Nate Sexton In The Bag 2024

Between the Sexton Firebird and the Firefly, Nate Sexton’s name is on some of Innova’s best-selling, most-iconic discs. In addition to multiples of both of those gems, Sexton throws many Innova classics as well as a couple less expected molds. Nate lets you know what he’s bagging, how his discs fly for him, and how those same discs might fly for someone with less arm speed.

00:00 Intro
00:17 Putters
01:50 Mid-Ranges
03:15 Fairway Drivers
08:19 Distance Drivers

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[Music] Hi, I’m Innova Team Captain Nate Sexton, here in sunny and windy Las Vegas, and this is my 2024 In the Bag. [Music] Alright, so let’s get started with the putters. Right here in the top pocket is my 2024 signature color of the Pound Octothorpe with the little Nate Sexton patches on the side. Obviously, my main putting putter is the Nate Sexton Nexus Firefly, one of my Tour Series discs from the last couple of years. It’s made of nice and stiff glow plastic. What I really like about it is it has a little bit of that rubbery tackiness of the Nexus plastic, but without quite as much flex as R-Pro. So I feel like I can still dig my thumb into it, get good spin, but even on a warm day, it’s rigid enough to get a nice clean putt off my hand. They have a deep feel in the hand, and I use these pretty much only for putting. I don’t really throw these at all, so around 60 feet maximum distance for these for me. My next putters are the Dart. I have this R-Pro that’s a little flippier and an XT for a little more stability. I use these for long putts but also for short drives. I’m throwing this guy on a hole this week that’s measuring at 315 feet, so I use these kind of interchangeably with mid-ranges. I’ll use this for nice straight drives, and I’ll use this one for putts between about 50 and 100 feet. If it’s really uphill or a low ceiling, I might go to this over the Firefly for a little more push, a little bit more glide if I need to keep some elevation late in the flight of a putt. But yes, Darts have been one of my favorites for many, many years. From the very first time I got sent a tester, they’ve been in my bag. Okay, now we can get into mid-ranges. I only have one real classic mid-range; it’s a KC Pro Glow Roc at the moment. That’s what I use here in Las Vegas, again, a windy place, so I’m not bringing the Mako3—that’s staying at home. That is a disc that is sometimes in my bag if I’m playing a more wooded course, but out here, all I need is this Roc. 177 grams, brand new KC Pro Roc with a little bit of stability, so I can put it up there, guarantee a little bit of hyzer, and a nice slow stop on the ground without a lot of skip. For forehand mid-range duties, we’ve got the unbeatable team of the Toro and the Rat. I use both of these for forehands, probably between 150 feet and 250 feet or so. The Toro is way more overstable, a Calvin Heimburg disc, and the Rat is straighter. So I would say I probably throw the Rat a little bit more, but when the wind is up or I need extra fade, I definitely go to the Toro. The Toro I’ll also throw backhand; the Rat is pretty much a forehand-only disc for me. The Toro I will use certainly for backhand, and there’s actually a few holes at this event where I’m going to be throwing it backhand because it needs to get out and then really get left in a hurry to stay away from out of bounds. But I don’t want a lot of distance, and the great thing about this is it doesn’t glide a lot, gets to the ground quick. [Music] Fairway drivers, or slower speed drivers: the Sidewinder, my roller disc, my turnover disc, my kind of get-out-of-jail forehand disc in the woods when I need something to get out and flip and twist and ride to the left. Star Sidewinders, one I’ve been using for a long time. Halo Savant is sort of a new addition to my bag. I like this one. I call this one Pink Lemonade. It’s pretty straight, kind of like a beat-up Thunderbird. So I use it in that slot where I used to throw maybe an old Thunderbird. It goes basically straight for me at full power, maybe just a little bit of flip, but by the time it slows down, it usually has a bit of fade left in it. So it’s nice for me for 400 feet or so when there are some constraints on my lateral movement. I kind of have to throw a straight shot; I can’t work a big hyzer or a forehand flex or anything. I need it to just kind of go flat and finish pretty softly. A little bit flippier than that is the Champion TL3. So I’ll use this one if I don’t want that left finish at the end or if I want pure turnover. All of these I also will use for rollers in different situations, depending on how much stability I need. But this Champion TL3 is really