Follow Through... It Actually Works!

Monday was Columbus Day, I didn’t have to work, and it was a gorgeous day!  Slightly cooler weather, lower humidity than normal, and sunny skies greeted us as we played disc golf.   In the morning I asked my daughter to go with me to the disc golf course.  She is in the banking industry, and so she didn’t have to work either, and both her children were at school, so it was a perfect time to have an outing.

We played the front nine of the original T-1 course.  Carole did quite well considering she doesn’t play nearly as often as I do.  So many of her drives go 30-40 feet farther than mine do.  She isn’t quite as accurate as I am, but when she hits a good drive, it is an amazing thing to watch.  We also played on Sunday and I noticed the same thing then.

Yesterday I was trying to figure out how she was getting that extra distance.  It wasn’t until that afternoon, when I was all by myself that I realized the key – FOLLOW THROUGH!  Danny has been telling me that I need to do work on executing a good follow through.  When he says it, or reminds me, I try especially hard to remember while I’m playing with him, but somehow seem to forget it at the next outing.

In the afternoon, when I went back to work out some more, that advice suddenly dawned on me as I approached hole two.  I think I get nervous when I have to play a hole that is narrow, or has a lot of difficult rough on the edge of the fairway, or is very wooded.  I try to make sure that I release the disc at just the right time so it has the optimal chance of having a good flight.

In my caution, I realized yesterday that I am making things so much harder for myself.  My disc doesn’t have a chance to get up to full speed, which means it doesn’t really have a chance to go as far as it could.  So I threw caution to the wind and decided to just play “all out” on every hole.

Wow!  What a difference that made.  My throws were going just that much farther on every drive, making the approach shot much more doable for me.  The advice that Danny had been urging me to follow was really working. Imagine that!

When Danny came later that afternoon, we played the back nine of T-2 and there were several holes when he commented that he’d never before seen me drive that far.  There were a couple of times that I hit trees, which certainly shortened my drive, but in almost every case, my second throw was remarkably longer than usual.

Even throwing over the lake on hole 16 was amazing.  I threw farther than I have thrown in a long, long time, and with no fear of losing it in the lake.

Now, the question is, will I remember this next time?  Hmmmm….stay tuned!

Surprise in the Woods

Last week I wrote about losing one of my favorite discs, a new Mamba that had become my “go to” driver.  It was disheartening when it became lost in a thickly-weeded area just off the fairway.  There was little doubt about what area it was in, but accessing it was quite difficult.

This can also happen when one throws a disc over water – whether a lake, stream, pond, or other mass of water that flows through or near a hole on the disc golf course.  This past weekend my son had a similar experience when he threw one of his discs into an overgrown area just to the left of hole one on T-1 at Bill Frederick Park. 

Lately, Danny has been trying to get back to basics and so takes a limited number of discs with him when we play in the evening.  He has only been carrying a Roc, a Teebird, and two putters.  So, the other night when he threw across the bridge on hole 5, and his disc drifted just a bit too far to the left of the bridge and hit the overgrowth, it was important for him to try and recover that disc.

We looked for a while, not certain if it had punched through the tree foliage, or if it had been stopped and dropped into the creek running just below the bridge and overgrowth.  Not finding the disc in any obvious places, Danny decided to go into the overgrown weeds and foliage to try and find it. 

In the meantime, I was up on the bridge looking down into the murky, dark water trying to find the disc.  As my eyes got adjusted to the darkness, I finally found the disc down in the water.  At just about the same time he called out that he also saw where the disc was.  I was not confident that he was looking at the same disc that I was, because it seemed as though there was too much foliage for him to see it from his angle.

A few minutes later, he spied his disc, the same one I was looking at, and I was able to see the disc that he originally found.  So there were two discs to recover!  Getting to the discs was another matter.  Eventually he decided to remove his shoes and wade into the water to recover them.  I know he was happy to get his disc back. 

As he was pulling the other disc out he said, “Maybe it won’t have a name on it.”  Disc golfers generally put their name and phone number on the back of their discs with a black Sharpie marker so that if it ever gets lost in overgrowth or water, and later gets recovered by another disc golfer, there is a way to notify the owner of the disc.  It also is a rule to have an identifiable marking on any disc that you use during competition, in case another person in your group happens to throw the very same disk.

