Leave no Trace…

There is an environmentally safe way to go camping, one in which you leave behind what you find, dispose of waste properly, and generally go out of your way not to disturb the wilderness.

If the “leave no trace” ethos works for camping, shouldn’t it be true for other outdoor activities, like disc golf, as well? Take golf: it’s a beloved, centuries-old sport enjoyed around the world, but it’s also a sport that can have a negative impact on the environment.

“Traditional golf attracts criticism from environmentalists for two primary reasons: water and pesticides,” writes Jack Trageser, founder of the School of Disc Golf.

“Prodigious amounts of both are used each week by U.S. golf courses to keep fairways and greens lush, green, and free of weeds. The more radical line of thinking is the environmental impact on such large areas for the benefit — and recreational benefit at that — of so few is unconscionable. Even a good percentage of golf enthusiasts polled about the subject of golf and the environment tend to agree that course owners and greenskeepers need to modify maintenance practices.”

Golf in a Perfect World…

Is there an alternative?

Trageser quotes Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, who describes golf “in a perfect world”:

“You’d be playing on an organic course. The maintenance equipment would be charged by solar power. Recycled water would be used for irrigation, and used efficiently and sparingly. There’d be a great variety of wildlife habitats. This idea that you’ve got to make everything look like a miniature golf course with a green carpet is crazy.”

But Traegeser goes onto say that we already have the utopian golf experience in disc golf. It may not be the exact same game as traditional golf, but Traegeser argues it still gives players “the full golf experience.” It’s mentally challenging, with constant risk vs. reward scenarios to puzzle through. And it can be played on terrain that doesn’t require pesticides or watering.

Affecting the Disc Golf Course Environment…

This is not to say that disc golf doesn’t have environmental consequences. On her blog The Average Visitor, Ashley D’Antonio points to a study done on disc golf courses in North Carolina between 1995 and 2010.

Researchers looked at news stories about disc golf written during those years and found that as time went on, the articles began to mention potentially negative environmental impacts of disc golf. Those impacts included vegetation loss, tree root exposure and soil erosion. They also found some impacts specific to the sport: players cutting branches to give themselves more room to throw, and tree bark damage as a result of the discs hitting trees.

“For example, knowing that disc-golf activities can lead to bark damage on trees, managers can plant trees with sturdier and more resistant bark,” she writes. “Additionally, managers could consider rotating the location of baskets so that areas that have been highly trampled can be given time to recover.”

As disc golf grows in popularity, players, equipment makers and course managers should take care to treat the game as a chance to enjoy the great outdoors while leaving as little trace as possible.

By Shawn Overturf

Shawn is a disc golf enthusiast and the owner of D-town Disc Golf, a source for all your disc golf needs since 2012. When he isn’t managing his store, you can find him throwing plastic with his kids on courses in Bucks County, PA. Visit him online here: www.discgolfmarket.com

The post The Environmental Impact of Disc Golf – Guest Post appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

If you hadn’t noticed, I have a soft spot in my heart for motivational memes. I put them up several days a week over on FaceBook. I have a regular Wednesday post (that you just so happen to be reading now) that I try to make as motivational as possible. I try to inspire with the Instagram images I post. There’s a whole category of motivational posts right here on the blog!

I’d like to be able to say I do it all just for you. But I don’t. I do it for me too. Getting and staying motivated is one of the things I’ve found all successful people in any field to have in common. I regularly find myself in need of inspiration. I try my best to share a lot of it with you.

[tweetthis]You can have all the skill in the world, but if you aren’t motivated to get off your butt and use it, it’s wasted.[/tweetthis]

The problem with motivation, as Zig so accurately points out in this week’s meme, is that it doesn’t last. When I read one of Paul McBeth’s FaceBook posts, I get super motivated to go practice every day. Two days later, I’m playing rounds instead of practicing. A couple of days after that, I’m telling myself there are too many mosquitos out to go play today.

What’s the solution? Daily motivation. The key is that you have to actively seek it out. As much as we’d all like to think that all the motivation we need comes from within us, it just doesn’t.

In a really great book called the War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about “the resistance”. The resistance is that little voice inside that tells you how much better it would be if you just hit the snooze button. It’s the little devil that sits on your shoulder and seduces you with the easy path through life. The resistance isn’t looking out for your best interest.

How do you fight the resistance? First, get Pressfield’s book. It’s really short and honestly one of the best books I’ve ever read on getting things done. I use the concepts it teaches almost daily.

Second, seek out daily motivation. Get yourself fired up. Play the theme to Rocky as your alarm in the morning. Watch great movies. Read motivational books. Follow people like McBeth who you can’t help but be inspired by. I would humbly say that following Mind Body Disc here and on Twitter, Instagram, and FaceBook would help too.

Surround yourself with things that rev your engine. Intentionally get yourself pumped up. Add motivation to your life on purpose.

At the end of your days, you’re going to look back on your life and say one of two things. “I wish I had.” or “I’m glad I did.”. The difference between which of those you end up saying could simply be how motivated you were.

Are you going to go out by saying “I wish I’d practiced more”, “I wish I’d played more”, or “I wish I’d spent more time with my friends on the course”? Or are you going to go out saying “I gave it my all”, “I spent every moment doing the thing I loved”, and “I played exactly as much disc golf as I wanted to”?

