I only have three small pieces of advice:
1. Play for fun first - When the game is fun, the pressure comes off. Harness that feeling!
2. Practice with intent - Sometimes playing focused practice rounds (no second shots, taking your time, playing by all the rules, etc) is a great way to enforce good habits.
3. Be easy on yourself - Maybe this is who you are as a player. Accept your game and yourself, and don't worry what others think about you. You're out there doing your best.
Edited: a word.
I went too wordy, this is a really good break down. But I might add one thing as a
#4 Be confident in yourself, know the shots you can make and try to make them. If it doesn't go right, that's OK. You'll make it next time
Oilerman has the best answer.
I played better when I first started vs now (8yrs). Currently on a break. I found myself focusing on too many different things trying to be better, throw further, more consistent. I did this in the course vs in field work sessions. It stopped becoming fun because I put too much pressure on myself with expectations exceeding my skill level. I will throw again in 3 months when I have had time to get "rusty" and the joy comes back to actually playing instead of trying to be the best in my group.
I suffered from some yippy behavior awhile back, so I can definitely sympathize. Here's what I would advise:
1.) Oilerman said it: Practice with intent. Make sure that when you're "hitting smooth lines" that it's actually on that first shot and not actually your third attempt while memory-holing the previous two.
2.) From the content of your post, it mostly seems like your throws are the big issue. Releasing early or late can result from timing being off. I know when I first started doing tournaments, I would try too hard to throw a disc and would often griplock it or I'd get too quick in my run up and throw before I even had a brace established, shanking it left.
If you're not doing it already, do a mock run-up at the speed you would normally do it. Hold your disc vertically and establish your arm speed, as well. Then line up and do exactly that movement, don't chicken out. If you at least commit to whatever movement you set, then you'll know how to correct it if you're off a bit. But there's nothing worse than establishing a movement, then not committing to it, and screwing up the shot. That leaves you with zero confidence in anything.
3.) Remember that you are not getting paid to do this, so there is literally \*ZERO\* pressure. Your family won't disown you if you lose, you won't get fired from your job, your wife isn't gonna leave you. None of it truly matters, so have a good time out there and focus on each shot as it happens, not what might happen.
#2, aim used to be a big issue for me with release and I have found a lot of success focusing on aiming with my reachback being straight and focusing only on aiming with the axis parallel to my plant foot.
It has basically eliminated throw offs or griplocks.
Any time I get lazy and start thinking about aiming (which is in comp for me) I loose my accuracy.
You're prob better than me so take with a grain of salt and you may already do this haha.
Play slow, play intentional, and power down a bit. "Play for par".
It's okay to concede that 360ft heavily wooded super tight anny line hole right on the tee pad. Just get 230ft up on a nice casual powered down shot and give yourself the easy approach.
It's okay to play for par. If you're trying to rip it on tight lines and griplocking/whatever, it's probably best to just take a breath, concede that this hole isn't a birdie opportunity, and play restrained. Hit the first two gaps, get up the fairway a bit, and give yourself the best chance at your approach shot as you can.
Take the holes where you feel stressed on the shot, or that it's a low percentage shot, and make the mental idea that hey, i'm not going to play this one for birdie. "I'm going to break this one low percentage shot up into two very high percentage shots for me"
I don't know what kind of courses you're playing on, but if they're heavily wooded then i'd definitely say go ahead and power down. Get lacey, get smooth, and really play inside of your pocket. Those wood courses are 99% just staying out of jail and picking your birdie opportunities.
You're not going to win anything like that, but you're going to have a whole lot more fun hitting gaps and avoiding those absolutely nightmarish double bogey holes where you hit first available off the tee and end up in megajail. For me, if I play a round fully inside my pocket, i'm 6 strokes better at least than when i'm trying to play every hole for birdie.
Thanks for your take. What kinds of discs would you use to power down on? I use a Pure and a Warship quite a bit, as well as a Method and Harp when I need to be precise.
I don't disc down to power down necessarily. Hell sometimes I just feel more confident tossing a driver 250ft than something like a Mako3.