In the event of a lost disc, etiquette demands that the person who finds discs, should give the owner a call.  However, the rule also stands, “No name, fair game!” meaning if there is no marking on the disc the person who recovers it is free to keep the lost disc.

As he pulled the disc from the water, he said, “Oh, it has a name and phone number on it!  And it says, ‘Lynda Voss!’”  How funny was that!  He had recovered a disc that I had lost months ago in that very creek and was unable to find.  I had totally forgotten about it.  The disc was a Leopard that got caught by the cross wind and ended up in the creek.

I Lost A Good Friend!

Do you have something that you use every day, something you think of as irreplaceable, such as a phone, or tablet, or favorite golf club, or ball and mitt?  Maybe it’s a favorite book, or a wonderful comfortable chair?

Since so much of my free time is focused on preparing for the 2014 World Disc Golf Championship, right now, my discs are that sort of thing.  My disc golf bag contains some of my favorite discs along with a few new ones that I am trying to get to know how and when to use to my best advantage

.

One of those discs is a Mamba made of Starlite plastic.  It was a gift from my son for my birthday in September.  Since I’m training hard for next year’s World Championships, one of the things I wanted to do was to expand my disc selection and so as my Birthday approached I asked for some new discs.

This disc has become my “go-to” disc for most drives off the tee, or longer approach shots.  Because of its light weight, I am able to throw it 10 or 20 feet farther than any of my other discs, and for me, that is a very good thing.

Wednesday night, as we were finishing a round of golf on hole 17, I threw a hyzer shot with that disc.  It was NOT the way I should have thrown, as there is a bank of trees, weeds, and bushes down the left side of the fairway right off the tee.  Big mistake!

I watched the disc fly up in the air, so pretty, and then it started to turn, left, left, left, and DOWN!  Right into a huge mass of vines, leaves, trees, weeds and bushes.  When I walked to the point where I thought the disc had entered, I realized it was going to be difficult to find the disc.

Danny and I both looked for it, digging our way through areas compacted with vines.  Some were so thick that they formed a bowl-like canopy over the top of the trees and bushes….and were nearly impassable.

Dusk was fast approaching, and that meant that all sorts of critters were making nests to trap their evening meal.  

Danny captured a picture of a huge spider web with many spiders waiting for their next victim.  There must be 7 or 8 spiders in that picture.  I did not see the web as I was making my way through the overgrowth.  Good thing!  I probably would have been freaked out.

After a time, we decided to abandon the search for the disc.  Apparently it was too deep in the woods to find, or it was just too dark to see it.  Danny kept assuring me that it would be found, and probably no one else would find it because it wasn’t in any obvious place.

Last night I went back to that course, played it through from the beginning and when I finally got to hole 17, decided that I’d make another attempt at disc recovery.  In my mind’s eye was that image on Danny’s phone of the spider web.  Still, I forged my way forward into the overgrowth.

 

The night before, as we abandoned our search, and as I was walking toward the basket I looked back at the place where I thought it might have entered the brush.  I began my search there last night.  It was a little earlier than it had been the night before and I was hoping that extra light might help me locate my Mamba.

After fighting my way in, I looked just a bit farther than we had gone the night before, and there it was, down in a very dark, dense area.  There were greens leaves all over the floor of the bushy area, and my light blue disc was quite visible. I had to crawl over and under some fallen limbs that were completely surrounded by vines, but bit by bit I inched my way toward the prize!

After inching back the way I came, I was ready to take my second throw on the hole and you can be sure, I threw that Mamba.  It went exactly where I was aiming for and was so pretty flying through the air.

Oh, Mamba!  I’m so glad you are back in my bag.  I missed you!  

A Thorn in My Flesh!

For many people this is their favorite time of the year.  The air is crisper, drier, and cooler.  Those qualities are wonderful, to be sure.

However, this is also the time of year when sandburs are at their worst.  What is a sandbur?  To quote the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension website:

“Field sandbur (grassbur) is a summer annual grassy weed that can be found in home lawns, sports fields, parks and along roadsides. This weed is especially adapted to dry, sandy soils but can be found growing in other types of soils as well. The big problem with this weed is the sharp, spiny burs that are part of the inflorescence. These burs can be painful and are difficult to remove from clothing material. Field sandburs (grassburs) generally start germinating in late spring and will continue to germinate until late summer or early fall months. This weed will continue to grow until the first hard frost or freeze occurs in the fall.”

