2015 Pros and Their Manufacturers

[TalbotTrojan]

A local pro was being considered by/considering prodigy, and supposedly the salary was 1000 dollars a month.

That sounds in the neighborhood of what I have heard. I think Innova pays McBeth a bunch, but that kind of happened after the whole Prodigy thing went down as far as I understand. In my opinion the best thing Prodigy did was to pay their players at the highest level. I think we are seeing other companies move in that direction.

The only company I hear movign the other way is Vibram. Apparently they cut the benefits to their players for this coming year. Not surprising to see a couple of the guys leave after that. Especially someone like Dana who was the man at Vibram.

In the long run it seems that this move would be one that lets the rich get richer and the poor fall off the face of the earth.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

Older news now, but Jennifer Allen to Innova, from Legacy. She plays a ton.

I wonder how that happened?

McBeth and Allen are clearly in colusion.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

Bobby Musick switches from Innova to Legacy, and will be touring.(for the first time ever?). Over 1030 rated just a few years ago this guy is the real deal. If he's not well known outside of SoCal that will be changing this year.

Glad to see him get out and tour. I remember the name from my days in So Cal. It would be great to see more guys like him do more touring.

 

[Stevo]

Nikko to Legacy?

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Nikko to Legacy?

updating the page....?

 

[Dana]

Just saw that Matt Orum went to Lat64. Old news?

I think Nikko said somewhere that he'd be making an announcement soon.

 

[ian.]

Nikko to Legacy?

havent heard anything but i wouldnt be surprised

 

[mfcastillo17]

One thing I'll add is that switching companies is not that difficult. I had exactly 0 Prodigy discs in my bag before my sponsorship and the switch was pretty easy. I am no where near the level of Rick, Nikko, JohnE or any of those dudes. As long as the company has a full line up and the player puts in the practice the adjustment time should be minimal.

What do you think Dana? Was it an easy switch for you?

 

[@iDiscGolf]

Bobby Musick switches from Innova to Legacy, and will be touring.(for the first time ever?). Over 1030 rated just a few years ago this guy is the real deal. If he's not well known outside of SoCal that will be changing this year.

I've seen bobby play a couple times and he's legit for sure. Glad to see Legacy pick him up that's really cool. Hes a really great player and Legacy is a great group of guys and girls too, I enjoy watching them grow.

 

[JC17393]

One thing I'll add is that switching companies is not that difficult. I had exactly 0 Prodigy discs in my bag before my sponsorship and the switch was pretty easy. I am no where near the level of Rick, Nikko, JohnE or any of those dudes. As long as the company has a full line up and the player puts in the practice the adjustment time should be minimal.

What do you think Dana? Was it an easy switch for you?

I'm not Dana, and I'm not Ricky, Nikko, JohnE or anyone else of that caliber. But I had the same experience as you indicate after I was picked up by Latitude last summer. I didn't own a single Lat produced disc until after I signed the contract. The week I received my first box of discs, I played and cashed in a tournament with them. Won a tournament three weeks later.

For me, whatever struggles might have come with learning an all new bag of discs were more than counteracted by the extra practice I was putting in in order to learn them. I went from playing/practicing once or twice a week (with occasional putting practice) to playing/practicing 4-5 times a week (and daily putting practice) in order to accelerate the learning process. For the touring level players who don't necessarily have a regular job taking up 40+ hours of their week, I have to imagine the learning/adapting process is even faster. 1030+ rated players are 1030+ rated no matter what brand(s) are in their bag.

 

[mfcastillo17]

For me, whatever struggles might have come with learning an all new bag of discs were more than counteracted by the extra practice I was putting in in order to learn them. I went from playing/practicing once or twice a week (with occasional putting practice) to playing/practicing 4-5 times a week (and daily putting practice) in order to accelerate the learning process. For the touring level players who don't necessarily have a regular job taking up 40+ hours of their week, I have to imagine the learning/adapting process is even faster. 1030+ rated players are 1030+ rated no matter what brand(s) are in their bag.

Exactly. :thmbup:

 

[TalbotTrojan]

I'm not Dana, and I'm not Ricky, Nikko, JohnE or anyone else of that caliber. But I had the same experience as you indicate after I was picked up by Latitude last summer. I didn't own a single Lat produced disc until after I signed the contract. The week I received my first box of discs, I played and cashed in a tournament with them. Won a tournament three weeks later.

For me, whatever struggles might have come with learning an all new bag of discs were more than counteracted by the extra practice I was putting in in order to learn them. I went from playing/practicing once or twice a week (with occasional putting practice) to playing/practicing 4-5 times a week (and daily putting practice) in order to accelerate the learning process. For the touring level players who don't necessarily have a regular job taking up 40+ hours of their week, I have to imagine the learning/adapting process is even faster. 1030+ rated players are 1030+ rated no matter what brand(s) are in their bag.

