If you have just started to get into playing cornhole, whether it’s with your family or friends, and you want to improve your skills, then you need to understand some basic strategies, and physics, in order to be successful. Granted, cornhole has increased in popularity in recent years and that means that there are actual tournaments to compete in for prizes, money, and of course, fame and glory. Okay, okay, perhaps the glory part is a bit overdone, but it’s nice to daydream a little bit once in a while.
Cornhole strategy: The toss
If you want to score well in the cornhole game, you need to be able to throw the bean bags with some level of consistency. Some people prefer to grab an edge of the bean bag and toss it that way, but you lose control over the momentum of the bag itself. The best way to hold the cornhole bags is to cup it in your hand, sort of like tossing a softball pitch. Use an underhand stroke and release at a consistent time.
How you throw the cornhole bags can be as important, if not more so, than any other strategy to date.
Cornhole strategy 2: The target
While the main goal is to get your cornhole bags into the small, six inch hole on the cornhole boards, it isn’t always the best strategy to go for the hole. The reason being is that you can still score points with your bags, as long as they stay on the cornhole boards and don’t slide off into the grass, or onto the pavement, or wherever you happen to be playing at the time.
As you stand 27 feet from the board, that six inch hole will seem even smaller and even the landing platform -the board- will not seem like a welcoming place for anyone’s bean bags. Your primary target should be the front third of the board. The bag will bounce, or slide, depending on the trajectory you choose to throw the bean bags. The higher the angle, the less movement the bag will make once it hits the board.
Strategy 3: The angle
Now, when you toss the bean bags, the angle of the throw will impact what happens once it lands on the board. A lower angle throw will slide much farther, often off the back or side of the cornhole boards. A steeper angle will bounce, but will stop quite a bit closer to its initial landing location. Sliding the bag down the center will have the best chance for getting it into the hole.
It takes practice to become good at anything, so if you’re interested in becoming an exceptional cornhole game champion, then you will need to practice and develop your own unique strategies that suit your personal preferences.