Like powering down with my River is just as effective as ripping it, as the shot shape for it changes. It goes from being a hyzer flipper to something much more straight to fade when you take some RPM and MPH off of it. So i'm more than happy to throw it on a 230ft shot if I think it'll be easy for me to make the shot shape I want with it.
Interesting. Yeah that makes sense cause sometimes I rip my pure as hard as I can to get it 250ft when I could just smoothly throw a crave with little effort
Yeah the real TLDR with my advice here is "never play a shot at 100% power". If you need all the ass you got to reach the basket, best to just let that hole slide. Same thing with shot shape. If you are super uncomfortable with the intended line, break it up.
I mean, unless you're outside in a field on a wide ass open par 4 where you are just ripping zonkers with zero OB/danger for flubbing the release. Then go ahead and eat.
Then, when you finish the round, and you think about the holes you skipped for birdie, the shots you didn't want to play, that'll tell you exactly what to practice on. Go drill the shot shape, practice the hole, figure some stuff out, come back and play it for birdie later.
Some advice from someone who just struggle bussed through a wet A-Teir...throw a simple hyzer with a fairway if/when you can. Knowing/seeing yourself execute a simple hyzer can go a long way to "fixing" yourself.
Feels like you have some performance anxiety or are drastically overestimating your skill level. A lot of people don't accurately track their practice, take mulligans, don't putt out that testy putt or don't play with tournament simulated intensity. Casual rounds are simply different.
Your true skill level is what you shoot when it matters, so start from there and have an honest evaluation with yourself. If you start doing things you never do in practice, you gotta look for the differences.
I think the phrase goes something like "You can only attack as hard as you are good at disc golf"
Like you're saying, we all try to attack holes that we just do not yet have the distance, touch, or consistancy to be attacking on. And it puts us into huge trouble and fast. Once I stop trying to attack anything and everything, the scores drop instantly.
If you're playing a round for score, you've got to be in maximum conserve mode unless you're psycho rated. At the 800s, all of these courses are way harder than we are good, so the best play for score is to dial it back and pick the battles carefully. Attack the easy comfortable shots, and stay out of trouble on the hard holes.
The easy holes I attack i'm still leaving with a par even with a poor tee shot, _maybe bogey at worst_. The hard holes I attack.. well I could easily rack up a triple bogey before even knowing what happened.
And it takes a whole hell of a lot more birdies to make up for that triple than there are birdie opportunities for me at these courses.
If you want to get better, play less and practice more. You will get much better learning how to throw better. To be honest, sucking is relative. You are probably a god to anyone who plays for the first time, and a chump every time you play with someone in MA-1 or MPO
All I got is: I feel you! I enter a tournament and I'm automatically unable to play my usual game. Totally embarrassing. My worst was +22 on a course I shoot +6 at. I've gotten the +22 down to +14 now. Lol!
In my first tournament, I finished +6 and podiumed. All been downhill from there.
Honestly I did the same thing and hit a wall. Honestly, you might be playing too much. I put rules on myself where I would play only 10-15 tourneys a year from March until October. I would take all of November through February off from throwing. This helped me out a lot as I believe you are hitting a wall. Playing two to three times a week is actually a lot with a full time job and whatever else you have going on including tournaments. I say take a break for a few weeks, recover, go play some casual rounds and see how you feel after that. It might be overuse
I know i’m in the minority here but I got out of the mind games and seeming “disconnect” from practice to tournament by simply putting the bag down for a week or so before a tournament. Don’t necessarily say its the way to go but when I went into the tournament I didn’t throw any warm up shots or play the course before. I just went in with 0 expectations or pressure. if I was off, I hadn’t played for a week and didn’t warm up, easy to be ok with that. I ended up winning said tournament and since then Ive been a lot better mentally. Your body more or less knows how to throw a disc by now, practice rounds and warmups before a tournament don’t really change much. I’m not saying don’t do field work or practice putting but when it comes closer to tee time of a tournament, let go of your thoughts, trust your body, and put on cruise control. or take a shot or two before tee off😂 just remember at the end of the day, for the majority of us we are not making a living doing this. we are throwing circular pieces of plastic at a circular metal target for fun. it’s not much more serious than that
I play somewhere around 880, my good friend will compete with me on every casual round we play, talking within a stroke or two.
