Progression over time

[notBOB]

Just got thru with a round and a half at my local course and played a little under my standards, so i think. I understand not every round i throw will be money, however, i definitely expect to play well every time i throw. I'd say 95% of my rounds are considerably under par, and i have been progressing exponentially over the last 2 years. But, it seems half the people i play with are content throwing the same, thus they have noticeably leveled off or progress at a much slower rate. Another 3/8 are noobs, and we'll just say the remaining 1/8 are still in the woods somewhere.

Anyway, this makes me curious to what the average progression for a competitive discer like myself is, say over 2-3 years? Everyone is different, i know, but I definitely understand its about the input and who you're throwing with also. I am 24 so im ripe in my game, and have easily dropped at least 5-6 strokes for short and evn more for longs over the last 2 years as my throws has developed. When do i level off? Discin offers low health risk, so is it mental? or am i just gonna keep progressing? I vote the latter...

But this also brings up the PDGA ratings dilemma. in my opinion, this is a very flawed system. Everybody can identify a sandbagger, but to me they are the weakest ones on the course in more than one way. "Im playing according to my rating." Yea suck one. i have never entered a tourny in any division lower than advanced, just cause i wanted to get better, and keep moving up. I dont know if thats bc ive played hockey my whole life, but why cut yourself short? To win plastic? please...

Im shootin to go pro and ive been dancing on that line for a minute. I only play mini's open and it'll be sooner than later that i can call myself professional and play with the mutants.

Anyhoo, how has evryone's progression rate been over the last 2 years, and how does everyone see themselves 2 more years from now?

 

[BrotherDave]

Mine has been peaks and valleys. I'll start getting pretty good and then bam! Tendinitis in my forearm that lays me out for 4-5 months. By the time I got that healed up more or less, I've started getting back to form then bam again, broken foot playing basketball plus surgery on my head lays me out another 6 months. If I hadn't have been hit by the injury bug, I'd probably be a budding Advanced player but I'm still toiling at an Intermediate level right now. That's my guess anyway, I need to finish healing up and hit some tourneys to say for sure.

 

[notBOB]

dang bro, sounds pretty rough, i forgot to take injuries into account, and those who are held back by that. Im knockin on wood as we speak..

 

[garublador]

I'm not a competitive disc golfer, but I do find improvement fun so that is what I tend to focus on.

I'll give a little personal background, too. I tend to get really into a hobby and work at it until I'm better than average at it. I get to the point where the next logical step is to take my skill "to the next level" (the analog in disc golf would be the Advanced division) and it turns out I'd need to get really serious about it to actually do that. At that point it seems more like work to me than fun. So I'm either stuck sucking at the next level or being bored in the level below so I lose interest and move on to something else.

So with disc golf, my guess is you'll get to some plateau and will have to either really step up how much work you're putting into it or just be happy with how good/bad you are. It will probably take more and more work to get less and less improvement. The pros are the ones willing to work though that.

I've been on the elusive hunt for "big snap" for the past couple years. I also have little time to play so my progress is really slow. I'm actually a little afraid I'll get bored if I do find that "big snap" so I'm not all that disappointed that I haven't done it yet. The work I've put in has made several other improvements to my game. The distance I'm getting is coming way easier, I'm able to "power down" on discs much better and my putters and mids fly way better than before. Near the end of last season when I did the hammer pound drills I started seeing a jump in distance but haven't had the time to build any consistency with it.

 

[craftsman]

I still suck

I have okay skills but I can't string rounds together. An example that some here can bear whitness to would be at flip- I had more birdies then our entire slightly oversized group but was still nowhere near winning. Even though my game has improved since that trip, I'd still expect the same result.

Tourneys are even worse. I'm a finesse player and a push putter so when it goes bad, it goes horrible.

Its really frustrating because I put so much in but when it comes time to reap, I'm left constantly dissapointed. I play a lot of golf and am very self critical so its not like I set unrealalistic goals- but this isn't about goals, I can't even make the standard.

 

[slowRoll]

Anyway, this makes me curious to what the average progression for a competitive discer like myself is, say over 2-3 years? Everyone is different, i know, but I definitely understand its about the input and who you're throwing with also. I am 24 so im ripe in my game, and have easily dropped at least 5-6 strokes for short and evn more for longs over the last 2 years as my throws has developed. When do i level off? Discin offers low health risk, so is it mental? or am i just gonna keep progressing? I vote the latter...

But this also brings up the PDGA ratings dilemma. in my opinion, this is a very flawed system. Everybody can identify a sandbagger, but to me they are the weakest ones on the course in more than one way. "Im playing according to my rating." Yea suck one. i have never entered a tourny in any division lower than advanced, just cause i wanted to get better, and keep moving up. I dont know if thats bc ive played hockey my whole life, but why cut yourself short? To win plastic? please...

Im shootin to go pro and ive been dancing on that line for a minute. I only play mini's open and it'll be sooner than later that i can call myself professional and play with the mutants.

