Disc Golf: A Great Game for Kids!

Disc golf is a perfect game for kids of all ages. Compared with other sports it’s easier to pick up and get to a functional level. It can also be started at a very young age. Over time it becomes a fun way for everyone to be outdoors and active.

In addition, if you yourself are into disc golf, there are many benefits that will aid you in your own disc golf journey as well. Let’s have a look at how disc golf is such a great game for both you and your kids to play.

You can start Kids early in Disc Golf

I’ll get into this a little more next section, but disc golf is a game that can be played early. The basket is a few mere feet off the ground and the discs aren’t particularly clunky or heavy. This translates to a much more kid-friendly game. And as long as your basket is on stable ground and there aren’t windows/breakables in a 30 foot radius (my guy is quite erratic!) I consider it to be a very safe activity as well.

My own kid was able to start disc golf right before he turned 3. Perhaps he could even have started earlier if I had my basket by then… (Explore basket options here!)

But, in general, he was able to find success with disc golf (get the disc in the basket from point blank range) almost right away. Finding success will go a long way for your kid and any activity.

Kids can find success early with disc golf

One thing that I’ll talk about later is the importance of a positive connection with disc golf. With that in mind, I think it’s helpful for someone to find success with a given activity if they are to continue it. Generally we tend to gravitate more to activities we feel successful at.

So, given the relative ease for a toddler to get a disc in the basket, I make sure to set my own kid up for success. I put his table of discs right next to the basket so he’s more likely to succeed. Then, when he does get one in (or even hit chains) I give an outsized reaction. “Woah!”

If he misses, I try to make it funny. “Bonk!”. In this way he is finding success and building a positive connection with the game. To me, this just makes it more fun for both of us and we have a fun time playing together.

Both You and your Kid Benefit!

Admittedly, this is a little selfish. But don’t we all have a little of that? And look, before I go on, I’m not telling you I shun these other activities because I don’t. But the fact of that matter is this. You can actually play disc golf with your kid AND get better at disc golf at the same time. You can even do this when your kid is at a very young age.

Let’s say my kid wants to play basketball with me. I like basketball a lot. In fact, there’s a good chance that I make more comparisons to basketball and disc golf than anyone in the world. Here’s an example where I give you a tip on putting that the best NBA players use when they shoot free throws. The best part is that it doesn’t ask you to change your form.

Getting back to my kid and basketball, it’s probably clear that when we play together the whole activity is centered around him (which is totally fine!). But realistically, I have to hold him above my head for him to have any chance of grazing the rim. And that’s all well and good, but good luck getting your own shots up!

The same idea is true for learning his tricycle, kicking a soccer ball or putting a puzzle together for that matter! The level he is at does not leave a lot of room for me to stretch myself at the same time (I’m trying not to get defensive about my parenting here. I’m a good parent! I have people skills!)

But now we switch it to disc golf. Suddenly my kid and I are both playing, but I can absolutely challenge myself at the same time. I only need to go out 20 feet from the basket and I’m working on my putting. I put a little table near the basket for him and load it up with discs. We take turns throwing (making sure he gets way more discs than I do). Then, after the discs are thrown, we pick them up and start again.

We have a grand old time and the time goes by in a flash!

One other activity my kid enjoys is swinging while watching me throw discs at the basket. I strap him into one of those seat-belted swings we have hanging from our deck. I get him up to speed on the swing, then I launch discs at the uphill basket from 50 feet away. He enjoys my animated reactions (all genuine) when I hit, near-miss, or miss by a country mile.

But essentially I am having fun with my kid, giving my wife a break, AND getting a practice session in at the same time. Could it get any better than that (Don’t answer that one btw)?

There’s one other benefit as well. I am creating a positive association for my kid and disc golf. To me, this is huge! It’s more of a long-term play, but one that I will not compromise on for short-term gains. Let me explain…

How to Get your Kid Interested in Disc Golf

Okay, maybe I’m not in the running for parent of the year (despite what my coffee mugs tell me). So please, never, ever interpret this section as me telling you how to raise your kid! I’m just giving you my general philosophy so you can see if any of it jives with your personal parenting style.

In general, I do believe that kids pick up on far more than we give them credit for. So, if I have a natural enthusiasm for an activity, it’s going to come out. Well, as you’ve rightly guessed, I have a natural enthusiasm for disc golf that my kid is picking up on (in waves).

Also, similar to how my mother ensured I would never play hockey I do essentially the opposite. My mother dissuaded me from hockey by A. Never mentioning it (despite the rest of my family being a hockey family) B. Talking incessantly about head injuries (she’s a nurse) whenever the topic did come up (right or wrong it’s how she felt) and C. Getting me into basketball (a winter sport that competes with hockey).

She knew it wouldn’t be a fit for her. She wasn’t getting up at 4:30 AM for ice time. Simple as that.

So, I employ the opposite approach. I talk about disc golf a lot (naturally). I think of it as a very safe activity for kids and I make it readily available. As a result, it is forming a big part of his naturally limited world view. Let me go off on this tangent for a moment so you can see the impact this can have…

Your kid’s world view and interests.

I read and reviewed the book Atomic Habits here. In that review I talk about how it can help you greatly in your disc golf game (and life). But in the book is another incredibly interesting section about a social experiment a psychologist did on his own family (not condoning, just reporting!).

