Ep. 5: Yip Nippers

Everything works fine until it doesn't. Uncontrollable twitches? Missed lines? Pre-shot jitters? Together Jenni and I discuss the "Nip the Yips" article that has recently circulated on the PDGA website. We analyze each component and meld them with our own experiences in hopes you will find something relatable to your game that helps you beat those nasty little pests, the "Yips".

Transcript

Ep. 5 Yip Nippers

[00:00:00] Mom, dad's making a Disc Golf podcast.

Hi, I'm Kaylee. Thank you for tuning into the Intentional Disc golfer, the only podcast dedicated to helping you become the player you want to be. It's our mission to explore the physical and mental aspects of disco golf performance if you began your understanding of the game and to help you reach your potential.

Now, to introduce your host, Jenny and Brandon, and Kayleigh has once again brought us in to this episode of the intentional dis Golfer. If you like what you hear here, please don't hesitate to like, subscribe, follow us on all major platforms Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Google, and many others. You can also find us on Facebook, our happy little family at [00:01:00] rinky disc golf.

That is C Z U P R Y N S K I disc golf. And we also have some exciting news. We now have an Instagram at the same tag, zarinsky disc golf. And Jenny, didn't you have some exciting news with the intentional dis golfer? Yes, we have stickers. Yay. I love stickers. Yeah, we got some custom stickers made up for the intentional dis golfer.

They're really nice looking. If you send us a comment or follow our, our stuff and you know, Say something nice about us or tell your friends we'll get you information, we'll send you out a sticker, no promise. And the Intentional Disc Golfer podcast is also a sponsor of the sirens of the Springs Women's Tournament at Shelton on April 30th.

And all players will be getting one of those awesome stickers in their players packs. And the sticker has made the Zinsky disc golf [00:02:00] fan. Oh, the sticker is on the, on the disc golf fan. Now the sticker is on the disc golf thing. Well, that is big news indeed. So in this episode it's been talked about from Tee Box to Tee Box.

I've experienced it myself. Jenny, have you experienced anything like this before? Nope. I'm amazing. You're amazing. No, I get it all the time. It's been like that since like July. Of course. Maybe since I started.

But of course we are talking about the article that was recently released on P D G A by Dr. Andrew, a PhD and sports psychologist called Nip the YPs. And we'll be talking about that and discussing that article right after a word from our sponsor. Hey, Washington Summer's right around the corner, and you know what that means?

It's construction season. Whether you need a repair or remodel for the outdoor living space or hey, maybe even your indoor [00:03:00] living space. Give VC Construction a call 3 6 0 2 7 1 3 4 4 1 or email at info bc construction nw.com. Proud sponsor of the Intentional Dis Golfer podcast.

Oh, right. And we'd like to remind our listeners out there that this program is made possible from our listeners and people just like you. So if you got something to say, get ahold of us at the intentional dis golfer@gmail.com. Or if you're looking for a way to support the show you can also email us there.

It is the intentional dis golfer@gmail.com. Also, if you'd like to support us, you can also go to Etsy and go to Tree Octopus treasures and check out all of our hand dye disks. Yep. Custom disk dyes on our Etsy shop. [00:04:00] We have some cool ones up there and more coming soon. So if you're like me, you're an animal around the practice basket.

In my own backyard, I am the king. I sink everything. I'm the best golfer in the world. And Jenny is the queen, right? Jenny? You sound like you're the cougar that's been prowling our backyard. I, I am the ba the basket Cougar Freddy. Freddy Cougar. It's funny, we, we live right by Frederickson Golf course. This golf course.

This golf course. Yeah. And the, the cougar's been wandering around here, so I named the Cougar Freddy, and I'm like, touting this around and yeah. Freddy Cougar, you know, da da. And Jenny finally gets it and she's like, oh, Freddy Cougar, duh. Yeah. I was thinking more like Freddy Mercury. Freddy [00:05:00] Cougar, not Freddy Kruger Cougar with the mustache on it, like a leather arm band.

I'd be, that'd be messed up. I, I know. Oh my gosh. I told you I also had a dream about Justin Cougar. I don't even know. Like Justin Cougar. Is he related to Justin Beeper? I guess so. Maybe. I don't know. Just bear scarier brother. Anyway, I'm a monster around the practice basket in my own backyard. I am the greatest golfer in the world.

We. In my own backyard. In your dreams in that too. Geez. Even, even, you know, much less so. But even in recreational rounds where I'm out practicing and those times that I actually do count all my shots and all my penalties and things, I have scored some pretty good rounds. You know, minus ones, minus twos even some, even rounds, [00:06:00] which golf's a hard sport.

That's an accomplishment. Especially within one year, one and a half years of, of just starting. So and some of these courses are pretty hard and not being able to play every day and yeah, and not being able to play every day, that's definitely a setback. However, if you were to look up my P D G A number and look at my tournament scores and my scorecards, they do not reflect the same thing that I am saying.

Last year I finished dead last in every single tournament, and this year I'm actually moving up to kind of lower midfield and I'm hoping to actually bag one this year. At least in the MA four, MA three area. So I'm not never gonna comp, I'm never gonna claim in the competitive hemisphere to be the greatest disc golfer in the world.

However, in my own backyard, I'm pretty good. Your rating did go up 10 points last month. That is, that is nice. That is, yeah. Deliberate practice. [00:07:00] We, we've been, we've been hitting the practice schedule hard but we're not talking about that now. We are talking about the yips and so what is happening in those tournament rounds because I can go out, I can go out and play a recreational round and feel totally comfortable and consistently be under 10 over, if that makes sense.

So, Within your average? My, my average is somewhere between like seven or 10 over par, and I can do that consistently. Sometimes I have a hot round and I finish under par. Sometimes I have a crappy day and I'm maybe 12 or 13 over par, but I'm, I'm usually right in that hemisphere somewhere. Okay. So what's happening?

What's going on? There's these little bug-eyed creatures. They were first seen on Sesame Street. Yeah. And they're, they're running around the baskets, so the, Nope, nope, nope.[00:08:00] 

I am gonna tell you there is on Pinterest cuz I knit and crochet. There are these little bags, they're crocheted bags. They're called the yips and I think I'm gonna have to make some to carry discs. Like I'm going to make a discip Yip disc. Oh a discip. A discip. That's really cool. Actually, I don't know how but it's gonna happen.

Yeah. You heard it here F first folks that the our million dollar idea? No, no. It's gonna cost me more to make 'em than I'll ever sell 'em for. Probably, yeah, probably. So as a sports spectator, let's say it's the big game or you know, there you like say football, there's a field goal. Alina. Alina Alina's.

Great. You know, she was at, what was that, Austin? Was that it was some, one of the tournaments down in Texas. I know that for sure. But she was doing pretty well in her round. Comes up to the [00:09:00] basket and ends up six putting, and we're talking about her first. Miss was maybe 10 feet away. 15 if that, which should be a hundred percent for a pro.

That has nothing to do with physicality or anything that has to be all psychological, at least you would think. Or it was like at ripping in the roadies when Kayla was literally right next to the basket and missed it. Like went around the rim and, and spit out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, well I remember when we were at Ladies of the Lake last year and you were literally tapping in and the wind picked up and took the disc outta your hand.

No, that was Melissa. Oh, that was Melissa. Yeah. Yeah. It was literally a tap and, and the wind took the disc out of her hand. Yeah. And she ended up having to three put it. Yeah. Yeah. It, it was painful to watch. But that, that's not necessarily the gis so to say. That's just kind of unfortunate circumstance.

Maybe, I don't know, [00:10:00] overconfidence over overconfidence. That might be part of it. It could be a Yip, it could be a yip but it's, it's just kind of that, I guess you would characterize the yips of just kind of that overall, general feeling of not being able to fall into your comfort zone, not being able to hit your release points on your driving and throwing, not being able to get that clean release and that pop on your putting, not being able to, and, and for some reason it's, you can't figure out why any day of the, any other day of the week, you would nail this.