Make motivation like bathing. Do it every day. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, but I promise it’s the most rewarding.

Make sure you don’t miss a single motivational word by subscribing to the blog!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Wisdom Wednesday – Motivation and Bathing appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

Manufacturer’s Description

Here’s what Dynamic Discs has to say about the Convict:

Before someone becomes a Felon they must be convicted. It is the same in the disc golf world. Dynamic Discs introduces the Convict.

It is a great complement to the Felon with the same feel in the hand but with less stability. The Convict is perfect for those times when you need a straight disc for most of the shot but have to have some stability at the end of the flight. The Convict can also hold the anhyzer you give it before coming back to flat. This disc allows for you to shape your shots to avoid all of the obstacles that are trying to increase your scores.

Throw with conviction. Throw a Convict.

Speed: 9 Glide: 4 Turn: -0.5 Fade: 3

Max Weight: 176g

Inbounds Flight guide

Since DD compares the Convict to the Felon, I thought I’d include the Inbounds flight chart for both of them so you can see a comparison:

Make sure and make the Inbounds Flight Guide part of any disc research you do, it’s the best resource for disc flight information on the web!

After throwing the Convict for a month, I’d say the above chart is accurate for medium strength throwers. If you can throw 300-350, that’s pretty much the flight you can expect.

First Impressions

When I first took the Convict out of the mailer I was immediately struck by how good it felt in my hand. The most notable feature is that it is flat. I’m talking pre Columbus Earth flat. I love flat discs. This was a good start.

The rim is also manageable. You’d expect this from a fairway driver. I prefer not to throw the Nuke style giant rimmed discs. Even at 6’6″ with gigantic hands, I can’t get down with most wide rimmed drivers. The Convict felt great with it’s medium width rim.

As usual, Dynamic delivers what is, in my opinion, some of the best feeling plastic in the game. Both their Lucid and their Fuzion plastics feel great with just the right amount of pliability, grip, and overall feel. This particular disc is in Lucid and has a super sweet Am Worlds fundraiser stamp on it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a few thousand words worth of pics to give you an idea of how the Convict sets up.

How does it fly?

The Convict flew as good as it felt. Sometimes it takes a while to get a disc dialed in. Not so with the Convict. I was able to get desirable flights out of it right off the bat.

Thrown flat.

Thrown flat, it tilted into a minor turn to the right and just rode there for a while. The first time I saw this I thought it wasn’t going to fight back, but once it slowed down, it fought back hard and faded left a good amount.

It’s end of flight fade was very similar to the Felon. It was almost like they took a Felon in the back room, tied it to a chair, and mercilessly beat the high speed over stability out of it.

I never really dug the Felon all that much. It was just too overstable for my taste. I’ve got friends who love that disc, have aced multiple times with the mold, and think I’m crazy for not liking it. All that said, the Convict has none of the characteristics of the Felon I don’t like and all of them that I do.

The most notable of those is the reliability. No matter how much I turned the disc over, it always came back… Hard. Because of this, it is a driver you can count on.

Anhyzer flight.

Throwing it with some anhyzer meant it flew right for a good portion of its flight. It never turned all the way over or got squirrelly. It just held its right turn until it slowed enough for its fade to kick in.

When the fade starts, the disc turns left. Some discs just fight back to flat and then land smoothly. I did not find the Convict to do that. Once the fade began, it fought pretty hard to go left and it wasn’t a gentle turn.

Hyzer flight.

When thrown with hyzer, the Convict just held the hyzer line all the way to the ground. It did fade harder at the end than it did early in its flight. That meant that when throw with some height, it tended to dig in when landing and not skip much. Thrown low, it skipped a couple of times with a nice flair after the first contact with the ground.

Wind Performance

The Convict is OK into a moderate headwind, but I wouldn’t rely on it into any more than that. While it still fights out into a fade at the end of its flight, a stiff headwind tended to make the disc turn a little too much for my taste.

I suppose this is where the Felon comes in. For grins, I threw the Felon into the same winds that turned the Convict over and was pleased to see the Felon held up well. If you are looking for a fairway driver pair that feel almost identical in the hand, but have a noticeable stability difference, look no further than the Convict and the Felon.

In a tailwind, the Convict did not stay turned near as long into its flight. A strong tailwind caused the Convict to head left pretty quickly and turned it into a reliably overstable disc. A tailwind also cut a lot of distance off of the flight.

Distance.

The Convict is a fairway driver. It has the distance you’d expect from a fairway driver. It does not have the unexpected distance that you’ll find with some of the more domey or glidey fairway drivers (like the DD Escape, for example).

The flat profile of the Convict means it’s not going to surprise you by gliding past your target unexpectedly. That’s one of the things I like about flat discs. On the whole, they tend to be more reliable.

The Convict will have noticeably less D than your big distance discs. Part of that is its flat profile. Part is that when it kicks into its fade, it’s not going much further. It turns left relatively hard which takes away almost any forward fade.

How will it fly for you?

Is your arm a bionically grafted canon?

The Convict will turn over for you. What you will like about it is that unlike a lot of discs that turn over for you, this one will still come back. A lot of big arms have a hard time finding a turnover disc that is reliable.

