Tips for Playing Frisbee Golf in Winter

Are the cold days of winter keeping you away from your beloved Frisbees?

While Frisbee Golf is a summer sport, it's also one that can be fully enjoyed in the winter. Here are a few tips for winter play:

1. Invest in Hand Warmers 

If you are going to play cold rounds regularly, or it isn't ridiculously cold in your area, a rechargeable hand warmer may be sufficient to keep your hands toasty enough to give you the confidence you need to make a putt.

Personally, I have terrible circulation and the rechargeable hand warmer just doesn't produce enough heat for me. Disposable "Hot Hands" are a must play for winter rounds. I typically use a large mitten for my throwing hand and put the hot hand in it to keep the blood flowing to my throwing hand.

2. For Heavy Snow - Use Ribbons

For a few of your drivers, tape ribbons on your frisbees. I've found that quality Scotch Packaging tape works best. A simple X pattern tape job on top of the disc should last you all winter. When the disc goes under the snow the ribbon stays above which allows you to easily find it. If you thought locating discs in the summer was hard enough, try in a foot of fresh powder in the winter.

When applying ribbons, it is very important to do it at room temperature inside your house. I recommend doing it a day or two before you go out to play so that you can allow your discs to cool to outside temperatures before playing. When discs are warm and snow is cold you get far more moisture collected on them which requires lots more wiping.

If you tape a ribbon to a cold disc, there is a good chance that it will fall off, your disc will fly less far, and it will get lost anyways which defeats the whole purpose of having the ribbon in the first place.

3. Add Kool Aid to Your Frisbee

While ribbons are excellent tools to help you locate your discs, the reality is that the ribbon itself creates a lot of drag and greatly reduces flight distance. For ease of disc finding without losing 30% of your distance, try dumping a little bit of Koolaid powder on your disc. As your disc hits the snow it "marks" the spot with your favorite color. This doesn't always leave a mark, and makes your discs stained and sticky, but in some instances can be worth it.

4. Learn to Throw Stand Still

For winter play, your footing will be one of the biggest handicapps. Slipping while throwing is a quick way to add numerous strokes (and frustration) to your Frisbee golf round. Being able to throw standing still is a huge advantage that will translate into improved abilities for those awkward situations during summer rounds as well.

5. Carry lots of Towels

When a disc is cold and wet it is much harder to grip but easy to slip. I especially struggle with forehand shots with wet discs, so keeping them dry is very important. A good disc golf towels is especially important when the discs you are throwing are cold. A warm disc on cold snow causes it to melt which requires lots of wiping. If you keep your discs outside in your car trunk, there will be far less wiping required. I found that "waffle weave" style towels are the perform best for keeping discs dry, especially when weather conditions make it impossible to keep a towel completely dry.

6. Have a different set of discs for snow play

Choose More Understable Discs
For snow play, you will likely not throw with the normal power you have in prime weather conditions. For this reason more understable discs will likely provide more distance. For my winter disc golf discs I like to have a few drivers with ribbons (for the especially risky throws). I keep these discs specifically for winter disc golf and have one disc that has had the same ribbon on it for six seasons now!

Choose Discs With Better Grip

Because grip is so much more difficult in cold wet conditions, plastic type makes a big difference. My personal favorite discs for snow play include Vibram Rubber (unfortunately Vibram no longer manufacturers discs), Infinite I-Blend and base plastic discs. The other nice thing about I-Blend and base plastics is that they are very inexpensive, so if you do lose a disc in the snow, the loss doesn't sting quite as badly.

Choose Discs that Are Visible in The Snow

For snowy frisbee golf, choose discs that will easily stand out in the snow (obviously not white, but if you want to make your friends really angry, throw a white disc in the snow and have them help you find it). I find day glow yellow and pink to be the colors that stand out best in the snow. These colors become almost translucent.