Don’t Cut Off the Discs Nose to Spite Your Jam

The title comes from an old saying, don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. It’s basically when you do something against yourself. Well, like your face, the disc has a nose and how you treat it can make all the difference between success and failure of your next big trick.

The nose of the disc is the highest point of the rim of the disc. Unless the disc is perfectly parallel to the ground, it has a nose. And, the size of the nose refers to how verticle this disc is. A small or slight nose is where the disc is nearly parallel to the ground. So, yeah, maybe you can’t cut it off so to speak. But, where that nose is pointed can dramatically change how the disc will fly. That is, where is the nose relative to the wind.

Imagine a disc flying in the wind. As the air passes over the disc, it will push against different areas of the disc and affect it’s flight. For example, if the nose is pointing towards the wind, the wind will press against the bottom of the disc, helping to lift the disc and keep it in the air longer. If the nose is pointing down wind, the wind will press against the top of the disc and shove it quickly to the ground. If the nose is pointed cross wind then the wind may hardly touch the top of the bottom and the disc will fly more like there is no wind.

So now, imagine you are facing the wind while delaying the disc. You set the disc up into the air so you can do an under the leg pull. As you set it, your (lack of) control will dictate where the nose is pointed. What will make it the easiest to pull disc under your leg? A sight nose into the wind, of course. This will cause the disc to fall more slowly and to drift back towards you so its movement aids in the leg over process.

It’s a very important skill to know how to set any nose amount and direction that you want, but the most important will be a slight nose into the wind. So go practice this set. There are a number of ways to do it, but here are two.

Marco Prati Sets the Disc Into the Wind With Nose

From flat: for clock, take the disc on a center delay. Then lift the disc into the air. As you lift, move your finger slightly to 9 o’clock and then push to 12. The more exaggerated the movement from 9 to 12, the bigger the nose will be. Try this over and over until you can get the nose you want every time. I like to use this to set the disc and going into a spinning pull.

From the rim: for clock, on a rim delay, let the disc rotate to 3 o’clock. Now lift up and let the disc swing on the rim to 6 0’clock. The momentum from the lift will cause the disc to tilt flat. Practice the amount of lift and timing of the rim swing to get the desired nose. I find this easiest on the right hand going from the left side of my body to the right. I like to use it for a scarecrow catch.

How do you set the disc with nose? How much nose do you like for your sets? Let me know in the comments.