Basically, a Hungarian psychologist, very interested in the common threads found in geniuses, set out to cultivate genius in his own children. The medium he used was chess.

To summarize, he essentially created their whole environment to be centered around chess. The results were staggering! Essentially his 3 daughters are widely considered to be some of the best chess players in the world. His youngest is thought to be the best female chess player of all time.

To be very clear, I am not advocating that you turn your kids into a disc golf subject of some kind. All I am stating is the somewhat obvious. If your kid is introduced to an idea, and someone close to them and/or the culture has enthusiasm for that idea, then there is a higher likelihood that it will stick with them. That’s all!

If Wayne Gretzky were born in Ireland, for example, can we agree that he would have less of a likelihood of being widely considered as the greatest hockey player of all time? Ireland is an amazing place. I’ve been there many times and I’m a huge fan. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that it’s not a hockey country. Canada is. So, growing up in that environment would have completely altered Gretzky’s world view. So maybe he would have been great at some of Ireland’s other popular sports (rankings here), but most likely it would not have been hockey.

This brings me to the next section where I want to talk about what not to do (besides turning your kid into a disc golf experiment).

What not to do with your kids in Disc Golf

So far I have two thoughts on what not to do regarding your kid(s) and disc golf. One is more obvious than the other.

First, don’t hit your kid with the disc!

It seems obvious but it’s actually not as easy as you think. My putter has found my kid twice. One was a shank and a gust of wind. The other was a mid-air putt that he ran right into. To be fair, it was going for chains and he started to run after I released the putt.

Now, before I make any putt, I make extra sure that he is well out of my range. We even talk about it and he runs embarrassingly far away as if I were the worst putter in the world. “It was the wind!” I want to tell him!

Both plunks resulted in tears but overall he was fine. But this ties into my next point very well.

Don’t Force It! Make sure your kid has a positive connection with disc golf (at all costs)!

If my kid keeps getting plunked with a disc, he’s obviously not going to like it very much. But mostly I’m talking about that long term play I referenced earlier. Basically, I want to make disc golf as fun as possible for him. That means I don’t force it. When he’s done, we’re done. If he wants to throw the disc sideways up in the air, then that’s fine by me. We’ll laugh and do that too. I’m not teaching him proper technique (mostly because I don’t know it myself) or anything like that. I just want it to be fun. That way he keeps connecting disc golf with fun. And that just means more disc golf for the both of us.

When he first started throwing he had 3 minutes of attention span, and I made sure to give him positive feedback all along the way. Then, he moved on and so did I (though I may have looked back longingly at the basket as we walked away). I just wanted to make sure that “session” left a positive mark on him. Now, we can play for a half hour without batting an eyelash.

And if you’re not sure about this “tactic”, keep in mind that we are both bonding. We are sharing a genuine common interest and having fun doing the same activity together. That sounds like a good thing to me. If when he’s 5, he decides he wants to paint, then I’m going to support that as well even if it’s not for me.

I’m not training him to be the next Ricky Wysocki and I’m not forcing it. But, while we’re both enjoying disc golf, I can also be making those incremental improvements at the same time that I’m having fun with my son.

Next Step for you and Your Kid?

Well, this really depends on your personal set up. Do you have a basket? Do you have discs? How many? How old is/are your kid(s? )Where would you practice? etc.

I would say, for the most part, it’s only worth it for you to get a basket and/or discs if you, yourself are actually interested in taking up the sport. Otherwise, it’s most likely not worthwhile use of resources. The basket may just sit and take up space.

If you are interested, I have this page dedicated to basket options that may work best for you and your family.

If you want to put out a feeler for your kid, you could try seeing how they react to a frisbee or just one lighter disc. But if you play “catch” make sure you don’t hit them!

My own kid uses one lighter disc we got especially for him. But he happily throws my putters that I use for practice as well.

If you are interested in a lighter discs especially designed for kids, check out this link to Dino Discs found here! To give you a feel, here’s an example below.

If I asked my 3-year old what the most popular sport in the world is, you can probably guess what he’d answer. It would be disc golf in a landslide!

Every kid is different, and I’m not advocating that you force-feed them anything. I’ll just speak in generalities…Our kids usually gravitate to the interest of their parents and their friends Then, at a later stage, they are repelled by everything you do! But I’m not at that stage yet!

Disc Golf and Kids – in Summary

There are many benefits to getting your kid interested in disc golf. It’s a great activity that kids can pick up at a very early age. As they play they can get their exercise and have a lot of fun doing it.

We also saw that there is great benefit for the adult disc golfer(s) in their lives. Even if your kid is very young you can still play with them AND improve your own game at the same time. This is not as common with other sports.

If this is of interest to you, it’s probably a good idea to ensure that your kid has a positive connection with the sport. By making it fun and keeping it light, you can have a fun, bonding activity that you do together for years and years.

If all this sounds good then get yourself a basket, and start having yourself a grand old time playing disc golf with your kid!

Thanks for reading everyone. My kid and I have a blast playing disc golf and I wish the same for you as well. If you have any thoughts or ideas for fun disc golf activities with your kid, put them in the comments below. Also feel free to reach out and contact me any time with ideas for posts that you would like to read. While you’re here, please consider subscribing to Disc Golf Around. It’s free, there’s no spam (just a monthly update email) and you are permanently entered to win $50 gift cards from Infinite Discs. Thank you again and keep disc golf’n around your local courses!

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