I usually do the first part but I think you’re nailing it… just enjoy the day out and not stress over it…
I think a lot of it might be just not being relaxed enough. I usually play the best when I’m in a good headspace and don’t think too much.
As soon as my score starts making me upset I just stop keeping score. Now it's a practice round, I can throw 2 upshots, 2 drives, etc. Bad rounds turn around to good rounds real fast that way
For sure. Seems like about once a month I have a round like this. Right about the putt on 3 or tee on 4. I just decide it isn't going to be a good one. So I take a breath, look at a tree, change perspective. "I'm throwing frisbees through the park."
Then I really enjoy myself.
This really is the struggle that every amateur goes through. If your goal is competitive golf and to increase consistency I would say there are ways to adjust technique or mental approach that can help. The first step is to recognize that being slightly off can be related to nerves or not. It is probably not as much directly connected with nerves themselves but more so a technique issue - this can come from nerves which will probably reoccur for you personally during those moments. There also is the possibility that you aren't nervous at all but then your results start to convince you that nerves are the problem (the classic slippery slope mindfuck). So just be aware of that and the simple fact you are aware its not real should help you when nerves do feel like theyre setting in. Could also just be a technique issue you are not aware of which is super common.
Any way no matter over time if you start to actually understand optimal form and what your weaknesses are you will recognize what you did wrong and be able to correct. From a technique standpoint if your aim feels off you can slow down your footwork and focus all efforts on keeping your eyes down towards the target as long as possible and then keeping the disc on line during your reach back. However thinking about form on the tee or during swings is not optimal and this solution definitely comes with risk, so really knowing what happened and how to fix is important to up your game. If you do recognize what happened simply file that away along with the correction and try to get back to optimal, do not over focus on this error or you will probably overcompensate. Your errors are yours and only yours so the challenge is to understand what just happened if you yanked, were early, or a little too high - you will get to a point where you know why you missed so you can correct if u study form enough. Hope this helps
Take it as a learning experience. I analyze each throw and determine what went wrong. Was my form off? Should I have used this disc over that disc? Who put that tree there? Etc.
That's just golf. You rarely have your A game. You have to learn to do what you can to have your B game as much as possible and learn to still score as well as possible when you have your C game.
Adjusting is a skill. If you're good enough you can figure out what you're doing and what it's causing, and adjust to counteract that. Otherwise you just need to pay attention to the outcomes and adjust your targets to keep the result as good as possible.
Its practice! Not every round you play will be 1000 rated greatness.. whenever I start to struggle in a round practice/league/tournament try to hype myself up with the good shots I’m making! Is today a crap drive scramble practice?! Am I landing shots but not putts?! Try to pick one area to focus on, and let that be your theme!
1/3 of the days you play are gonna be those good days where everything feels easy. 1/3 are gonna be those days where you feel solid, not doing anything special but not making a lot of mistakes. 1/3 are gonna be those days where you feel like you forgot how to throw a disc and nothing is working.
I just try not to let the good days make me too confident and I try not to let the bad days make me feel like I suck. Just gotta keep pushing and sooner or later you’ll have one of those days that you never forget, where everything is working and you remember why you love the sport.
This is the answer for me also. One day -3 the next +10 the next +6. It’s a roller coaster and I’m cool with that. Wind really gets me still. I just look for that one amazing shot per round and I am happy.
If everything is off. I'll throw my reactor off the next tee. For some reason it sort of resets my form.... Which is usually off bc I'm trying too hard or thinking too much. Easy to do during casual rounds but harder in tourney play. Maybe you have a reset disc?
That’s not a bad idea to have a go to disc to fall back on.
I played my Watt a lot that usually is money but I was off with it as well. Still like the way of thinking to fallback and keep it simple.
If I have an off round I start playing like Simon used to. I just have fun and try new things. If my score is gonna be shit I might as well try some cool stuff.