I am not going to disagree completely. I will say that there is something to the idea that it is easy to be more confident with discs you know better. When you find yourself in that pressure situation there is a tendency to fall into old habit mentally and it is much tougher to make a shot when you are saying I wish I had that disc I don't have any more. I switched up my bag in the middle of last season and had this happen a couple of times. But it did not take long to realize I could be way more confident with my new discs. It is the same mental process as putting a new disc in the bag, even if it is the same mold that you always throw. You still need to build confidence.

Being realistic, this is maybe in the range at 5 ratings points max.

 

[Dana]

One thing I'll add is that switching companies is not that difficult. I had exactly 0 Prodigy discs in my bag before my sponsorship and the switch was pretty easy. I am no where near the level of Rick, Nikko, JohnE or any of those dudes. As long as the company has a full line up and the player puts in the practice the adjustment time should be minimal.

What do you think Dana? Was it an easy switch for you?

I'm not gonna say it was easy taking out 4-5 discs that had been in my bag for 3-5 years. Overall, I'm pretty comfortable now though. It'd also be easier if I was able to throw more than 1-2 times a week.

 

[blackcatsmith]

I'm not Dana, and I'm not Ricky, Nikko, JohnE or anyone else of that caliber. But I had the same experience as you indicate after I was picked up by Latitude last summer. I didn't own a single Lat produced disc until after I signed the contract. The week I received my first box of discs, I played and cashed in a tournament with them. Won a tournament three weeks later.

For me, whatever struggles might have come with learning an all new bag of discs were more than counteracted by the extra practice I was putting in in order to learn them. I went from playing/practicing once or twice a week (with occasional putting practice) to playing/practicing 4-5 times a week (and daily putting practice) in order to accelerate the learning process. For the touring level players who don't necessarily have a regular job taking up 40+ hours of their week, I have to imagine the learning/adapting process is even faster. 1030+ rated players are 1030+ rated no matter what brand(s) are in their bag.

But Sidewinder said....

 

[sidewinder22]

But Sidewinder said....

The stats back it up for top level players and MJ said...

I switched to discraft at the beginning of 2008. My rating dropped some as I was sorting out my bag and figuring out a putter I could use

 

[mashnut]

I'm not Dana, and I'm not Ricky, Nikko, JohnE or anyone else of that caliber. But I had the same experience as you indicate after I was picked up by Latitude last summer. I didn't own a single Lat produced disc until after I signed the contract. The week I received my first box of discs, I played and cashed in a tournament with them. Won a tournament three weeks later.

For me, whatever struggles might have come with learning an all new bag of discs were more than counteracted by the extra practice I was putting in in order to learn them. I went from playing/practicing once or twice a week (with occasional putting practice) to playing/practicing 4-5 times a week (and daily putting practice) in order to accelerate the learning process. For the touring level players who don't necessarily have a regular job taking up 40+ hours of their week, I have to imagine the learning/adapting process is even faster. 1030+ rated players are 1030+ rated no matter what brand(s) are in their bag.

You're assuming they can triple their practice time like you did. The top guys are already putting in multiple hours of practice every day so it's not only realistic time wise, you'd also reach the point of diminishing returns trying to add that much practice.

I'm not saying your experience isn't relevant, just that it's reasonable to say that there is a learning curve and that it's possible switching might have a temporary effect for some players.

 

[JC17393]

You're assuming they can triple their practice time like you did. The top guys are already putting in multiple hours of practice every day so it's not only realistic time wise, you'd also reach the point of diminishing returns trying to add that much practice.

I'm not saying your experience isn't relevant, just that it's reasonable to say that there is a learning curve and that it's possible switching might have a temporary effect for some players.

I'm not assuming that they can triple their practice time at all. I assume they practice far more than I do already. So my assumption is that if I can "learn" my discs at X rate of practice and see a negligible blip in my rating, then someone who's already practicing in excess of X per week should be able to see similar results.

And by negligible blip, my rating has seen some fluctuation but ultimately the difference is insignificant. My last pre-switch rating was 966 (which didn't include a horrid final tourney with my old discs) and my current rating is 962 (it bottomed out at 955 thanks in no small part to that one horrid tourney).

Four points is less than stroke per round on any given course. The at worst 10 point dip that MJ saw in the first few months following his switch to Discraft is as negligible, and not all that different than the 10-12 point range his rating has fluctuated within over the last 5-6 years since (roughly the same range that he was in pre-switch).

By no means am I trying to argue there isn't a learning curve in switching companies. There absolutely is. My point is more that it isn't as steep as some want to make it out to be. Yes, there's some fine-tuning to do to achieve the "perfect" bag, but that's always an on-going process even without a bag switch.

 

[blackcatsmith]

Well with all this offseason action we should have some pretty good test case numbers to look at as the year rolls on.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

Well, JohnE McCray went out and won his first two tournaments of the year so clearly he is struggling.

 

[UCF_Knight]

Well, JohnE McCray went out and won his first two tournaments of the year so clearly he is struggling.

JohnE won a few tournaments to close out last year as well. I believe he won a tournament with an all trilogy bag before he even announced the switch.