Unforced errors

[Hegemony]

I've come to the conclusion that, at this point early in my DG career, unforced errors are the biggest deciding factor between shooting a mid-high 50's round vs a 60's round. I know that I don't have the skill to shoot low 50's or lower yet. That will take added drive accuracy and increasing my percentages in the 25-40ft putting range, so I'm trying to get the "easy" strokes off my scorecard. It's a form consistency problem that's probably only going to get solved through practice.

What I'm curious about is this:

How many unforced errors do you have in a typical tourney/league round? What qualifies as an unforced error for you? (this is the reason I didn't make a poll for this.) Also, how many per round do you think you should you realistically expect to see given that the goal is to make zero yet this goal is not always realized?

For me, an example unforced error is when I screw my form up royally on what should be an anny drive. Instead of just releasing it anny, I screw myself up mentally and wrist roll it during release trying to force it to go where I want it to out of my hand. Another example would be the occasional put miss from 15'-20', though these are much rarer and don't hurt my score as much as being deep in the shule. I wouldn't consider kissing the tree on a 6' wide gap 130' down the fairway an unforced error. That's more of an accuracy problem for me.

When they happen, these things are adding 5 strokes or more to my game currently, and I feel like getting rid of them should be my biggest concern right now. Other areas of my game are decent-to-good and improving (D, putting, etc.) Form consistency is where it's at for me.

 

[chrishysell]

The biggest score killer for me is 3-putts or putts missed inside the circle. I could care less if I win as long as I leave the course knowing that I made every putt I should make. For me a 3 putt is rare and just shouldn't happen. It requires that I remain focused throughout the entire round and never let myself lose concentration.

 

[slowRoll]

Excuse me. I'm not trying to troll your thread, but aren't all errors in discgolf unforced errors? There isn't anyone playing defense against us. It's all just us and what we make of the opportunity.

 

[SirRaph]

I would call what you're describing 'timing issues'. Early releases, grip lock, jerking a sidearm (FH griplock), etc. That happens to everyone, pros included. Minimizing those issues, and developing the array of shots to get yourself a par chance after you've made those mistakes, is what saves strokes.

One thing I've noticed about players that consistently have timing issues: they have long, exaggerated x-steps, and they pull back the same distance for control drives as they do for distance.
The 70-80% power control drive, with a controlled x-step, and keeping your eyes on the target as long as possible, is a really nice shot to have in the bag.
Nikko Locastro does this well. Check out his putter drive a couple seconds into this video: http://youtu.be/fWZEwtRh2HQ
He has his eye on the target for the majority of the run-up. He doesn't use a full pull-back. But he does still follow-through.

The best practice I've found for timing is just driving over and over. I grab a stack of 4 putters, put one in my right hand (RHBH) and hold the others in my left. Start 120' from the basket/target or so. X-step 50% drive, x-step 50% drive, repeat. I never stop moving. I probably would look ridiculous if I did it around people. But after a few sets of that, my timing on drives is on point.

The right-pec drill works really well to get good power out of a controlled, short pull-back.

 

[Hegemony]

Excuse me. I'm not trying to troll your thread, but aren't all errors in discgolf unforced errors? There isn't anyone playing defense against us. It's all just us and what we make of the opportunity.

I'm thinking of it in the context of tennis, where it's a well defined term. Shots you should have made but didn't. Not shots that were on the fringe of your skill/trained level where you came up a little short.

 

[bradharris]

Excuse me. I'm not trying to troll your thread, but aren't all errors in discgolf unforced errors? There isn't anyone playing defense against us. It's all just us and what we make of the opportunity.

The conditions can force errors. I believe the term "unforced errors" in golf in general refers to clear blunders by the player rather than things like unlucky tree kicks, bad skips, untimely wind gusts etc.

I can't even guess at how many errors I have in a given round. I try not to think of it those terms. Instead I accept the fact that I am going to make mistakes and try to focus on recovering from those mistakes and capitalizing on the times that I don't make mistakes. I try to focus on my midrange game a lot so that when I do hit a tree off the tee I have confidence in my ability to recover by parking a midrange to save par.

 

[Apoth]

I would say I probably have 2-3 on average per round. Usually, they end up being putts well within my 90% range (about 20 feet at the moment) that I end up missing because I release odd. I try not to focus on them too much as getting worked up about mistakes just colors your whole round in negativity and will throw you off.

 

[U_NICED_ME]

Nikko Locastro does this well. Check out his putter drive a couple seconds into this video: http://youtu.be/fWZEwtRh2HQ
He has his eye on the target for the majority of the run-up. He doesn't use a full pull-back. But he does still follow-through.

Watching this video made me feel a little better about struggling on highly wooded courses. Some of those shots looked like mine. :\

Thanks for the video SirRaph! And also for the advice on the reachback!

 

[JoshEpoo]

The absolute worst is a wide open approach shot (125'-225') that doesn't get close enough to the basket for a gimme putt. The solution is to work on your putt & approach game.