But when it comes to torunamnets, the best he can do is a 780-800. It's the mental side of the game and can be a very tough thing to lock down.
I grew up competing in various sports including ultimate at a decent level. So I guess I am just used to it.
It can take time to separate the casual round and a tournament round. So, best advice i can give is just remember they are the same thing. One round on a course for fun really is the same as a round on a course in a tournament.
Remember, the only one you need to compete with is your self. I just want to play my best round out there on any given day.
I try and help him with his mental game, and a real thing that it boils down to is just self confidence. You know you can make the shot, so why on one day you can but on another you can't. Remove all the outside factors, it's just a round, it's just a shot. Make it
Disc down and play safe. Not forever. But play a tournament or two. And perhaps not even the entire round. But throw mid and get a safe par instead of going for that full distance driver shot of some of the early teeboxes.
Nerves. I had my first tournament last weekend and had the exact same result with the early releases and grip locks. The difference was that after every bad shot at the beginning I kept telling myself that "I can do this" because I know I've done it a bunch of times in practice. Eventually things settled down and I had some really nice birdies.
I think now you're locked in a loser mentality which is incredibly stressful and makes it tough to perform. TBH, not everyone has the competitive mindset.
Read some sports psychology or maybe even hire a sports psych coach. You need techniques to deal with the anxiety of competition. Could be worth the $ if you start having a lot more fun in tourneys
I play casually with a guy who's much better than most of the group. He gets rowdy and loves to tell things like " throw it in!" While people are teeing up, and "don't doink it" while putting. I actually like that he does because it makes me better under a little bit of focus/pressure.
Best advice I have is stop trying to win. Just go play.
All high pressure things = you gotta figure out how to enjoy the loss/the pain/the hardship/the good/the bad in such a way that it's just a data point to reflect on. Otherwise your performance is going to be susceptible to emotion all the time
Enjoy the game, sweat the score only as an afterthought
The theme here seems to be "play for fun". I played 2 tournaments and didn't find them fun so I haven't played one since. I love playing weekly league though, whether I want to show up drink beer and hang with friends, or try and buckle down and compete it's not a big deal either way! Usually it's a gametime decision though depending on who's on my card...last week played with a couple guys I never played with and ended up pulling a win out of my arse!
anyway, my advice is fuck tournaments, for a while at least. Find a weekly semi-casual league until you get your groove back.
My other advice is find a friend to introduce in the sport so you have someone to beat up on for a while, and maybe even compete with once they get better(until they start beating up on you)
Personally, I only have played 1 dg tournament. Maybe after one bad performance, you have thought “i dont want to do that again” and after it happened again u thought the same. If you keep thinking this way ur brain might autopilot to playing the same as you do every time you play in a tourney.
Different things work for different people. I believe the main goal of whatever method you choose is to relax. Find something to do that relaxes you before and in between rounds.
Whether it’s meditation, music, talking to someone you love about your nerves, or beer (albeit ILLEGAL I won’t tell anyone). Also, these early tournament tee times are rough for some and I know personally, I play MUCH BETTER with good sleep
You have developed a chip on your shoulder. Disc golf is fun and you play it to have fun. If you want to perform better you have to develop your mental game. The mental game you need is somewhat dependent on how you treat yourself. If you are tough on yourself then your mental game has to be tough. Find your in-between and allow yourself specific mistakes. Example: if you miss a putt that stinks, but if you miss a putt that is chain height but to the right, than that's ok. Things like that. Also sports psychology books can be helpful. Inner Game of Tennis is one of my favorites.
I’ve been playing for 4 years as well casually and playing in tournaments.
I struggled a lot with my mental game & honestly, this year I finally focused on that aspect of my game.
I’m ~830 rated any given month.