In other words, they hurt like heck!  They are pesky weeds, that stick to clothing, shoes, (socks!) and even a disc golf bag. 

There are certain holes at Bill Frederick Park (BFP) where they are prolific and that makes hunting for a stray disc hazardous in the fall.  Sometimes you come out of the weeds with those darn burrs sticking all over your shoes, socks, and clothing. 

When the weeds begin producing the seed pods, they are green and especially sticky.  However, the thorns on them are not yet super sharp, and while removing them from clothing is annoying, it isn’t terribly painful.

At this time of year, with a hint of Fall in the air, the burrs turn dry, hard, and especially sharp.  You know when you have them on you, the pain of those sharp thorns is unmistakable.

Yesterday I threw a disk too far to the right on hole ten and had to go searching for it in a weedy, bushy area.  When I came out (without my disc), there were several of those despicable things stuck to my shoes.

No matter how hard you try to get them off without getting stuck, invariably one of those sharp points will pierce your skin.  Sometimes I carry a needle-nose pliers in my bag just to deal with them.  Once they are attached to your clothing, it takes a while to get them off.

The other day, as I was on my way to work, I kept feeling that familiar pain in my side as I was driving.  It felt like I had a burr in my clothes, but I had been nowhere near the disc golf course.  I was driving on a toll road so there was no way to check, but the pain and sting was very familiar.

When I got to work, and got out of the car, I removed my sweater, and there it was!  Inside my sweater, poking into my side.  How in the world did it get there, I wondered.  Then I opened my trunk and reached in to remove my computer bag, which was right next to my disc golf bag.

There they were!  Stuck to the bottom of my disc golf bag.  Clearly, I had managed to brush my clothing against the bag as I placed my computer in the trunk before leaving for work.

Sandburs?  I curse you!

I May Be Addicted…..

…to Disc Golf!  A few weeks ago when my son, Danny, and I made the commitment that we were going to attend the 2014 PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships, we decided on a plan of action including practice, putting, aerobic conditioning, and weight training.

At this point, we have stuck to that plan.  To be sure, Danny needs less training and conditioning than I do.  But he does need to continue to refine his game so that he can post a great score in 2014. My goal is to get stronger and throw father, and become WAY more accurate with my putting.

There are some days when I spend a lot of time thinking about the things I want to work on with my game.  Some nights I even wake up dreaming that I am on the disc golf course.  I get up and pick up a disc that is handy on my dresser and walk through the steps of the drive.

I work in a building with long, narrow hallways, and sometimes I sort of dream about taking one of the discs on display in my office and just throwing them as far and straight as possible down those halls.  If everything wasn’t brand new, with fresh paint, I might just be more than just tempted!

After when, when I can finally get out to the park, I can’t wait to throw that first disc, to watch it fly down the fairway, and land just where I was planning for it to come to rest.

In the evening, after practice, I watch videos of some of the pros teaching us how to throw a perfect backhand, or flick. 

Danny always says to me, “Work on one thing at a time.” While I try to do that, I’m just not satisfied!  I want to do it all.

When daylight saving time is over and we turn our clock back an hour, our home park will be closing two hours earlier every day – at 5 PM rather than the current time of 7 PM.  I think I may go through withdrawal if I am unable to practice for five whole days.

I have four weeks left until that time comes, and so for the next few weeks, I’m afraid I’m just going to be a clock watcher – waiting for 4 PM to come so I can head home, and to Bill Frederick Park.

Want to join me?

Rainy Day? I Laugh at You!

Yesterday, I cheated Mother Nature.  When I left work, I glanced at the skies to check my chances of playing some disc golf.  All day we had bands of rain come through the city.  They may have been remnants from Tropical Storm Karen, bringing an ever-changing landscape, sunny, cloudy, heavy rain, cloudy, sunny, and back again.

By the time I got to the disc golf course, dark heavy clouds were approaching from the west.  So, some throwing in the field seemed to be the order of the day.  I worked on flicks (a sidearm throw), which, since I can’t throw a flick very far, were the perfect choice.  Retrieving 26 discs isn’t nearly as daunting as picking up 26 drives.  My flick range is probably 70 feet maximum, and I tend to throw a bit wildly, especially when I first begin, until I start to get in a groove with the unfamiliar throw.