Anyhoo, how has evryone's progression rate been over the last 2 years, and how does everyone see themselves 2 more years from now?

You will level off when you stop putting in the work(read hours of practice time), then you will start backsliding. It happens to all of us. Usually when I start going backwards, it lights my fire and I dive back into it. I do have a problem with your ideas on sandbagging so I want to propose something for you to think about. Most intermediate guys are just as good as or better than advanced guys on their best day. Additionally, most advanced guy can play at a pro level on their best day. We've all seen it. "Dude you would have cashed in Pro!" or "Move up bagger, you would have won advanced with that score!". It is all about confidence. The thing that I would warn you about the most is moving up too soon. My friend had a 3 year plan to go pro. We were rated the same, and he edged me out by 1 stroke to win the TN state Intermediate title 2 years ago. We both moved up to advanced, but then he went Pro...with a 936 rating. Fast forward to present day. I'm now rated 20 points higher than him, and my confidence has never been higher. He is wondering if he should even keep playing because he is always bottom 3 in Open and feels like he is throwing his family's money (he is a new dad) down the drain. His confidence is shaken, and he may never get it back. Just be careful with that. As for me and my plans, I hope to be able to play at a high level this year and may try to play Open in 2012 and 2013 before I turn 40. I fully intend to play Pro Masters at the age of 40, and am looking forward to that challenge. Good luck to you in your growth.

 

[allinpflop]

^^^^^
Nice post

 

[Smigles]

I registered as pro the day i started playing. Amateur didnt even cross my mind.

I started playing discgolf last year at a measily 870 rating. This weekend i played the first swiss tour tournament of 2011 and i got a 953 average, with 2 rounds at 990.

This is a result of a) a 10 years ultimate background, b) daily FIELD PRACTICE at our practice field and c) playing with the best guys here in town, who are all 950 + rated.

Go and play with the real men, screw amateur division. Anything under 950 is just filler material anyway.

 

[Cgkdisc]

The apparent lack of competitive amateur play in Europe (compared to the U.S.) will slow the speed of DG development compared to what's happened in the U.S. Am players are enthusiastic about playing for prizes and that financial model has helped generate large fields and fund events since it started in the early 90s.

Pro payouts are generally lower in Europe partly due to what appears to be the lack of encouraging an amateur base of tournament players and perhaps somewhat traditional attitudes that amateurs should only play for trophies. Some countries like Sweden are doing a great job with Junior programs but there seems to be a big gap with few Ams competing between Jr and Pro.

That doesn't mean players shouldn't strive to play at a pro level, just that not encouraging tiered am play won't help support the few players who eventually can or strive to get to pro level.

 

[tistoude]

People definitely measure their "progression" differently. Some by rating, some by scores on their home course, and others by how far they can throw a putter (discin down 4 life yo!). All of which are valid for the person in question. I prefer to measure my progression by rating. In my case I play a good amount of tournaments, many of which are on courses I have never seen before. So I figure if I am playing blind and my rating is still increasing my overall game must still be improving. I started playing around three years ago without any disc sports backround and now I am starting to play events in open. My biggest jumps in "progression" have been focused around putting. As my putting improves so does my over all game. I will never worry about throwing 500' as long as I am hitting my putts inside the circle. Even though my game is getting better my goal for every round is still just to have fun.

 

[Emoney]

I went from noob to am1 in 2 years. Playing with better ppl and tournys push me to get better. Alot of am1 players are open players that are scarred to bump up. That being said, just worry about yourself, if u feel confident that u can place in open u should go for it. If its not working out , go back to am1 and build some confidence.

 

[superium]

All depends on how often you play. You could be playing for 10 yrs now but if you only get out once a week you will see lil to no improvement. After 2yrs for me and probably avg 5x of playing a week, everything just became automatic.

 

[tombraiderchuck]

also don't assume everyone has the same values as you. you want to compete, than you do it. other people want to play in a less competitive division. Plus sometimes people don't have the same skills as you.

 

[Smigles]

The apparent lack of competitive amateur play in Europe (compared to the U.S.) will slow the speed of DG development compared to what's happened in the U.S. Am players are enthusiastic about playing for prizes and that financial model has helped generate large fields and fund events since it started in the early 90s.

Pro payouts are generally lower in Europe partly due to what appears to be the lack of encouraging an amateur base of tournament players and perhaps somewhat traditional attitudes that amateurs should only play for trophies. Some countries like Sweden are doing a great job with Junior programs but there seems to be a big gap with few Ams competing between Jr and Pro.

I dont know...

There is almost nobody playing amateur division in Europe, they all play Pro. But while we are all registered as pro, the sport is realy still on a amateur level overall. We have no big tour, no big payouts, not many players who are sponsored in a reasonable way. Maybe the top 5 of europe. I mean look at Simon Lizotte. He is a top 20 player in the world, definitly a top 5 guy in europe, but if he does not win a tournament his father will not let him play the next one cause he didnt win the train money...

Europe is still very underdeveloped in discgolf.