Short tees vs long tees for practice?

[shep proudfoot]

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but here goes. I play a lot of rounds by myself at my local course. Each hole has long and short teepads and baskets. I usually just play short to short and shoot around -1 to -3 (mostly 3's, a few birdies and the occasional 4). I occasionally play long to long (I did today) and just get my ass kicked (a few 3's, lots of 4's and 5's, sometimes 6's). It's borderline demeaning. I was wondering what people think is more beneficial for practice rounds; shooting under par short to short or getting walloped long to long?

 

[bradharris]

Mix it up. You don't need to do the same practice every day. Each set of tees will help you focus on different aspects of your game. The shorts can help prepare you for those deuce-or-die holes that give you scoring opportunities while the longs give you more opportunity to practice scrambling and throwing from less than ideal lies.

 

[coupe]

A) It's only demeaning if you allow it to be;

B) if your goal is to improve, don't practice the things you do well; practice the things you DON'T do well;

C) depends on what your goal is: if it's to stroke your ego by shooting par or close to par, play the shorts; if it's to step up your game, play the longs; if it's to work on a specific shot, technique, or hitting a particular line, play the tees and baskets that provide the most opportunites to practice it, regardless of their position; if it's to hone in your skills for a tournament or league round, play the layout you're going to be competing on.

 

[sandman365]

Guess it depends what you're working on, but its more beneficial to your game to play the longer locations since it may demand distance and a wider variety of shots.

And since you're playing solo, the score doesn't matter much and it's basically practice.

 

[Tfire25]

A) It's only demeaning if you allow it to be;

B) if your goal is to improve, don't practice the things you do well; practice the things you DON'T do well;

C) depends on what your goal is: if it's to stroke your ego by shooting par or close to par, play the shorts; if it's to step up your game, play the longs; if it's to work on a specific shot, technique, or hitting a particular line, play the tees and baskets that provide the most opportunites to practice it, regardless of their position; if it's to hone in your skills for a tournament or league round, play the layout you're going to be competing on.

Qft

Practice the long tees until you go under par from them.

 

[mashnut]

I would be wary of answers like "play longs" or "play shorts". You need to look at your own game and at what tees are the most appropriate level of challenge for you. The holes that are the best for practice are the ones that you have a pretty good chance to birdie if you execute the best you can, and punish you if you miss your line or don't have a great shot. Throwing holes that leave you with short upshots every time because they're 50' longer than your max controlled distance isn't going to help you a whole lot, you should either play holes that are barely reachable or that leave you a second shot that challenges you. That might mean playing some mix of long and short tees and pins to find the right shots to test your skills. Make sure that mix includes a bunch of different line shaping skills too if possible, don't let yourself choose mostly hyzer holes if you're already better at that.

 

[Hampstead]

Maybe go odds/evens to mix things up. Play all the odd holes from the longs and the even holes from the shorts. Next time do the opposite. Forget about your score for a few rounds and try to find incremental improvement in your game. If it's all about your ego, play every hole as a par 23 and feel great as you crush the course.

 

[Toro71]

The holes that are the best for practice are the ones that you have a pretty good chance to birdie if you execute the best you can, and punish you if you miss your line or don't have a great shot. Throwing holes that leave you with short upshots every time because they're 50' longer than your max controlled distance isn't going to help you a whole lot, you should either play holes that are barely reachable or that leave you a second shot that challenges you.

I was leaning toward the longs, but this is a good point. And really, a lot of what should be considered "practice" should probably be field work, repeating all kinds of lines over and over. Use the long tees/baskets more as a yardstick to see if/how much D you're adding, etc. (This is if you're goal is really primarily becoming a better golfer.)

 

[zugthug1705]

My local course plays as 18 or 27 holes...I can usually shoot -7 or better on the 18, but the 27 usually kicks my butt and I'm lucky to break even. I have friends who will avoid playing the 27 because their scores are discouraging but that means they never really get better at playing the course. My advice is maybe play a little safer to try to turn your 5's into 4's, 4's into 3's, etc. But remember that once you finish a hole, put it behind you. You'll become better over time by challenging yourself and finding new ways to approach different looks the course might throw at you.

 

[shep proudfoot]

Thanks for the responses guys. It's not really a matter of my ego... But what would be appropriate to play for my skill level. You wouldn't send a first time ball golfer to a par 5 course. Now I've been playing for about a year and consider myself an intermediate player (just played my first tourney, came in 5th in int). I do a lot of field work as well. I like the idea of doing a mix of longs and shorts to work on different lines.

 

[coupe]

The holes that are the best for practice are the ones that you have a pretty good chance to birdie if you execute the best you can, and punish you if you miss your line or don't have a great shot.

Depends on what your goal for the practice session is.

Throwing holes that leave you with short upshots every time because they're 50' longer than your max controlled distance isn't going to help you a whole lot [snip]

Unless the goal of your practice session is to work on upshots or to increase your max controlled distance ...

 

[HarkeyPuck]

Did you say there are 2 different baskets as well? If so you could play either short tees to long baskets or long tees to short baskets.

 

[mashnut]

Depends on what your goal for the practice session is.



Unless the goal of your practice session is to work on upshots or to increase your max controlled distance ...

Throwing holes that leave you with a short upshot are a whole lot less useful for practicing those shots than ones that leave you with something like 150-250' upshots. If you're struggling with 50' upshots the course isn't the place to be trying to fix that anyway.

 

[nolangherity]

i've never played short tees/ pins in my life, but ive been considering it lately because it would be kind of kind playing a different course.

 

[DavidSauls]

Among other things, it depends on the course. On some courses, the short tees offer plenty of challenge for almost anyone; on others, they're putter practice.

If you have to choose one, without regard for how they play out for your particular skill level, I'd guess that the longs are better for practice. If nothing else, they result in throwing more throws.

Oh, and don't get hung up with how your score relates to "par". How it measures against your average is much more meaningful.

 

[Qstick333]

The course closest to me has the same configuration. I play some shorts, some longs. Sometimes I play odds short, evens long, etc... just to mix it up. If you are by yourself and it is practice, choose the configuration that lets you work on whatever your are trying to accomplish that day.

 

[trumbulldore]

If it is purely practice you are talking about, it is good to mix in both. If the holes are short technical holes, those holes help you to shore up your technical game, which is crucial for technique and achieving a variety of shots. If the shorts are open pitches, that's another thing that you need to practice, approach/mid range. Basically as stated, whatever portion of your disc golf game cause you the most trouble, practice it. Then go and make sure to still work on the things you do well to not lose form or put rust on them

 

[Brodysseus]

Mix it up. But focus on the tees you will play competitive rounds from. And don't forget field work and putting practice.

 

[4th Rock]

Mix it up. Focus on the areas of your game where you absolutely suck. For me , that means putting practice and try to gain distance on my terrible backhand.

 

[jfrosty42]

I find that when I play solo rounds, I don't keep score, and I play to whichever basket from whatever teepad I feel like on that particular hole. A lot of times if I feel like keeping score, I'll play worst shot doubles with myself.