If you watched the TV over the July 4th weekend and didn’t watch the Pro Invitational on ESPN, you missed arguably the best televised match in cornhole history! Noah Wooten vs Jamie Graham battled for the ACL Pro Singles Championship and the “flop shot” was introduced to many on national TV.
During that game, Noah Wooten was throwing Reynolds Pro Advantage cornhole bags and rather than sliding through bags or airmailing over them, he threw his bag in such a way that it actually flopped or rolled over other bags blocking the hole. This is called the Flop Shot or some like to call it the Rollover Shot. Much like the airmail, there is not much you can do to stop your opponent from scoring if they can execute the flop shot.
Just like other shots such as an airmail, it’s not easy, but knowing how to do it and lots of practice, you to can become a flop shot professional. Adding this shot to your game will take you to the next level. When your opponent throws a blocker bag on his/her first bag, what you do next could decide points for or against in that round. You have the option of laying up behind to block the blocker, you can sliding through and sink both (which doesn’t always work as planned), you can airmail over (which doesn’t always go as planned) or, you can just rollover!
Why the flop shot when you can just throw an airmail? Well, the airmail is a low percentage shot that if it doesn’t go in, most of the time, will go off the board. With the airmail, most of the time, you either get 3 points or nothing. With the flop shot, if it doesn’t rollover the bag, there is a great chance that the bag will still stay on the board resulting in points.
Throwing the flop shot
The first step in throwing a flop shop or rollover is bag selection. You need a bag with a sticky or suede side. Most of the time I see the flop shot being performed, it’s with a Reynolds Pro Advantage bag but from what I have been told, you can do it with almost any bag. Most carpet bags are perfect candidates to perfect the roll, flop, cut and all those other shots that look crazy. Below are some of the most popular
We can’t emphasis enough how hard shots like this, the curve and bounce really are. Don’t think you will read this, pick up a bag and be able to do it. But also, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it right away. It takes lots of practice. Just like when you first learned how to airmail, you need to keep throwing, keep working and keep practicing to be really good at it.
When throwing a flop shot, I have heard different ways to accomplish it. Some angle the bag with the front up and some angle it with the front down. Some will throw sticky side down and some, slick side down. Guess there are different ways but for this article, we are going to stick with this advice we got from a couple players we asked.
You want to throw the bag with the sticky side down and land it right behind the bag you want to flop over. You want your cornhole bag to come in on an angle with the front of the bag up higher than the back. This means the back of the bag will land on the board first. As the front of the bag comes down to meet the board, it will slam into your opponents cornhole bag and it’s forward moving momentum will help your bag to flop over your opponents.
Another HOW-TO video by ACL Pro Anthony Ayon from Cornhole Science. If the video doesn’t load, click here
While it is not necessary to throw the bag with force, you need to keep the trajectory low and still make it to the board which will automatically make you throw the bag harder than normal. A high arc bag will not flop over. That is the basic idea and easier said than done but at least now you have the gist of what you need to do and what you need to practice.
Flop Shot or Rollover in Action
Check out this perfectly executed flop shot done by Noah Wooten in a match versus Ryan Windsor. Ryan had first bag and threw a blocker bag. This is what Trey Ryder refers to as a V Block. Trying to push this bag often results in your bag kicking off to the side. So Noah does what he does best which is flop or rollover the blocker!
After publishing this article and posting it on our Facebook page, many people commented to let us know about Erick Davis and how he has been throwing the flop shot for some time now. Doing some research, we came across this video. Erick Davis is by far, one of the best flop shot throwers I have ever seen. Watch this game and “change my mind”! The video should be set up to start at the right point but if not, skip ahead to the 31 minute mark.
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At one point, Erick Davis rolls over 4 bags! It truly is an amazing shot and he is an amazing flop shot thrower as well as an amazing cornhole player.