It would be a no-brainer, but for some reason today, game day, you can't do it. Why? And that's not quite what I got outta reading the article. Okay. What did you get? Well, I, I feel that the YPs are more, it, it, to me it makes it sound like it. You're saying that they're really pretty [00:11:00] overarching, like your whole tournament can just be thrown off because of the YPs?

Well, they can affect anything. They can affect your driving and throwing. They can affect your balance. They can affect your your vision. They can affect your Right. But what I'm trying to get at is, what I'm kind of taking by what you're saying right now is that everything that has happened since I had that amazing round at Ladies of the Lake, everything that's gone downhill since then.

It could fall under. This is just one giant massive yip like it's the chupa CBRA of enough yips. However, I don't think that's it. I think when I grip blocked one of the throws today, like the two or three that I did, I think those were yips. However, the other stuff is mindset. The two are related. [00:12:00] Yes.

However, I'm, I'm saying that I think my problem over the past 10, 7, 8 months, it, I wouldn't say it was a giant yip. I'd say there's been a lot of yips. However, I wouldn't say it was just yips. Fair enough and no, no doubt. You know, mindset has a lot to play into it. I mean, we've talked about it before that golf is really kind of that perfect mirror is whatever, whatever your head space is that day, whatever you're feeling, it's gonna come out on the golf course.

Mm-hmm. And especially more so that it, you know, if you miss a big putt and then you start to get that negative feedback loop going in your head and your game really starts to go downhill, golf is an amazingly disciplined game where you have to school your emotions and your thoughts. Or you're not going to [00:13:00] perform well.

And I think that's one of the things that makes it so attractive to a lot of people is it's not only physical ability. You have to have an outstanding mental ability as well, including the YPs. We're talking about this today. To shed some light on this, share some information. All of this has been derived and from this article so we don't want to plagiarize or take anything away from the author, but just, you know, maybe more just discussion in an average Joe and more informal format.

Well, and and since we, when I saw the article, I sent it to you. You sent it to me. Yeah. And then you know, people have been talking about it out on the courses when we're out there on the courses and some people are actually kinda anxious about even discussing it because it may come true like the spoken word, kinda like a jinx type of thing.

Like Yeah. You're gonna jinx it. Yeah. Like don't miss this putt [00:14:00] and then you miss the putt and like you did to me today. Thanks. You're welcome. Yeah. Don't miss this up Brandon. It's your only, your birdie. Thank you. I appreciate that. You got it. Eventually. I did. I, yeah. Give me, gimme another p How many putters do I have in my, how many putters you got in there?

I gotta, I gotta start puck packing. More putters. Maybe. You know, old Phil? It's gonna gonna be the Phil Tron. The Phil Tron. He'd be, he'd be proud of me Pink Putting more. Yeah. I'm gonna have only putters in my bag. I'm gonna be Pink Pierce. That's right. It's gonna be called the Pure Bag. It's the, it's a, it's the pure shot.

The pure bag. Yeah. The pure Shot. Yeah. You're welcome Phil.

So, yeah, they, you know, it's, it's kind of one of this, it, it's kind of this tongue in cheek thing. I mean, people are kind of halfway making fun of it, but it's halfway. One of those things you don't want to talk about because you don't wanna speak it into existence. And the reason we're talking about it [00:15:00] here is we want to kind of like take the veil off of it and lift some of the stigma and make it this not so like, dangerous thing.

You'll, I find that with anything, the more you know about it, the more knowledge you have of it, the less anxious you are, the less afraid of it you are. And you actually, like, if you don't get to this level of relationship with it, you can also eventually get to a level of at least acceptance. Kinda like spiders.

I'm afraid of spiders. You should, yeah. And I also know that. I don't know enough about spiders and that's why I'm afraid of him is because I have heard stories and some funky things happening. Even experiencing that with Jenny here and I just am afraid of spiders cuz I don't wanna deal with that.

Huh? Huh. I'm afraid of spiders cause I don't know Yeah. Enough about spiders. Yeah. I got that. Yeah. [00:16:00] But I, I feel like if I studied up in spiders and got really knowledgeable about spiders, it would take off, it would, it would relieve some of my stress about spiders probably. Or like the ocean. I don't know enough about the ocean to feel comfortable in the ocean cuz I'm not the top of the food chain in the ocean, so I don't go in the ocean.

Gotcha. Yeah. I like the ocean. You like Well, I like the ocean too. I, I, I am scared of spiders when they throw me off. Like, I don't, they're in a place where I don't expect them to be. Like crawling out of the visor of my car. Like I don't expect there to, I don't expect there to be a spider that happens there.

Yeah, it happens a lot more than I'd like to admit. But like out in the disc golf course, it's like, oh yeah, there's a spider. Or when it's a rather large spider that you didn't expect to be there. Well, [00:17:00] I think anybody can appreciate not wanting to be jump scared, especially by spiders. Spiders, spiders are particularly heinous.

So the Ys are like spiders. Apparently the Ys are like spiders. You know what, that's a good connection. The yips are, they just kind of jump out at you and they're scary. But once you know more about 'em and why they happen and why they're there, they're not so scary. And in fact, You may have learned to accept them and learn to live with them.

I just imagine you sitting on the couch with one of those giant spiders, a giant stuffed spiders from Australia. I could get you that lady who makes those crocheted giant tarantula. Okay, so we gotta talk about Australia since you brought it up. No, I mean it's so, it's so far off topic, but why the heck not, will you stop?

Look, look. They have flying, jumping bird eating spiders in Australia. Like Australia [00:18:00] has a whole lot of Nope. Going on and I, no, just, no. Okay. Like, I'm sure it's beautiful country, but No. All right. When spiders start flying, that's when I'm out. I'm done. That's all I have to say about that. Flying bird spiders.

It's true. They have 'em. Yeah. Move on. Okay, I'm moving on. Freaking a

What, what you, what you said about, you know, you think that you've been experiencing one giant. Yip. I think after reading art the article, I think that he characterizes the yips as something that's more acute, which means severe and swiftly onset. It's like, I very vividly remember last year we did a tournament at CTAC and [00:19:00] all of a sudden my wrist just like tightened and I couldn't.

Throw a disc. Like I couldn't, I couldn't get my hand to let go. I was holding onto it too long or not long enough and it was like all of a sudden round it. I, I wanna say it was like, it was the second round of 27, mind you, 27 holes and it was like whole 18 of 27 mm. Second round. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And like it was over that tournament was insanity.

But anyway, and, and where I'm going with this is that, you know, you have the yips and, and that would be an example of a Yip Yes. Right? Where you were talking about how you're just having like the last eight months have been really trying on your patients cuz you haven't been progressing much. He actually says in [00:20:00] the article and not to be cruel is that, you know, that's an uncharacteristic poor performance.

And the only remedy for that is just more practice. Yeah. No, that's what we've been doing. Yeah. And we've been practicing really hard especially being that spring break and we've had some extra time off both in our and better weather and better weather, both on and off the course field work and in our little practice area up here in our our woods.

Being able to practice like that reduces the probability of experiencing the yips. Because you have more confidence in that and you are not second guessing yourself. And we'll, we'll get into some of that later when we talk about how to defeat the YPs because it has to do with like changing routine and different things of that nature.

So well that, I'm gonna say, that may or may not be true because another part of the article is regular play or versus tournament play. Yeah. And [00:21:00] this stuff is more likely to occur when you already have high stress, high anxiety stuff is on the line. When you're putting that extra pressure on you, these events are more likely to occur, which makes sense.

Yeah. It, it totally makes sense. So moving on here, we talked a little bit about it, but what are the YPs, we keep talking you This YPs, YPs YPs. YPs YPs. Yip. Yep. Yep. What are they? So in this article, they are characterized as involuntary or uncontrolled shaking, jerking, twitching, tightening, or freezing of the muscles.

