The Intentional Disc Golfer
Unleash your disc golf potential with The Intentional Disc Golfer podcast! Join us as we dive deep into the physical and mental aspects of this incredible sport, helping you become the player you've always dreamed of being. We're here to elevate your game, share expert insights, and inspire intentional growth on and off the course. Support our mission by becoming a part of our avid listener community. Together, let's take your disc golf journey to new heights! Email us at theintentionaldiscgolfer@gmail.com to support or be featured on our show. Let's tee off towards greatness!
The Intentional Disc Golfer
Enhancing Disc Golf Performance: The Power of Preparation and Strategic Planning
How can you elevate your disc golf game through meticulous preparation and strategic planning? In the premiere of Season Two of the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast, we're back with Brandon and Jenni Czuprynski to explore this question and much more. We kick off the season with updates on key tournaments like the Staff Doubles Tournament at Chief Kitsap Academy and the Windfall Masters Cup at Evergreen Stat College.
Ever wondered how a caddy book could transform your tournament performance? Jenni introduces her innovative idea of a caddy book flip chart, inspired by fellow disc golfer Kayla’s spreadsheet method. We recount our journey implementing this at the Femme Fatale event and detail the immense benefits of this meticulous preparation. By creating a disc shot matrix and conducting fieldwork drills, Jenni discovered improved distance and shot accuracy, leading to more informed decision-making during tournaments. Listen as we share practical tips for constructing your own personalized caddy book and the advantages of pre-planning each shot.
Mastering the mental game is just as crucial. We emphasize the importance of hard data and environmental conditions, from wind speeds to elevation changes, to boost your performance. Learn how to simplify your disc selection process. We also discuss the significance of mental resilience, adaptability, and self-sufficiency in equipment choices. Whether you're moving up divisions or refining your strategy, our comprehensive approach to data collection and game planning offers valuable insights to elevate your disc golf experience. Join us for a deep dive into the art of intentional disc golfing.
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To support this podcast or arrange for an interview please contact us at theintentionaldiscgolfer@gmail.com
Mom Dad's making a disc golf podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in to the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast. We're excited to have you join us on our disc golf journey. This podcast explores the physical, mental and technical aspects of disc golf performance. We will also be discussing tools and techniques to improve your disc golf game as we work on improving ours. Now. Here are your hosts, brandon and Jenny Sapinski.
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening to this podcast, jenny. Guess what it's finally here, hooray. Guess what it's finally here, hooray. Season two of the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast, the long-awaited season two it's here. We got a fanfare from the dogs.
Speaker 1:Baker's excited.
Speaker 3:Yes, he's very excited. Like the introduction said, I am one of your hosts, my name is Brandon and I'm Jenny, and if you would like to support the show, get some advertising on here. Uh, either you know your own plug or we can create one for you, please. Uh, get ahold of us at any of these places, uh, facebook, instagram, um. At Saprinsky disc golf Uh, that is c-z-u-p-r-y-n-s-k-i disc golf. And on x: @TheIDGPodcast, that is at the idg podcast. Or email us directly at the intentional disc golfer@ gmail. com. Jenny, you have some announcements, don't you?
Speaker 1:Are you actually done listing all the places they can find us? I am what about like Spotify? Oh, Spotify and all those platforms?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, all the platforms, All the platforms. Yes, we're on all major platforms. We're on Spotify, iHeart, Apple, Google, Amazon, just to name a few. There's about maybe about 16 or 18 places that you can find us out there. All the big ones for sure, though.
Speaker 1:It totally threw me off when you said X, because I'm like what's X? Oh yeah, twitter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the play. I was thrown off. The artist formerly known as twitter you know you're not wrong.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not wrong, not on that. No, hey, we have stickers. If you want some. Uh, I think they're going to be the last run we have of our original logo. We're working on rebranding our logo, so if you want one of the last stickers, go ahead and reach out to us at any of those places that Brandon already mentioned. And I guess you wanted me to talk about what's on our calendar, what we have coming up.
