Cornhole is a fun game that anyone can become good at with a little practice. Like with many other sports, mastering the best way to throw cornhole bags really comes down to muscle memory and being able to repeat your shot. Another aspect of becoming good at cornhole is to understand some game strategy to give you that slight edge over your competition. Following these tips consistently will improve your cornhole game.
Cornhole Throwing Technique
Similar to something like a batting swing, everyone is going to have certain features of their cornhole throw that is unique to them and makes them more comfortable. As long as you get to the correct release point consistently, how you get there is not as important. There are a few things everyone should try to follow regarding a cornhole throw.
How should you hold your cornhole bag?
You want to throw the bag in a way that will make it flat and spinning while in the air. The reason for this is that you will get a much more consistent reaction when you hit the boards. Being able to do this consistently is important so that you can eventually focus on where you’re throwing the bags on the board and not worry about how it’s getting there. This should become second nature to you after some time.
The best way to grip the bag is to hold it flat in your hand and grip the side opposite of your fingers about halfway down with your thumb. The closer you put your thumb to the edge of the bag, the more spin you will naturally put on the cornhole bag after it is released. The palm of your hand should be pointing up towards the sky. This is the ideal position when you are releasing the bag. Here is a simple video showing good technique.
The Approach - To Step or Not To Step
This is really where you should do what is most comfortable for you. Some people like to get the momentum of their body moving with the throw and some do not. You can have success with either method. The biggest thing to pay attention to with this part of your throwing technique is to make sure you do not cross the foul line prior to release. You’re able to cross the line once the bag has been released, but you cannot before the release or the bag is considered foul.
There is really no wrong or right way with the lower half of your body while throwing a cornhole bag. Most of your power will come from your lower half, so you just want to make sure that whatever you are doing is repeatable. For some, they can take the same step every time, for others it just adds an additional movement to have to worry about. For beginners, it is probably best to avoid any extra movements so you can just focus on the throw itself.
The Bag Throw
The throw itself is similar to how you would imagine throwing a frisbee. You want the bag spinning in the air similar to the way a frisbee flies in a straight line. There are really only 2 points on your arm that should be moving, your wrist and your arm at the shoulder joint. As you take your arm back, you should be hinging at your shoulder and loading up your wrist action on the way back. As you reach the front of your swing you should unload your wrist.
Here’s a good video that shows some of the basics of a good cornhole approach.
Now that you know how to throw a bag, let’s talk a little bit about what you should do in the game itself.
Cornhole Strategy
Once you are consistently able to release your bags, the next step is learning how to play cornhole is to understand what you should do during gameplay. One important point to remember while playing is that your goal is to score more points than your opponent in a frame. It might not always be smart to aim for the hole. It really depends on who you’re playing and how they play.
The easiest way to make cornholes is to slide the bag from below the hole into the hole. The hole itself is only 6 inches in ciameter, this is a small target. To make it easier, you can increase the landing size and still give yourself a chance at throwing a cornhole by landing the bag short of the hole sliding it in. This will effectively take that 6 inch hole of a target and increase it by about 10 allowing for a little more error in your throw.
What if you are playing against someone who does this better than you?
If you have an opponent that consistently throws the bags in the hole by sliding from just in front of the hole, your strategy should be to stop this so you can minimize the number of points they can score in a frame.
Throwing a blocker is the best way to combat a player who is able to consistently make cornholes this way. There are cornhole bags that are designed to give you the ability to throw these blockers much easier because they are made out of different material. The idea behind a blocker is to leave a bag about 6 inches short of the hole right in front of it so you eliminate the ability of your opponent to slide a bag into the hole.
If you find your opponent is using this strategy against you, you must be able to counter. The best way to do it is to learn how to throw airmails or to land the bag in the hole without hitting the board. Think of a swish in basketball where the ball doesn’t hit the rim. The tricky part about throwing airmails outside of the smaller target is that you have to be able to throw your bag higher in the air. Which brings up another important point about cornhole throwing techniques.
Cornhole Drills - Throwing Different Trajectory Throws
Trajectory is very important for the type of throw you want to make. The higher you get the bag in the air, the less it will slide. So if you are trying to knock a bag in that is left short of the hole, you would want a much lower trajectory in order to have enough energy to push the bag into the hole and possibly make both, this is also known as a slider.
You should practice both low and high trajectory throws because you will likely need to throw both types of shots at some point during a cornhole game. You really don’t need any extra equipment to setup a low trajectory throw, just aim for a particular part of the board short of the hole and try to hit that target.
You can tape a square on the board to aim at if it helps to improve your accuracy. With high trajectory throws a cool drill is to put something about 4 feet tall in front of the board your throwing at. This will force you to the bag in the air higher.
Here’s a video describing some specific cornhole scenarios that you might come across and what you should do when they occur.
Having these different tools in your cornhole training will prepare you for almost any situation that might happen in a cornhole game. You first want to start with being able to execute your throw consistently through sound throwing fundamentals and then develop different throwing techniques to be able to consistently score more points than your opponent.
There are so many different scenarios that you might have in a cornhole game, these different tips will allow you to have an answer for any situation that might come up. We have laid out some techniques and drills that you can use to get better. The important thing to remember is that cornhole is like anything else you want to get good at, you have to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!