The Forehand

Grip

There are two grips used predominantly to throw a flick (alternate name for a forehand), and and one other grip which is slightly more uncommon, all three of which I will discuss here.

The Split Finger Grip is probably the grip most commonly used by low level or non-Ultimate players. You make a peace sign with your pointer and middle finger. You then place your middle finger on the rim and your pointer finger towards the middle of the disc. You curl up you ring finger and pinky, and place your thumb on top of the disc on the flight rings.

Pros: It is the easiest of the grips in the short term to pick up and be able to throw right away. It requires far less strength to grip and hold the disc, as well as being easier to use with small hands. For these reasons it is the more popular grip with women in general.

Cons: It is very hard to get any sort of pressure on the disc, or to get nearly as much wrist snap as the other grips. These factors lead to less stable shorter throws. It is also hard to hold the disc steadily for fakes as the outer two fingers must remain curled. 

The Power Grip is the most common grip used by medium to high level Ultimate players. You press your middle finger in the corner of the rim, and place your pointer finger next to your middle finger. Your ring finger and pinky are pressed against the outside of the rim (this is key!), and your thumb is placed on the flight rings, pressing down hard so that you make a small dent in the top of the disc.

Pros: This grip is much more stable in your hand and promotes more spin (and therefore distance and stability) in the air. 

Cons: It is much, much harder to learn this grip than the split finger. Your forearm must be stronger than for the split finger, and when first beginning to throw with this grip, most throws will wobble and go straight into the ground. Persevere! It is a much better grip in the long term. It is also much harder to learn to throw at short distances (~5 yds).

The Hybrid Grip is much more uncommon than either of the previous two grips. This one is much harder to explain on paper, but will have a better explanation in the video. Everything for the hybrid grip is the same essentially as the power grip, except the pointer finger is bent underneath the middle finger and the tip is against the rim.

Pros: As will be displayed in the video segment, this grip is much faster to transition between with the backhand power grip than any other combination of grips. Also, some people find they can put more pressure on the disc (and therefore more spin) using the hybrid grip.

Cons: From my experience, to use the hybrid grip well, it requires even more forearm strength than the power grip. This becomes clear if you play games without sufficient strength as your grip fatigues very quickly into the game, especially if you are handling. It is also harder to throw outside-in and to minimize wobble.

Upper Body

It is general wisdom that before you throw a forehand, you want to stand relaxed with the disc around chest level, perpendicular to the ground. However, if you use the hybrid grip or the split-finger grip, it's sometimes easier to hold it parallel.

To throw a flick, you want to lower the disc so that it is parallel to the ground by your side, turn your right shoulder back (left if you are left handed), cock your wrist and your elbow back, then turn your shoulder forward as you bring your elbow forward, and finish with a snap of the wrist. 

The wrist snap is the most important part of a forehand. With just good wrist snap, one can throw a flick probably about 30 yards. When you are learning to throw a forehand, begin just practicing holding the disc perpendicular, putting it parallel, cocking your wrist back, and snapping. Just use your wrist! Once you get the wrist snap down, progress to using more of your upper body.

A common problem when learning to throw a forehand is having the disc turn outside-in and going straight into the ground. You may want to try raising your right leg and throwing under it. This helps to correct the problem.

Once you can throw a decent flick with little wobble, work on speeding it all up, and adding on more and more yards. The whole upper body will move in a fluid motion and the disc will seem to be moving in a circle before the release (see video).

Lower Body

Your left foot will be the foot you have to pivot on (your right foot can move) if you are a right-handed thrower. To be clear, this is not a rule that the left foot must be the pivot foot (it’s one of my pet peeves when people say it is), but it allows you to step out further and you use legs more powerfully to power your hucks. I will do my best to explain this more clearly in the video.

Step out at roughly a 30-45 degree angle to the right and slightly forward in a lunge. Be sure to have your foot point in the same direction you are stepping. Many players step out with their foot directly to the right and their knee bends backwards. This is very bad for your knee and promotes injury.

Tips and Info

Once you’ve gotten down a solid forehand and you want to be able to launch it further, remember that the hips are the key. Being able to step out, twist your hips to bring all the strength of your legs to the throw, and bring your arm forward all in the exact correct sequence is what really bring things together. I may write a separate tutorial on flick hucks later, and in that I will focus less on learning to throw a forehand and more on how to perfect it.

While I’m fairly specific in what you should do with your wind-up and lower body, it’s important to be able to step at a range of angles and lengths, as well as being able to release the disc at different speeds and heights. I say this so that you don’t freeze up when a mark is on you and takes away the exact point at which you have to release every time. There are a few variations that I will write tutorials for specifically because they’re more different or more difficult (e.g. high-release flick), and some that I probably won’t (e.g. low-release flick). Be comfortable throwing with all of these variables changing once you’re slightly comfortable with the throw so that you can throw to where you want when you want to, even with a mark on.

In Ultimate, there is usually a mark that will be guarding the player with the disc (I will go into much more detail in a Strategy post on the mark). Because of this, it's important to be able to make throws besides the basic backhand as the mark can take away the backhand entirely. The forehand and backhand throws are two fundamentals that every Ultimate player must be able to execute.

Video

  

Coming Soon!

Michael Laporte