Disc Golf Thread?

[Scurvy]

Stop me if there is already something like this floating around, but the season is rapidly approaching in west michigan, and sadly my local course involves treacherous water hazards, meaning that I will have to completely restock my disc collection (I'm a 4-5 disc kinda guy, I don't have a bag that holds 30).

Anyways, there must be a few people in the community who are enthusiasts, what are your preferences?

I'm an innova man myself, I haven't thrown a discraft disc aside from a few that i've found in the woods outside of holes, but typically as far as drivers go, I throw a katana, wraith, and boss. Mid range is a spider, and i have a starter aviar putt/approach that has served me well these past three years.

I'm a casual player, and if anybody here plays competitively, i'd jump at the chance to discuss the finer points (my game tends to lean towards distance, my short game is nothing short of embarrassing).


anyways, I got into the 'sport' due to the encouragement of fellow frolfers to smoke/drink throughout the round. I found out quickly that my drives are fairly weak with a traditional shot (backhand?) and due to my 15+ years of baseball/pitching experience, I am pretty handy with a forehand drive (I was the only pitcher on my highschool team with multiple pitches in three arm slots, sidearm being my favorite). I max out at around 350-400 feet on my drive, and if anybody with experience has any thoughts on the matter, feel free to chip in (pun intended).

[kthx]

Yeah I have been playing disc golf for a long time, probably close to around 8 years or so. I am a sidearm thrower only and generally throw from between 350-500 feet depending on how the wind is and what disc I need to use on the hole. My mid-game is probably my strongest point as I have a 4-5 year old ESP Sidewinder that I am deadly accurate with and can keep flying left the entire flight even throwing sidearm. My putting game is improving again finally now that I have a bit more time to get out and play now that my son is old enough.

Anyways, couple of things.

1. Pick up some of the new Blizzard plastic, the Boss/Katana specifically are really good but they also have Destroyer/Wraiths, the plastic has air bubbles in it so they generally only sell them in weights between 130-150 but throw between 20-30 grams higher than the weight they have. I picked up a few and the D you get with these things is ridiculous, especially with a tailwind even though they fly with a headwind. Anyways, the glide on them is fucking ridiculous. Also any disc under 150 grams will float so you don't have to worry about losing it.

2. I picked up a Vibram Ibex about three weeks ago and it is probably one of the very few discs that made it straight into my tournament bag after about 5 throws. It is an ultra-straight mid range that you can actually put some heat on, and also works great as a putter, if your having close range problems I suggest picking it up.

Anyways my tournament bag is as follows.

ESP Surge
ESP Nuke OS
ESP Nuke
ESP Sidewinder
ESP Sidewinder (old)
Blizzard Boss
Blizzard Katana
Vibram Ibex
ESP Buzz
Omega Supersoft
ESP Zone
ESP Force

Suggest you get a surge, you can tilt it just a little bit and get a really nice left to right shot on it, and once you get enough power you can throw it fairly straight and have the disc naturally turn left long enough to make the disc end up straight at around 400 feet or so. Sidewinder is a really really good disc, it keeps a flight path nicely, you can use it to keep a shot turning left with a sidearm once its broken in.

[kthx]

http://www.texasarmytrail.com/Defaul...ookieSupport=1

heres the most recent tournament I was in, at www.texasarmytrail.com (TaT), probably one of the best courses in Houston. Im the guy in the blue shorts and brown shirt.

[Zeebu]

i play but i suck. im in the same boat as your scurvy. i carry 4-5 discs around on the course with me not in a bag. i think i mainly use a destroyer and a valkyrie for my drivers. i have an aviar a wedge and a dart for my midrange/putting.

[Kahlan]

Never been but have always wanted to try it. Couple of my friends do it on occasion, but mostly because they're in competitive ultimate Frisbee leagues.

[Scurvy]

Yeah I have been playing disc golf for a long time, probably close to around 8 years or so. I am a sidearm thrower only and generally throw from between 350-500 feet depending on how the wind is and what disc I need to use on the hole. My mid-game is probably my strongest point as I have a 4-5 year old ESP Sidewinder that I am deadly accurate with and can keep flying left the entire flight even throwing sidearm. My putting game is improving again finally now that I have a bit more time to get out and play now that my son is old enough.

Anyways, couple of things.

1. Pick up some of the new Blizzard plastic, the Boss/Katana specifically are really good but they also have Destroyer/Wraiths, the plastic has air bubbles in it so they generally only sell them in weights between 130-150 but throw between 20-30 grams higher than the weight they have. I picked up a few and the D you get with these things is ridiculous, especially with a tailwind even though they fly with a headwind. Anyways, the glide on them is fucking ridiculous. Also any disc under 150 grams will float so you don't have to worry about losing it.