nice. It’s great because if you throw it with power, you can basically trust that there’s not really going to be any left action at the end of the flight. It’s going to fly out there straight, just a slight turn, and then the finish is so mellow that it won’t really skip back left. So I don’t have to worry about an OB line on that side with a backhand. I mentioned it briefly, but that Jeremy Koling Thunderbird, brand new, that’s always a disc I have in my bag as well. A little bit more stable than the TL3 and the Savant, I use this for big hyzers, flat kind of finish shots, also in that kind of 400 range, just barely slower than the distance drivers. So I’ll use this thing in those situations. I also really like these for like a max power cut roller. So this is probably one of my favorite discs when I’m out on a ball golf course like this and I have the super short grass. If I do get that moment where the wind is down, this is the disc that I can get out there 600 feet if I can put it down there on a nice cut roller in the dry grass. One of my longest moving discs if I am able to go to that roller angle. I think for a beginner or intermediate player, the Thunderbird is going to be one of your more overstable discs. For somebody who’s throwing 300 feet or less, this is going to be kind of a meat hook, and that’s alright. It’s something you’re going to be able to throw out forehand or backhand, count on a pretty quick fade and a nice skip, but in a rim width that’s pretty comfortable in the hand and at speed 9, something that’s not going to necessarily rocket skip off the green. It’s going to be a little more measured than, say, a Destroyer. Alright, now for that special time, the fairway driver that rules them all: the Nate Sexton Firebird. I carry four, all different levels of beat-up. Obviously, my favorite disc that’s ever been made—it ought to be, right, if it has my name on it? So this is my flippy one at the moment, a 2015 with some nice battle scars on it. This one goes basically straight with a little bit of fade at the end. I use that a lot for tailwinds out here or woods kind of shots where I don’t want a bunch of swing. Probably the next one in the lineup is this little bit newer 2015. This one’s got certainly some stability left to it, but one of my favorite molds that’s ever been made, so I always have at least a couple of these in my bag. Then I have this double-stamped 2019. This one flies a lot like the ’15s, but I’m more willing to throw it around water. So I bring this one in case there’s going to be a real rocky landing or I might be throwing it in the lake. This guy’s kind of my workhorse, and I’ve been saying that about him for years, and he hasn’t given up on me yet. So he stays dry even though he takes on some of the more risky shots. He’s a brave, brave guy. And then this 2023 Halo, the most overstable for me, so I’ll use this one more for backhands. The others, basically never for backhand. This one I will backhand or forehand flex where I really need it to bail out of that angle quick and get back to the right. So this is my headwind disc and probably one of my most stable drivers, certainly my most stable fairway driver. I think the Firebird is such a great disc to have in your bag at any skill level because it is so trustworthy and it can teach you some new shot shapes, what you can do with an extreme release angle, and how you can work that through the flight and flatten back out. You can get around a tree perhaps midway down the fairway but still work back so hard to the left. I find that to be a really fun shot to throw, especially with the forehand. It’s one of those things that makes disc golf so special, I think, is that we have that S pattern, and it’s something that a ball could never do. And when you have that overstable disc, you can really show that off and make it happen in a really tight window where you can get a bunch of swing back even under 300 feet and really make this sharp shape. So I think that’s a fun shot to be able to throw. Obviously, you’re going to play in some windy conditions; you need a trusty disc you can use there. The Sexton Firebird specifically is nice and soft, I think, so a more forgiving hand feel and a more forgiving flight as well. So it’s overstable but maybe not ridiculously so like some other fairway drivers you might find. [Music] On to the distance drivers on the forehand side, one of my favorites is the XCaliber. I have a Halo XCaliber here that I’ve been throwing. It’s a little bit straighter but still very stable, making it a nice all-around forehand distance driver. I’ll use this on high hyzer angles, flat, and occasionally even on a force-over when I need 350 to 400 feet of forehand