3 disc round with discs you've never thrown....

[steve a]

I do think Mark has a point though. So my plan for next summer: Try drunken disc golf with three discs I haven't thrown yet.

I will try this here and see if it is the same as there.

 

[XCyclone]

What if you had to play a 3 disc round with a putter, midrange, and driver you've never thrown?

I was actually forced to do this today. I got home from work and was about to head out the door to go discin with some buddies (we had been talking about it all day at work) when I realized I had left my bag in a friend's garage. Pissed off, I went to my closet and pulled out:

Organic Voodoo (bought online about a year ago after reading one of Discspeed's posts, but never threw it)
Discmania MD 1 (FR, champish star)
SE Leopard.

Cheating a little with the Leopard, I've thrown them before, but not the SE blend. Nice disc. Voodoo's really nice too.

 

[Mad Scientist]

How 'bout this...

Wizard
Buzzz
TeeBird

Never thrown 'em

 

[riverboy1]

How 'bout this...

Wizard
Buzzz
TeeBird

Never thrown 'em

 

[jubuttib]

How 'bout this...

Wizard
Buzzz
TeeBird

Never thrown 'em

The Buzzz is the only one of those that I've thrown. Gateway is pretty impossible to find here and the Teebird was too much of a disc for me when I began. Then I went Discmania.

 

[ForeverBlue232]

If you can pick up pretty much any disc and adjust in the first couple of holes, I think that will just make you better at disc handling in general. This is esp. difficult for the player that releases everything flat.

Good point. I mostly try to release flat, but am trying to get better control on my other throws. I once played a round of what I called "random disc disc golf". I made flash cards with the names of about 15-20 of the discs (good mix of putters/mids/drivers) I had at the time. Then for every shot during the round, I had to shuffle the deck and draw a random card, and throw that disc. Putter teeshots, putting with high speed drivers, and every other strange combination. It was very interesting having to really think about how to change the way I was throwing a lot. And I started seeing more uses for some of the discs. The oddest thing of all was that I ended up with a score that was not too far off my personal best at the time. It was a fun round and I think I learned a bit from it. I maybe should try that more often.

 

[MizzouTiger261]

Pure
Comet
Nuke

 

[Widdershins]

I'm not sure this game makes any sense to me.

#1 - Doesn't need make sense. One could view this thread as electronic chewing the fat, shooting the shit, etc etc.

or

#2 - Make your own sense. My choices were three discs which I have not yet thrown, which I would like to throw, and which I believe would make a viable three disc bag. This still makes little sense for others so see #1.

As an inventor of a myriad of games, in a thousand variations, some of which were colossal failures, I try to create games which have benefits beyond fun. Fun is a necessary component because most groups seek that more than anything else. But pure fun alone is like a diet of junk food. There is immediate reward but long term detriment (or at least limited benefit).

If I want groups to continue to be willing to try my games then I must reward them with fun. Most golfers only want to play singles or random draw best shot doubles. Anything else is heresy or at least weird, unfamiliar and viewed with skepticism. Singles and random draw best shot doubles gives the best players the best chance to win but sometimes puts the least pressure on them. Pressure is key. Performing under pressure is the most important skill an athlete can develop. Without it, every other skill does not matter. Pressure also is fun. So whatever game I create I try to make it possible for anyone to win and anyone to lose and to make the performance of every player important to the game.

If I happen to be the highest handicap rated player in a group by 50 points the odds are huge that I (or my team) wins handily. The other players expect to lose. I expect to win. Blowouts and winning by comfortable margins will be the norm. I learn little from winning easy. The others learn little by losing handily. Little pressure is created in the process. The next time any of us are under real pressure the game we just finished did nothing to help us.

Yesterday I texted out invites for a game. 9 players showed up, ranging from experienced Pros to a beginner woman. We ended up playing engineered 3 person team best shot, chosen to make the closest possible teams. On a 24 hole layout, with only the short pads shoveled in heavy snow, the final score was -18, -17, -17. There was never more than a 2 stroke difference from top to bottom and with only a few holes left the scores were knotted up at -15. It was really fun because it was close.

