Sick and tired of being so bad

[brettmartin]

I have been playing for years now and I continue to underperform. It drives me crazy! What is it going to take to get better? I throw a sidearm drive for my first throw and sometimes on my midrange or a backhand throw. Today, I lost my Champion Beast in the woods which drove me crazy. Now I have to use either a Champion Valkyrie or a Champion Teebird that I have. I also have an Innova Roc and a Innova ProDart.

I just don't know if it's my discs or what. I just hate it that I love the game so much and play all the time but I can't seem to get any better.

 

[harr0140]

Thats the game . . . and thats why we keep playing. We are hooked on improving. Thats why golf is so addicting too, you hit that one incredible shot and you think you should be able to do it all the time. All the pros are compared to a newb is someone who can execute everytime. Newb just don't execute nearly as frequently. Obviously distance is a big difference between pros and newb, so how far do you throw? Can you throw backhand? Do you only have 3 discs??? I have too many but at least have learned some different molds and how they fly differently. How well do you putt? Do you make 2, 5, 10/10 from 10 feet. What about from 30' do you hit 2, 5, 10/10 from 30'. I have found putting to be the biggest change in my game since getting a new putter. I also have gone from throwing 150 when I started earlier this year to an average of 225-250 with my drives. I have also added some great midrange discs to my bag to help me be more consistent on my upshots.

 

[Dillon_Gourley]

Brett, was about to joke on you but I see you're not too far from Tupelo and figured instead of joking on you I'd try to give you some advice...

What seems to be the problem?
How often do you play?
What home course do you play?
What's your average long drives, in feet?
Are you pretty good at hitting putts from 30ft ? What about 15ft ?

All you can do is practice, find your weak spots and practice on it.

 

[brettmartin]

Brett, was about to joke on you but I see you're not too far from Tupelo and figured instead of joking on you I'd try to give you some advice...

What seems to be the problem? I score way to high
How often do you play? About one or two times a week
What home course do you play? I live in Hendersonville, TN just north of Nashville now.
What's your average long drives, in feet? 300
Are you pretty good at hitting putts from 30ft ? What about 15ft ? I could never hit a 30 ft putt but sometimes I might get lucky with a 15ft.

All you can do is practice, find your weak spots and practice on it.

What seems to be the problem? I score way to high
How often do you play? About one or two times a week
What home course do you play? I live in Hendersonville, TN just north of Nashville now.
What's your average long drives, in feet? 300
Are you pretty good at hitting putts from 30ft ? What about 15ft ? I could never hit a 30 ft putt but sometimes I might get lucky with a 15ft.

 

[Ryan P.]

Putting is often the downfall of anyone's golf game. Get a lot better at it, and watch strokes disappear.

 

[skippy0420]

In the half year I have been playing I learned a few things:

1-putting should be practiced the MOST.(drive for show.....well, you get it)

2-for the most part D does not do anything for you if you don't have a clear up-shot or you don't have control of it.

3-When the driver does not work go back to the mid's and get the tempo back.

 

[Dillon_Gourley]

What seems to be the problem? I score way to high
How often do you play? About one or two times a week
What home course do you play? I live in Hendersonville, TN just north of Nashville now.
What's your average long drives, in feet? 300
Are you pretty good at hitting putts from 30ft ? What about 15ft ? I could never hit a 30 ft putt but sometimes I might get lucky with a 15ft.

Slow down your game.
Play for par, birdies will come.
I drive 300~ myself.
I am also dominant FH.
Learn to putt. Instead of playing 2-3 times a week, work on putting for a week or so then play, see if your game improves. Before playing practice putting for a solid 10-15 minutes within range of making them all. Try to make 14/15 putts from 15ft, then move back to 20-25ft.

 

[cmcolomb]

Consistency Consistency CONSISTENCY! That is the name of the game with disc golf. I would say that I did myself a disservice when I began playing. I bought 4-5 discs before I even knew what disc golf was, then joined some friends who had been playing and just started throwing. I learned quickly that I should have bought one disc and mastered the physics of said disc.