Speaker 1:I want to say first, though, that at Chief Kitsip Academy, we are just finished up our first round of Staff Doubles Tournament. We did four weeks of Staff Doubles Tournament. We are just finished up our first round of staff doubles tournament. We did four weeks of staff doubles tournament, and right now the competition is is pretty hot between Jeff Williams, sean Kroll is a group number one and Angelina Sosa and Baron old coyote. So looking forward to seeing who ends up winning our first round of dubs at Chief Kitsap Academy. And thank you to the Paul McBeth Foundation for sponsoring our disc golf course. So where are we going to be coming up? Well, we have a couple week break because it's busy season for me at work, so we are doing the Windfall masters cup on saturday june 15th and sunday june 16th at evergreen, and brandon is signed up for ma3. I'm signed up for fa40. I was really trying to get him to go to ma40 but you know you.
Speaker 1:He's not there yet, and then I'm getting darn close. Well, they keep putting you with pros. I think they're telling you something.
Speaker 3:I know the universe is saying something.
Speaker 1:And then we have my tournament, sirens of the Springs, at Shelton Springs. It's second year we moved from a May contest to June because of the Honey Bee Open for the Women's Global event, which I'm pretty stoked. I took 99th out of like 300 and something people in FA40. So happy about how I did. But Sirens of the Spring, so you can check us out on Disc Golf Scene. I would like to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors for Sirens of the Spring. So, of course, the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast, bc Construction we have. Wc Plumbing. Thank you, the Oak Table we have.
Speaker 1:Darkwing Disc, we have Chuck Mintz Disc Golf, we have Bex Warich and I think that's everyone. Oh, oak Table. Did I say Oak Table? Yeah, you said Oak Table, oak Table.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. Thank you all, the sponsors, for.
Speaker 1:Sirens of the Springs and right now we have 34 women signed up for that on Saturday, june 22nd, and we have some super awesome catty bibs for the Evergreen Women's Series that I am selling.
Speaker 3:Those are rad. I thought it was going to be corny, but those are cool and neat how they turned out. I'm not going to have any problem wearing one of those.
Speaker 1:Well, it's unfortunate that you're going to be working the booth, so you can't even be my caddy for the event.
Speaker 3:I'm going to be selling cotton candy and popcorn.
Speaker 1:I might just bring those down from work.
Speaker 3:That's not a bad idea. Really, we don't have any power down there.
Speaker 1:You don't need power.
Speaker 3:For cotton candy and popcorn. What are they? Run on kerosene Natural gas. Cotton candy.
Speaker 1:That could be bad. I'm really not sure how that one works. I have a really hard time running the cotton candy machine.
Speaker 3:But sugar burns too, so that one might be a good thing, alright.
Speaker 2:And then, after Sirens of the Springs, the cotton candy sugar burns too, so that one brought me up, all right, and then, after sirens of the Springs.
Speaker 1:All right, so after sirens of the Springs you can find us at the Fort Steilacoom open, uh, saturday, june 29th and 30th the Sunday. And then my favorite competition is ladies of the lake, and Danielle and Chuck always put on a great tournament, and that will be July 6th and 7th over in Seattle. And then, for whatever reason, we just signed up for the Pac-X Disc Golf South Sound Classic, which is going to be July 19th through the 21st, and it's going to be at Delphi, shelton Springs and Evergreen College. And the last one we're signed up for is the fourth annual Rain Shadow Open presented by the Kitsap Great Escape, which we love their escape rooms. And so that is Saturday, july 27th through 28th.
Speaker 3:Yep, trying to share the love any way we can to the local disc golf community. Come out and see us. We'd love to see you and talk disc golf with you and hopefully we get to play together or whatnot. Let's talk about Sirens of the Springs a little bit more, because I'm excited because we have some sleeper sponsors. I can't say who yet, but we're hoping that we're going to bring them on board somehow. We also have. Aren't you doing some other extra little things to defeat boredom or something I don't know?