This is the physical YPs? No, this is just the YPs in general. This is the, the definition of the yips shaking, jerking, twitching, tightening, or freezing of the muscles that can prevent you from performing a well practiced task or well learned action. So it's like you were talking about earlier where. Your wrist locked [00:22:00] up or your grip locked up right when you were trying to release that disc and you held onto it.

In, in me it manifests more so as early releases like it, I keep saying trust your grip, trust your grip. And my often problem is that I released too early and my disc goes off, off to the left on a backhand throw. Well, and and part of my problem is that I do a lot of the fine motor hand movements because of playing the piano and the crafts that I do, so I end up having carpal tunnel.

Yeah, it, that's, it's a factor for sure. Yeah. Or for example when you're putting, you know, I think every disc golfer on the planet has taken that 10 foot putt and pushed it to the right or pushed it to the left and you know, has air balled it from time to time and you think to yourself, what the heck?

Like, I never missed this. So before I had the absolutely. Discouraging day where I agreed to listen [00:23:00] to my coach. I remember going back in our woods trying to putt on that marksman. And seriously, I rainbowed every single shot in the same place. And I didn't hit the basket once. Like it just went around and a like the, the disc was scared of the basket, like it was going there and went around j And just to clarify, by coach, she means me.

Yeah, my coach. My coach. Oh, captain, my captain. No darn it. Heck no. No. So, as it were the good doctor, it goes by the pseudonym Dr. Disk. And You can find him online somewhere. It's Dr. Disk. That's what it says in his bio. I don't know. But he's actually a licensed clinical, you know, sports psychologist and practices and everything.

So like, I trust the guy. He's got creds.[00:24:00] Jenny's gonna look him up right now and see like, what is this all about? Who is this guy? I'll tell you what, I'll, I'll put an invite out there. If Dr. Disk hears this and would like to come on the episode and talk about it with, or come on an episode and talk about, you know, some of these things with us, by all means hit us up.

That email is the intentional disk golfer@gmail.com. Please hit us up. We would love to have you on just throwing it out there and totally off topic. We're recording this on Rex Manning Day, so happy Rex Manning Day. Happy Rex Manning Day. So the good doctor, Dr. Disk. As pointed out two different types of yips or the Yip condition in this article.

The first are the physiological yips, and he states that these are much more rare. They're actually the result of a neurological condition, so a wiring issue that [00:25:00] causes some sort of focal dystonia. Now, I had Jenny look up focal dystonia earlier, and she'll let us know what focal dystonia is. What is focal dystonia?

Focal dystonia, yeah. What do you got? Is a neurological disorder? A neurological disorder? It causes involuntary muscle movements or contractions. In one part of your body, you may have focal dystonia in your neck, eyes, jaw, or vocal chords. Focal dystonia can also affect your wrists, hands, or fingers. So I'm assuming that dystonia is an involuntary movement of some sort.

And then focal means that it affects one specific spot. Dystonia is a neurological condition that causes uncontrollable muscle spasms. And focal dystonia is one specific type of dystonia. So like, I assume that the focal means that it is focused on one specific. So like some very [00:26:00] common examples are okay, writer's cramp.

Really that's focal dystonia, uncontrollable spasms in your hand or wrists that can affect your writing. Okay. Musicians, dystonia, involuntary wrists or hand contractions often affect pianists, guitarists, or violinists. I probably have experienced something like that. I've definitely, and then there's this other one, I dunno how to say that word, but it's muscle spasms or cramps in your lips, jaw, or tongue, which may affect musicians who play brass or woodwind instruments.

Huh? Really? It looks like it's. Ambusher dystonia, something like that. Yeah. Okay. It's similar. Oh my goodness. Scrolling through this article. What are the YPs when task specific focal dystonia affects athletes who play sports involving lots of hand or wrist movements, also known as the yips. [00:27:00] So would you say that disc golf might involve lots of hand or wrist movements?

Women and people assign female at birth, develop focal dystonia about three times as often as men or people assign male at birth do. Wow. It's most common in adults age, 40 to 60. Okay, so it you're more prone to it as you get older? Yeah. Okay. It's rare and it affects. About three in every 10,000 people. I don't think there's 10,000 disc golfers.

Oh yeah, there's two. No, I mean, okay. That was not what I meant. Forget that I said that. There's more than 10,000 disc golf. Okay, so it it's, it's rare but not like uncommon. Yeah. Like, it, it's not, it's not like one of those things like, it's, it's like super, super, [00:28:00] super rare. Like it happens on a f This is semi common basis.

I love this because it uses the word idiopathic. All right. I love that word. Let's go. Focal dystonia is idiopathic, which means experts can't point to one factor that causes it, but we do know that focal dystonia occurs when your nerves and brain don't communicate as they should. I do that all the time.

I. See? Yeah. Yeah. I, I, yeah, you agree. You, it's sci and science agrees with you. So, so science agrees. So could that, I mean, just you speculating here, I mean, could that have something to do with like nerve damage or even like, you brain damage, lack brain damage or like maybe like lower electrolytes or something?

Could, I don't know, maybe I don't, I'm, I'm, so this, so this part is making me think of Hannah. It says sometimes focal dystonia symptoms are connected to changes in an [00:29:00] athlete's habits. So, like Hannah, who had that massive shoulder injury, Uhhuh on her right shoulder, Uhhuh, now she throws left-handed. I, I'm still amazed at that.

Like, and she does well left-handed. Oh yeah. Like how, how the heck do you just like that, that she just wanted to play. That's incredible. Yeah. Oh yeah. She just had to learn it. Yeah. Yeah. In awe. Okay. Well that shed, that sheds a lot of light on that. I mean, I mean, you know, we're not offering any kind of medical advice or anything.

I'm just speculating strictly on the electrolytes or brain damage or, I, I was wondering about this part. What do you got? So going through this article, it says what causes the yips? And some people think that golfers are baseball players get it because of performance anxiety, but it can also happen because of improper form or overuse.

And people with cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis are more likely to get the YPs. Well, that [00:30:00] would, that would make sense. Especially focused on like the overuse part of it though too, because I think, I think that I personally have experienced that from, I experienced that today because we've been golfing for pretty much, we've been doing some form of disc golf for the last 14 days straight.

And I'm starting to get tired. My focus isn't there. I need, I need some time personally for my body to heal. And so I noticed today towards the end of my game that I was starting to grip lock a lot more and I was starting to do a lot of early release, a lot more. And my putting just fell apart. And I think that might be from overuse.

And I can tell because I'm tired, like physically tired, not like sleepy, tired. I would agree with you. Hmm. What are you, what are you finding? I was reading [00:31:00] about secondary symptoms. Secondary symptoms. Yeah. What do you got? Well, for people that actually have focal dystonia, and this is in no way to say that.

Oh, you're having a bad game. Like you may go down this, this spiral of awful things. So like, don't go there. Oh yeah. Okay. But blurred vision, depression, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, mood swings, short temper and trouble focusing. And that's over the frustration of having this uncontrollable whatever.

I wonder if it doesn't work the other way around too. I just gotta ask the question is that if you're one that suffers from things like depression let's say like adhd, inability to focus and, and also the hyperactivity with it and, and thing, you know, things along those lines. Does it work in the reverse too?

Can those things Cause the YPs [00:32:00] could be it says things you can do to prevent it are to avoid excessive movements or talking Well, I mean, we're playing a sport. The movement is ex excessive. I mean, it's not necessary for life, but you know, I might argue that disc golf is life. So focal dystonia fairly rare.

It's actually a physical neurological problem, as in there's a wiring or communication issue. There's somewhere, and it would be really interesting to find out if it works in reverse too, if things like anxiety, depression, PTs, d, adhd, and you know, some of these, you know, neur, not neurological, but these mental health issues turn around and actually will increase the likelihood of having the YPs.

I would assume so, because it's all about the way that your body processes electrical. Electrical hormonal signals. Yeah, [00:33:00] yeah. Instead of the reverse of the yips being the cause of some of these things. I can totally get behind you with the performance anxiety though, too. What? Oh my, it's so, I just realized how bad that sounded.