Ok, this response has gone a ways off topic but I included it for basic concepts. In the "3 discs you have never thrown" game in this thread, I see the fun component but not enough additional benefit. It is highly unlikely I will ever play in a tournament using 3 unknown molds. Even if my tournament bag were lost and all of my backups unavailable I would at least acquire molds I knew. It is sort of like the One Disc Challenge events. I just don't see the long term benefit. And if fun is the only goal, then I would hope for something which sounds like more fun.

Fun, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I do not presume to decide what anyone else thinks is fun. So I am not pissing on anyone's fun and if someone loves some of the games which don't strike a chord with me (wolf, Ript, etc.) I am not saying they are wrong. I'm just tossing out my opinion.

While pressure is always a worthy goal of a game, isolating a skill is another.

It is always possible to make a fair, fun game which teaches us something to make us better players. I am always willing to create a game for any group but never force it on anyone.

 

[Frank Delicious]

Some people are probably not as set on their bag as you Mark and many of us try out new discs all the time. Usually it is just one or two discs but it is a small leap to play a whole round with 3 unknown discs. As for other benefits besides fun, I would argue that a person has to learn disc manipulation and line shaping when trying to play any decent course with 3 unknown discs. Right now I can play my home course in my sleep with my tourney bag but my practice bag is full of discs I don't throw as much or just started throwing and I have really had to re-examine how I throw some holes because I don't have my money eagle or roc with me to throw on the hole. I have found new (and sometimes better) routes on holes that I hadn't thought about before I played the course with unfamiliar discs. I have learned to throw a couple of new lines I haven't had to bother with because I didn't have my fall back disc with me. I learned confidence in more discs and shots because, again, I didn't have my fall back disc with me. Plus, by playing rounds with discs I haven't thrown before, I have found some good discs that have made the tourney bag (SOLF, Comet, VP).

 

[VictorB]

Magnet
Buzzz
Stalker

 

[Widdershins]

Some people are probably not as set on their bag as you Mark and many of us try out new discs all the time. Usually it is just one or two discs but it is a small leap to play a whole round with 3 unknown discs. As for other benefits besides fun, I would argue that a person has to learn disc manipulation and line shaping when trying to play any decent course with 3 unknown discs. Right now I can play my home course in my sleep with my tourney bag but my practice bag is full of discs I don't throw as much or just started throwing and I have really had to re-examine how I throw some holes because I don't have my money eagle or roc with me to throw on the hole. I have found new (and sometimes better) routes on holes that I hadn't thought about before I played the course with unfamiliar discs. I have learned to throw a couple of new lines I haven't had to bother with because I didn't have my fall back disc with me. I learned confidence in more discs and shots because, again, I didn't have my fall back disc with me. Plus, by playing rounds with discs I haven't thrown before, I have found some good discs that have made the tourney bag (SOLF, Comet, VP).

And all of that is good. But if you and I showed up at your home course and you wanted to learn or test a new disc I would suggest we play catch with it for a while, varying distance and position to force us to try routes around trees and experiment with different winds. A half hour of this will tell you more about a new disc than a week of playing rounds with it. Most players want nothing to do with this kind of practice. They walk out of their car and directly to tee pad #1.

Catch is one of the best forms of practice, any disc, any distance but it is hard to convince players to do it. It is just not fun enough. That is why I try to lure players into games with practice components. It is like mixing vitamins in the Twinkie recipe.

If you wanted to learn new routes I would suggest a mando game where we invented a mando on every hole.

If you wanted to use your backup bag, I would invite you to Michigan right now. My current "snow" bag has every disc I am unwilling to lose removed from it except putters (if I lose a putter it is my own damn fault). Even in North Carolina I would be all in for a "backup bag" round. You can never have too much practice with backup discs. You never know when Cal Ripken has to take a day off or decides to retire in a watery grave.

