How to Throw The Throwing Knives - Guide for Beginners

If you have seen an expert knife thrower throwing knives on target successfully, you know it is a breathtaking sight. However, it is not an easy task to throw three knives, one after the other, in a quick succession and getting your aim right.

If you have just witnessed knife throwing, but never experienced it, or you are a beginner stepping into this magnificent hobby, we guide you step-by-step on how to throw the throwing knives.

After reading this article, you will gain a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of this practice, and we ensure you will become an efficient knife thrower. Before initiating our brief guide, it is important to know the basics about throwing knives. As the name suggests, a throwing knife is a knife designed for efficient throwing.

These knives are neither lightweight or heavyweight, sturdy, and balanced in the middle, therefore, they are specially designed for throwing purpose.

Knife throwing has been around for years, an easy-to- do hobby, the popularity of which is making a comeback. There is nothing more gorgeous than the sound of the knife hitting spot on from the specified distance away.

You can use some hunting knives for this practice, but professional throwing knives are more accurate and safe.

So, you must have got an idea that your first step has to be choosing the knife. But before starting our explanatory guide, we believe it is necessary to understand the three principles of knife throwing.

The Three Knife Throwing Principles

Safety

Whether you are a beginner or you are a seasoned campaigner, you just cannot ignore the safety measures for throwing knives for beginners. The safety concerns that you may have, thankfully, are pretty self-explanatory.

Your common sense would suggest that you must not be barefooted while throwing the knife.

Also, don’t practice knife throwing at a place where you are surrounded by kids or pets that may disturb you or enter the danger zone.

So, set your target away from the reach of people. If you are practicing at a place where general public may passby, inform the people surrounding you. Always pay attention to what is going on around you.

Wear hard shoes and use proper equipment.

Precision

Accuracy or precision is the most fundamental goal while throwing knives. From buying the knife to adopting the throwing techniques, your goal is to accurately hit the target.

However, as a beginner, don’t expect that you would be spot on straight away. In case you require work on your precision, adjust your distance from your target.

You can get closer to the specified target at the start or alter your throwing technique. However, regular practice, hard work and persistence are what can lead to enhanced precision and target hitting skills.

Consistency

Consistency is the third goal in knife throwing sport. Once you start achieving accuracy, you need to make sure that you hit the target more often than you don’t.

For instance, if you were spot on 5 out of 10 times at the start, now it’s the time to improve that ratio. You should not stop practicing unless you hit the target 8 out of 10 times.

Try closing this gap as much as possible. Now, I believe we are done talking about the rules, so let’s start our step-by-step guide to throwing knives for beginners.

The Step-wise Guide to Throwing Knives

Step 1: Choose your knife
There is an endless choice when it comes to throwing knives. A knife with some weight and a semi-sharp point may work for you.

However, always keep in mind that there are different throwing techniques for different types of knives. If you choose a hunting knife, it would require a different grip than the original throwing knife.

So, choosing the right knife is extremely important because a wrong choice of knife can lead to poor accuracy. For finding a knife, you need to get to a nearby store, online store, or a warehouse.

There are some traits of perfect throwing knives you need to keep reminding yourself while buying a knife.
A perfect throwing knife will never have a sharp edge, rather it will just incorporate a sharp point. For your safety, choose a knife with rounded corner.

The knife should be thick enough to prevent its tip from becoming bent. The ideal throwing knives for beginners must not weigh more or less than 200 grams.

Any variation in this weight would impact the throwing precision. Fancy grips would never make a knife better than others, so try finding a knife that does not require later maintenance.

As opposed to solid blades, the knives with perforations are more vulnerable to breakage. Because you have an enormous choice, try to choose a knife with minimum perforation so that the hole in the knife does not result in a shattered blade.

Step 2: The Basics of Throwing
Before you start throwing knives, you should learn what your goals are, how you will achieve them and what you need for achieving them.

After choosing a knife, the other thing you need is a target. It is critical for experts as well as beginners to choose a good target. It is recommended to the beginners to select a large and soft target.

So, this would make you focus on correct rotations rather than power and accuracy. A great rotting tree trunk can be a great idea as a target because it meets the requirements, and is easy to find.

One of the major concerns while throwing knives is the safety. You need to wear suitable outfit, and make sure that there are no people or pets around the throwing area.

Therefore, ask the people around you to be careful and try not to come nearby. Now, move to the goals of knife throwing that depend mainly on your skill set. However, the goals are focused on different rotations.