distance. This disc usually gives me around 375 feet on a flat to hyzer shot with a lot of control, so I really like these. This is a first-run Star Xcal that I got in Austin, Texas this year. A fan came up and had me sign an autograph, and then he handed me two brand new first-run Xcals. They went straight into my bag. Whoever you are, thank you for that gift. I’m not going to let it just sit on a shelf; if you give it to me, it’s going in the bag and getting thrown. The very first Xcal ever made, this EchoStar plastic, is the kind of Xcal that I fell in love with at the very beginning. Happy to have it, thank you. I would say the Xcal for a beginner player is a lot of disc, not necessarily a bad choice, but something that is great for predominantly forehand players or players with a lot of power. Even some new players have quite a lot of power. If you’re getting it out there over 300 feet or your swing speed is getting up there into the high 50 mph range (if you’re lucky enough to have ever had a speed gun or used a tech disc), then this disc might start making sense for you. It’s very torque-resistant and overstable, offering much control. You sacrifice a little bit of distance, but I’m making that deal every time. I’m definitely a proponent for control. Staying in bounds on these modern courses is more important than ever, and the Xcal is great at doing that. You know what you’re going to get: strong fade, strong skip every time you throw it. On to the Destroyers, you have to get to the Destroyers when you’re watching an Innova Pro’s in the bag. I have technically seven because this mean guy I keep on the side in case we run into a really serious headwind. I’ll start here: this is the most overstable, a couple of years ago Calvin Halo Destroyer, right at the beginning of Halo. These teal ones are kind of more disc than I can use on a regular basis, but when there’s a strong headwind, it’s really nice to have the security blanket of this thing. I don’t think I can flip it over, and I hope I can’t. I have a newer Calvin that’s much more mellow, still overstable but not crazy. This is like a maximum distance hyzer type disc for me. It doesn’t really turn much, but I can count on it to flatten up and ride for a while before its fade. These, I think I have the okay to share. These are brand new from Innova. This is the Innova Mouse. This is a pretty rare one, a brand new mold. It might say Destroyer on the bottom, but on the top, it says Mouse. So we throw the Innova Mouse. This one’s probably my main distance one at the moment. Nice beat-up bottom stamp, and it’s not super beat up; it’s not really a turnover disc, but I can put a tiny bit of anhyzer on it and get a bunch of distance or just throw it flat and get 450, even 500 yesterday one time. And then this one, brand new off the presses, this is the Innova Ladybug. This one is very similar to the Mouse. Actually, I don’t know why they made two different ones; they’re almost exactly the same. They have Destroyer on the bottom; they’re both purple, but the Ladybug is newer, more overstable, and it’s a nice backup. I probably won’t throw it that much this week, but unless I lose something in the water, then this guy’s coming out. This is probably my longest flyer. This is a really domey Star Destroyer, 171 grams, and it’s got a really high dome on it. I’m not sure if you can see that, but it has tons of glide. Probably one of my flippier backhand discs. I’ll throw it if I don’t have too much headwind or if I have an opportunity to really try to push for as much distance as I can get. And then these two are the forehand guys. They’re pretty similar, honestly. Pretty old, swirly Destroyers. These are from the 2015 release, I think, and they last a long time. I have these ones, and I mostly use them for forehand. A little bit of anhyzer is fine; they’re overstable enough for that, but generally a nice flat shot. These are getting the bulk of the forehand work if it’s a long shot and there’s not a ton of wind, where I would maybe go to the Xcal for a little more stability than these two offer. The Destroyer, obviously one of the most popular discs of all time. You’ve probably tried one or you have friends who’ve tried them. Really pretty overstable. Again, for a beginner, this is going to be a quick disc out of the hand with pretty instant fade to the left or the right, depending on which spin you’re using, which hand you’re throwing with, or if it’s forehand or backhand. You can count on a big skip, really quick flight, nice glide. As you build up power, or you beat one up, or maybe you get one in a lightweight, you’re going to find it being one of the longest discs you could possibly have in your bag. [Music]