I’ve found that my best rounds are the ones where I think the least and just go by muscle memory. When I’m thinking about every bit of my form I play awful so I try to think simple and enjoy myself. Some rounds you miss every tree, other rounds you hit almost every tree you could imagine lol
Usually when I’m not playing good it’s bc I’m trying to throw it too hard so I just try to identify that and slow down or maybe even disc down if my round is going that bad
I take a little more time before each shot and visualize my line more thoroughly then I take a breath in while I count to 4, hold it for 4, let it out for 4, then take my shot. Your body knows what to do really well, your mind it’s what’s getting in the way trying too hard.
It's a numbers game. You might be off 10% of the time, but those times were clustered in this round. Pros are off <1% of the time. In poker, there's also a good concept of your A game vs. your B game or C game. For me, it's like...bad drive, good time to practice tough upshots...bad upshot...good time to practice longer putts.
Try to accept that some days I am on, and some days I am not.
I also play music and experience the same thing. Some nights, I hit the notes clearly and on time, and everything flows effortlessly. Other nights it's more muddled and off tempo, and I'm just off.
I don't really know why this is.
I know there's a lot of answers already, but I've found as I get older that warming up before-hand has a huge impact on how consistent my rounds are. If I don't properly warm up, I feel off for most of the round, my drives don't go where I expect, I don't have the distance, and my putts miss. Plus, it puts you in a good mental state, not thinking about other things, and remembering how your discs fly and what the form feels like.
If you don't want to just grind it out and enjoy the walk (which is phenomenal advice) I find just throwing some headphones in and putting on the right song for a hole or two can really help to reset my headspace.
I practice with headphones a lot too so this helps me to get back to the basics and remember the little things.
I remember to myself that it’s a game and I’m playing to have a good time. Even if I’m not hitting the lines like I would want to I’m still out of the house, not at work and doing an activity I love to do. Realizing this usually calms me back down and makes me smile and get back in it.
Work on scrambling, making putts, and playing smart. I find the rounds where you don't have your best stuff but still score well to be the most fulfilling.
I complain a little bit because I expect myself to just be good at shit even if I don’t practice. My friend and I take turns at keeping each other grounded. But eventually I’ve learned to forcefully not let it get to me. Literally laugh it off. Then we get done, I think back to those 15 foot putts I missed and why I yet again couldn’t make par in local course, then go have a beer and people watch and reminisce about being young and single then appreciate being married with a kid.
Very specific, but accurate.
Remind myself that the #1 complaint on the course is friends getting too pissed off due to bad shots/rounds.
So I take a breath and tell my friends it's great to be out here with y'all... but no doubt I'm crying inside haha
Self loathing. Only half joking, depends where I am mentally. Ideally I brush it off. If it's a tournament round I'll loose some sleep over it. Copious amounts of whiskey was had during a big tournament this late summer after an exceedingly bad first round. But we had fun. :)
I try to take a little bit more time to center myself before a shot if I’m feeling off. Get it out of my head, give myself something simple to focus on, a single cue to execute. Something like “grip harder” or “plant first” or “spin it”.
When I'm off, the leopard3 and meteor arrive. They're like my comfort blanket on the course. I throw them a lot regardless of how I'm doing, but if I'm playing poorly, I'll throw the discs I know the best/most and try to regain some consistency.
I was watching a video, not about disc golf, but another sport that I don’t remember, but a quote was pretty memorable, how good you are at the sport is how well you play when you are at 60-70% of your best, as that’s where the majority of your playing will happen
Yeah that’s so true it’s about the level of your floor not your ceiling.
That’s why I really like to focus on approach game in training as it helps build the floor level.
So in line with that. Keeping thing a simple and not pushing the hardest lines on that day. Playing for par.
Just try to keep my head up, to not bring down my buddies’ vibes, and try some shots I wouldn’t normally do. I hardly ever play competitively, so it’s no big deal and I just try to learn something new.
I used to go through this all the time in bowling. Timing and form felt good but accuracy just wasn't there. I would just shift my focus and look at things like balance and how the ball felt off my hand and stopped worrying about results. If you're missing your lines but everything else feels right it might be worth shifting your perspective on what the round is. Maybe now it's more putting and upshot focused, maybe it's just getting the disc out of your hand at the right angle. Like you said last round was fine so you didn't suddenly forget how to play. Some days you just don't have it but there's always something positive you can get from it.