2. I picked up a Vibram Ibex about three weeks ago and it is probably one of the very few discs that made it straight into my tournament bag after about 5 throws. It is an ultra-straight mid range that you can actually put some heat on, and also works great as a putter, if your having close range problems I suggest picking it up.

Anyways my tournament bag is as follows.

ESP Surge
ESP Nuke OS
ESP Nuke
ESP Sidewinder
ESP Sidewinder (old)
Blizzard Boss
Blizzard Katana
Vibram Ibex
ESP Buzz
Omega Supersoft
ESP Zone
ESP Force

Suggest you get a surge, you can tilt it just a little bit and get a really nice left to right shot on it, and once you get enough power you can throw it fairly straight and have the disc naturally turn left long enough to make the disc end up straight at around 400 feet or so. Sidewinder is a really really good disc, it keeps a flight path nicely, you can use it to keep a shot turning left with a sidearm once its broken in.

The Blizzard plastic is a good tip, Most of my drivers are star plastic, which i prefer strongly to Pro. If i can pick up a surge and ibex i'll check them out. I'll probably end up ordering them online because I hate having to take my pick of the shitty selection at local sporting good stores. Eventually I think i'd like to compete on an amateur level, simply because i'm a competitive person and usually that kind of pressure makes me play a good deal better. As it is now my friends just make the loser of each 18 holes buy a round of drinks afterwards.

I do, however, often get confused regarding shot terminology as far as hyzer/anhyzer goes. I'm used to reversing most athletic pointers in my head because i'm a lefty, but since I throw forehand I'm never quite sure I'm getting it right. I'm assuming that when you say the surge has a nice left to right shot, I'd be throwing right to left. Actually, scratch that...i don't have to assume, thats how all my shots fly. I really like the huge s-curve I can get throwing my katana, but I really struggle going back and forth between that and my boss. I guess I gotta pay more attention to the 'stats' innova labels their discs with, and hit an open field and throw for a few hours. I hit the basket on my drive several times last year, so I'm pretty set on getting my first ace this summer.

Anyways, the course in the videos looks a lot like the terrain we play with up here. Lots of tree obstacles, thick underbrush, and usually flooded lol. Although I do enjoy when we play a more open course and I can really air out my drives. Also, I don't envy you the heat you probably play in during the dog days. (ps. nice soundtrack)

Do you think its a strength that you throw exclusively forehand? Do you putt forehand as well (I have a few friends who do)? I tend to choose my shot depending on the obstacles/layout of the hole, but I don't play often enough that I'm equally good with both forehand and backhand shots, so I wonder whether or not it would be best for my game to simply nut up and throw forehand 100%. I also will attempt a hammer shot once in a blue moon, but that rarely ends up well...I'm not sure if thats a crutch poor players use or if it can actually be of use during a serious match.

I watch youtube instructional videos on occasion when the mood strikes, but I often find that the subject matter is either too advanced or too remedial for my current skill level. I have noticed that several pro's talk about the fact that since this is a relatively new sport, there is not really a set of accepted fundamental mechanics, and lots of people simply translate the existing principles of various sports into their throws (hockey, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, etc). As I mentioned before, I've found that i'm able to use similar core mechanics of baseball pitching and hitting to maximize my distance. Do you have previous athletic experience that you find yourself emulating in your game? any tips/tricks? I've found that I get my best results focusing my energy on the ultimate flick of the wrist before my release, and throwing at about 85% max power with the rest of my windup. My main problem is that of inconsistency, which is simply a result of lack of practice, i suspect, and therefore a lack of the muscle memory required to make specific shots when the situation calls for them.

This has gotten fairly long-winded, so i'll refrain from asking about grip/approach etc. Thanks for the insight on your tourny bag, i'll make an effort to expand my arsenal soon.

[Scurvy]

Never been but have always wanted to try it. Couple of my friends do it on occasion, but mostly because they're in competitive ultimate Frisbee leagues.

haha i played competitive ultimate the first few years after high school when i was still playing soccer and could run forever. Disc Golf is a bit more relaxed for my current physique, and its actually a pretty neat sport as far as the community goes. Its an amusing mix of hipsters, rednecks, and middle-aged parents that play around here, and for the most part everybody is very polite and encouraging of all skill levels.

[Scoop]

I've played off an on for the last 5-6 years. I throw a star plastic wraith as my driver. I pretty much have used that type of disc the whole time. But yeah, they had the disc golf world championships or some shit in my city several years ago. We have about 5-6 different courses around town. I love that shit haha.