Moral of the story, find a disc you are comfortable with and throw it until you can make it do exactly what you want every time. I just recently switched from having 5-7 different distance drivers in my bag to having 3 different types with 2-3 variations of each (weight/plastic).

I would agree with other posters that putting is what you should practice the most - for the simple reason that is how you score! But I would also suggest playing a bunch of shorter courses and just throwing your midrange in order to perfect your approach shots and putting mentality.

Good Luck and don't get down on yourself! When I first started playing, my max distance was 75 ft.... STRAIGHT up in the air, because I was trying wayyyyy tooooo hard - concentrate on your motions, your steps, and make it as fluid as possible. It is not all arm, you must use your whole body to effectively/accurately/consistently throw a disc

 

[Mason65]

Try working on a backhand drive. I feel like some (not all) players learn to throw FH early because it yields much quicker results, but top out quickly in the 300 foot area. Backhand may take a bit longer to develop distance, but give it a shot. Just keep the disc on plane, don't sky it.

 

[Mason65]

And work that putting too! if you're a crapshoot from 15 feet you will always be frustrated with the game!

 

[80playedin10states]

i always seem to be guy with the bad news..not everyone on this planet can be good at disc golf..just like any other sport/game/activity. think about it, not everyone can play b-ball..not everyone can throw darts accurately, etc..passion counts for alot though..practice, practice,practice..

 

[bazillion]

Shoot, man, I've been playing for years and I max out at about 275! I have fun though, mainly because I find it's just as much fun to park the disc from 150 feet out as it is to bomb 450. (I used to play with a guy who *did* bomb 450 and I beat him consistently on accuracy.)

So don't give up. Practice good technique, upshots, and putting. Above all, have fun out there!

 

[tamahawk]

I have been playing 3yrs now, and can only throw 300ft, so I can relate to where you are with your distance. I'm not a great putter either, but have made some big strides with that this year. The main difference with me is that I am a dominant backhand thrower. I only throw forehand if there is no alternative.

Although I don't throw that far, I've been able to lower my scores by focusing on a few key points, hopefully this will be of some help to you, too.

1) Putting is a major key to lowering your scores, spend time practicing putts. I have found PerfectPutt 360 to be the most effective method for helping me with putting. You can play a full game in 20 minutes or so, and you end up throwing 100 putts. Do this a couple times a week, and you will see improvement. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone, but it really helped me a lot.

2) Better putting isn't going to come quickly or easily, it comes from a lot of practice. So in the meantime (while you're working on the putting), focus on your approach shots. If you're only throwing 300ft, then you are a lot like me in the since that you are throwing a drive, an approach, and putting for par (depending on the length/layout of the courses you're playing). If you want to score better, you have to put your approach shot within a range where you can make your par.

Instead of thinking "birdie" from 50-100ft, think par. Don't try to make the shot, try to putt the disc under the basket and leave yourself and easy putt for par. As your putting improves, you'll be able to be more aggressive on your approach.

These are the big things that have helped lower my scores. I am probably throwing 30ft farther on average this year, but contribute my improvement much more to better putting and a strong approach than the added distance.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

For the Am, playing for par is really the best mental state from the tee. With longer shots, accuracy is most important to work on and the best way to do this is to go play catch with a friend. Putting is something that needs to be practiced and is something that will lower scores significantly. Most of the best putters will make 9/10 inside of 30' with a slight fall off up to 50'. The best players that I have seen play win because they are accurate and can putt better than anyone else. Watch the videos from Discraft and you will continue to improve with form. Play with people that are better than you and you will see the importance of developing as many different type of shots as possible. It will all make your game better.

 

[BrotherDave]

i always seem to be guy with the bad news..not everyone on this planet can be good at disc golf..just like any other sport/game/activity. think about it, not everyone can play b-ball..not everyone can throw darts accurately, etc..passion counts for alot though..practice, practice,practice..

Ditto. If this sport was easy there'd be more Ken Climos running around.