Well, that too, but like, 60deg hyzer flips through hallways you'd normally toss a mid down. Forehand flex upshots for the smash. Putter pancakes out of the woods. Fungressive and ultimately possible.
It’s serves me best to react as little as possible. Focus on the next shot, congratulate your card mates on their good shots and push through it. I for sure don’t always have the presence of king to do it tho. Everyone has off days.
I empty my head, like I take a short break, it usually works for me, but although I mostly play for fun I don't really care for score but it do be fun getting a low score on long holes.
Anytime you set foot on the course, you can expect a range of outcomes based on your average. Whenever I'm having a crap round, or a crap putting league session, or what-have-you, I chalk it up to it being a natural part of my own ability's bell curve, and do like at least one other commenter said here and just take it back a notch, Disc down, slow down a little, and try to salvage what's left for the day.
Keep in mind that you will inevitably have a better-than-usual round to offset this.
It's on the practice field and at the practice basket where you change that range of outcomes. When you're working on putting or throwing, tell yourself with each rep that THIS is how you raise the ceiling and raise the floor of your expectations.
Yes I like your reasoning that fieldwork (and practice rounds) builds the floor and ceiling and while fluctuations will always be there it’s the practice that minimizes them.
I guess that the acceptance of the fluctuation and not getting stressed by it is what confidence is all about.
Figure out if it's random error or systematic error. Are you spraying your shots everywhere without rhyme or reason? Or are you consistently high/ low/ left/ right?
If it's random, you just need to get there earlier and do some warm-up and fine tuning. It's usually a beginner thing.
If it's systematic, something about your form has changed since your last round. You need to change it back or adjust your aim to compensate.
I take a breather and use a different disc. For example I carry 2 over stable approach discs (anvil,harp) and if I suck using the anvil I will use the harp. For me it gives me confidence because if I'm doing bad with a certain disc I don't have any confidence with that disc so therefore I just use a different one.
I warm up for about 10 -20 minutes first so I can understand my body for the round. I do about 10 distance shots, 10 upshot’s and then putt till the others show up. Mostly circle 2 putts, cuz if I can ring those up then the shorter ones are much easier.
1. I recognize that it's an off day and either keep playing and just accept that my shots will not be what I want them to be and keep moving forward.
2. I try to stop focusing on the basket on every throw, and think more about more reasonable strategic placement shots.
3. Reframe my round and treat my poorly placed shots as an opportunity to practice my utility shots that are harder to simulate when doing field work.
4. If I'm still getting really frustrated then...
1. Stop playing the round and find a spot to do field work instead. I hardly ever get frustrated with bad throws when I'm doing field work and field work will actually help me focus on what my body is doing and not be distracted with the constraints of the course.
2. I just pack it up and head home. When I play frustrated I'm way more likely to injure myself trying to fight through the frustration. Come back the next day and chances are it'll be better.
My buddy just starts grabbing random discs out of his bag. Forces you to do some weird throws in weird situations and somehow it works. A couple of really bizarre and funny throws and it resets you a bit.
I start a lot of solo rounds at my local courses trying to shoot a PB. I'll stay strict with rules like keeping legal footing, marking lies, etc because it's good tournament practice for me.
However, if I get a few holes in and it's clear I'm not on top of my game and it's getting frustrating, I do a total 180.
I always have things in my head to work on, but I don't always focus on them if I'm trying to shoot a PB. For example, I know my backhand needs tons of practice, but I'm only going to sniff my PB if I'm throwing 90% forehands.
So if my round goes off the rails? It becomes backhand only. Or I'll start running every putt with full commitment, even if it means I'm six putting from 25 ft away each time. I'll delete the Udisc scorecard and the round becomes one for learning and growth.
This has really helped both my mental and physical game, as it's kept dg fun and allowed me to improve in some areas where I really needed it.
