What helped lower your score the most?

[HarkeyPuck]

You might want to practice putting. The art of putting the biscuit in the basket.

 

[armiller]

If I had to pick one thing: putting. Being able to expect to make 15-20 footers helps bigtime, especially when you don't have to worry about a 10-15 foot comebacker. Now if I could just expand my "confidence" circle to 30 feet and start draining the occasional 45-60 footer, my scores would really improve. So if I were truly committed to helping my score instead of just having fun disc golfing, I would probably start spending a third to a half of my "disc golf time" on putting.

But, unsurprisingly, improvement is more of a steady growth than a one-time fix. My game is definitely much better than it was a year ago. Drives are better (particularly backhand), trick shots and gimmicky stuff are better and very useful (tomahawks, thumbers, short forehand rollers, skip shots, etc.), and decision making is better (knowing my discs and seeing the shot, as well as avoiding likely bad outcomes). For me, that came from time on the course and having fun.

 

[Declarkus]

Putting helps, but not when you can't reach the basket within 2 throws.

Disc study/selection and working to drop approach shots inside my one-putt circle

I agree with this. I gain more strokes from poor scrambling and approach shots than any other part of my game. A bad drive can be overcome by a good recovery shot, and a putt from 10' is way easier than one from 30'.

 

[DanJon]

Putting.

Not making stupid mistakes.

Confidence in your shots.

 

[Agricolae]

Pencil whipping. Shaved 5 strokes a round easily.

Beautiful. We'll done.

 

[runningDoc]

After the first plateau of getting a decent backhand/sidearm and putt

Side arming putters (standstill using 85% wrist flick) to get around/through stuff up to 150ft (maybe even 200ft) is one of those shots that can save you plentiful stokes especially in wooded courses.

It opens up plentiful options with upshots and makes the scramble game (saving par) exponentially easier.

In my experience one you can get that sidearm flick with a putter/slow mid down putting becomes easy again because you're putting the disc right in that 10-15ft circle so much.

 

[teemkey]

Play the hardest courses you can find, with lots of trees and elevation changes. You'll learn to shape shots, control distance, and (probably) to use slower discs for more reliable progress toward the basket. It's tough on the ego, but good for the skillies.

And, of course, there's putting...

 

[slowplastic]

Obviously putting. Never 3-putt. If you're going to try to get it in, commit to getting it in. If you're just going to "try" to get it in "maybe" from a distance...then just approach and put it under the basket, drop it in, move on.

After that I'd say adding a forehand shaved a TON of strokes off my game. Just having a forehand approach from 100-150' probably took off a couple strokes per round. Eventually that turned into a pretty good forehand off the tee. It nearly guarantees some birdies each round compared to if I had to throw a backhand, or avoids a lot of trouble on some tee shots compared to backhand, resulting in quite a few strokes over the course of a round.

 

[joecoin]

Learning to use my Comet for long putts/upshots. It just goes in.

 

[Strauss]

Putting for sure. Typically my best scores are when I'm putting really well. Driving distance and accuracy comes with time, but you need to put in the work practicing over and over to improve your putting.

 

[takman]

Get a basket, practice putting
Putt every night
Putting league.

 

[Tripper]

I always score my rounds in binary, so i get a 0 or 1 on every shot. Played 36 holes and scored 18.

 

[Enzy]

the most recent thing I learned to shave a few strokes of my score was learning to play in the wind - not always windy around Cincinnati and with my noodle arm throwing leopards it wasn't fun 20 mph wind. This had me learn new discs and understand stability better.

Now I am starting to get more distance and control. If I ever find time to practice it would be putting

 

[BogeyNoMore]

The better I putt, the lower my score. Putting practice... and then more putting practice.

^ this.

1) You make more putts.
2) As your comfort range increases, you truly start to run at basket from further out (because you feel more comfortable with 20 -30ft comebacks. Eventually, you actually start to hit quite a few of those longer runs, say from 50+ft.
3) Increasing putting range can increase the number of holes you find easily deuceable, perhaps as effectively as increased distance off the tee.


Answered before I read the whole thread...

As others have said, improving the putting game.

But it's more than just making more putts. It's having the knowledge that you can reliably make comebackers, which emboldens you to take bigger risks in going for it instead of defaulting to a layup 2 outside the circle.

^ we're on the same page.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Pencil whipping. Shaved 5 strokes a round easily.

Depending who you play with (or perhaps the stakes), it could shave more years off your life than strokes off your score.

 

[DinosaurThunder]

Three things in my mind:

Practice Putting
What everyone else has said.

Upshot practice
Going to a park with cones and creating landing zones around a practice basket - reduce the amount of long putts each round. Set your practice basket and cones near a bunch of trees as well - simulate all scenarios.


Scramble practice
going to a park, course or heavily wooded areas and working on situational scrambles.

Examples-

tomahawk/thumbers out of the woods, straddle forehands, one knee backhands/forehands, pitch outs followed by third shot saves, back to the basket backhands, etc. Even though no two scenarios will be the same, the fundamentals alone and repetition wont have you second guessing on the course.

 

[Reniger]

Just posted this to another thread about keeping a tight mental game, but the same applies here... Concentrating on my breathing has been a HUGE factor in keeping a level head and executing my shots as intended.

There's a local at leagues that has coached and taught a lot of younger players. He's in his mid fifties and has been playing for over 20 years. Great guy, great attitude, and loves to help and encourage others. Even with health concerns and body ailments, he's a 960-rated master.

Best advice he's ever given me is just to be slow. Even after 13+ years of playing myself and many tournaments and leagues, breathing never really hit me as such an important thing to concentrate on. At a tournament at the beginning of this year, John comes up to me and just says calmly,

"Before approaching your lie, before each disc selection, before looking at your line - take a deep breath in and release it slowly. Then, do the same as you make your shot."

It seems so simple but I'll be damned if it isn't a huge factor in keeping a cool and collected frame.

 

[1978]

Course work.
Cutting and dragging strengthened my core, wrist strength, and flexibility more than anything I did in the gym. My rating has increased by 15 with every completed course I have built.

That and field work with 5-10 of the same disc.

And over the last year Crossfit.

 

[Shamis]

Putting.

 

[Kevdude82]

Learning the discs in my bag, and getting comfortable with every single one. Being confident with my disc selection, and the type of throw I'm looking to execute has helped me a ton! Putting is next on my list of things to work on.