Oh my God. Probably shouldn't say that in public. We're on your podcast, on your pod. Oh boy. Wow. Edit that out. I'm, maybe, I'm gonna have to leave it in there. No, but that, that was, you said the performance anxiety and that was just the thought of, you know, the tournament. It's like, why does, it's just that, and, you know, some things that I've wondered that would help me is I probably need to get out and play with these people more.

That aren't you or my family? Well you, you tend to have kind of a social anxiety is that [00:34:00] you get real nervous around people, especially people that are expectants of you. Like in, in a professional capacity. No, because you're usually the head honcho. Yeah, I was just gonna say like, so if I'm thinking of the staff meetings that I have to run, I get a little nervous.

Actually. No, I get really nervous for a short amount of time. But the tournament, it's just a whole different like mindset. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well a lot of time it's like there is that big time pressure to perform because you don't know those people. You're in competition with them. You want to do well.

And, and for some of us it's just the level of not embarrassing ourselves, which I get to very often. You wanna be able to go into that situation and hold your own? Well, I think I have a hard time with the social aspect of it because [00:35:00] like when I get too talkative or goofing around, like I don't focus on my game or I'm not very good at doing both being social and focusing, focusing.

And again, there is that, I mean, some people really need to focus on their game to do well, and some people really try to not focus on their game in order to do well. I mean, it's just whatever works for you in that particular circumstance. Well, and you, you'll look at the pros and like some of them are, are goofing off.

Some of them have on their earbuds, some of them don't say a word to anybody else. The whole entire tournament. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's you, you, it takes all types. It really does. Looking on here, talking about the the physiological yips. It said that some treatments might include some injections some certs.

Botox? No, not Botox. No, mine said Botox. Really? Botox? Yeah. So botulism to [00:36:00] in it would increase the like for carpal tunnel? Yeah, yeah. Oh, like a cortisone shot. Like to create cushion and Yeah. Really? So like, like a steroid? No, no. Like Botox bot. Like Botox. Botox is botulism. It's a form of botulism.

Well, anyway some ser surgical intervention, injectable medicines. There's also some non Yeah. Botulinum toxin injections. Bo, so Botox, yes. Yeah. B botulism. Which is a food board illness. It interferes with your brain signals that cause the spasms. Really? Yeah. Oh, so the spasms and things are like too much signal.

So there needs to be an interrupter There is what this kind of is saying. Yeah. Cause it's an involuntary movement. Like my hand doesn't Well and I, I would, an involuntary [00:37:00] movement can be too much signal or it can be too little signal. Cuz your body is one of those things that has to be just right in order for it to work.

Right. So it could be either too much or too little. I'm not a doctor, so moving on, moving on, moving on. The other type of YPs that he talks about in this article are the mental YPs, which are far, far more common. And this gets more so into the performance anxiety type and the stress of wanting to perform and do well.

And that I, I think that relates to me a lot more is because, you know, I can rip it up in casual rounds when I'm just out playing a, a casual round with the boys. I'm a pretty good golfer when I'm out just playing with the family. I'm a pretty good golfer. I get out to a tournament. I am awful. I think you just need to take James as your caddy and you'll be fine.

Just, yeah, just keep it, well, you know, that that would be a thing, and we'll talk about that in a, in a few minutes, but it seems to be rooted in performance anxiety, [00:38:00] so, and having a lot of stressors and external stress in your life. We've said it once, we'll say a million times. Golf is a good, really good mirror.

It's a really good indicator of where your mind and your emotional state is, and that will come out on the golf course. And so if you're facing a lot of external stresses and then you add on the stress of the performance of, you know, trying to hold your own at a tournament against people you don't know, and, you know, trying to be not only a decent athlete, but also a good car mate and things of that nature, it, it can really start to snowball on you and really start to amplify and you can find yourself falling apart very, very quickly.

Mm-hmm. And then mm-hmm. One person makes a comment, goes straight downhill. Yeah. I, you know, I, I don't want to get too much into it, but you're supposed to be a spectator, not a [00:39:00] part of the game. I'm gonna step down off my soapbox. Don't fall involuntary. Yip. Don't fall. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure e even, even like at the pro level, they do whatever.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna get off of that soapbox. Yeah. And you know, there, then there's the opposite of that, you know, is that there are those people that really love the pressure and love, love the anxiety of being able to perform and help and have really engineered and manufactured a way to help them that helps them to perform better and pushes them further.

Yep. Those people are pretty cool. Well, I think, I'm not one of them. I, if I had to guess, I would think that that has to do with confidence because, take me for example, in disc golf. I'm the former where I, I caved to pressure. I do poorly under pressure. I. And I feel like that's because I [00:40:00] don't feel very confident and solid in my disc golf abilities.

However you put me on a hockey rink, I'm gonna eat that pressure up. I love it. You're gonna play disc golf on a hockey rink? No, no. I you, if you're gonna have me play hockey, I, I love it. Like I would eat it up and I'd perform extremely well because I, I'm very confident and very you know, feel very good about that situation.

And so I think it, I think that the response to the performance anxiety has a lot to do with your proficiency level. Mm-hmm. And how much confidence you have in your abilities, which rotates around full circle into, we just probably need to practice more. Isn't that the answer to all of it? We just need to practice more.

We'd have to practice those situations where we put ourselves in. With people that we don't know. And in a, that's what I was saying, semi competi [00:41:00] environments. And that's exactly what I was saying. Like go to dubs. Yeah. I'm terrified of that. Or, or leagues or something like that. I play, I've done leagues, but you play, you play tournaments.

Why wouldn't you play dubs with somebody? Because there's not a lot of women playing dubs. And I don't wanna get randomly put with someone. I don't know. So that's uncomfortable. It's so uncomfortable. I won't go. That's that's my point. Exactly. Yeah. Because that's why you need to do it. Maybe you should go.

I will. I will be happy to go. You haven't? Yeah, because it's early on a Saturday morning and I'm lazy and then there's that.

Oh man. They do it Thursday evenings too. No, they really know. Yeah. At fairgrounds, they were just starting when we were leaving. Oh, gotcha. Also with the yips vis-a-vis due to performance [00:42:00] anxiety. These things also can have a tendency to snowball on you. And I, when I think of this, I think of a great video I saw of Steve Harvey explaining how he got over his stutter and he was explaining that Steve Harvey's a radio show, TV show host if you don't know who he is, he's a motivational speaker all, all sorts of really great things.

And he's just really known for being very positive and very motivating. Isn't he the Family Feud guy now? He's the family feud guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was talking about how he got over a stutter cuz he used to have a terrible stutter and couldn't even like get a word out. And now he's in radio. That doesn't add up.

Well, he talks about it and he said that the. He, he saw this girl that had a stutter on one of his shows, and he's like, okay, I can cure your stutter in five minutes. And she's like, what? She's [00:43:00] like, I, I, I, I love that. And he ex goes on to explain, is that the reason you stutter is because you're having the anxiety that you're afraid that you're going to stutter.

And so it causes you to stutter and it creates this snowball. And so then he went on to explain the psycho psychology behind it and gave her a couple, like very small exercises to do. And lo and behold, in five minutes, this girl was talking just as plain as you or I, and it was, it was incredible. Like right there on, on camera.

I was like, holy crap. Like that's, and that's what I think of with, with the YPs too, is that they can really snowball on you real quick. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you know, I've found myself in the situation many a times that I [00:44:00] have taken myself out of the tournament within the first five holes. I mean, before I even finish the front nine, I'm out of the tournament.

Like I'm not even in contention anymore. And I find that when I get to that point where I don't have a snowball's chance to place or do anything special in the tournament, That I tend to lighten up. I tend to forget about the, you know, forget about doing well, and I actually start performing better because I don't care anymore.