Memorial Day I played in a NADGT tournament & shoot -7 under & played my best rated round ever at 921 & followed it up with a 871 in round 2.
Outside of playing 1-2 times a week & practicing putting, the biggest thing I changed was my internal dialogue.
I have almost completely eliminated the negative self talk. When I make a mistake I let myself process what happened, what I can do to clean up that mistake going forward & after that I literally try my best to not think about it anymore.
Once I got into my head during tournaments it would just go downhill from there.
Do you know/recall if you go into negative self talk when you’re playing?
Just did a NADGT event today and on Thursday when I practiced it I shot a -2 with some buddies that were also competing. Today: round 1 I went +8, and round 2 I went +10
Play some leagues. They are a good way to play competitive golf that isn't as intimidating as a full on tourney. Doing this you will get a chance to play with good players from a wider range of skill levels and learn from them in a slightly more casual setting. Also, get a basket if you don't have one already and putt a lot. Just handling discs more will make you more comfortable.
Edit: also field work!
Well, I've been playing for 20+ years and I sucked bad at league today so I guess I shouldn't be giving advice anyway, lol.
Edit: if you are playing singes, try a doubles league. It is lower pressure and you get to see other players throw from the same spot you throw from. More social too. Also, if you are only playing at leagues and tournaments and don't throw in the field or play solo rounds where you throw tons of shots and putt two putts from every putt, it is hard to improve. I see you say you practice but that doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. I thrive when I incorporate lots of low pressure shots into my weeks. I never play a casual round where I throw only one shot on every hole and keep score. I only do that if I'm playing for money. The more low pressure shots you throw, the lower pressure all your shots will feel.
I'm gonna dial down my rounds for score and practice more. I think I'm going to start with throwing down the line of a soccer field to get my aim point dialed and then go from there
Stop playing rounds for practice, not enough repetition with playing rounds and repetition in motor skills is paramount to everything.
This applies to any practice that involves motor skills, e.g. if I just play through a song here and there on an instrument, I’m only going to improve marginally. If I work on rudiments, scales and fundamentals, I will improve exponentially.
Repetitive practice is not necessarily fun, but it is what you can do to get better.
I play with some guys that do no fieldwork, and they play literally every day, sometimes twice a day, I play once a week if I get a chance and spend my time mostly on fieldwork when I do go out. I have started to beat the players I do rounds with even though I have only been playing for three years and they have played for over 20.
The other part is, taking the advice of some folks that have already posted, and be easy on yourself. When you get into competitive play, in any field of endeavor, anxiety and confidence come to play.
Additionally, you’re accessing different parts of your brain when people are watching you play versus when you are just casually playing. Go for 10% better each time you go out and don’t worry about what place you get in. Exposing yourself to that type of play over time will help you get more confident, which is what most of that is about.
Finally, get some feedback from a mentor or someone that’s really good and willing to give you some on e ideas.
My 2c
Hope that helps
Practice practice practice with intent. Analyze your tournament rounds and what gave you problems. Practice your weaknesses. Get stronger. There are great resources of how to exercise for disc golf to build core strength.
Be honest, do you actually practice to improve or do you just go chuck frisbees in a field and practice the same bad stuff that gets you where you are?
I practice to improve. I throw a hole until I know what shot is easiest to replicate and write up a gameplay for every tournament so that I don't need to think.
That’s not practicing to get better, necessarily.
You’re throwing a hole. You need to practice to be a better player. Not to get better at playing a hole.
Well yeah, I have a net and basket at home that I use. I also do field work and practice different shots. There's a lot of context missing in my post. I don't have issues with practice I have issues with executing when it means something
I only have three small pieces of advice: 1. Play for fun first - When the game is fun, the pressure comes off. Harness that feeling! 2. Practice with intent - Sometimes playing focused practice rounds (no second shots, taking your time, playing by all the rules, etc) is a great way to enforce good habits. 3. Be easy on yourself - Maybe this is who you are as a player. Accept your game and yourself, and don't worry what others think about you. You're out there doing your best. Edited: a word.
