Wisdom Wednesday – Simplify

Simplify

Last week on the Disc Golf Answer Man, my Mind Over Plastic segment focused on taking stock of the previous year. Looking back and making note of what went well and making plans to improve on the things that didn’t. As it gets colder and darker outside, I become more introspective. The furious activity of the summer gives way to to a quiet contemplation.

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Wisdom Wednesday – When it Snows…

When it snows...

I’m from Colorado. One of my favorite things about Colorado is the weather. Over 300 days of sunshine every year. How can you not love that?

But I don’t just miss the weather. I miss people’s attitudes about the weather. Hot and sunny? Time to go hiking in the mountains! Raining? The fishing will be good tomorrow! 3 feet of snow? Time to go skiing! My Grandfather was one of those people.

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Wisdom Wednesday – Disc Golf Expectations

Expect Nothing 2

Expectations…

We were walking up the 18th fairway and my doubles partner was pissed. For me, playing in the Saturday morning league was an attempt to get out and play some disc golf with other people instead of my normal early morning solitary rounds. For him, it was a way to earn beer money for the weekend. In fact, he had planned his whole Saturday around starting it off with winning that beer money.

As he was griping and complaining, I asked him what he was so upset about.

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Wisdom Wednesday – Gratitude

 

 

Gratitude disc golf meme
That Buddha was a pretty smart guy.

The next time you are out on the course, try to keep track of how many times you say to yourself, “I wish I could…”. I bet it’s a lot more than you think.

I wish I could drive further.
I wish I could putt better.
I wish I could throw more accurately.
I wish I had this or that disc.
I wish I had a different bag.
I wish our course was better.

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Wisdom Wednesday – Habits

WW - Habits

In the last couple of newsletters, I’ve touched on motivation (if you don’t get the newsletter, you are missing out, subscribe below!). Last week’s Wisdom Wednesday post was about maintaining regular motivation. But try as we might, no one can keep themselves motivated all of the time. Even when you purposefully surround yourself with motivating things, you will still sometimes lose your spark and drive.

So what to do when that happens? How do we keep ourselves moving forward when all we want to do is stay in bed 10 more minutes? The answer to that is habits.

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A Word From Michael Jordan’s Trainer on Playing Disc Golf Under Pressure

Can You Handle It?

Pressure. It’s the silent killer of our best day on the disc golf course. All the preparation and practice in the world can be crushed by the mounting tension placed on us by a tough opponent, a close tournament round, or the self induced stress of trying to beat our personal best score on our home course.

Disc Golf Under Pressure
Eagle Wynne McMahon feels the pressure from Paul McBeth at the 2014 GBO

Many top pros have made the observation that what separates the winners and the losers of major tournaments is the ability to handle stress. All of them have a very similar level of skill. It’s what they do with it under pressure that determines how they score.

That’s all well and good, but how exactly do we learn to deal with pressure out on the course? It’s not like there is a field work drill designed to deal with competition related stress. What are those of us not named McBeth supposed to do? One possible answer lies on the basketball court.

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Wisdom Wednesday – What Gets Measured…

Almost every one of us wants to improve at disc golf. I don’t know of any disc golfer who is 100% happy with their current skill set. Even Paul McBeth, the highest rated disc golfer in the history of the game, works daily to improve his disc golf skills. He is constantly measuring his performance, … Read more