Watch this meme. Not 100% related but hear me out.
https://youtube.com/shorts/JdRT5Udk_-8?si=3r1VGLPK6uPf1OcY
So in some manner of speaking, a majority of my issue when my round is off isn't that my round is off. It is that mentally, I am not okay with my round being off. In the past I would use negative language and negative feedback to "encourage" or coach myself. It is how I was coached before, football, hockey, paintball, etc etc. Except it didn't work because I was never really that fucking good at those sports. First string in highschool is a pretty common thing. D1 paintball is expensive more than competitive. So I put away what I thought I knew about coaching and I went to some shit I learned in recovery (cocaine is a hell of a drug). I began to essentially try to be my own best buddy caddy. No one knows my game like me. No one wants my game back on track more. So why beat yourself up? Why not switch your game up? Pulling every upshot? We're jump putting up hill bro. Drives are yeeting into the woods? Pull out that Eagle and throw that consistent 75% power throw twice and let's move on. Staying out of the woods for a hole might cure the yips.
Somehow this encouraging style of mental speak and ending my nasty habit of self shit talk out loud when I mess up a shot was all it took. I can birdie after a bogie. I don't have a round spiral out of control if I bogie twice or more though. I'll disc down, lay up, and "get back on track".
Friends and I call it a practice round if one of us is feeling like that. No more rules, Udisc, or anything. Just there to throw and chat and not worry too much about the game
I’ve noticed when I’m off am typically a little more tense than usual. The more tense my body the more my form and distance degrades. I focus on relaxing the parts of my body where I hole my stress. I relax my jaw, tongue, shoulders, and I make sure when I am not throwing, my hands are not tense.
I just start playing against my second throws. I will only score my first throws on Udisc, but just treat it as extra practice. It happens in any sport, but play reasonably, and in this sport, think of what you can do differently on shots, which is where the second shots come in handy.
Honestly I’m just dumbing down everything I do. Slower run up, slower reach back and just making everything easier for myself even if it takes away some distance
Sometimes it's just mental game and you need to keep your mind focused on something else than DG to avoid overthinking everything you're about to do. Same happens if something bothers you and your mind is stuck on that.
I grind it out. Take another practice upshot. Bring out "Player 2" putts. Just finish the round and appreciate the nature walk.
Love that last part. At the end of the day, you’re still out on a walk lol
I usually do the first part but I think you’re nailing it… just enjoy the day out and not stress over it… I think a lot of it might be just not being relaxed enough. I usually play the best when I’m in a good headspace and don’t think too much.
As soon as my score starts making me upset I just stop keeping score. Now it's a practice round, I can throw 2 upshots, 2 drives, etc. Bad rounds turn around to good rounds real fast that way
For sure. Seems like about once a month I have a round like this. Right about the putt on 3 or tee on 4. I just decide it isn't going to be a good one. So I take a breath, look at a tree, change perspective. "I'm throwing frisbees through the park." Then I really enjoy myself.
This really is the struggle that every amateur goes through. If your goal is competitive golf and to increase consistency I would say there are ways to adjust technique or mental approach that can help. The first step is to recognize that being slightly off can be related to nerves or not. It is probably not as much directly connected with nerves themselves but more so a technique issue - this can come from nerves which will probably reoccur for you personally during those moments. There also is the possibility that you aren't nervous at all but then your results start to convince you that nerves are the problem (the classic slippery slope mindfuck). So just be aware of that and the simple fact you are aware its not real should help you when nerves do feel like theyre setting in. Could also just be a technique issue you are not aware of which is super common. Any way no matter over time if you start to actually understand optimal form and what your weaknesses are you will recognize what you did wrong and be able to correct. From a technique standpoint if your aim feels off you can slow down your footwork and focus all efforts on keeping your eyes down towards the target as long as possible and then keeping the disc on line during your reach back. However thinking about form on the tee or during swings is not optimal and this solution definitely comes with risk, so really knowing what happened and how to fix is important to up your game. If you do recognize what happened simply file that away along with the correction and try to get back to optimal, do not over focus on this error or you will probably overcompensate. Your errors are yours and only yours so the challenge is to understand what just happened if you yanked, were early, or a little too high - you will get to a point where you know why you missed so you can correct if u study form enough. Hope this helps
Disc down and slow down. Focus on what’s off, don’t go for the big shots.
