Data Driven Disc Golf

[Ryan P.]

I've been toying around with this, and I'd like to get some feedback on it. I watched videos of every playthrough of Fox Run hole 18 that I can, and recorded almost all the shots against the hole map.

3dg

There's not much to it yet, and some parts of it aren't finished (it won't work well on small screens) but I'm interested to see if anyone else likes this/thinks it is worth putting more time into. Do you care? What would be valuable to add? What suggestions do you have?

In short, I have plenty of ideas, but want to see if others think they're worth the time, and if you have any ideas as well.

 

[enragedmullet]

That is fascinating stuff, but seems like a TON of work. To what end?

 

[Ryan P.]

I have 70 hours in it thus far, which in my mind isn't a ton (I finished my dissertation last year, 1800 hours in).

I guess I have two goals with it. I've always enjoyed "figuring things out" and this is a way to figure out what shots are better from what locations on holes. For instance, the little elbow in the right side of where drives land tends to lead toward bogeys more than any other location (well, besides when someone lands OB). So learning about the sport, and hopefully helping the sport become even more enjoyable. Perhaps it could lead toward a better understanding of when pros should go for a shot or layup, making more strategic decisions and increasing the enjoyment of watching a course. Perhaps it could lead toward a way for course designers to learn more about how players play holes, and then to better courses. I don't know exactly, but it seems that gathering data will almost always lead toward a better understanding of things.

The second end is probably not what you're asking about as much, but I'd like to help humanity. DG is a great sport because it's exercise, it's enjoying nature, it's community, and it's accessible. I think that having something like this can help people get to those things in some vague way. A homeless guy once said "love one another as I have loved you." That is a really odd thing for a homeless guy to say until you realize that he was homeless because he gave up everything to help others. If I can give up some of my time and use my talents to help others get into a sport that's been so healthy for me, then I'd say it's a good use of my time.

 

[enragedmullet]

Cool. It's fascinating for sure, I'm a fan of data. Are you inputting all of this manually or do you have a program or something that can automatically show this? The logistics of entering all of the info is hurting my head I guess. Is your goal to have this for every hole on say, championship courses only? Or I guess you need highly specific documentation to know where everything landed so like, video recorded tourneys? So many questions.

 

[Ryan P.]

So many good questions.

FTFY.

I wrote an app (it looks similar to the site) to input all the data manually. That took about 35 hours. I then watched every YouTube video I could find of someone playing Fox Run hole 18, and recorded it if I could tell where every shot landed. That took a little less than 15 hours. I created the site after that (what you've seen) and tweaked it until I got it where it is now. That took 20 hours or so.

I'd love to expand it to other courses, and I'd love to add a lot more data to it. The hardest part will be finding holes that have changed little over time and have been played by pros enough times on video. Here are my current ideas/hurdles to overcome.

Hurdles:

• Time. Either time to record strokes, or time to create a secure way for others to record strokes
• Inaccuracy of Caddie Guides. I've found that there are some inconsistencies in the DGPT caddie guides.
• Ability. I'm a back-end developer, and I partially did this so I could get a better idea about designing websites.

Feature ideas

• Adding a way to record and report on shot type, shot shape, release angles, flight path, wind, disc, etc.
• adding a popup when someone hovers over a dot to show more information on that dot (throw type, player, tournament, hole score, etc.)
• a way to record launch angles
• shot distances

Some of that is a pipe dream, some isn't. I'm posting here to get some ideas on what people think are more valuable.

 

[HyooMac]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but the usefulness of the data insights would be largely restricted to Pros, or to people who play the Pro layout with Pro skills. Especially for par 4's and 5's. Stated another way: if I can't put my tee shot where they do, and I don't have the skill/distance to attempt a similar second shot, what good is the data to me?

This might sound critical of the project, and I don't mean it that way. I'm just trying to figure out who would benefit from data.

I've been fortunate to play Fox Run #18 in par - but from the White tee. So I looked at the data with that in mind - and immediately thought that as interesting as it is, I couldn't really relate to it,

 

[Ryan P.]

To answer your question more directly, I aimed to record more scores before Worlds but didn't have the time. I'm going to take some time off from adding to it and hear what people say, then I'll come back to it. If I come back to it and think it's worth my time, the next holes I've thought of are mostly WInthrop Gold. It's easy to see where shots landed and translate them to a hole map. Specifically, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, kinda 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 have all remained relatively the same over the years. After that I'd probably work on the European Open holes as that course has a lot of video time and stable holes. After that I haven't really thought of much, but based on my calculations, that's another couple hundred hours of work, so I think that's far enough out.

 

[Ryan P.]

I'm probably stating the obvious here, but the usefulness of the data insights would be largely restricted to Pros, or to people who play the Pro layout with Pro skills. Especially for par 4's and 5's. Stated another way: if I can't put my tee shot where they do, and I don't have the skill/distance to attempt a similar second shot, what good is the data to me?

This might sound critical of the project, and I don't mean it that way. I'm just trying to figure out who would benefit from data.

I've been fortunate to play Fox Run #18 in par - but from the White tee. So I looked at the data with that in mind - and immediately thought that as interesting as it is, I couldn't really relate to it,

Yeah, that's a fair critique that I knew would come. If I made a mobile version of my recording app then I could extend it to others. However, I couldn't start there because I don't have access to that data.

More specifically, I'd love to have a filter that says "filter by what the person scored on this course" so you could compare yourself (and strategize) based on how others have played the course. Or maybe filter by ratings, etc.

 

[Ryan P.]

I also would like to add in some other reporting, specifically a heat map. I have some other ideas too, but I haven't worked on them at all.

 

[enragedmullet]

Seems like a service or something that certain courses could pay for. The idea of being able to have this info for every course is reminding me of that part in The Dark Knight when Batman uses everyone's phones to basically be able to see every nook and cranny of Gotham. Total knowledge. Heavy weighs the crown.

 

[Ryan P.]

hahahaha yeah I guess it would end up being a lot of data. Probably the simplest way to say it is: for me, this is everything I want UDisc to be.

I'm not knocking UDisc, as their app is great. Having the form I created (and especially the one I might create in the future) on a phone is a terrible experience. I'm just interested in more data so I'm willing to sludge through the ugly app

 

[CoachChris]

hahahaha yeah I guess it would end up being a lot of data. Probably the simplest way to say it is: for me, this is everything I want UDisc to be.

I'm not knocking UDisc, as their app is great. Having the form I created (and especially the one I might create in the future) on a phone is a terrible experience. I'm just interested in more data so I'm willing to sludge through the ugly app

Ryan, can you reach out to me (DM me) on IG @coach_chris_taylor I have an idea/option for you.

 

[txmxer]

Wonder how DGN records lie locations when they do their birdie zone presentation?

 

[Ryan P.]

Wonder how DGN records lie locations when they do their birdie zone presentation?

The first time I saw birdie zone after I starting making this, I thought "how do they know that's the birdie zone?" I'm very interested for their graphic tomorrow after the drives on 18.

 

[Ryan P.]

Ryan, can you reach out to me (DM me) on IG @coach_chris_taylor I have an idea/option for you.

I messaged you on here. If IG has something to offer that PMs here won't provide, let me know.