 

[Dillon_Gourley]

I usually make 9/10 inside 30, with that 1 being a spit/spin out

 

[mattdabbs]

A couple of things I wish I had learned sooner:
Drives:
1 - Learn the backhand throw (already said). You are going to learn to throw more consistently this way and have a wider range of shots open to you. This will make you worse at first as you aren't used to it but it will lower your score.
2 - Learn the mechanics of the X-step. If you don't do this right you can't throw very far at all. Learn which steps turn you which way to get the best reach back (2nd step) and the best follow through (3rd step). You basically want back to the basket on step 2 and then superman chest out toward the basket on step 3.
3 - Backhand throwing is about body rotation and not about arm throwing. This will be an adjustment going from sidearm to BH because you are used to it being all about what your arm does. BH throwing is about the arm being pulled by the body and not the body pulling the arm. My longest drives I have thrown...I didn't even think about how hard or fast I was moving my arm. My body did the work for me.
4 - If you are going to throw FH make sure you have the right disc for the job. It makes a world of difference.

Midrange:
1 - If you can't hit a 15 foot putt then you need to work on putting. But keep in mind if your mid game is solid then you won't need to putt hardly at all because you will be able to park it from 75-200 ft out.
2 - Use the slowest disc that will get you there. This is one of the most important bits of information that has helped my game. This changes if there are obstacles, more on that in a minute. If you have open room to throw at the basket figure out what is the slowest disc that you can reach it with that. Slower discs don't skip as much and are far more consistent than faster discs. This allows you to not have to guess how far right of the basket to throw. You can throw just about straight at it if you have the right disc. Putters are the slowest. For me, if I am within 110ft of the hole, I am throwing a putter all the way because I know what it is going to do. Outside of that you are talking Roc, Buzz, etc. The slower the disc, the more predictable it is going to be for you on short throws.
3 - Special circumstances. If you have major obstacles on your upshot then you learn the creative things. You may have a 100 ft putt but a HUGE clump of trees in the way...toss a driver real slow around them and let it hook in. This takes practice. Overhand shots will come eventually but you need to learn the basics first.

Putting:
1 - It is all about confidence. It is glorious to hit putts 30, 40, 50 and longer but that should not be your bread and butter. Remember, the goal is that in 2 shots you should either be in the basket or at least sitting under it for a drop in.
2 - Someone already said it - start practicing with the distance you are already comfortable at. Say it is 10ft. Putt and putt and putt from there until it become muscle memory. Get comfortable here before you get further out.
3 - Learn your putter. Putters start moving left when they slow down. As your putting improves you may find it most effective to learn how fast you have to putt at that distance for your putter to go dead straight. That way you don't have to adjust to the right for your putts to go in.

I hope something in there helped!

 

[tmahan]

Regarding putting, I agree with harr's suggestion about starting at a short distance, say 15' and practice from that distance 'til you're comfortable from that trange before backing up 5'. When you practice, pretend you're in a match. Use the same pre-putt ritual you use during a round, even if it means less practice putts during your alotted time. After you move back to 20', occasionally go back to 15' and reaffirm your mastery of that distance. Then when you're standing over 15'er in a match with the yips, remind yourself that you own that distance and step up and nail it.

You'll find that this approach will help you with longer putts too. It's hard to commit to running at a 30-40'er when you're scared with missing the 15-'20'er comeback.

 

[mattdabbs]

One last thing...I will echo what tamahawk said. Know your skills. If you can't make a shot more than 40% of the time don't try to run at it. I can't tell you how many strokes I saved by learning to lay up when my skill level just wasn't up to making the shot in front of me. You can lose a lot of strokes if you run at shots you can't make. You may feel like a sissy laying up from 30 feet but that is okay. Putt so your putt is dropping as it crosses the chains that way you might make it but if you miss you have something inside 10 feet.

 

[brettmartin]

Thank you so much for all the help guys.

Some notes, I noticed that some of you said for a forehand throw off your drive, having the right disc is even more key. Which disc is a good one then for a forehander?

Second, I use a Roc for my putts. Is this ok? Is there something better out there that I should be using? What would be the best putter for me or for anyone that really helps their game? I don't use my ProDart or usually any putters for my putts because they curve so much and I just hate it.