Speaker 1:Yes. So I do have some additional ideas for some fun activities that you could potentially do during a tournament, and I can't stress enough how different the women's events are from, say, the men's events. The women's events we tend to have a lot more of the. I guess I could say it's cutesy, fun stuff, like it's a big party. But I'm going to save some of those tips and tricks for our next episode when we actually talk about players' packs and running tournaments.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to give some of those tips and tricks for our next episode when we actually talk about players packs and running tournaments. So I don't want to give all of my secrets away yet because the tournament hasn't happened yet. But there are some fun little things that we're doing and it's always nice to bring the camaraderie together and just keep it fun, because ultimately, I know it's stressful sometimes and I get in my head when I'm playing it's like man, I'm not doing well or someone else is doing better than me. But you know what it's really about having fun and being there and being out there with like minded people, so keeping it fun.
Speaker 3:And you know, husbands, wives, men, significant others, come out here and come out there and support, um, the women's disc golf thing. Like she said, it's a blast. Uh, men are welcome, uh, kids can come watch and stuff. It's. It's just a great time. Everybody's happy to be there and uh, support these ladies because it means a lot to the sport and, um, you know, kind of one of the last bastions for women to be able to play. So let's, uh, let's go out and show our love yes, we, uh.
Speaker 1:We would welcome anyone who wants to come out and check out Shelton Springs at uh Saturday the 22nd too. I mean it's not as big as a pro event, but you know what? There's no reason you can't come by see what we're doing. Shout out to the ladies and cheer them on, and they'd probably get a kick out of it.
Speaker 3:Who cares if it's not a pro event Like these ladies are good. I'm not even some of the like you know what you might call like the lower divisions. These ladies are good and you know statistically. You know, you look at everything and they're in the top 5% of disc golfers everywhere and that's a big deal. They're no joke and a lot of times when we play on MEDS cards with them we get our butt kicked. So it's not a farce. These ladies are good. You're going to get entertained. It's going to be a great time.
Speaker 1:And I will put in a plug and say I think it's the past two tournaments that you and I have been in together that I've actually beat you.
Speaker 3:Oh, them's fighting words.
Speaker 1:No, it's just facts.
Speaker 3:Them's fighting Purely evil. Oh my gosh, all right, so anyway, yeah, so. So, uh, get ahold of us, come like us, support us, uh, help us with the algorithm. Um, all those things I'm supposed to say. And moving on to shout outs, shout outs, yes, um, part of the inspiration for jumping into action with this episode is, uh, we had a listener that a fan of the show, actually reach out to us. I wanted to give him a shout out. Let's hear it for Jeffrey Harner out of Texas. Thanks for reaching out and sharing the love. Buddy, sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to get going.
Speaker 1:We sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to get going so well. I will go so far as to say that I've been finishing up my admin cert over the past year, so I've been working hard and then working hard on schoolwork. So that's everything was due on the first. So, yay, I have a little more free time.
Speaker 3:Well, you, you got a temporary, temporary move into a deal and so now you're having to do like three people's jobs at the same time no joke. So she's a busy bee for sure, and that, and going to school full time and managing a family, she's a rock star and a superhero for sure.
Speaker 1:Am I getting a cape?
Speaker 3:Are you going to wear it at the next tournament, is it?
Speaker 1:like the caddy bib, you're going to get capes.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, let's do that. Instead of cape caddy bibs, let's make them all superhero capes.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:No, no, okay, come on. The caddies are awesome. They are Like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm. You know, I was thinking about this this morning. I could really see a role being instituted where caddies have to be designated somehow, like have a button or a bib on or you on, or be wearing a certain color, or something like that. I could really see that happening, so that there's not that integration of caddies and audience.
Speaker 1:I think they have that for pro events.
Speaker 3:Do they have that for pro events?
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 3:Okay, I don't know, maybe no, because I see a lot of them. I see a lot of pros just walking around kind of in their clothes and they're just wearing a bag.