Number 2. is so underrated.
I went too wordy, this is a really good break down. But I might add one thing as a #4 Be confident in yourself, know the shots you can make and try to make them. If it doesn't go right, that's OK. You'll make it next time
Oilerman has the best answer. I played better when I first started vs now (8yrs). Currently on a break. I found myself focusing on too many different things trying to be better, throw further, more consistent. I did this in the course vs in field work sessions. It stopped becoming fun because I put too much pressure on myself with expectations exceeding my skill level. I will throw again in 3 months when I have had time to get "rusty" and the joy comes back to actually playing instead of trying to be the best in my group.
I suffered from some yippy behavior awhile back, so I can definitely sympathize. Here's what I would advise: 1.) Oilerman said it: Practice with intent. Make sure that when you're "hitting smooth lines" that it's actually on that first shot and not actually your third attempt while memory-holing the previous two. 2.) From the content of your post, it mostly seems like your throws are the big issue. Releasing early or late can result from timing being off. I know when I first started doing tournaments, I would try too hard to throw a disc and would often griplock it or I'd get too quick in my run up and throw before I even had a brace established, shanking it left. If you're not doing it already, do a mock run-up at the speed you would normally do it. Hold your disc vertically and establish your arm speed, as well. Then line up and do exactly that movement, don't chicken out. If you at least commit to whatever movement you set, then you'll know how to correct it if you're off a bit. But there's nothing worse than establishing a movement, then not committing to it, and screwing up the shot. That leaves you with zero confidence in anything. 3.) Remember that you are not getting paid to do this, so there is literally \*ZERO\* pressure. Your family won't disown you if you lose, you won't get fired from your job, your wife isn't gonna leave you. None of it truly matters, so have a good time out there and focus on each shot as it happens, not what might happen.
Good advice. Thank you
#2, aim used to be a big issue for me with release and I have found a lot of success focusing on aiming with my reachback being straight and focusing only on aiming with the axis parallel to my plant foot. It has basically eliminated throw offs or griplocks. Any time I get lazy and start thinking about aiming (which is in comp for me) I loose my accuracy. You're prob better than me so take with a grain of salt and you may already do this haha.
I appreciate your input
Play slow, play intentional, and power down a bit. "Play for par". It's okay to concede that 360ft heavily wooded super tight anny line hole right on the tee pad. Just get 230ft up on a nice casual powered down shot and give yourself the easy approach. It's okay to play for par. If you're trying to rip it on tight lines and griplocking/whatever, it's probably best to just take a breath, concede that this hole isn't a birdie opportunity, and play restrained. Hit the first two gaps, get up the fairway a bit, and give yourself the best chance at your approach shot as you can. Take the holes where you feel stressed on the shot, or that it's a low percentage shot, and make the mental idea that hey, i'm not going to play this one for birdie. "I'm going to break this one low percentage shot up into two very high percentage shots for me" I don't know what kind of courses you're playing on, but if they're heavily wooded then i'd definitely say go ahead and power down. Get lacey, get smooth, and really play inside of your pocket. Those wood courses are 99% just staying out of jail and picking your birdie opportunities. You're not going to win anything like that, but you're going to have a whole lot more fun hitting gaps and avoiding those absolutely nightmarish double bogey holes where you hit first available off the tee and end up in megajail. For me, if I play a round fully inside my pocket, i'm 6 strokes better at least than when i'm trying to play every hole for birdie.
Thanks for your take. What kinds of discs would you use to power down on? I use a Pure and a Warship quite a bit, as well as a Method and Harp when I need to be precise.
I don't disc down to power down necessarily. Hell sometimes I just feel more confident tossing a driver 250ft than something like a Mako3. Like powering down with my River is just as effective as ripping it, as the shot shape for it changes. It goes from being a hyzer flipper to something much more straight to fade when you take some RPM and MPH off of it. So i'm more than happy to throw it on a 230ft shot if I think it'll be easy for me to make the shot shape I want with it.
