Help with re-doing bag

[jase]

I have been playing disc golf for a while now but just started recently playing tournaments last summer. My drives are usually ~300' give or take a few. The majority of my bag now are discs that I never really throw. My 2 main drivers are a 173 gram Surge and Force. I throw a QMS as a midrange and putt with a soft magnet. Other than that the majority of my discs just sit in my bag unthrown. So the question I have for you guys is what discs would you recommend me picking up as I am looking to re-do my bag with discs that I will actually use. Would I be better off to just buy a couple more surges and forces and having duplicates but with different wear on each of them? I'm open to any suggestions as to what discs would help me be more consistent. I throw RHBH if it is relevant.

Thanks for the help in advance even though this was kind of an incoherent rant.

 

[ShankShot]

My suggestion would be to drop that super fast drivers like the Surge and Force until you can get your form to a level that would warrant those mega long range drivers. Typically, those would only really be useful on 400'+ holes. They yield distance, but rarely control. Players with good clean form tend to use midranges for the distance that you are topping out at. My recommendation would be to get more mids (the MS seems to be a pretty good one, may want to try that in different stages of wear) and throw some slower drivers, which can get you big distance once you know what you are doing. Popular drivers around these parts are Teebirds, Eagles, Leopards, Gazelles, Cyclones, JLS, Polaris LS, and Stalkers just to name a handful. What you really want is a driver that you can manipulate on a lot of different lines to suit your style of play.

Just out of curiosity, what are the discs in your bag that you don't really use?

 

[jase]

The discs in my bag that are rarely ever thrown are a Boss, beast, Groove, Wraith, Crush, Flash, TL, Teebird, and Avenger. I realize now that these discs are not really suited for my play with the exception of the teebird but the majority of the discs have been ones that I have won from leagues and tournaments and stuff like that so I didn't really have a choice. I'm coming to the point in my game though that I want to be able to have my bag filled with discs that will be useful to me and I'm wanting to buy discs that suit my game. For playing as long as I have I am still pretty clueless about ratings and which ones are helpful for me. Thanks for the help so far though.

 

[ShankShot]

Then my suggestion would be to put the Teebird and TL in your bag and take all of the other drivers out. Try to play some rounds with with those and see where that gets you. You might be surprised. If you find yourself needing something flippier, the beast might be useful, but those are generally regarded as unpredictable discs. That way, you can see what kinds of lines work well for you and then invest in discs that work for your style of play. It's hard to drop the big bad boy discs, but you will find a gradual improvement in your game if you learn to throw slower and more controllable stuff well.

 

[jase]

I will definitely try that. Do most people typically carry multiples of the same disc but different weights or wear or stuff like that? Unfortunately the disc golf scene here isn't much help for me to gauge how the majority of tournament players stock their bags, and in the middle of a tournament isn't exactly the right time to ask for advice either. Thanks a bunch for the help by the way so far.

 

[ShankShot]

On this forum, it is highly recommended to practice "disc minimalism," which is using the same mold in multiple stages of wear. It increases familiarity and dependability of molds that you know inside and out. The nice thing about the Teebird and TL combo is that they are variations on the same disc, so the Teebird will be straight with predictable fade, and break in to be really really straight, while the TL will start off more straight, and break in to be a nice disc for turnovers, annys, and what not. You could do this with only Teebirds in different stages of wear, but that would require buying some new discs. Dx Teebirds are great for doing this more quickly. For mids, people tend to do this with Rocs and Buzzs. Putter opinions are kind of all over the place, but people tend to use wizards, aviars, challengers, magnets, whatever. Essentially, you could start with something stable for every mold, and the more beat they get, the more understable they get, allowing a really minimalist bag with different wear stages of each mold.

 

[jase]

That makes sense. I'm fairly set on the QMS and the Magnet as those have worked well for me in the past and getting distance with accuracy off the tee has been the weak area in my game but I now that I somewhat know what discs are going to be helpful to me I should have more success. This will be my last question...haha...but say you had to recommend 2 or 3 discs out of the ones you mentioned earlier that I should add to my bag what ones would you suggest?

 

[ShankShot]

For your current power level, I would recommend the Gazelle, Cyclone, or Polaris LS. If you want something to grow in to a little bit, the Teebird, Eagle, or JLS.

Those are listed from most to least stable and all are pretty reputable molds. The Gazelle and Teebird will have the most fade when new and will work better in winds. The Cyclone and Eagle will probably yield the most line shaping ability out of the box and hold up pretty well in winds. The Polaris LS and the JLS will be the straightest but also the flippiest. Kind of up to you to choose what to experiment with and then work from there. I'm still pretty new so I don't have the gumption to tell you which path to take. Maybe someone with more experience can chime in and fill in the gaps.

 

[ShankShot]

I recommend consulting this if you are ever curious about a mold. I tend to use it a lot when I'm researching possibilities. A good disc should fly pretty close to the numbers represented here, depending on what plastic you get it in.

http://gottagogottathrow.com/discgolf/pdf/JoesFlightChart1.pdf?osCsid=e80cd988f43fb6cd98a190e8aedadebe