward the top of the disc. Hold the disc as you would a tomahawk or a thumber depending on which way you want it to turn. Aim for the spot and throw the disc so it lands on the edge with enough speed to go the distance you need it to go, and watch it roll to the basket.

In and around the Twin Cities there are many wooded courses where  this technique is a part of how to get out of the woods and save strokes, on some of our tough courses such as Blue Ribbon Pines, Bryant Lake and Kaposia.

To do this effectively it does take a little practice to get the feel for how much the disc is going to turn, and how far it will roll, but it’s not hard to learn. Think about different places where you can use this shot and it will save you strokes that you didn’t think you could save.

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Great video showing other roller shots