If you have memorized every blade of grass at your home course and want a fresh challenge then I would suggest we play a round and invent new tee areas for every hole. Or a round which mandates nontraditional routes from the existing tee pads (mando rollers or overhead drives, for example).

So I agree with all the potential benefits, I just happen to find the "3 new molds game" a marginal way to accomplish it. But who knows, I have never tried it and if the group wanted to play that game I would give it a go. Maybe it would be more useful than I would guess.

The bigger the group the harder it is to mix practice into a game format. When I go off for a round with just one or two other players I often ask if there is a particular shot they want to work on, then create a game which does that. It is more important to learn new shots than it is to learn new discs.

 

[Frank Delicious]

I agree that there are better ways to learn all those things, I just don't see this particular exercise as that bad and I like testing new discs a lot so that influences how I feel about this. I wasn't trying to claim this is the best way to do anything, I was trying to state some of the benefits of playing a round with new discs.

Of course, there is the biggest distinction between my viewpoint and yours, which is that if I try out a striker and like it, I have the option of putting it in my bag.

 

[DagG]

I found drunken golf was a fine game and worthy of being played about once a year.

So the productive part of getting drunk and screaming at your opponents is....?

Your opinion and mine may differ on your answer to this but, as you mention earlier, you were just tossing out an opinion. It's up to the recipients of that opinion to determine how valid it may be for themselves. This would apply to the identity thread you started as well, asking whose opinion you should trust. It struck me a bit odd that an individual of your intelligence and maturity would be asking for more opinions on whose opinions were most valid when I believe you know that the ultimate decision is yours.

Make your own sense. Make your own fun. Celebrate when you find those of like mind. Simple stuff really, or at least it should be.

 

[Risk]

Magnet
Buzzz
Stalker

Those 3 are the staples of my bag.

 

[Widdershins]

I found drunken golf was a fine game and worthy of being played about once a year.

So the productive part of getting drunk and screaming at your opponents is....?

None Dag, none at all. That is why it is a once a year evil treat.

But now the lawyer part of my brain starts firing (slowly, deviously) and I begin to conjure up weak and off the wall arguments. So try this on for size: If a player has trouble dealing with distractions in tournament play, would being screamed at de-sensitize that player and make them better able to overcome distraction? Yeah, it ain't much but its all I got.

Unless I was being paid by the word...then I might say it is training for the 4 Keg Challenge annual Disc Golf Tournament hosted at the private courses owned by the Whites and Laceys (Milford, Michigan). In this event, depending on the division, there are mandatory alcohol consumption rules. So if you need to practice like you play...



Frank oh so Delicious, commented in a continuing discussion: "I agree that there are better ways to learn all those things, I just don't see this particular exercise as that bad and I like testing new discs a lot so that influences how I feel about this. I wasn't trying to claim this is the best way to do anything, I was trying to state some of the benefits of playing a round with new discs.

Of course, there is the biggest distinction between my viewpoint and yours, which is that if I try out a striker and like it, I have the option of putting it in my bag."



So Frank, (can I call you Frank?) you are saying I cannot keep my Discraft sponsorship if I want to throw a Striker. Let me think about that. Ok that is enough time. I am good with that. No, no I am really good with that. Do I have to sign anything?

 

[Frank Delicious]

So Frank, (can I call you Frank?) you are saying I cannot keep my Discraft sponsorship if I want to throw a Striker. Let me think about that. Ok that is enough time. I am good with that. No, no I am really good with that. Do I have to sign anything?

You have chosen...poorly.

 

[discspeed]

Remember, the original premise of this thread had a lot to do with my passing time during a dull day at work. It was basically--what putter, mid, and driver are you curious about. No more, no less. I also thought it would be humorous due to the fact that some of our posters have already tried just about everything.

 

[Jaysus]

PD
Q Sentential
Magic