3 putts are another problem but those are more easily avoided once your approach game gets better, and you develop a more consistent putting strategy. I switched to push putting for everything inside 40'ish and it helped quite a bit. My make percentage went up from 0-30' and probably went down a bit from 30'-40' but I don't 3 putt anymore.

Like Hysell said, the difference between a good round and a bad round is often whether or not your short game is on. Of course I'd like to park every hole and not have to worry about putting, but that doesn't happen all the time.

 

[GLong]

The biggest score killer for me is 3-putts or putts missed inside the circle. I could care less if I win as long as I leave the course knowing that I made every putt I should make. For me a 3 putt is rare and just shouldn't happen. It requires that I remain focused throughout the entire round and never let myself lose concentration.

this right here.

It's pretty much the only aspect of your game that you can consistently control. Everyone has off days. I don't consider missing a 6' gap from 130' out to be an error. It happens. Everyone will have days where their drives aren't going as far or their mid shots don't have the same touch as usual. But missing short putts and 3 putting will wreck your score and your confidence.

 

[SirRaph]

The absolute worst is a wide open approach shot (125'-225') that doesn't get close enough to the basket for a gimme putt.

That's my biggest weakness. Upshots that are just outside a touch putter approach. It's something I need to work on.

 

[jongoff09]

I have a lot to think about after playing a 4 round tourney last weekend. I actually played very well and can only think of maybe 4 errors that I made that I shouldn't have. Two of those were in the last round and the other two were in the third round.

The first was not taking enough time to visualize the shot and I went for a line I shouldn't have. My approach hit a tree right in front of me and I made bogey. The next was choosing the wrong disc for a drive and I went 60' past the basket and made par when I should have had a birdie. That round I finished at +1 and could have been under par.

The next round I had a putt that I was too casual with that spit out the left side of the chains. I also was too careless on one hole and hit a tree that I knew I should have stayed away from. That one cost me a double bogey on a hole I usually have a look at birdie on. I finished +1 that round as well and easily should have been under par.

That was only the 6th tournament that I have played in, but I feel like it was the first that I actually "understood" what was going on with my game. I played much better than my average on those courses except for one round where the wind was howling.

 

[Burrito]

To me, OB is the score killer.

I use a fun little home made spreadsheet that tracks scores (hole by hole) and also OB strokes. It made we very aware of not only how much OB I take, but also when (thats the importand part).

What I've found is that my OB generally occurs when I'm trying to push the limits on a drive. I dont mind taking that risk in everyday play, but it's made me realize when in in a potential OB situation, and what my safe drives are. It's helped my tournament strategy, because it gives me an awareness of when to give up some length for accuracy.

I now haven't taken an OB stroke in a tourney since last June. A lot of my friends now start noting their OB now too (specifically what situations are leading to strokes) and you can see all of our scores coming down more consistently.

 

[hyperspike]

The absolute worst is a wide open approach shot (125'-225') that doesn't get close enough to the basket for a gimme putt. The solution is to work on your putt & approach game.

This is a huge weakness in my game i HATE it. I am always worried about over throwing and wind up under throwing...

but working on your, regardless of which part is my favorite part because when you see your work translate into lower scores cause you are hitting the shots that you previously didn't, it really makes it all worth it....

but an ace wouldn't hurt either

 

[jtreadwell]

I play a heavily wooded New Hampshire course on an almost daily basis, and the biggest "D'oh!" moment that kills my score is hitting a tree 5 - 10 ft in front of me. That and wrist rolls that end up turning the damn disc over. Oi vey!

 

[Mr. America]

I seem to have several throws a round where I think to myself "why the hell l did I do that". Usually it's after a successful throw that did what I wanted, it was just a dumb decision.

 

[DGRZ001]

^^^^

I agree. I think that an unforced error is where you executed your shot, but made a poor decision in shot selection. There are so many variables involved in throwing, so I don't think that a poor shot, that would have been a good shot if thrown correctly, is an unforced error. Of course, an unforced error can also be a poor shot where you didn't take into consideration what could happen if you missed the shot. An example would be a 30 foot putt with OB right behind it, and you missed the putt and went OB. You might have felt OK with your putt, it just missed by a little, but you didn't think about what might happen if you missed.

Or a shot where you want to force an overstable disc to anhyzer, but if it doesn't, there could be some dire consequences.

An unforced error, to me, is when you get an undesirable consequence because you did not consider said undesirable consequence to be in the realm of possible outcomes.

Hope this makes some sense.

 

[E_Rock25]

Watching this video made me feel a little better about struggling on highly wooded courses. Some of those shots looked like mine. :\

Thanks for the video SirRaph! And also for the advice on the reachback!

That course look really hard. It does make me feel better about hitting trees.
None of them look like they are having much fun...

 

[kcplease]

all errors are unforced, this is not tennis...
Anyway, putting sucks.

 

[bradharris]

http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_UNFORCEDERROR

Interesting definition of forced vs unforced errors as they relate to ball golf. Granted, there's no black and white line, but there is a difference.