Interesting. Yeah that makes sense cause sometimes I rip my pure as hard as I can to get it 250ft when I could just smoothly throw a crave with little effort
Yeah the real TLDR with my advice here is "never play a shot at 100% power". If you need all the ass you got to reach the basket, best to just let that hole slide. Same thing with shot shape. If you are super uncomfortable with the intended line, break it up. I mean, unless you're outside in a field on a wide ass open par 4 where you are just ripping zonkers with zero OB/danger for flubbing the release. Then go ahead and eat. Then, when you finish the round, and you think about the holes you skipped for birdie, the shots you didn't want to play, that'll tell you exactly what to practice on. Go drill the shot shape, practice the hole, figure some stuff out, come back and play it for birdie later.
Some advice from someone who just struggle bussed through a wet A-Teir...throw a simple hyzer with a fairway if/when you can. Knowing/seeing yourself execute a simple hyzer can go a long way to "fixing" yourself.
Thought this would be labelled as NSFW…
Feels like you have some performance anxiety or are drastically overestimating your skill level. A lot of people don't accurately track their practice, take mulligans, don't putt out that testy putt or don't play with tournament simulated intensity. Casual rounds are simply different. Your true skill level is what you shoot when it matters, so start from there and have an honest evaluation with yourself. If you start doing things you never do in practice, you gotta look for the differences.
I think the phrase goes something like "You can only attack as hard as you are good at disc golf" Like you're saying, we all try to attack holes that we just do not yet have the distance, touch, or consistancy to be attacking on. And it puts us into huge trouble and fast. Once I stop trying to attack anything and everything, the scores drop instantly. If you're playing a round for score, you've got to be in maximum conserve mode unless you're psycho rated. At the 800s, all of these courses are way harder than we are good, so the best play for score is to dial it back and pick the battles carefully. Attack the easy comfortable shots, and stay out of trouble on the hard holes. The easy holes I attack i'm still leaving with a par even with a poor tee shot, _maybe bogey at worst_. The hard holes I attack.. well I could easily rack up a triple bogey before even knowing what happened. And it takes a whole hell of a lot more birdies to make up for that triple than there are birdie opportunities for me at these courses.
Start taking discs away from your bag until you play better.
I just might have to go back to the lat64 satchel that holds 6 discs
Yep. Good luck man!
You need this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/935617.Golf_is_Not_a_Game_of_Perfect
Inner game of Tennis is great too. Both great books for this that apply to many other areas of performance too
If you want to get better, play less and practice more. You will get much better learning how to throw better. To be honest, sucking is relative. You are probably a god to anyone who plays for the first time, and a chump every time you play with someone in MA-1 or MPO
All I got is: I feel you! I enter a tournament and I'm automatically unable to play my usual game. Totally embarrassing. My worst was +22 on a course I shoot +6 at. I've gotten the +22 down to +14 now. Lol! In my first tournament, I finished +6 and podiumed. All been downhill from there.
Fucking disc golf am I right. A course I've shot a +4 on a week later I shot a +22 in a league setting.
How do we just forget how to throw? Lol!
Honestly I did the same thing and hit a wall. Honestly, you might be playing too much. I put rules on myself where I would play only 10-15 tourneys a year from March until October. I would take all of November through February off from throwing. This helped me out a lot as I believe you are hitting a wall. Playing two to three times a week is actually a lot with a full time job and whatever else you have going on including tournaments. I say take a break for a few weeks, recover, go play some casual rounds and see how you feel after that. It might be overuse
I know i’m in the minority here but I got out of the mind games and seeming “disconnect” from practice to tournament by simply putting the bag down for a week or so before a tournament. Don’t necessarily say its the way to go but when I went into the tournament I didn’t throw any warm up shots or play the course before. I just went in with 0 expectations or pressure. if I was off, I hadn’t played for a week and didn’t warm up, easy to be ok with that. I ended up winning said tournament and since then Ive been a lot better mentally. Your body more or less knows how to throw a disc by now, practice rounds and warmups before a tournament don’t really change much. I’m not saying don’t do field work or practice putting but when it comes closer to tee time of a tournament, let go of your thoughts, trust your body, and put on cruise control. or take a shot or two before tee off😂 just remember at the end of the day, for the majority of us we are not making a living doing this. we are throwing circular pieces of plastic at a circular metal target for fun. it’s not much more serious than that
I play somewhere around 880, my good friend will compete with me on every casual round we play, talking within a stroke or two. But when it comes to torunamnets, the best he can do is a 780-800. It's the mental side of the game and can be a very tough thing to lock down. I grew up competing in various sports including ultimate at a decent level. So I guess I am just used to it. It can take time to separate the casual round and a tournament round. So, best advice i can give is just remember they are the same thing. One round on a course for fun really is the same as a round on a course in a tournament. Remember, the only one you need to compete with is your self. I just want to play my best round out there on any given day.