Like there's, there's, I get to that point of hopelessness that I just start playing my game for fun. Well, and that's, I wonder, that brings up a point with a lot of the women I've played with where they don't keep score. Like, I'm pretty sure Taylor said something like, she doesn't keep score ever. Mm-hmm.

And she's a really good pro player. Mm-hmm. [00:45:00] Or like some of the women I've played with who are like, yeah, I never really play, I play with my husband and he keeps track of this score. Well, it's like that guy that we first played with over at Kayak. He was like, yeah, I, I never keep score and when I shoot a bad shot, I just grab another disc and I, and I do it again.

Yeah. And he, he ended up winning the m p O by like negative six or something like that, didn't he? Yeah, I, it was, I'm just more impressed with the way he like ran up that one tee box. Yeah. That was weird. Yeah, it was crazy. It was like, happy Gilmore. He took like a quarter mile, like running start and like up over terrain and like a flying leap and like just launched this thing out in the outer space.

It was crazy. Yeah. But no, he, he's like, I never keep score. I've never been in a tournament before and if I shoot a bad shot, I just grab another disc out of my bag and I shoot it again. Yeah. There were a couple times he's like, oh, I would've grabbed another disc. And he, he ends up, yeah. And he ends up winning [00:46:00] his division with a negative six.

And it's like, what, dude? This is your first tournament? He's like, yeah, yeah. No big deal. Yeah. And it's like, how do you do that? I always keep scoring and it's like, okay, maybe I, maybe we should stop, maybe we should stop keeping score. Just, you know, throw as many shots as we can. Well, that was one of the things that I read with the mindset of cuz someone put, how do it was shell, Shelly, put on Facebook, how do you get out of your head?

Like all of a sudden I've gotten into my head, I dunno how to get out of my head when I'm playing these rounds, when I'm playing these games. And someone said, well just play a bunch of non-scripted games until you're out of your head. Yeah, I I have a completely different philosophy on that too. Is that you, I was always taught when you get inside your head and you're struggling with the mental aspect, [00:47:00] Is to go back to your foundation.

So fundamentals and simplify as much as possible. Well, he actually goes on to talk about that in the article and that that's an area that makes people make a lot of mistakes. Really. Yeah. Is it, you tend to then focus on doing your basics, doing your fundamentals, and you're focusing so hard at it that you start messing up more and that, I guess that doesn't kind of surprise me.

Yeah. But that, that doesn't make, that doesn't include these simplification though, because there's, there's so much foundation and so many fundamentals that you can start rifling them, listing 'em off in your head and creating your own anxiety. So that makes me think that. You just overcomplicate disc golf.

[00:48:00] That's kind of what we've talked about, is that you need to get this stuff down so that you don't even think about it. The building blocks, that's, and that's why last episode we talked about how I got overloaded with information because there were so many new things I had to think about in the mus in dev.

Giving yourself time to develop that muscle memory and input that into your dinosaur brain. Yes. Into the primal brain. Yes. And that's why, I mean, when we were heading to the course today, I was like, I wanna kind of work on my forehand. However I feel like I need to just keep practicing what I've been learning and, and get that more solid.

And that's what I did, was worked on that more and tried to get that. More solid. And that's why when you're like, Hey, not you, when my coach is like, Hey. [00:49:00] Oh yeah, is that my alter ego is, Hey, coach. Coach. When my coach is like, Hey, let's talk about your run up. It's like, Nope, I'm not there yet. Don't even try, just stop.

Well, and in, as we're talking about building blocks and you bring up that scenario is that we're with Jenny, we're working on some very, very basic foundational things. Like we were talking about last episode, she hit a heck of a slump and finally was like, okay, just let's get back to square one and start over.

So we talked, you know, I'm like, Hey, you know something about your runup? Nope, nope. I'm not gonna do that. So that was a little bit of that performance anxiety, like, I'm not comfortable with this yet. We're not moving on to the next thing. But what I went on to say next was, When we start working on your runup, these foundational things will start to click in and make sense why we're doing them the way that we're doing 'em.

You're looking at me all weird. [00:50:00] That happened, that conversation happened. Whether you remember it or not. You, you were soaking wet and miserable. I don't expect you to remember a whole lot except for the misery that was around. I, I will say this though, that that was good tournament practice though for Washington to, to your compliment.

You, since we've been working on like, I think it was like three or four foundational things that we are really focusing on. Your mis throws have gone down, your mis lines have gone down, your grip locks, your earlier leases have gone down and subsequently your overall score has gone down well. And I think part of that, so part of that not only is what you've been coaching me with, which has been really helpful.

Yes. You got that recorded. I got that on. Wow. I've had to really like block out my mind, like the, the book that I [00:51:00] read about the Grayling people, that book I got from Kayleigh. Yeah. This one guy has this ability to be able to read your thoughts about him. And so practicing that blank slate blank mind, that's what I've really been having to work on, is to get to that spot.

And so I know when I get overwhelmed, my throws are gonna be off. My, I'm gonna start spiraling, snowballing, whatever. Well, it's like when I used to play ball golf and you've, you've seen me do this is when I go up to approach the ball. And right before the hit, I hit the ball and do it with disco too. I take a big deep breath and I try to clear out my mind and all, all the components of the shot were set up and figured out before I take that deep breath.

Once I take that deep breath, my mind is clear, and at that [00:52:00] point it's just execution. Yeah. I, I tried to do the breathing as part of my setup or routine and it just didn't work. It's just, for me, it's that brief moment of zen of just kind of that like, it's almost like a meditation of where I'm not really thinking about anything.

My mind is clear. I'm not thinking about the shot, I'm not thinking about anything. I'm just in the moment. I think for me, this goes back to actually high school when I remember being in marching band thinking, how the heck can all these other people march play? And breathe because as a drummer I only had to worry about marching and playing and everyone else also had to breathe on top of it.

Oh, those drummers drop like flies. I'll tell you, this is just keeling over in the back of the band there. I have had to pick up a drum for someone else. It had to happen. Yeah, it happens. So you were talk, we were [00:53:00] talking about how the YPs can snowball on you and how you want to get back to basics and, and moving on through this.

I have to say, every time you say the yips snowball, I just see a huge pile of those YPs from Sesame Street. Oh gosh. Like jumping all over someone. Okay. And they're all like pink, purple, blue and orange. You're like, Hey. Yip, yip. So I was, I was always taught that when you're experiencing those performance anxiety issues that you want to kind of slow down.

You want to not only get back to foundational basics, but also simplify, so take out all of the extra, you know, in this case, it'd be things like torquing your disc, you know, heiser, Anheuser shot, shaping really complicated things and just perform. As it turns out, the good doctor here, the disc doctor, he [00:54:00] actually, or Dr.

Disc, excuse me, he actually brings up a good point here about doing that, is that it switches your mindset. Going back to those foundational basics and simplifying things to just like very, very simple terms. I mean, you, you hear me say at all time, just do this, nothing fancy, just make this shot. Nothing fancy.

Don't worry about just disc basket. That's it. Don't worry about anything else. Yeah. But as soon as you tell me not to h it, I end up trying to h it. Nothing. Well, yeah, of of course. Cuz you're a rebel with the cops. Isn't that a, isn't that a husband, wife thing as like, you just do the opposite of everything I say and that, and then I do the same.

Like today you're like, here, throw this disc. And I'm like, Nope, I'm not gonna throw that disc. I'm gonna do this one. And then you threw the disc that I said too and did better. I gave in relu reluctantly that's, that's recorded [00:55:00] also. So there, wow. Yeah. It's a,

so anyway, having that performance anxiety really does change the mindset. It brings up a good point in this article is that it changes. The mindset of the athlete from being goal and approach driven to concentrating on avoidance tactics. And, and this is something that you've said through teaching and things, is that let's talk about the things that we should do instead of the things that we want to avoid, because then you're focusing on those avoidances and you're not focusing on the progress and the things that you need to do.