If you are looking for something you can put some power on, have it cruise right for you, and then still fade out at the end, the Convict is your choice. For your HeMan style arm, it will just turn back to flat for you at the end of the turn.

Do you have the arm of a normal human being?

The majority of this review is written for you. That’s because I too have a normal human being arm. I could push the Convict out to about 325-350 reliably and its turn and fade were very much like the InBounds flight chart above.

Is your arm made of a mix of Play-Doh and strawberry jam?

For you, the Convict will fly more like the InBounds flight chart for the Felon. If you use a lot of anny to make up for your lower power throw, you will find that the Convict stays turned over for you. Still, expect some big fade left at the end of the flight.

For lower arm speeds, the Convict will probably hold up to most winds. It should be a very reliable and consistent fairway driver in your hands. It’s also a disc that will grow with you and stay in your bag as your arm speed increases.

Similar discs.

The Convict is scarily similar to the Trespass. If you are a Trespass thrower and have been looking for its little brother, the Convict is it. The Convict will turn a tad more and has just a bit more fade, but every time I threw it I was comparing it to my favorite Trespasses in the back of my head.

I would also compare the Convict to the Westside Stag. The Stag fades a tad less, but the rest of the flight and its feel in the hand is very similar to the Convict. The Stag might have a bit more glide too.

For you Innova throwers, the Convict would be closest to an Eagle. The Eagle probably turns just a bit more, but the amount of fade is almost identical. For you Discraft folks, think Tracker. The Convict has more glide than the Tracker and goes further with less effort in my opinion.

In Summary

As you can probably tell, I really liked the Convict. A big part of that is how similar it is to the Trespass. The Trespass has been a staple in my bag for quite a while now. The Convict is just a shorter version.

There are not very many discs that I review that make my bag. The Convict will be the second one (the first is the Dynamic Discs Justice – read my review of that disc here). I’ve never been very happy with my stable fairway driver choices.

I’ve had the overstable slot filled with a Latitude 64 Trident. The understable slot is firmly held by the Latitude 64 Fury and the Latitude 64 Vision. I’ve never really had the perfect disc for that middle stability slot. Now I do!

Win a Dynamic Discs Convict!

Unfortunately for me, but very fortunately for you, I am giving away my review copy you see in the pictures in this review. How do you win? All you have to do is subscribe to this blog by entering your email below. I’ll pick a winner at random from all subscribers on Wednesday September 30 at noon CST.

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LHBH / RHFH Version:

Are you a lefty??? We’ve got you covered!!!

If you clicked the link at the top of this review, it brought you here. Tired of figuring out if “left” really means “right”? Sick of having to convert every disc review and description to your throwing style?

From now on, ALL Mind Body Disc disc reviews will come with a complete copy of the original review modified for LHBH and RHFH players. Just click the link at the top of the review to jump down to the version written just for you!

Manufacturer’s Description

Here’s what Dynamic Discs has to say about the Convict:

Before someone becomes a Felon they must be convicted. It is the same in the disc golf world. Dynamic Discs introduces the Convict.

It is a great complement to the Felon with the same feel in the hand but with less stability. The Convict is perfect for those times when you need a straight disc for most of the shot but have to have some stability at the end of the flight. The Convict can also hold the anhyzer you give it before coming back to flat. This disc allows for you to shape your shots to avoid all of the obstacles that are trying to increase your scores.

Throw with conviction. Throw a Convict.

Speed: 9 Glide: 4 Turn: -0.5 Fade: 3

Max Weight: 176g

Inbounds Flight guide

Since DD compares the Convict to the Felon, I thought I’d include the Inbounds flight chart for both of them so you can see a comparison:

Make sure and make the Inbounds Flight Guide part of any disc research you do, it’s the best resource for disc flight information on the web!

After throwing the Convict for a month, I’d say the above chart is accurate for medium strength throwers. If you can throw 300-350, that’s pretty much the flight you can expect.

First Impressions

When I first took the Convict out of the mailer I was immediately struck by how good it felt in my hand. The most notable feature is that it is flat. I’m talking pre Columbus Earth flat. I love flat discs. This was a good start.

The rim is also manageable. You’d expect this from a fairway driver. I prefer not to throw the Nuke style giant rimmed discs. Even at 6’6″ with gigantic hands, I can’t get down with most wide rimmed drivers. The Convict felt great with it’s medium width rim.

As usual, Dynamic delivers what is, in my opinion, some of the best feeling plastic in the game. Both their Lucid and their Fuzion plastics feel great with just the right amount of pliability, grip, and overall feel. This particular disc is in Lucid and has a super sweet Am Worlds fundraiser stamp on it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a few thousand words worth of pics to give you an idea of how the Convict sets up.

How does it fly?

The Convict flew as good as it felt. Sometimes it takes a while to get a disc dialed in. Not so with the Convict. I was able to get desirable flights out of it right off the bat.

Thrown flat.

Thrown flat, it tilted into a minor turn to the left and just rode there for a while. The first time I saw this I thought it wasn’t going to fight back, but once it slowed down, it fought back hard and faded right a good amount.

It’s end of flight fade was very similar to the Felon. It was almost like they took a Felon in the back room, tied it to a chair, and mercilessly beat the high speed over stability out of it.