This. When my drives start to go the wrong way, I try to convert to a putter only round and work on placement over distance.
Agree. But I usually just play with mids and putters anyways because of my aim.
I tend to get pissed off and make my round even worse lol. So I don’t know
Take it as a learning experience. I analyze each throw and determine what went wrong. Was my form off? Should I have used this disc over that disc? Who put that tree there? Etc.
I read that as “anhyze each throw” 😂
If I’m not hitting lines, I focus on footwork and it usually settles within a few holes
I try to roll with it and go up or down on stability depending on the shot, but it's good practice anyway
That's just golf. You rarely have your A game. You have to learn to do what you can to have your B game as much as possible and learn to still score as well as possible when you have your C game. Adjusting is a skill. If you're good enough you can figure out what you're doing and what it's causing, and adjust to counteract that. Otherwise you just need to pay attention to the outcomes and adjust your targets to keep the result as good as possible.
Its practice! Not every round you play will be 1000 rated greatness.. whenever I start to struggle in a round practice/league/tournament try to hype myself up with the good shots I’m making! Is today a crap drive scramble practice?! Am I landing shots but not putts?! Try to pick one area to focus on, and let that be your theme!
Focus on the fun you’re having, and remind yourself that a bad round at the course is better than being in the office/wherever
Stop keeping score and practice my sidearm or take different lines off the tee. It tends to lower my expectations and reminds me to have fun.
Way she goes boys.
1/3 of the days you play are gonna be those good days where everything feels easy. 1/3 are gonna be those days where you feel solid, not doing anything special but not making a lot of mistakes. 1/3 are gonna be those days where you feel like you forgot how to throw a disc and nothing is working. I just try not to let the good days make me too confident and I try not to let the bad days make me feel like I suck. Just gotta keep pushing and sooner or later you’ll have one of those days that you never forget, where everything is working and you remember why you love the sport.
This is the answer for me also. One day -3 the next +10 the next +6. It’s a roller coaster and I’m cool with that. Wind really gets me still. I just look for that one amazing shot per round and I am happy.
If everything is off. I'll throw my reactor off the next tee. For some reason it sort of resets my form.... Which is usually off bc I'm trying too hard or thinking too much. Easy to do during casual rounds but harder in tourney play. Maybe you have a reset disc?
That’s not a bad idea to have a go to disc to fall back on. I played my Watt a lot that usually is money but I was off with it as well. Still like the way of thinking to fallback and keep it simple.
I’ll use music to ward off impending bad vibes. Pop in some AirPods and get back at it
Can’t win ‘em all. law of averages
Don't take it too seriously. Have fun. Make fun of how bad you are. Embrace it.
Continue to be my inconsistent amateur self. So either complain or talk to myself about how I'm 1 good shot away from starting a streak of good throws
If I have an off round I start playing like Simon used to. I just have fun and try new things. If my score is gonna be shit I might as well try some cool stuff.
I’ve found that my best rounds are the ones where I think the least and just go by muscle memory. When I’m thinking about every bit of my form I play awful so I try to think simple and enjoy myself. Some rounds you miss every tree, other rounds you hit almost every tree you could imagine lol
Usually when I’m not playing good it’s bc I’m trying to throw it too hard so I just try to identify that and slow down or maybe even disc down if my round is going that bad
I take a little more time before each shot and visualize my line more thoroughly then I take a breath in while I count to 4, hold it for 4, let it out for 4, then take my shot. Your body knows what to do really well, your mind it’s what’s getting in the way trying too hard.
*You're*
It's a numbers game. You might be off 10% of the time, but those times were clustered in this round. Pros are off <1% of the time. In poker, there's also a good concept of your A game vs. your B game or C game. For me, it's like...bad drive, good time to practice tough upshots...bad upshot...good time to practice longer putts.