Yeah. What, what comes to mind for me with what you're saying? Like, I know my, my pearl is my go-to disc, and sometimes it's like, oh, I would normally try and throw like my road runner or something like that. And [00:56:00] it's like, in these tournaments with the rain, with the YPs, I'm like, Ugh, guess I just gotta throw the pearl.

And so I kind of feel like defeated at that point. Because I've had my hopes up so high, and it's like, I know when I just give up, like you were talking about and just, I stop trying. But if I go in with just kind of a, like a lower level, I'm just gonna like, as my mom puts it, have fun. I think I might be able to maintain my attitude if I, if I keep it at that point.

Mm-hmm. I'll have to try it out the next tournament's, well, maybe the next tournament might be a good, I forgot there's one before mine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm kind of, I'm kind of thinking of the, the scenario where, and I don't know if this qualifies, but where, where you're on the T padd and you're like, Okay.

That tree [00:57:00] right there, don't hit that tree. Whatever you do, don't hit that tree. Well, that's why lately I've been so mad, I was like, I didn't even see that tree or that little smallest thing on the smallest tree my disc hits. Well, I'm, I'm kind of talking about like target focus is, you're like, don't, a target lock is, don't hit that tree.

Well take anything but that tree don't hit that tree well. Cause it's the last thing you think of. And then you line up and you let it rip and you drill that thing right in the center of the tree and it ends up behind the T pad. Well, that's what happened today on hole eight when I was going up there with a certain disc.

I was like, okay, nice. Easy throw, and then you're back behind me going, don't hook it. And that's the last thing I thought before I got ready to throw. And so I Okay. Hook it. And so I grip lucked and went over there and I was so mad because that would've been one [00:58:00] of those times you're like, take your, you know, get off your line and whatever.

But I was like, okay, I can make it through this. And I couldn't. Yeah, I, no, I hear you. It's, it's target lock is, is what it is. And, and that's, that's, I thi I think it's related to this, what we're talking about here is, you know, don't hit that tree and then you nail it. Yeah. Yep. So you become more focused on avoiding certain things and, and, you know, when you think about that thing that you're trying to avoid, you're actually like kind of bringing that into existence in a way.

And so one of the tricks is to focus on what you need to do instead of the thing you need to not do. It's, it's goes back to that psychology of, if you putting in that word, not like, we don't focus on that. [00:59:00] It's whatever came after that fo focus on the task at hand. And it's like what I told you about your birdie, it wasn't.

Don't mess up your birdie. It was mess up your birdie and like yours. Don't hug it. Was hug it. Yeah. Because we don't take those negatives. And that is a trick with psychology is you have to put in positives. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So instead of don't hug it, it would be throw gentle throw throw gen. Okay, so put make a more affirmative assertion.

Yes. Gotcha, gotcha. And, and I'm just gonna tell you just from now and just tell me to skate better. Skate better. Yeah. It just skate better. Well, and it, and it says, it says right here as we're going, you know, in our notes, is that our brains are also very inherently bad at executing non-specific directions.

[01:00:00] So things like don't h it our, our brains are really bad at processing that. Yes, they are. What are some techniques for getting over the YPs and defeating the YPs? So you're in a tournament and or on a rec ground or any kind of situation where you're having some performance anxiety issues and you're needing to break out of that head space.

What are some things that we can do? What are, what do you do to try to break yourself outta that head space? What I've been trying to equate it to lately is I listened to all the books, the Secret, the Power, the Hero, those books. Mm. And one of the things that it's Rhonda Binds, right? I think so.

Something like that. One of the things that she talks about is like when you get in a bad mood, it's like, You got on the cranky horse and if you [01:01:00] got on the cranky horse, you can get off the cranky horse. So that's what I try and do is like, well, if I'm in the mind space where I can, it's like, okay, I need to quit.

Whatever that is. Like I need to be happy and try and do that. When I'm not in the mind space, I'm just screwed. But then that also goes back to something we talked about today. Being in the rain. I was hungry. I was cold. There was something in my sock. No, my sock wouldn't stay up. My sock, your foot. My sock wouldn't stay up.

Your foot was in your sock. I know, but there was something else in my sock. But that was, anyway, this was a spider. Yes. An Australian flying spider was in my sock. No, no. The bird eating spider. That's a whole lot of, Nope. Flying spiders. Well, that's what happened here. I wanna hide under a rock That's happened to your birdie.

Was it the flying spider ate it? The knocked it off course. At [01:02:00] least. I mean, yeah, there you go. Oh my God. Anyway, so we were talking about that and I was like, look, my basic needs aren't met. I can't play because my basic needs aren't met. And you just kind of looked at me dumbfounded. I'm like, no, you have to have your basic needs met in order to perform.

And if you don't, you're not going to perform. Well, that had never occurred to me. I know. You know what else has never occurred to me. Next time you're lining up for a putt, I'm gonna be like Australian flying spider. It is good. It's, I'm gonna do it right to wearing a birdie putt just for you. I'm gonna make you Australian flying spider glitch.

I'm gonna dye you a glitch. That's an Australian flying spider. It's a dinner plate spider. No,

no. Would you prefer it's one of the giant blue crabs that they have? Oh my god, no. No. Blue crabs. The yips, we can kind of boil it down to [01:03:00] the cause, which is performance anxiety. And then when you're in that moment, it comes onto this like target lock thing where you're just locked in this mindset and you can't shake it.

So what are some things that you can do to get yourself out of this mindset? And one of the things that's suggested is change your putter. Not because like, say you're having trouble putting, change your putter. So like today, my envy is a different plastic than my nomad. And I could not sink my envy for the life of me, but I changed over my no badd and I could do it, and I could sink it with any other putter except for my envy for some reason.

And I just, for some, I had that locked in my brain and it worked. And that's why I have my one putter. I don't throw, I have my throwing putter and then I have my putting putter is a little trustee. [01:04:00] Yeah. Is because that's, its intended. And if I try and put with something else, it changes the game for me.

And that's why my pearls, they're exactly the same, but one I've had longer and I throw that one better than the other one. Well, and than the other four. This is something that you and I have been working on lately. We've ran into some situations where, Like an individual will be putting and somebody will be making noise or moving around in their, we play with five children.

We are very versed in this. You are, as the player, you are responsible for your shot. And so if you decide to take your shot while that is going on, that's still a stroke. You don't get to do [01:05:00] anything about it. I mean, there are some provisions, but at what cost? Because you can, cause you can call out a courtesy violation and if your card agrees on it, then you get to retake that shot.

However, under what cost? Creating that, that anx, that not anxiety. Well, and that, that we can't, no. That friction on the, your card mates, you, you can't be sure that it's going to, like, that's, that's part of the fear of, of calling it out is, is that it could, yeah. Yeah, it could call and, and that's, you know, that's why it doesn't get, but you're responsible for shots.

So one thing that we've been working on lately, both Jenny and I, is when something like that happens is to be able to put our disc down, not like down, but lower, lower our stance, walk back off of our line. So actually stand up, walk away, [01:06:00] and then readdress and re-approach our shot without that happening.

And in the, in the meantime, Maybe some of those activities have remedied themselves, but also when you step off and reset, you can also say, Hey, could you, would you be willing to, you know, kind of stand over here and, you know, kind of keep it, keep it down a little bit. And, and once you do that, it's going to be you, you're gonna set the standard and things for the rest of your round, so maybe they won't do that as much.

But also it, it allows you to get your mind off of all the stuff that's going on around you and refocuses you on the task at hand, going back up and re-approaching. It's a really hard thing to do because you're in that mindset, you're in that moment and, It feels like once you're on that path, you're just on that [01:07:00] conveyor belt that it's, you're on rails, you're gonna, you're gonna do it and what's gonna happen is gonna happen.

So you gotta be able to stop that activity and walk away, and that helps people immensely. Jenny, you've done it a few times now since we've been working on it, and you've come back and made your shot without any issues. And I find that it actually relieves a lot of anxiety and a lot of extra stress and things down the road because now you've made your shot, you've done well, and now you're not ticked off at the person making all the noise.