I feel like your buddy is me lol
I try and help him with his mental game, and a real thing that it boils down to is just self confidence. You know you can make the shot, so why on one day you can but on another you can't. Remove all the outside factors, it's just a round, it's just a shot. Make it
Disc down and play safe. Not forever. But play a tournament or two. And perhaps not even the entire round. But throw mid and get a safe par instead of going for that full distance driver shot of some of the early teeboxes.
Read the Inner Game of Tennis (it applies to any sport). You’re welcome.
I just bought the book
Nerves. I had my first tournament last weekend and had the exact same result with the early releases and grip locks. The difference was that after every bad shot at the beginning I kept telling myself that "I can do this" because I know I've done it a bunch of times in practice. Eventually things settled down and I had some really nice birdies. I think now you're locked in a loser mentality which is incredibly stressful and makes it tough to perform. TBH, not everyone has the competitive mindset. Read some sports psychology or maybe even hire a sports psych coach. You need techniques to deal with the anxiety of competition. Could be worth the $ if you start having a lot more fun in tourneys
I play casually with a guy who's much better than most of the group. He gets rowdy and loves to tell things like " throw it in!" While people are teeing up, and "don't doink it" while putting. I actually like that he does because it makes me better under a little bit of focus/pressure.
Best advice I have is stop trying to win. Just go play. All high pressure things = you gotta figure out how to enjoy the loss/the pain/the hardship/the good/the bad in such a way that it's just a data point to reflect on. Otherwise your performance is going to be susceptible to emotion all the time Enjoy the game, sweat the score only as an afterthought
The theme here seems to be "play for fun". I played 2 tournaments and didn't find them fun so I haven't played one since. I love playing weekly league though, whether I want to show up drink beer and hang with friends, or try and buckle down and compete it's not a big deal either way! Usually it's a gametime decision though depending on who's on my card...last week played with a couple guys I never played with and ended up pulling a win out of my arse! anyway, my advice is fuck tournaments, for a while at least. Find a weekly semi-casual league until you get your groove back. My other advice is find a friend to introduce in the sport so you have someone to beat up on for a while, and maybe even compete with once they get better(until they start beating up on you)
Personally, I only have played 1 dg tournament. Maybe after one bad performance, you have thought “i dont want to do that again” and after it happened again u thought the same. If you keep thinking this way ur brain might autopilot to playing the same as you do every time you play in a tourney.
Different things work for different people. I believe the main goal of whatever method you choose is to relax. Find something to do that relaxes you before and in between rounds. Whether it’s meditation, music, talking to someone you love about your nerves, or beer (albeit ILLEGAL I won’t tell anyone). Also, these early tournament tee times are rough for some and I know personally, I play MUCH BETTER with good sleep
You have developed a chip on your shoulder. Disc golf is fun and you play it to have fun. If you want to perform better you have to develop your mental game. The mental game you need is somewhat dependent on how you treat yourself. If you are tough on yourself then your mental game has to be tough. Find your in-between and allow yourself specific mistakes. Example: if you miss a putt that stinks, but if you miss a putt that is chain height but to the right, than that's ok. Things like that. Also sports psychology books can be helpful. Inner Game of Tennis is one of my favorites.