I never really dug the Felon all that much. It was just too overstable for my taste. I’ve got friends who love that disc, have aced multiple times with the mold, and think I’m crazy for not liking it. All that said, the Convict has none of the characteristics of the Felon I don’t like and all of them that I do.

The most notable of those is the reliability. No matter how much I turned the disc over, it always came back… Hard. Because of this, it is a driver you can count on.

Anhyzer flight.

Throwing it with some anhyzer meant it flew left for a good portion of its flight. It never turned all the way over or got squirrelly. It just held its left turn until it slowed enough for its fade to kick in.

When the fade starts, the disc turns right. Some discs just fight back to flat and then land smoothly. I did not find the Convict to do that. Once the fade began, it fought pretty hard to go right and it wasn’t a gentle turn.

Hyzer flight.

When thrown with hyzer, the Convict just held the hyzer line all the way to the ground. It did fade harder at the end than it did early in its flight. That meant that when throw with some height, it tended to dig in when landing and not skip much. Thrown low, it skipped a couple of times with a nice flair after the first contact with the ground.

Wind Performance

The Convict is OK into a moderate headwind, but I wouldn’t rely on it into any more than that. While it still fights out into a fade at the end of its flight, a stiff headwind tended to make the disc turn a little too much for my taste.

I suppose this is where the Felon comes in. For grins, I threw the Felon into the same winds that turned the Convict over and was pleased to see the Felon held up well. If you are looking for a fairway driver pair that feel almost identical in the hand, but have a noticeable stability difference, look no further than the Convict and the Felon.

In a tailwind, the Convict did not stay turned near as long into its flight. A strong tailwind caused the Convict to head left pretty quickly and turned it into a reliably overstable disc. A tailwind also cut a lot of distance off of the flight.

Distance.

The Convict is a fairway driver. It has the distance you’d expect from a fairway driver. It does not have the unexpected distance that you’ll find with some of the more domey or glidey fairway drivers (like the DD Escape, for example).

The flat profile of the Convict means it’s not going to surprise you by gliding past your target unexpectedly. That’s one of the things I like about flat discs. On the whole, they tend to be more reliable.

The Convict will have noticeably less D than your big distance discs. Part of that is its flat profile. Part is that when it kicks into its fade, it’s not going much further. It turns right relatively hard which takes away almost any forward fade.

How will it fly for you?

Is your arm a bionically grafted canon?

The Convict will turn over for you. What you will like about it is that unlike a lot of discs that turn over for you, this one will still come back. A lot of big arms have a hard time finding a turnover disc that is reliable.

If you are looking for something you can put some power on, have it cruise left for you, and then still fade out at the end, the Convict is your choice. For your HeMan style arm, it will just turn back to flat for you at the end of the turn.

Do you have the arm of a normal human being?

The majority of this review is written for you. That’s because I too have a normal human being arm. I could push the Convict out to about 325-350 reliably and its turn and fade were very much like the InBounds flight chart above.

Is your arm made of a mix of Play-Doh and strawberry jam?

For you, the Convict will fly more like the InBounds flight chart for the Felon. If you use a lot of anny to make up for your lower power throw, you will find that the Convict stays turned over for you. Still, expect some big fade right at the end of the flight.

For lower arm speeds, the Convict will probably hold up to most winds. It should be a very reliable and consistent fairway driver in your hands. It’s also a disc that will grow with you and stay in your bag as your arm speed increases.

Similar discs.

The Convict is scarily similar to the Trespass. If you are a Trespass thrower and have been looking for its little brother, the Convict is it. The Convict will turn a tad more and has just a bit more fade, but every time I threw it I was comparing it to my favorite Trespasses in the back of my head.

I would also compare the Convict to the Westside Stag. The Stag fades a tad less, but the rest of the flight and its feel in the hand is very similar to the Convict. The Stag might have a bit more glide too.

For you Innova throwers, the Convict would be closest to an Eagle. The Eagle probably turns just a bit more, but the amount of fade is almost identical. For you Discraft folks, think Tracker. The Convict has more glide than the Tracker and goes further with less effort in my opinion.

In Summary

As you can probably tell, I really liked the Convict. A big part of that is how similar it is to the Trespass. The Trespass has been a staple in my bag for quite a while now. The Convict is just a shorter version.

There are not very many discs that I review that make my bag. The Convict will be the second one (the first is the Dynamic Discs Justice – read my review of that disc here). I’ve never been very happy with my stable fairway driver choices.

I’ve had the overstable slot filled with a Latitude 64 Trident. The understable slot is firmly held by the Latitude 64 Fury and the Latitude 64 Vision. I’ve never really had the perfect disc for that middle stability slot. Now I do!

Win a Dynamic Discs Convict!

Unfortunately for me, but very fortunately for you, I am giving away my review copy you see in the pictures in this review. How do you win? All you have to do is subscribe to this blog by entering your email below. I’ll pick a winner at random from all subscribers on Wednesday September 30 at noon CST.

[wysija_form id=”1″]

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Dynamic Discs Convict Review appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

You are standing on the tee. Today you are playing one of the better courses in your area. This hole is a great example of why. The basket is not reachable off the tee. It’s 650 feet away. Good thing you watched that YouTube video last night on disc golf driving tips!

You’ve been working on your distance for occasions just like this one. You are primed and ready to let the disc rip. You can’t wait to impress your friends. You grab your favorite Destroyer. You step up. You crush it like you’ve never crushed it before. You might have even heard the disc squeak, “ouch!” as it leaves your hand!