And you know, there's not that angst between you and that that friction and, you know, it doesn't continue your snowball because you made your shot. So I think what this comes down to is one of the things in the end of the article Ways to deal with this is to have a routine and have something [01:08:00] that you do all the time.

Like Paige Pierce with her putting, she does the little flick above her head before she gets ready to putt. And that's And who's the guy that flips the disc? Is that, no, I don't know. Nate, I think he flips the disc and that's his routine. He flips it three times, two or three times. Respectfully. I think that's a little off the mark from what the article is reading because it's saying in in, I paraphrase when I say that.

When you're experiencing the gibs, you're usually on this, this, you're usually on rails and you're heading this one direction and you gotta take some sort of action or create some sort of situation that. Diverts you from that, changing the plastic on your putter, for example, and just having that texture change or stepping down and walking away from your line and resetting.

Well, it actually says like, [01:09:00] change your grip. It says in here, change your grip. A pre-shot routine implements consistency, which each shot and simplifies putting since yips are more likely to occur when we catastrophize, like I've never catastrophizes. Wow. So, lemme try that again. So to create a catastrophe.

I know, but I've never seen it with the eyes behind it. Like, whoa. Since the YPs are like, I teach math, we're likely to not an English teacher, math to occur. When we create a catastrophe, we want to prevent ourselves from doing it. So having the same pre-cut routine helps prevent the catastrophe by focusing on the, the routine.

Yep. So he did say that. That's okay. So what, so which one is it? Cuz he said both. He said break the routine to get outta the YPs. And then by then he said, also have a good solid routine. It says disrupting the process that leads to the YPs. So if the, if the YPs [01:10:00] are a result of your routine. I, I dunno. No, it's it's saying that, so if you have the set, if you have the same set routine Yeah, the same approach, whatever.

It's. Constant. Mm-hmm. It's like when we used to, before we would practice putting, and you hated that, I would just throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. And you would practice with, get on my shot, practice a routine, throw, get off, get back on practice the 13 throw. Yeah. And so having that set routine and doing it every single time helps to norm things so you're not creating a catastrophe.

Yeah. So, so approaching it the same way every time. Right. So that decreases the likelihood of there being a yip. Because it's the same thing you do every time. It's comfortable, [01:11:00] it's familiar. Yep. It's, it's that primal memory again. Yeah. You can just get into that and. But I think the part that you were getting at is like with changing your putter, you still do the same routine.

It's a different putter, it's just a different sensation. It feels different. Maybe it throws different, maybe it's a different color. Like I've got those two envys. The green one throws me off because I always threat with put with a pink putter. And that's why I got so mad when I lost the purple Road runner and I had to like, we bought the blue one.

Mm-hmm. But I hate the pattern on it. It's blue. It's not my purple one. And so I had to go order one. I can't throw blue discs. It's weird. You threw your it, my it, my it. Yeah. We all saw how that worked out. Dude, you parked it. That's not blue, that's teal. Oh my God. It's like aqua or something. I'm talking about like blue.

Okay. Kayleigh. Yeah, it's, it's like a [01:12:00] light kind of robin, egg blue type of thing. Thing. And if James was here, he would say that orange discs are superior. And if you run into our son, he's gonna ask you if you've heard, if you fully understand episode three, where orange discs, that's it, are superior. Hey, I don't have a problem with orange discs.

I do. Another thing it says in here is that, you know, take, take just very common sense, you know, measures to redrew, reduce your stress levels. So things like belly breathing, things like, you know, kind of shaking it out kind of is something that I do is like, or if, if you're a music person, put in your earbud and listen to some music.

Yeah. That, you know, I'm. I did that at one tournament and it actually helped quite a, got my, got my mind off of things for sure. I tend to do that more at Sea Tac because the airplanes drive me crazy. Sea tac is a thing. Okay. If there's one last thing that I saw that I think is important because in a later episode we'll be talking [01:13:00] about target panic.

It's closely related to the YPs. However, this world championship firearms instructor and archery instructor has blueprinted out how to defeat this target panic thing. And I listened to it and it was, it was really quite intuitive. Things you wouldn't necessarily think about. And I say, Hey, you know what, we could really relate this to disc golf.

So that episode's gonna be coming up in the future, but it kind of relates to this and that, that's where I go on with it, is that your routine should start with some sort of trigger. And that made me think of the, the target panic thing is because the instructor, he says, and I've said this to you, is okay, when you, when you get up and are ready to take your shot, say something to bring yourself into the moment.

Like actually say it out loud at first and then to yourself. So like, when I'm stepping into the [01:14:00] box on the tpa, I have my routine, and when I step onto the edge of the tpa, I say in my mind, I say, okay, here I go. And that kind of like puts the blinders on and sucks everything into that moment. And I am focused.

And that trigger is what starts off my routine and says, all right, we're here. We're here now. This is what we're doing. And that, that just really caught my attention at the bottom of this article here, is that every routine should have a trigger, something to bring you focused back into that moment. No, my problem with that, with the trigger is the, the only phrase that really comes to mind with any sort of frequency is I got this and then I totally mess it up.

So it totally just goes straight to a yip. It's like, well I got this. Well, that, that's interesting that you bring that up cuz you were talking about the secret and all that thing. Is it, it's not what you're saying, it's what you're thinking. [01:15:00] So if you're like, I got this, what's the thought? That's preve, you know, prevalently going through your mind.

What's the prevailing thought behind, I got this, I don't got this, I don't got this. I so don't got that. And so now you are on the avoidance mindset instead of the task and approach based mindset. Now some, you know, sometimes you like, well, but then someone will say something like that and it's like, I still got time.

I can still mess it up somehow. Yeah. Right, right. Hmm. Right. I don't know. Do you have audience members? Like what would be your go-to phrase? Like, let us know. Maybe we can try that out. Yeah. What, what's your anti, what's your D thing? It's like filo with the apple pie. Apple pie, yeah. Yeah. The cadence.

Yeah. And I end up with that one in my head a lot, but that's not a trigger, it's a [01:16:00] cadence. Well, no, that's part of your routine and in your address. I know, but I'm saying it's not, those are like, I'm trying to come up with what runs through my head that I can also say runs through my head on a podcast.

Yeah. So those are like the only things, well, like, you've seen me do it too, that like where I'll actually, I'll actually walk up to some sort of shot and it'll be marginally difficult and I'll, I'll walk up to it and be like, I got this. Right. But there's definitely, there's a different tone and a different swagger to it.

It's, you can tell the difference between when somebody's unsure of themselves and when somebody's like, no, this is mine. So one thing I wanted to add to this, which isn't mentioned at all in the article, is the superstitions, because I think it lends well to the YPs, the social anxieties, the performance anxiety, the stress, and like, I don't know, do you [01:17:00] have anything that you would say borders on the line of a superstition for you when it comes to, oh man, disc golf or sports in general or athletes are toxically super notorious?

Notoriously toxically. Superstitious. Mm-hmm. Because it's, it's, you want. Even if it has no bearing on your performance, you want to just take and eliminate any factor, any and all factors that could affect the outcome of your performance. So Right. So that's part of the scientific method actually, is keeping as much constant as possible and changing as little as possible.

However, so there's, I know you sex to it. I know you get, don't even, no. You get so mad when I wash your towels. Oh God. Don't wash my towels before a tournament. Yep. Even though we can't, we may have just done a mud round like they needed to be [01:18:00] washed. Yeah. Every once in a while and then I always do terrible.

I gotta get, I gotta, there's a breaking in period. I have to put them through. I can't just put clean towels on my bag. Oh my God. I can't. I have, I have to, I'll let the dog roll around with them for a few days. I know I have to take 'em out on a course for like a wreck round. I gotta get a few birdies and just take 'em to work with you.

No, no. I don't have any birdies at work.