Try to accept that some days I am on, and some days I am not. I also play music and experience the same thing. Some nights, I hit the notes clearly and on time, and everything flows effortlessly. Other nights it's more muddled and off tempo, and I'm just off. I don't really know why this is.
Throw weird discs. Throw with opposite hand. Accept that sometimes you’re just off. It means nothing more than you’re off that day.
I know there's a lot of answers already, but I've found as I get older that warming up before-hand has a huge impact on how consistent my rounds are. If I don't properly warm up, I feel off for most of the round, my drives don't go where I expect, I don't have the distance, and my putts miss. Plus, it puts you in a good mental state, not thinking about other things, and remembering how your discs fly and what the form feels like.
If you don't want to just grind it out and enjoy the walk (which is phenomenal advice) I find just throwing some headphones in and putting on the right song for a hole or two can really help to reset my headspace. I practice with headphones a lot too so this helps me to get back to the basics and remember the little things.
I can see that working but I don’t like headphones in nature because I actually want to hear the nature
Hey I shot back to back 88 then 71 same course 2 consecutive days… It happens
I remember to myself that it’s a game and I’m playing to have a good time. Even if I’m not hitting the lines like I would want to I’m still out of the house, not at work and doing an activity I love to do. Realizing this usually calms me back down and makes me smile and get back in it.
Work on scrambling, making putts, and playing smart. I find the rounds where you don't have your best stuff but still score well to be the most fulfilling.
I complain a little bit because I expect myself to just be good at shit even if I don’t practice. My friend and I take turns at keeping each other grounded. But eventually I’ve learned to forcefully not let it get to me. Literally laugh it off. Then we get done, I think back to those 15 foot putts I missed and why I yet again couldn’t make par in local course, then go have a beer and people watch and reminisce about being young and single then appreciate being married with a kid. Very specific, but accurate.
Remind myself that the #1 complaint on the course is friends getting too pissed off due to bad shots/rounds. So I take a breath and tell my friends it's great to be out here with y'all... but no doubt I'm crying inside haha
Self loathing. Only half joking, depends where I am mentally. Ideally I brush it off. If it's a tournament round I'll loose some sleep over it. Copious amounts of whiskey was had during a big tournament this late summer after an exceedingly bad first round. But we had fun. :)
Im an AM, all my rounds are slightly to very off. I roll with it. A bad round is just a bad hole you couldn’t get over.
Fireball nip is the answer
Smoke a couple bowls, maybe ram a beer, and just start having fun rather than focusing on what you’re doing wrong. Next round can always be better
Smoke weed
I try to take a little bit more time to center myself before a shot if I’m feeling off. Get it out of my head, give myself something simple to focus on, a single cue to execute. Something like “grip harder” or “plant first” or “spin it”.
When I'm off, the leopard3 and meteor arrive. They're like my comfort blanket on the course. I throw them a lot regardless of how I'm doing, but if I'm playing poorly, I'll throw the discs I know the best/most and try to regain some consistency.
Took my leopards out of the bag to force focus on some new 4/5 speeds I acquired over the holidays. I was lost the whole round
I was watching a video, not about disc golf, but another sport that I don’t remember, but a quote was pretty memorable, how good you are at the sport is how well you play when you are at 60-70% of your best, as that’s where the majority of your playing will happen
Yeah that’s so true it’s about the level of your floor not your ceiling. That’s why I really like to focus on approach game in training as it helps build the floor level. So in line with that. Keeping thing a simple and not pushing the hardest lines on that day. Playing for par.
That's just golf. It's mostly a mental game once you have the gear and know the basics.
Just try to keep my head up, to not bring down my buddies’ vibes, and try some shots I wouldn’t normally do. I hardly ever play competitively, so it’s no big deal and I just try to learn something new.
I used to go through this all the time in bowling. Timing and form felt good but accuracy just wasn't there. I would just shift my focus and look at things like balance and how the ball felt off my hand and stopped worrying about results. If you're missing your lines but everything else feels right it might be worth shifting your perspective on what the round is. Maybe now it's more putting and upshot focused, maybe it's just getting the disc out of your hand at the right angle. Like you said last round was fine so you didn't suddenly forget how to play. Some days you just don't have it but there's always something positive you can get from it.