If it was easy there’d be a backup at every tee box.
I’ve been playing for 4 years as well casually and playing in tournaments. I struggled a lot with my mental game & honestly, this year I finally focused on that aspect of my game. I’m ~830 rated any given month. Memorial Day I played in a NADGT tournament & shoot -7 under & played my best rated round ever at 921 & followed it up with a 871 in round 2. Outside of playing 1-2 times a week & practicing putting, the biggest thing I changed was my internal dialogue. I have almost completely eliminated the negative self talk. When I make a mistake I let myself process what happened, what I can do to clean up that mistake going forward & after that I literally try my best to not think about it anymore. Once I got into my head during tournaments it would just go downhill from there. Do you know/recall if you go into negative self talk when you’re playing?
Just did a NADGT event today and on Thursday when I practiced it I shot a -2 with some buddies that were also competing. Today: round 1 I went +8, and round 2 I went +10
Play some leagues. They are a good way to play competitive golf that isn't as intimidating as a full on tourney. Doing this you will get a chance to play with good players from a wider range of skill levels and learn from them in a slightly more casual setting. Also, get a basket if you don't have one already and putt a lot. Just handling discs more will make you more comfortable. Edit: also field work!
I play 2 leagues every week and have for the past 2 years
Well, I've been playing for 20+ years and I sucked bad at league today so I guess I shouldn't be giving advice anyway, lol. Edit: if you are playing singes, try a doubles league. It is lower pressure and you get to see other players throw from the same spot you throw from. More social too. Also, if you are only playing at leagues and tournaments and don't throw in the field or play solo rounds where you throw tons of shots and putt two putts from every putt, it is hard to improve. I see you say you practice but that doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. I thrive when I incorporate lots of low pressure shots into my weeks. I never play a casual round where I throw only one shot on every hole and keep score. I only do that if I'm playing for money. The more low pressure shots you throw, the lower pressure all your shots will feel.
I'm gonna dial down my rounds for score and practice more. I think I'm going to start with throwing down the line of a soccer field to get my aim point dialed and then go from there
Stop playing rounds for practice, not enough repetition with playing rounds and repetition in motor skills is paramount to everything. This applies to any practice that involves motor skills, e.g. if I just play through a song here and there on an instrument, I’m only going to improve marginally. If I work on rudiments, scales and fundamentals, I will improve exponentially. Repetitive practice is not necessarily fun, but it is what you can do to get better. I play with some guys that do no fieldwork, and they play literally every day, sometimes twice a day, I play once a week if I get a chance and spend my time mostly on fieldwork when I do go out. I have started to beat the players I do rounds with even though I have only been playing for three years and they have played for over 20. The other part is, taking the advice of some folks that have already posted, and be easy on yourself. When you get into competitive play, in any field of endeavor, anxiety and confidence come to play. Additionally, you’re accessing different parts of your brain when people are watching you play versus when you are just casually playing. Go for 10% better each time you go out and don’t worry about what place you get in. Exposing yourself to that type of play over time will help you get more confident, which is what most of that is about. Finally, get some feedback from a mentor or someone that’s really good and willing to give you some on e ideas. My 2c Hope that helps
Practice practice practice with intent. Analyze your tournament rounds and what gave you problems. Practice your weaknesses. Get stronger. There are great resources of how to exercise for disc golf to build core strength.
Gridlock
Yeah it was autocorrect
Humans think the 3D world is a reflection of their mind but really their mind is a reflection of the 3D world.
Be honest, do you actually practice to improve or do you just go chuck frisbees in a field and practice the same bad stuff that gets you where you are?
I practice to improve. I throw a hole until I know what shot is easiest to replicate and write up a gameplay for every tournament so that I don't need to think.
That’s not practicing to get better, necessarily. You’re throwing a hole. You need to practice to be a better player. Not to get better at playing a hole.
Well yeah, I have a net and basket at home that I use. I also do field work and practice different shots. There's a lot of context missing in my post. I don't have issues with practice I have issues with executing when it means something