The rest of the group watches the disc as it sails out past 400 feet. It’s a thing of beauty that skips and flares at the end of its flight leaving you just off the left edge of the fairway. You walk off the tee pad head held high, chest out, and proud of what you just did.

After your display, you kind of scratch your head as you see that one of your friends is holding a Buzzz. Doesn’t she know this is a 600 foot hole? What is she thinking? Well, if she wants to make it easy on you, you’re certainly not going to stop her, right?

You watch as she throws a shot up the right hand side of the fairway. It settles down about 300 feet out and fades gently to the middle of the fairway. Ha! You’ve got her by at least 100 feet!

D’oh!

Now for the interesting part. As you walk up the fairway, your confidence starts to fade. As the disc gets closer, you start to see what kind of second shot you’ve left yourself. The nearer you get, the uglier things look.

When you get up to your disc, you see that you’ve landed in some tall grass that will make a run up impossible on your second shot. The basket is guarded on both sides. With the angle you’ve left yourself there is nothing but trees and bushes blocking any workable line in.

All the good angles are gone from this spot. The harder you look, the worse it gets. It’s going to take a miracle shot to get anywhere near the basket. Looking around, you see that the only spot that has a decent line to the basket is the one your opponent is standing on. She smiles at you and waves.

She is in a perfect position to get up and down. She marks her disc, takes the same Buzzz she threw off the tee, and throws a beautiful straight shot right up to the basket. At most she has a 15 foot putt for a 3.

With your terrible footing, shaken confidence, and lack of a good options for your second shot, you end up in the bushes to the right of the basket. By the time you get out of the bushes and into the chains, you take a 4.

A lot of good that video on disc golf driving tips did you now, right?

Distance shouldn’t be your first concern.

Your first concern, every single time you play, should be getting the disc into the basket in the fewest amount of throws possible. It’s not how far you are going to throw.

[tweetthis]The only thing recorded on a #discgolf score card is your score.[/tweetthis]

That means that when you step up on the tee, there are a lot more things to think about than how far you are going to throw the disc.

In two previous posts, we talked about managing your upshots to leave yourself a putt you had a good chance to make. We talked about reading the green and also reading the wind. The idea was to leave yourself the easiest possible putt.

When thinking about disc golf course management, there is a natural progression of those concepts. Place your drives so that your approach shot is the easiest possible too. At the very least, don’t leave yourself a difficult shot.

If your upshot is limited, you take away your ability to think about what kind of putt to leave yourself. Instead you can only worry about getting near the basket in the first place.

What does the 4x World Champion think?

Paul McBeth recently wrote a Facebook post about people who ask him to play casual rounds to better learn the game. I loved his response. He said instead of playing a casual round with him, they should watch him play a practice round. What do they watch for? Among other things, where he chooses to land his disc and where he throws his approaches from.

The distance your disc travels is only one minor part of where you choose to land your disc. That’s why this week I want to share a quick list of 9 things you should consider when standing on the tee pad. These are the things to think about when picking a landing spot for your drives.

***As an aside… To do this, your field work needs to start focusing as much or more on accuracy and disc control as it does on the actual distance you are throwing.

9 uncommon disc golf driving tips.

• Accuracy. Ask yourself how far you can throw accurately. Sure, you might be able to hit the local football field and bomb discs out past 400 feet. The real question is how far can you throw them and have them land where you intend them to?
• Placement. Where do you have the best approach shot from? Does throwing a shorter drive leave you in a better position? Where are the good lines to the basket? You will need to have checked the hole before playing it to know.
• Footing. Where is the best footing to be had? Can you see a wide area that would leave a good approach shot? Where in that area would put you on flat ground with the opportunity for a clean run up?
• Disc Angle. What angle will the disc need to land at for it to get to the spot you pick? Will it need to skip to this spot? Do you need the disc to settle down flat on your chosen location? This will help you pick both the disc as well as the line you want to throw off the tee.
• Ground condition. Will your drive skip when landing? Will it stick? Can it roll away? Is the ground hard or soft? You can do the best job in the world of picking the right spot to throw your second shot from but if you can’t get your drive to stay there, it doesn’t matter.
• Obstructions. What obstructions will be in your way on your approach? If you choose to throw a straight second shot but then realize there isn’t a high enough ceiling to do that, you will be in a tough spot. Ask yourself if you will have a clear and unobstructed second shot.
• Your preference. Many holes will present you with a multitude of possible second shots. Which type of shot do you prefer to throw? If you can leave yourself both a hyzer and an anhyzer approach, which are you better at? Look for the shot that leaves you the best chance for success.
• Distance. Not of your drive, but of your second shot. What distance are you most comfortable throwing? A good example is leaving yourself a longer second shot so that you can throw that shot at full power. Full power shots are more accurate than ones you try to take something off of.
• Ego? Are you making your decision on the tee pad with your ego or your head? It takes a big person to throw a mid off the tee on a 600 foot hole. Make sure you are playing smart and making good decisions. Letting your ego play for you rarely works out well in the long run. Check out this post for more on this topic.

Do your homework.