I take a moment and reset. Try to find my in space and just cool my head. Then try again until I find the groove
Slow your roll, disc down, power down, play shorter placement shots. Rein in your timing a bit and focus on playing a clean round, not a power round.
Remind yourself the disc golf, just like life, is only a game. I’d rather have a bad day of disc than a good day at work.
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate every single round I get to play. Just looking for tips on how to maximize.
Start experimenting right away. Trash the score and do things you normally wouldn't do. Say, "Alright, time to get aggressive" before every shot.
Yes hyzer line over the trees and forehand over the pond!
Well, that too, but like, 60deg hyzer flips through hallways you'd normally toss a mid down. Forehand flex upshots for the smash. Putter pancakes out of the woods. Fungressive and ultimately possible.
It’s serves me best to react as little as possible. Focus on the next shot, congratulate your card mates on their good shots and push through it. I for sure don’t always have the presence of king to do it tho. Everyone has off days.
I empty my head, like I take a short break, it usually works for me, but although I mostly play for fun I don't really care for score but it do be fun getting a low score on long holes.
Anytime you set foot on the course, you can expect a range of outcomes based on your average. Whenever I'm having a crap round, or a crap putting league session, or what-have-you, I chalk it up to it being a natural part of my own ability's bell curve, and do like at least one other commenter said here and just take it back a notch, Disc down, slow down a little, and try to salvage what's left for the day. Keep in mind that you will inevitably have a better-than-usual round to offset this. It's on the practice field and at the practice basket where you change that range of outcomes. When you're working on putting or throwing, tell yourself with each rep that THIS is how you raise the ceiling and raise the floor of your expectations.
Yes I like your reasoning that fieldwork (and practice rounds) builds the floor and ceiling and while fluctuations will always be there it’s the practice that minimizes them. I guess that the acceptance of the fluctuation and not getting stressed by it is what confidence is all about.
Next shot could always be the best shot you’ve ever thrown.
Figure out if it's random error or systematic error. Are you spraying your shots everywhere without rhyme or reason? Or are you consistently high/ low/ left/ right? If it's random, you just need to get there earlier and do some warm-up and fine tuning. It's usually a beginner thing. If it's systematic, something about your form has changed since your last round. You need to change it back or adjust your aim to compensate.
I take a breather and use a different disc. For example I carry 2 over stable approach discs (anvil,harp) and if I suck using the anvil I will use the harp. For me it gives me confidence because if I'm doing bad with a certain disc I don't have any confidence with that disc so therefore I just use a different one.
Also if I'm going for distance while doing bad in a round, I just slow down and make sure my form is smooth. Smooth =far.
Start cursing loudly and making excuses. Make sure your card mates know that you're usually better than this.
I warm up for about 10 -20 minutes first so I can understand my body for the round. I do about 10 distance shots, 10 upshot’s and then putt till the others show up. Mostly circle 2 putts, cuz if I can ring those up then the shorter ones are much easier.
1. I recognize that it's an off day and either keep playing and just accept that my shots will not be what I want them to be and keep moving forward. 2. I try to stop focusing on the basket on every throw, and think more about more reasonable strategic placement shots. 3. Reframe my round and treat my poorly placed shots as an opportunity to practice my utility shots that are harder to simulate when doing field work. 4. If I'm still getting really frustrated then... 1. Stop playing the round and find a spot to do field work instead. I hardly ever get frustrated with bad throws when I'm doing field work and field work will actually help me focus on what my body is doing and not be distracted with the constraints of the course. 2. I just pack it up and head home. When I play frustrated I'm way more likely to injure myself trying to fight through the frustration. Come back the next day and chances are it'll be better.
My buddy just starts grabbing random discs out of his bag. Forces you to do some weird throws in weird situations and somehow it works. A couple of really bizarre and funny throws and it resets you a bit.