[kthx]

Man thats a lot of topics in one post but I will try to help you out a bit.

First off a Hyzer is always right to left no matter which way you throw, and anhyzer is always left to right.

Ordering online is probably a good call, we have three really nice disc golf stores in Houston, I happen to live about five minutes from one but even they don't have all the discs I want, especially with a lot of foreign and new companies emerging. I generally use DynamicDiscs to order from because they have been good to me in the past as far as me getting a disc exactly the way I want it, for instance telling them I want a flat top instead of a domed top (flied differently).

Discs that give you S curves are nice for some holes but of course a straight line is always the fastest route to a point, so if you are in an open field at all you would want a disc that would turn slowly left up until the fade draws it to the right for a sidearm, and the opposite for a forearm shot, the extra distance won't be that much more but it will help. But remember that tons of shit comes into play to be able to get a disc to do what you want it to, I mean even though my surge is a -1 it shouldn't turn left on me at all, the fact that it does means that I am putting too much power and too much spin for the under stable disc to handle so it flies left to compensate for the extra force I put on it. Thats why eventually you have to move up discs, you might have started playing with some shitty DX plastic disc and all the sudden it kept turning left/right on you and you thought the disc was broken but you had just entered another level of your game play is all. The big boys throw highly overstable discs which are generally the fastest because they have so much fucking power on their drive that they can even keep a +3 straight over 500-600 feet.

As far as what shot is better than the others, forearm is probably the most accurate and the most powerful in the looong run, there aren't too many professional sidearms because the you hit your cap much faster. Still unless you are playing on a big arm course I doubt it will matter and besides sidearms are pretty popular partners for double rounds. Tomahawking is fine to do also, and you should really have a disc in your bag that you know the turn on the tomahawk or the thumbahawk because you will need it eventually to get out of some woods. Oh and a thumbahawk is basically going to turn the exact opposite of a tomahawk with the same disc (just put your thumb on the inside of the disc instead of your pointer finger).

As for the sports thing yeah.. I sorta taught myself as well, there wasn't really many people playing when I first started as it was juust starting to get popular again but now most people compare to my sidearming style to a submarine style pitch in baseball which is how I actually threw in high school. Basically my run up is first I take a look at the basket, then I tilt my disc to match the angle I want on it, I sorta squat down just a little bit, I keep my body really low, I keep my arm on the same level plane the entire throw, and then I basically take a few short steps and release. As for my grip I use a one finger grip that I press as hard as I can into the inside of the disc and like you, at the end of my shot I flick my wrist for that extra 40-50 feet. I think you can see my stance a bit on that video I linked anyways.

Anyways man, there isn't really a right or wrong way to do things, its basically trial and error, my only suggestion would be to try to buy like.. a disc with a -2/-1/0/1/2 on the under/over stable chart and see which one holds a straight line for you, that would be a good way to estimate your power and how much spin you are putting on the disc. You can use that as a spot to collect some discs for your level and then you will be able to try out the next level when you get to the point that the ones that were working for you are turning over on you.

[kthx]

Look at 5:27 in that video I posted, that is a pretty good demonstration of my stance, also notice how little the s curve is on that shot and how straight the disc stays throughout the flight. The less distance you are going left to right, the less spin you are losing on the disc not moving forward and the more distance you will get. That is my ESP Surge btw.

[Scurvy]

actually, that does help a lot, I appreciate your time. I had always assumed that an s curve was better for distance because i figured that the longer the disc is in the air going further, the better. Obviously that contradicts...just about everything, but it seemed to get the best results for me. I do have more questions, but they are technicalities that I can simply google rather than make you elaborate further. In any event, I've had a few drinks since my last post, and that means I'll ramble on even longer if I don't cut myself off now. If I have more serious inquiries I'll post at a later date.

Thanks dude

[Kahlan]

I have played regular golf for years, this seems like a cheaper alternative. There's a course nearby, but nothing like the one kthx has in those videos. Course around here is crazy open. I'll have to ask my buddies about the other ones they play and see if I can tag along for a game to see if I'd enjoy it.

[kthx]

just search up disc golf courses and go to like dgcoursereview, you can type in your area code. Also feel free to ask me anything scurvy, disc golf, beer, and cooking are among the three things I actually enjoy having lengthy conversations about.

[Ilya]

i found a really nice park by my new house and there's a really big disc golf course there in the woods and there's nice trails that go through/along it.. is there anything against disc golf etiquette to walk your dog through there?

[vaped]

Well how about that ... I've always wondered what those things are when I've seen them (the holes). I feel like I probably knew what they were once, but never retained the information.

Seems like something I could get into...