To do any of this, you have to be familiar with the course. I’m not just talking about having played it before. I mean really knowing the course. Without this type of intimate knowledge, you’ll never be making the best possible decision.

A great way to do this is to walk or play the course backward. Look at each hole starting at the basket. Take a hard look at the lines in to the basket. Then walk out to those spots and look to the tee. You’ll be surprised at how much more clearly you see the hole when doing this. This drill also gets you out of “play mode” and into “observation mode”.

If you can, take notes. Jot them down. Even if you never look at them, the simple act of writing them down or recording them in your phone will help them stick in your memory. You won’t have long during a round to make these decisions. They need to be made before you even start playing.

Execute.

Think before you throw. Instead of getting up to your second shot and then dealing with an unknown, try to make your second shot one you wanted and planned on. If you have your plan of attack down before you start, all you have to worry about at that point is execution.

Most people, when they search the web or YouTube for disc golf driving tips, they are looking for more distance. I totally get that. Who doesn’t want more distance? But what good does that distance do if it doesn’t help you score lower?

Anyone can try and throw far. There’s a million tips out there on how to do that. Not everyone can score well. For that it requires a different set of tips. I really believe that if you go out and execute the 9 points above, you will get lower scores.

Often the most important shot on harder and longer courses is your second shot. Make it work for you, not against you! Don’t believe this works? Take a minute and watch Paul McBeth or any other top pro play. There isn’t a drive they are throwing where they aren’t thinking about what their second shot is going to look like.

Do you like these tips? Do they help your game? If so, make sure and subscribe to the blog. We’ll make sure you never miss a post. You never know when one tip ends up changing your game for the better forever!

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The post 9 Disc Golf Driving Tips You Don’t Hear That Often appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

“I’m the perfect disc golfer. I’ve learned all I ever need to know about disc golf and have nothing left to add to my vast knowledge of the sport. When it comes to putting plastic discs into baskets surrounded by chains, I’m the undisputed master! Kneel before Zod!!!”

As much as I’d like to be able to say all that, it’s just never going to happen. (although I have been known to yell out that last part every now and again). I’ll never master disc golf.

If you have dreams of someday reaching that level of skill at disc golf, I’ve got some bad news for you. It’s just never going to happen. Don’t be mad, I’m just the messenger. Facts are facts. You’ll never master the sport.

Despite what some people proclaim on disc golf forums, Reddit, and Face Book, no one has reached, or ever will reach, that level. No one.

[tweetthis]#Discgolf, it takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to realize you’ll never master it.[/tweetthis]

This is where the wise statement below from Lao Tzu comes in. As travelers on the road that is disc golf, we must first realize there is no destination. We will never “arrive”.

Instead, we have to understand that it’s the trip itself that contains all the fun. It’s the daily struggle to get better. It’s the regular rounds with friends. It’s the awe of the occassional perfect throw. Those are the joys of our sport.

For those that can wrap their heads around this concept, life is a lot more fun. They stop beating themselve up when things don’t go exactly as intended. They understand that each throw is one more step along the road.

For those that can’t, both disc golf and life can get pretty frustrating.

So, if you miss a putt, don’t sweat it, that’s one more step. If you shank a drive, yep, just another step. Find yourself in the bushes? Your moving a couple more steps on down that road.

Oh, and if you get an ace that helps you win a match and crush your friend’s hopes and dreams of beating you that round? Turn, look at them, and yell…

“KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!”

Another thing that can help you enjoy this great journey is subscribing to this blog. If you could use weekly tips, inspiration, product reviews, and other awesome disc golf goodies, Mind Body Disc is for you! Just enter your email below and we’ll make sure you don’t miss a thing. We won’t spam you or anything (we like you too much for that!).

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Putting. It’s where the game of disc golf is won and lost. It’s the one skill that the pros practice more than any other. They might even practice it more than all of the other skills combined. If you are serious about your game, you practice it too. You might even practice more than one kind. Spin putts, loft putts, straddle putts, and turbo putts are all things I see people working on around the practice basket at my home course. There’s one type of putt, though, that I almost never see anyone practice… Putting from your knees.

As I write this, it’s about 11pm and I spent most of today playing in a tournament in Marengo, IL. The Marengo course is a nice mix of open and wooded holes. Lots of challenge and lots of trees. With those trees comes a lot of low hanging branches. Today, those branches made me have to putt from my knees 4 times.

At 6′ 6″ tall, it’s something I find myself doing pretty regularly. But even though I may have to do it more than most, it’s still something everyone should be able to do. It’s a fundamental skill that will help you save throws on your score card.

Recently, we put up two posts about leaving yourself easier putts. One was about reading the “green” around the basket. The other was about considering the wind direction and what type of putt you would most like to leave yourself. If you’ve gone out and practiced that, you’ve found that while it improves your scores pretty quickly, it’s not foolproof. Despite our best efforts, we can still leave ourselves difficult putts.

When to putt from your knees…

Putting from your knees comes in handy in a few instances. The first is the above mentioned low ceiling putts. The second is when you are stuck in the bushes and have to get down on one knee while stretching your opposite leg way into the shrubbery to rest behind your marker. In both cases, putting from your knees is your only option.

If the only time you putt from your knees is in competition, you are doing yourself a disservice. There’s just no reason not to practice it. You don’t need to practice it hundreds of times, it’s just a variation on your normal putt. You can spin putt from your knees and you can straddle putt from your knees. They key is to get down and actually do it a few times.