I threw all the discs out, and threw them back to the starting place twice which was just about the amount of time it took for those black clouds to get to the point where they were swirling overhead.  Wisely, I decided to put the milk crate container of discs in my trunk and focus on just two discs, in a grassy area near where I was parked.

Other golfers on the course began heading in for the day as the clouds got denser and the wind began.  I remained outdoors, throwing my two discs back and forth in the grassy area near my car.  At one point, it was obvious that the sky was just about to let loose so I threw one more time.  By the time I got to my disc, down came the rain.  It was a quick run to the car, and I got in just as a huge deluge began.

The sky above me actually seemed less threatening, and farther to the west, there were actually some blue patches.  I decided to wait it out.  It was about 15 minutes from the time when Danny normally gets to the park and I estimated it would take just about that much time for the storm to pass over.  A few minutes later Danny called, figuring that I had left the park by then.  I told him my plan and he decided to stop by to see if the rain was over.

Shortly before I saw his red truck drive up, I got out of the car and returned to that grassy spot nearby and practiced a few more flicks.  When I saw his bright red Ranger approaching, I knew that we would have a great time playing, in spite of the heavy rain just moments before.

We each took a rag from my trunk to wipe our discs before each throw.  When the discs land in sandy soil, it generally doesn’t affect the next throw, unless, of course, it has been raining and the sand is wet.  Then it seems to cling to the disc which easily can affect one’s throw.  Wiping the disc down with a rag before throwing is somewhat annoying.  On the other hand, it is good to practice that habit because if it begins to rain during tournament play, you have to be able to cope with that task in addition to remaining focused on the game.

We decided to stay close to the parking lot and chose several holes that were within range:  1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18.  That was sort of a weird, random set of holes, but we were never that far away in the event that the rain suddenly returned.

So by the end of the night, I’d been able to practice flicks, practice some long drives, as well as play 11 holes of disc golf.  As I drove from the park, I looked up at the sky and felt as if I cheated Mother Nature.  She had come to spoil my evening, but I worked around it, and had a great time in the process.

Sunday Joy!

After a less-than-successful disc golf outing Saturday, I was not all that enthusiastic about playing disc golf on Sunday.  My body was aching from many days of training, and I was a bit tired.  I figured that I’d perhaps spend Sunday putting, lifting weights and doing some other form of exercise.

When we got home from church I was helping my daughter unload her car with the variety of equipment and toys she brings for her boys when she comes to visit us on Sunday.  In the back of her van was her disc golf bag.  “Oh!”  I said, “were you wanting to play some disc golf today?”  Carole replied, “Maybe…” in a half-way enthusiastic sort of way.

I knew that if we went to play we would be taking her two boys with us, as there was no one else at home to watch them.  Her oldest used to follow us all over the disc golf course, stirring up the ant hills and throwing sticks in the water, but hadn’t gone in quite a while.  The baby, who is nearly 10 months, has never gone with us when we played disc golf, so that was going to be an adventure. 

Shortly after noon, as we were beginning to get lulled into a half-awake, half-asleep state of lethargy, when I said, “Let’s all go to the park!”  We all got ready, climbed into the van with disc golf bags, stroller, cooler of icy water, some toys and a bottle of icy cold water for the baby.  We told Anthony that he would be in charge of pushing Aiden around in the stroller, knowing full well that it would be nearly impossible to do that without help because of the sandy soil.

We decided to play the back nine of T-1, and headed out.  Anthony knows the course well from being with us so often, so when we threw our drives from the tee pad, he ran ahead to find where they landed.  After our second throws, Anthony ran ahead to the basket and picked up each disc, throwing each soundly into the basket. 

Normally, this would not be a good thing, of course, but it was a hot, sunny day, and if Anthony wanted to participate by throwing our putts for us, all the better.  We pushed Aiden from one shady spot to another on the course, but still near the end he was getting warm.  While the rest of us were out-right sweating. Although he doesn’t drink much water, I think the cool bottle tasted good to him after being in his stroller for a while.  

We pulled down the mosquito netting to keep bugs out of and toys and pacifier in the stroller.  I even gave Aiden a disc of his own to play with in the stroller.  He had fun with it. 

It was a quick, but interesting trip.  The nine holes took us about an hour and it was good to just be doing something outside, physical, and fun for everyone.  The trip also renewed my love of throwing discs.

What felt even better was jumping in our pool when we got home!  Goodbye sweat, sand and exhaustion!  And afterwards it was time for all of us to take a nap.