Saturday, February 18, 2012

Slimming Down

Slimming down may not just be a New Years resolution but a disc golf resolution as well. I’m not talking about losing weight here. I’m talking about losing discs. But not in the traditional sense of grip locking one on North Valley Park’s (now just The Valley) treacherous hole 15. For the rookies that hole is a 615 foot anhyzer line over a huge pond with not much room to spare by landing on the side of a hill.

No I am am suggesting that I move from a period in my disc golf career where it’s not so much expansion/exploration of new plastic/discs but a contraction and lightening the load that I have to carry. Those of you who have played with me know I carry a full bag. I believe its up to 22-24 strong. Do I play with all 22-24 on a given day? Well that depends on the course. But it has come to my attention after watching a few new disc golf dvds that my bag may be a little over crowed with plastic I either haven’t mastered enough to feel comfortable throwing in a given round or just “think I might need/have that shot.”

The thought for this post came from a conversation I heard between our favorite disc golf announcer Billy Crump and David Feldberg speaking about Nikko Locastro’s mixed bag he throws meaning he plays with discs put out by companies that don’t sponsor him. Anyway back to the point. Most pros will tell you to practice a lot and get good at throwing a few discs...then buy multiples of those discs and wear them in to different points and you will be all set.

Seeing as I won’t be a sponsored player anytime soon. (but one can dream right...) I have been really thinking about that piece of advice from the pros and thinking about the discs in my bag currently. Do I really need 22-24 different discs? I can say that in hindsight because I did just put some discs in to “fill the bag” but I can probably think of at least 2-4 discs that I don’t throw on a given day and that I could replace with another disc that is already in my bag. My thought is to over the next few weeks as the winter season in the Land of 10,000 mosquit....Lakes starts to close (Lord willing) is to really take a look at the discs I have in my bag and pair some of those down and look to adding a few multiples and work on breaking a few in. I’ve done that already with my buzzes. I have a pretty beat in ESP buzz that I can manipulate to any shot and I have a stiffer Z-plastic buzz that holds the line you throw it on. Which works great for tight wooded shots. To each his own in the quest for the lowest round of the day.

May the post find you inspired to play a round.

MRK

2 comments:

Diggs said...

So let me get this straight, you'll still roll tourney bag, just with a number of duplicates at various points along the wear process?

Doesn't sound like too bad of an idea. I know Gerth would do that. The only downside is (hopefully temporary) versatility. I ran with the standard bag when I played this winter and sorely missed certain discs for which I thought I'd have no use. Anyhow, good luck with the consolidation!

Mid Range King said...

Yea...this is definitely a process for me. I'm not entirely sure how it will work out. Plus the funds needed to make this possible aren't available at the moment. But if the pro's are doing it...I gotta try at least.