As a beginner, your first goal must be throwing the knife with half rotation. Then, you should move to full rotations, and finally to the advanced throws.

These throws would pose a new challenge for you, but it will assist in building your skills. After mastering these skills, you will get a gratification of accomplishing your goals.

Step 3: Knife Grip and Throwing Stance
Similar to other sporting activities, throwing knives requires a stance and a form. For getting yourself prepared for throw, you must focus on your body posture and footing first.

A good throwing posture is indicated by the relaxed body of the thrower. In case your body is tense, you would most probably overthrow the knife which results in inconsistent throwing and bad form.

Another indicator of good throwing stance is standing up straight. It is highly significant to ensure an accurate and straight throw by standing straight.

If you throw using your right hand, try keeping your left foot behind and your right foot forward. Do the opposite in case you are throwing with your left hand.

In addition, you must focus on the way you hold the knife while throwing. For accurately holding a throwing knife, hold it in a similar fashion you hold a hammer.

Make sure to keep the thumb on the top of the other fingers. Also, ensure that no fingers change your throw’s trajectory. In case you are using a sharp edged blade or any hunting knife, it is highly significant to leave room amid your hand and the edge of the blade while gripping the knife.

After understanding the right throwing form and stance, it is time to get some shoes on and get in front of your target to learn different types of throws.

Step 4: The Half Spin Throw
Learning different throws is necessary if you want to become a professional knife thrower. The first goal for a beginner to throwing knives is to throw the knife on the target with half spin throw.

If you gain expertise at this throw, you are well on your way to perform more advanced throws. However, before you proceed with throwing, make sure to take some safety precautions.

Always wear shoes with hard toe, specifically at the beginning phase.
To start throwing knives, firstly, make sure that you are at an appropriate distance from the specified target. However, your distance also depends upon the knife you are using.

Generally, in case of half spin rotation, you must be standing approximately six feet away from your target. However, you can experiment with varying distances to find the right spot.

After finding a sweet spot, grip the knife with the handle upwards and the blade facing you. Use a moderate force to throw the knife at the target, specifically when you are a beginner. Don’t exert tremendous force for throwing the knife, if you have the right knife and target, a moderate force would do the job.

However, if your rotation is accurate, but the knife does not stay on target, make sure that the tip of your knife is sharp enough and your target is of softwood.

Step 5: The Full Spin Throw
Once you have mastered the half spin throw, now you can move onto the full rotation knife throw. This is one of the throws that require more accuracy, therefore, it is important to review the right knife grip and throwing stance.

However, again, remember to take the safety precautions before preceding. As a beginner, you must be well-equipped with safety instruments like hard shoes for throwing knives.

This would make sure that your feet are safe in case you accidentally drop the knife.
So, for initiating this throw, try to find the most appropriate distance from your target. Generally in such throws, you must stand around 10 to 11 feet away from the target. However, this is just an estimate.

Still, your form and knife may change these estimations. Therefore, try finding your own sweet spot. Grip the knife now from its handle and make sure that blade is facing the sky.

Again, use moderate force to throw the knife at the target. Stay relax and focus on the stance as this throw would take more accuracy as compared to the half rotation throw.

In case the knife does not hit the target, try sharpening your knife tip or make sure that you have a softwood target.

Step 6: The over throws
As a beginner, it is suggested to practice only the half rotation and full rotation throws. Once you become an expert professional of throwing knives, you can learn more advanced throws.

However, if you love challenges, you can try some advanced throws. The advanced throws usually include no spin or over spin. You can try with different number of rotations, and by varying the distance from the target.

To master the art of knife throwing, you can increase the distance from the target or alter the rotations to give yourself high challenges. In the art of throwing knives, the most challenging technique is the “no spin” technique.

This involves absolutely no spin on the knife. The expert throwers use this technique for close target hitting. If you achieve precision in this technique, you are certainly a master knife thrower.

Step 7: Practice to achieve perfection
It is a universal fact that practice is necessary to achieve perfection in any sport. If you consistently practice knife throwing, you can build your throwing skills. The professional knife throwers never stop practicing.
Once you become a knife thrower, it does not mean that you can retain your target-hitting abilities without regular practice. You can adopt knife throwing as a hobby, and involve your friends to enjoy this fantastic sport.
So, this was the last step in your way to become expert at throwing knives, but before you leave, we want to take a moment to remind you “Play safely while following the safety precautions.”