I gotta get some birdies worked into those towels. And some pars too. I mean, that'd be nice. But no, but I, like in hockey, like in the playoffs, we never washed our socks. Yeah. I'm not talking like, I'm not talking about like socks you work, wear on your feet. I'm talking about those knit socks that they you wear on your legs that go over your shin pads.

You don't know what I'm talking about cuz you never played hockey. No, I, I do. Okay. Yeah. You, you wouldn't never wash those. And that was, that was like a team thing. Nobody, and it was smelled so bad in the locker room. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And we'd, we wouldn't [01:19:00] wash our, wouldn't wash our socks if we were in the playoffs because that was the deal.

Yep, yep. Or like gosh, beards, there's been things with facial hair. There's all sorts of superstitions out there, you know? Never tape your stick with black tape. That's another one. I don't know. I, I think that my biggest superstition in disc golf be besides the towels is probably turtle power is for some reason that disc and me, like whenever I'm in a jam, it's always there for me.

I told you that's your pearl. That's, yeah, that's my, that's my, my safety, safety blanket disc. Well, like you, you're like, I have to eat breakfast before a tournament. Like, dude, I have to eat breakfast every day. If I don't eat breakfast, I'm gonna like end up in jail, hurt somebody. Oh, breakfast. Like, I will eat breakfast all day, every day.

Like, I love breakfast. It's like Ron Swanson. It's like, [01:20:00] I am, I want ba How much bacon do you have? All of it. All. I want all the bacon you have. Oh, sure. How many slices? That's it. All of it. I, I mean, how much bacon do you have in the restaurant? Yeah. No, and that's, so the superstitions, like if, for me, it's doing my nails.

If I don't paint my nails, like I'm not even getting into the mindset. And it could be, you know, like, Day before, night before, like, so like there's some, it's also superstitions and routines I think kind of go hand in hand. Well, so like you, you painting your nails, we have a joke kind of that it's tournament nails.

Yeah. However, it's turned into this routine that you always get your nails done before a tournament because it really starts your head. This was the first time I got them done up until now I've painted my own nails. This was the first tournament I actually went out and [01:21:00] got 'em dead. Well, and, and I'll, I'll say, I'll say this, the first few tournaments of this year where you didn't do it, those were your worst tournaments of the year, dude.

Ever. Yeah. Those are your worst tournaments ever. Yeah. So I think, you know, as ridiculously may sounds like you're superstition about doing tournament nails and painting your nails for the tournament and, and taking care of that. It kind of, it kind of falls line with that trigger. Mm-hmm. Is that, that's that thing that sparks your tournament routine and sparks your mindset and gets you going that direction.

Mm-hmm. It kind of starts the conveyor belt moving. Yeah, I agree. It's like some, I read through some of the, the crap, those articles about the upcoming women in disc golf. Yeah. One of them, I think the routine is the night before they do yoga and do a lot of stretching and stuff, and so they try and get into their mindset.

I was [01:22:00] reading, I don't, Corey was talking, I'm always sore after I do yoga. I don't want to do yoga before our tournament. I think we're doing the wrong kind of yoga. Oh, probably. Which I think we will do an episode on good yoga on disc golf yoga, yeah. Disc golf, yoga. We're gonna do. Okay. All right. All right.

Because dude, you get into some of the weirdest positions, like Totally. This is a disc, golf yoga pose, like. I've, I've gotten into some, it's straddle putt. Yeah. You've been winning with those? Well, the, no, I have not been winning with those. I You've been winning a lot of straddle putts. We, we went to fairgrounds the other day and every single putt that I had was a straddle putt, every single one of them, because it was behind a tree or around a corner or some dang thing.

And I had to, and I, and I think I only had one that was in my normal putting position. Mm-hmm. And guess what? I made that one well, and that's for me having my right foot forward for putting, [01:23:00] last year I started practicing with my left foot forward. And there's been a few times where I've had to put where it makes better sense to have my left foot.

Yep. And so, because I've worked on that, It's not a big deal for me. Well, and I think that that would relate to the lap episode really well, about talking about, you know, qualitative, quantitative data points, you know, understanding, you know, what are your percentages if you use a, a straddle putt, what are your percentages if you use an off leg putt?

What if you do use a jump putt? What if you, you know, and, and try all these different things and see how it affects your, your different tendencies. Yeah. So I just wanted to say that, you know, superstitions, I think they tie into routines and, and. Keeping things as, as normed as possible, and that will help us to not create catastrophes and do better at our games.

Well, I, I think there's a, I, I think [01:24:00] there's actually a legit psychology behind it though too. It kind of, that safety blanket thing. It's like, okay, the kid that drags around the safety blanket, it makes them feel comfortable and warm. It makes, it makes them feel safe, even though like, the blanket's not gonna stop a bullet, but this kid thinks it will.

No, it's like metaphorically. Of course. So Kayleigh has pink blankie and blue blankie. Yeah. And she's got one here and one at her dad's. Yeah. And I remember in third grade, like I went through some social anxiety with my mom, and so she made me a purse that was the same pattern as my blankie. And so I had my blankie with me at school.

That's cool. Well, it, and for me, like with the towel thing, right? Like I can, I, I don't know why it's the towel thing. And, and, and I don't know, there's a, like I said, [01:25:00] that's, I don't know how that happened. It's just become a deal. But like the, the towel thing, it's like, it's like that safety blanket effect.

It's like if I know that my towels have had a couple rounds in 'em, you know, they got some birdies worked into 'em and stuff, you know, I can, like, I can, I go up and check on my towels and I'm like, okay, my towels are good. And it's that psychology thing of like, I know it doesn't make any freaking difference either way or whatever, but it kind of gives me that confidence that, well I have, I have this extra layer of protection.

Yeah. It's like me with all my crystals. Okay. No carrying around crystals and stuff for protection. Like I usually wear all the rings and stuff, and I, I, I've learned that I have to take all my jewelry off of my throwing hair because lose it or you'll lose it, it's gonna go in the bushes somewhere. So lately what I've started doing is, is I have my kid ring here [01:26:00] and I I wear it on my other hand.

Okay. Fair enough. And so that's kind of become my new superstition Yeah. Is that I have to still wear it. And I, I think, I think that that superstition thing is more of like the safety blanket mechanism type of deal. And it just, it gives you that comfort. It calms you down, it relieves that stress and it, it kind of gives you that feeling of, Hey, whatever this thing is, it's got my back, so everything's gonna be all right.

Oh. It's like Kaylee and I have our care bears. Twinkles and Twinkles. Oh yeah, yeah. You got the, you carry the, the care bears around, you know? Yep. I still carry my care. Bear in my bag. Yep. Well, you guys got matching care bears because Kay Kayleigh wasn't it, that Kayleigh was having some anxiety about going to a tournament with you and about being in a tournament?

Mm-hmm. Wasn't it? No. No. She had [01:27:00] her first sleepover. Oh, that's what it was. She had her first sleepover and just as a, because she's had separation anxiety in the past was, here you have yours, I have mine, and then they're connected together through the right threads of time and space, because we have the same thing.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She's too young for a tattoo and won't wear jewelry. I get her. Oh gosh. So do you have anything else that you'd like to point out? Add at the YPs? Nope. You should in the future, check Tri Octopus treasures. We're gonna have disc YPs. Oh, you're gonna make that happen to the disc? YPs are coming, huh?

It's on my list. It's on your list as we're sitting here with all of my trophy. So we're sitting at our dining room table and I've got all this stuff for the trophies I'm making for the sirens of the Springs event on [01:28:00] April 30th. So Yep. And the intentional disco golfer will be down there with some form of setup and being able to include, we hope.

No, it will, I'll find a way to make it happen, but we'll, we'll be down there and Be able to do some live participation from the people attending the tournament. So that's gonna be really cool. This concludes this episode of the Intentional Disc golfer, some commentary on the Nip the YPs article from Dr.

Disk, Dr. Andrew.

And this is the intentional dis golfer signing off.