[tweetthis]You have to be great at several types of putts to be great at #discgolf[/tweetthis]

You’ll find there are a few minor adjustments to be made. Your weight shift will be different. You’ll use more arm. You’ll line up at the basket a bit differently. It will feel awkward and weird at first. Stick with it and in no time you’ll be putting from your knees like a pro.

Now for the bonuses…

The first one is that this skill is a life saver when you are playing in high wind. Getting down low and keeping your putt lower to the ground really helps when it’s blowing outside. The next time you are playing and it’s gusty out, try it and you’ll see what I mean.  You’ll make more putts and your misses will not blow near as far away.

The second one is that this will help you win games of horse (or disc, or pig, or bagger… whatever you choose to spell when playing this putting game). Because almost no one ever practices this putt, you are almost sure to throw your opponents off by putting from your knees.

Here is your challenge. Throw a few putts from your knees during practice this week. Then, when you are playing, look for opportunities to use your new skill. I think you’ll find that it will help you more often than you might think!

Here’s your second challenge for today. Subscribe to this blog so you make sure you never miss a thing! You never know when one of our tips will change your game for the better forever!

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The post The Disc Golf Putt You Don’t Practice Enough appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

One of my readers, Jarrod Job, hit me with this saying the other day. Considering I have my second to last tournament of the year this weekend, I thought it was appropriate.

Since I’ll be spending what little spare time I have getting ready for the tourney, I figured instead of a long post this weekend, I’d just leave this picture right here for you. A little disc golf motivation to get you psyched up for the weekend.

If you are playing in a tournament, I wish you the best of luck. If you are playing with friends may you win with grace and then rub it in a little bit (or a lot). If you are stuck working like I usually am on the weekends, my thoughts are with you.

No matter what you are doing this weekend, remember to punch par in the face. Be better than expected. Perform at your best and above. Make this a weekend to remember!

If you like disc golf motivation like this, make sure to follow us on Twitter and especially on Instagram. You’ll definitely dig what we put out in both of those places!!!

We’d love it if you subscribed to this blog. Just enter your email below and we’ll send you a weekly newsletter with exclusive content. We’ll enter you in every random draw type of contest we have. And we’ll email you links to every post we put up so you don’t miss a thing!

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If you were to take all of the posts about improving people’s disc golf games off of Facebook, Reddit, and DGCR, you’d reduce web traffic from disc golfers by half at least. All that would be left is people bickering about which brand of disc is better or bragging about their 500 foot drives that aren’t real.

One of the most fundamental aspects of improvement in any field is that what gets measured gets managed. Measurement is critical in almost anything you want to do well. Without it, improvement is exponentially more difficult.

Why Measure???

First, how do we know if we are improving if we don’t measure? Do you know your make % from 30 feet? Do you know how far your average 200 foot approach shot lands from the basket? Do you know how many times a round you 2 putt from inside the circle?

If we don’t take the time to measure the things we are trying to improve, we don’t really know if we are improving or not. Even if we notice some improvement, we don’t have a clue as to how much!

Second, without measurement, how do we know the biggest area of opportunity in our game? We might think that driving distance is our weakest point, but then when tracking we realize that 30 more feet on our drive wouldn’t actually lower our score at all.

We might think that putting is what we need to work on because we missed a big putt in competition. But then when we look closely we realize that was the only putt we missed inside the circle that whole day.

By measuring our skills, we get a clear idea of what needs to be “managed” in the first place.

Third, how can we set targets for improvement if we don’t know where we started or how much better we need or want to be? If we don’t measure, then we are left with the very vague “I want to get better”. That’s a very tough target to hit.

Another Benefit…

Now for the bonus. Often the simple act of measuring will produce improvements on its own. Just by paying attention to a particular aspect of your game, that part of your game will naturally improve.

I’m reminded of this past winter when I decided to finally learn to putt. I kept a putting log that kept track of thousands of practice putts over the span of several months. The simple fact that I had committed to myself to make entries in that log every single day is what motivated me to actually practice every single day (that and the fact that I was posting weekly updates here for all of you as well!!!). That, in turn, led to a vast improvement in my putting.

If I hadn’t started to measure, I never would have seen the improvement that I did.

The challenge is to actually pick some things you “think” you need to work on and measure them. Once you do, you’ll know if you really need to work on those disc golf skills or not.

[tweetthis]Measuring your improvement in #discgolf is the only way to know if you are getting better.[/tweetthis]

If you decide that you do, indeed, need to work on those things, now you are well equipped to make improvement. You have a starting point determined. You can regularly compare to your starting marks. You can easily set a goal for improvement, giving yourself a target you can reach for daily.

If you think about it, almost all of you already do this in a broad sense anyway. It’s called keeping score. Your scores going down are how you know that you are getting better at the game as a whole, right? All this is is taking that broad measurement and making it more narrow in focus. Measure specific skills instead of the game as a whole.

So what do you need to measure? How much better do you want to get? What goal will you set for yourself based on that measurement? How are you going to improve your disc golf skills?

One way to help yourself improve is to subscribe to this blog. We’ll email you a really swell newsletter every Sunday with links to all of that week’s posts along with unique content that you only get in the newsletter. You’ll love it or your money back!

