Disc golf illustrated: Fade
Disc golf physics: June 2, 2022
Disc golf illustrated is a series (with simple pictures) explaining some disc-golf-specific terms. Like turn, fade, nose angle, hyzer, anhyzer, overstable, understable, etc. The whole series:
Fade (this post)
Fade
At the end of a disc's flight, you will often see it cut hard to the left (for a right-hand backhand throw). This is known as fade or low-speed fade. This diagram shows a top view of the low-speed fade for a right-hand backhand (RHBH) throw:
Here's an extreme example of fade (which happened to me a lot when I first started playing disc golf, and sometimes even now):
Left-hand, forehand fade
If you're throwing a left-hand backhand (LHBH) throw, the disc will fade to the right at the end because the spin is in the opposite direction from a right-hand backhand throw.
And because forehand throws spin in the opposite direction from backhand throws, they will fade in the opposite direction. Here's the complete picture for fade during backhand and forehand throws:
Fade for different discs
The amount of low-speed fade depends on the specific disc design and on how you throw it. You can estimate the amount of fade from a disc's flight numbers. Most disc manufacturers use a system of four numbers that describe the flight characteristics of each disc: the fourth number is the amount of low-speed fade
For example, the Latitude 64 Saint, which has a moderate fade rating of 2 (the range is from 0 for the least fade to 5, which means very strong fade), the flight pattern looks like this for a right-hand backhand throw:
In the next episode, we'll examine the physics behind high-speed turn and low-speed fade.
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