Zipping vs Floating Your Discs

Hello Ultimate Frisbee Players!

Apologies about the late posts as I have been busy over the past few weeks! To bring you all back up to speed, last week was the definitive tournament that sums up all the trainings and hard work of the ultimate club players - the Singapore Ultimate Opens (SUO) 2015! I have shared some photos taken during the tournament so do check them out over at Ultimate Leh!'s Facebook page!

With this, I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate Shiok! for retaining the title as SUO champions for 2015!

Credits: Eric Lim S C

In addition, kudos to Chuckies who had an amazing run during the 1st day of the tournament, scoring the universal point over Shiok! to take the 1st seed position! Congratulations as well!

Credits: Eric Lim S C

For those who were there at the tournament, there were many type of throws that were thrown during the game itself, such as backhands, forehands, hammers etc. However, do you notice the speeds of these discs? Some of them were ZIPPING through the air like a bullet/laser, while others seem to FLOAT in the air gracefully, as they float their way to the thrower's intended target, these are called 'Zipping' and 'Floating' the discs and today we are going to talk about what makes the differences between these two types and when would be the suitable situations to use each type!

Zipping Your Discs

To zip your disc would be to execute a very fast and largewrist snap to the disc, be it a forehand or backhand throw. the disc gains a long of speed and momentum and will cut through the air, reaching the destinated target very quickly. Your wrist snap is akin to snapping a towel. The faster and quicker you execute the snap, the towel moves faster with more velocity, creating a louder sound and in some cases, a painful groan:)

The disc is fast and covers a lot of ground, so your receiver has to be fast in order to get it!

In addition, it hits the ground faster so do take note!

On the other hand, floating your disc is to create a lot of spin on the disc, resulting in it be able to hover in the air, making it 'float' in the air. This throw stays in the air longer and makes receiving easier, like this throw below!

So how do we go about adding spin to the disc? This is done by rotating your wrist. This imparts rotation to the disc and this would help float the disc. Here's a good video on how to isolate spin from power for your forehand!

So when should you zip or float your discs? Here are some scenarios for each type of throws to be executed:

1) When your opponent is marking your receiver very tightly (Zipping)

Floating your disc during this situation may result in an interception or turnover. You should try to reduce such opportunities from happening, especially when your receiver is tightly marked.

2) When your opponent has broken away from his/her marker (Zipping)

Zipping your disc would allow the advantage that your receiver have when s/he broke away from his/her marker to be maintained, allowing the pass to have a higher chance of completion. Floating the disc would allow your receiver's marker to catch up with him/her, resulting in possible interceptions or Ds.

3) When you are unsure of your receiver's speed (Floating)

Sometimes you might be unsure of your receiver's speed, as s/he might be new to the team. Zipping your disc may result in a turnover as s/he might not be able to catch up with the fast speed in which the disc is moving.

4) Pulls (Floating)

A Pull (more on this next time!) is done to allow your team to set up their defense. Hence in order to do so, the disc has to be in the air longer to give your team more time to do so. Hence floating your disc would keep the disc longer in the air!

5) Hucks (Zipping/Floating)

A huck is a combination of the above scenarios, you might want to zip the disc to a receiver who has broken his or her marker and running towards the end zone. However, you make want to make the huck more easily receivable as a huck covers a long distance and completion would be of utmost importance. Hence either types of throw will be fine.

With that, I hope that you all find out more about your throwing style and execute it more efficiently on the field! The following scenarios provides a certain guide and you can always do what you feel is correct during that particular scenario!

Till next time!