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In last week’s post, we focused on trying to get your disc to land as close as possible to the basket. First, your scores will be lower in the long run when you try to land close instead of running at the basket. Second, shorter putts should be easier to make. Shorter putts mean getting up and down more often.

One key to a quality disc golf approach shot

There’s something besides just leaving yourself a short putt that is important. You also want to leave yourself as easy a putt as possible. What else besides distance can impact how easy or hard a putt is? The wind.

When we talk about course management, one of the things that disc golfers have to remember is that the sky is our course. The wind matters as much or even more than the land we play on. If we always keep that in mind, we’ll hopefully find it easier to remember to work with the wind and not fight it.

[tweetthis]The sky is our course in #discgolf and managing the wind is critical.[/tweetthis]

Some people prefer headwind putts. Some prefer tail wind putts (that’s me). Some prefer crosswind putts. Regardless of what you prefer, what if every putt was in a wind that was favorable to you.

Make it easier on yourself

Imagine, if tailwind putts are your thing, that you played a round where every putt was in a tailwind! That would be a huge advantage, right? That is totally in your control. It all comes down to your approach shot and where it lands in relation to the wind and the basket.

This brings us to one of the most common mistakes players make when throwing disc golf approach shots. They rarely stop to think about what the wind will be doing on their putt. They usually don’t think about it until it’s too late and they step up and realize they wish they were on the opposite side of the basket!

Last week we talked about 5 aspects of the area around the basket you should think about when throwing approach shots. Now all you have to do is add this 6th one, the wind.

When you step up to throw your approach, take a quick look at the trees and bushes around the basket. Which direction is the wind blowing? Which side of the basket do you want to be putting from? Remember to try to leave yourself the easiest possible putt.

As we head into fall golf, we’ll all see a lot more windy days. Playing in the wind is something we all have to do (I’ve also written posts about driving in the wind and also practicing in the wind if you are interested). Playing with the wind is something we can all choose to do! Making the choice to use the wind to your advantage is a game changer! I guarantee that it will give you an advantage over most of the other players out on the course.

Something else you can choose to do is subscribe to this blog! You never know when one tip will take your game to the next level. Subscribe by entering your email below and make sure you don’t miss a thing!

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The post Avoid This Common Disc Golf Approach Shot Mistake appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

It’s been really cool to meet so many people. Something I always ask the people I play with is whether they play in tournaments or not. It’s usually a good conversation starter regardless of the answer. I’ve been kind of surprised by how few have ever played in a disc golf tournament.

I always ask why this is. While the answers all seem to vary on the surface, they really boil down to one reason… People don’t think they are good enough.

First, this is a terrible reason to not do something. I can tell each of  you who think this that you are wrong. I played in a tournament this year with someone who had only been playing 3 weeks. If he can do it, so can you.

Luckily, there are lots of reasons to play in your first tournament other than being “good enough”. Here’s a short list, I hope it inspires some of you to check out a local tournament:

1. It’s not about winning. Only one person wins in each division. Does that mean that everyone else all went to their cars and cried? No! Pretty much everyone has a great time whether they win or not. Forget about the winning part for now and just get out and play!
2. Speaking of divisions, skill level is the whole reason they have them. You will be playing with and competing against other people of a similar skill level. You won’t be placed in a group with Avery Jenkins, Ken Climo, and Simon Lizotte and expected to compete. You’ll be put in a group with 3 other disc golfers who also miss 10 foot putts and hit trees just like you (and I) do.
3. Usually, those 3 other disc golfers turn out to be pretty cool people. One of my favorite things about playing in tournaments is getting to catch up with all of the folks I have come to know and love over the years I’ve been playing in tournaments.
4. Even though you will be playing with some fun people who play at or around your skill level, you’ll still get to see what it’s like to play under pressure. It’s a way to test yourself and see how you do. There just isn’t another way to do this. Leagues are kind of similar, but nothing holds a candle to the butterflies in your stomach on the first hole of a tournament round.
5. Because of this pressure, you’ll come away with a very clear picture of what it is you really need to work on. Nothing exposes your true opportunities like playing in competition under pressure.
6. Not only will you be playing under pressure, but you’ll be playing by the rules. Getting in to your first disc golf tournament is a great way to see our great sport played properly and by the book. No cheating your lie. No mulligans. No multiple throws on each shot. For many people who only play casually, playing by the actual rules can be a whole different experience.
7. While you are there, you’ll also get to see some of the local pros play. If you look around while you are there, you’re bound to see some amazing disc golf that you never get to see on your normal daily rounds.
8. Lastly, how will you ever know if you like it or not? You might find out that you absolutely love playing in tournaments. That would open up a whole new world within our sport for you. And if you find out that you don’t love it? No harm, no foul, at least you tried.

There are actually a lot more reasons than just those, but the bottom line is that if you play disc golf, you should play in at least one tournament.

What are you waiting for? There’s plenty of good weather left. Get out there and give it a shot! A great place to look for an event coming up near you is right here on the PDGA website. Then let us know how it was. We’d love to hear about your experiences!

You know what else you should try out? Subscribing to this blog! That way, when you are too busy out there competing in your first tournament, we’ll take care of sending you a weekly summary of what you might have missed! Just enter your email below.

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