It seems easy enough to toss a corn filled beanbag towards a cornhole board, right? Just hold the corn filled bag, swing your arm back, and toss it to the other side, preferably landing smack in the cornhole. But experienced Cornhole players can teach you a few different types of tossing styles that might make or break your game. Obviously keep the “makers” and ditch the “breakers.”
The style of toss used will depend on the person. Young people with smaller hands might favor one style while adults who can “palm” a double folded bag might find that to be their most accurate tossing style.
First is the Pancake. This is just holding the bag flat in your hand, with the corn evenly distributed, and tossing it underhand towards the board.
Some people prefer the Frisbee style of toss. This toss means you hold the horizontally and fling it, sort of like a Frisbee, towards the corn hole. This type of toss can be very effective, especially when you can add in strategies like getting the bag to curve once it hits the board. But it also takes some practice so the bag doesn’t go sailing off to the side with too much of a wrist snap. (Although, a nicely placed “off” shot that knocks your opponent’s drink out of his hand might afford you a bit of an advantage over the rest of the game. But such strategies are for another article.)
The Single Fold toss is accomplished by holding the bag flat as in the pancake style, evenly distributing the corn, and then folding it in half. Try folding it horizontally, making the square bag into a rectangle of sorts. Also try folding it diagonally, corner to corner.
The Double Fold compacts the bag to a smaller size that many Cornholers find easier to hold and control. Hold the bag by a corner and let the corn settle. Fold that corner to the opposite corner. Then fold the bag in half the other way. It will end up in a bit of a ball sized bag that you can palm.
Yet another tossing style is a corner winger. This is also known as the Sling toss. Hold the bag by one corner, letting it dangle and the corn settle. Then toss, adding just the right wrist flip to add a backspin to the bag.
Most of these best accommodate an underhanded “softball” toss, but some can be adapted to an overhand “basketball” toss. Likewise, for the underhand throws, you can try tossing with your palm up or your palm down.
If you don’t have a winning Cornhole tossing style already, take some time to try each of these. Give them a fair trial, playing a few games with them as you tweak the style to see if it fits you. Once you find one that suits you best, perfect it.
In addition to styles of tossing, there are also strategies behind the toss that we will address in another article.
Author Resource:
Dave Roth runs the SC Cornhole Game website, a store devoted to the game of Cornhole. They are suppliers of cornhole bags, corn hole boards, and cornhole sets. Visit http://www.cornhole-game.org