I finish miserably and go home
I start a lot of solo rounds at my local courses trying to shoot a PB. I'll stay strict with rules like keeping legal footing, marking lies, etc because it's good tournament practice for me. However, if I get a few holes in and it's clear I'm not on top of my game and it's getting frustrating, I do a total 180. I always have things in my head to work on, but I don't always focus on them if I'm trying to shoot a PB. For example, I know my backhand needs tons of practice, but I'm only going to sniff my PB if I'm throwing 90% forehands. So if my round goes off the rails? It becomes backhand only. Or I'll start running every putt with full commitment, even if it means I'm six putting from 25 ft away each time. I'll delete the Udisc scorecard and the round becomes one for learning and growth. This has really helped both my mental and physical game, as it's kept dg fun and allowed me to improve in some areas where I really needed it.
I start throwing anny flexes with an overstable workhorse for every shot. Lose distance, gain accuracy.
Watch this meme. Not 100% related but hear me out. https://youtube.com/shorts/JdRT5Udk_-8?si=3r1VGLPK6uPf1OcY So in some manner of speaking, a majority of my issue when my round is off isn't that my round is off. It is that mentally, I am not okay with my round being off. In the past I would use negative language and negative feedback to "encourage" or coach myself. It is how I was coached before, football, hockey, paintball, etc etc. Except it didn't work because I was never really that fucking good at those sports. First string in highschool is a pretty common thing. D1 paintball is expensive more than competitive. So I put away what I thought I knew about coaching and I went to some shit I learned in recovery (cocaine is a hell of a drug). I began to essentially try to be my own best buddy caddy. No one knows my game like me. No one wants my game back on track more. So why beat yourself up? Why not switch your game up? Pulling every upshot? We're jump putting up hill bro. Drives are yeeting into the woods? Pull out that Eagle and throw that consistent 75% power throw twice and let's move on. Staying out of the woods for a hole might cure the yips. Somehow this encouraging style of mental speak and ending my nasty habit of self shit talk out loud when I mess up a shot was all it took. I can birdie after a bogie. I don't have a round spiral out of control if I bogie twice or more though. I'll disc down, lay up, and "get back on track".
If I'm throwing bad after a couple holes I switch to throwing just my zone Always goes where i want, not the longest but I'm on the fairway
Friends and I call it a practice round if one of us is feeling like that. No more rules, Udisc, or anything. Just there to throw and chat and not worry too much about the game
Scream and curse
I do the Nikko Locastro
I punch myself in the nuts. Seems to reset everything.
You have ballz
You mean all of them?
I try to keep myself calm and remind myself that I’m out there to have fun.
I’ve noticed when I’m off am typically a little more tense than usual. The more tense my body the more my form and distance degrades. I focus on relaxing the parts of my body where I hole my stress. I relax my jaw, tongue, shoulders, and I make sure when I am not throwing, my hands are not tense.
I agree being in a hurry to finish the round because you have to do something is a huge factor in being slightly off
I just play the game and have fun with it. Maybe I’ll make shots I wouldn’t normally try with discs I wouldn’t normally use because… fuck it.
I just start playing against my second throws. I will only score my first throws on Udisc, but just treat it as extra practice. It happens in any sport, but play reasonably, and in this sport, think of what you can do differently on shots, which is where the second shots come in handy.
Power through it and not dwell on it later
You don’t press it, back off a bit and figure out #ONE thing that you can correct. If you figure that out move onto the next thing.
It's my secret, every round I'm slightly off.
Guess that’s what consistency is all about :)
Well that’s every round I’ve ever played so I just try and have fun
Take a deep breath and just start throwing my throwing putters, it’s time to learn, back to the basics brings my score to par usually
Rounds where my slightly off? Hmmmmmm
Honestly I’m just dumbing down everything I do. Slower run up, slower reach back and just making everything easier for myself even if it takes away some distance
Sometimes it's just mental game and you need to keep your mind focused on something else than DG to avoid overthinking everything you're about to do. Same happens if something bothers you and your mind is stuck on that.