Speaker 1:The pros yes.
Speaker 3:No, they're support teams. Alright, she's looking it up. We got a rules check. I need a sound effect for that. You know I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't see anything specific about cat. Nothing specific about cat, at least not. You have to designate one caddy at a time during the round.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you're only allowed to have one.
Speaker 1:Correct. But they must follow, including the dress code.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but there's not a separate dress code for caddies that says you must wear a identifiable bib that connects you to a certain player.
Speaker 1:No, but I think it's probably best practice by this point.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's definitely best practice, because if the caddy is the extension of the player, then they should be easily connected to the player. I would think that's just common sense. I could see it coming, especially as the sport grows and gets bigger.
Speaker 1:You're probably not wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure, especially at the pro level. So, anyway, talking about this episode, talking about caddies Wow, off the rails. That's our MO, though, right, right, all right. So this episode you get those emails before a tournament and there's that lengthy, sometimes not lengthy, but attachment of all the neat pictures of the holes, and sometimes they're very descriptive and helpful, and sometimes they're not. And, uh, a lot of times a tournament director will provide them for you, um, or you can ask for them. You may even have to go out there and get them yourselves, but they are worth the effort in getting there. Yes, of course I am talking about that caddy book. It is a fantastic tool we're going to discuss on how we use ours and tips and tricks on things that you can do with yours to improve your scores and help you to regain your focus on that day, maybe if you're not playing so hot or maybe if you are playing so hot, but you know, everyone's bound to make a mistake and that caddy book can save your butt even from making those mistakes. So we'll talk about that coming up right after this.
Speaker 3:Ec Construction Services is dedicated to growing the sport of disc golf, from sponsoring tournaments and events to volunteering with the paul mcbeth foundation. When you hire bc construction services for your project, you are supporting growing the sport that we love. Get a free quote now by contacting them at bcconstructionnwcom. Bcconstructionnwcom or at 360-271-3441 that is 271-3441. Serving that is 271-3441. Serving the greater Kitsap and eastern Jefferson County area.
Speaker 3:Hi, this is Paul Wright. With the Paul McBeth Foundation, support the Builders Club and support the Intentional Disc Golfer. And we are back. Thank you for all of our supporters, uh, you know and our fans out there. We couldn't do this without our fan support. Uh, it'd be completely pointless. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. And uh, so we are talking about catty books on this episode. Uh, today Jenny had this brilliant idea and I don't know, I'm probably behind the curve on this and late to the party, but you know, let's talk about it anyway. Jenny had this brilliant idea of printing out her caddy book and making a little flip chart type thing where she could keep notes and different things on it. And, um, we really implemented this in a big way. Uh, what the first time was at fort stillicum, for what was the event?
Speaker 1:I can't remember the femme fatale event oh, the femme fatale event.
Speaker 3:That's right. Another one of the evergreen women series. Uh, that's just a great thing. Uh, not to get sidetracked, but to get sidetracked. The evergreen women's series. Uh run by women for women. Uh, women athletes, women, uh tournament directors um, it's just a great cause. Uh, supporting women's disc golf. So, uh, if you're a woman or if you're a man out there and uh just wants to support women's disc golf, evergreen Women's Series, so what?
Speaker 1:You said that like four times.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, well, all done with that then. So would like to talk about that experience using the caddy book. I was the caddy, so I was in charge of kind of keeping the notes and different things and some things that we'd do differently, and then Jenny was the player, so she can maybe talk about it from the player's perspective and, you know, discuss how it helped her and what it brought to the table for her. So what, what was your, what was your idea when you first, like thought of this? Like, what was your thought process here?
Speaker 1:so we had ran into, we ran into kayla.
Speaker 1:Hi, kayla, we talk about you a lot still, uh, we ran into kayla and cat at stilly, because I wanted to go out there and do a practice round and I saw Kayla on her phone. I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, oh well, I have a spreadsheet of all my discs and notes on when to use them and things like that. So I asked her to share what her spreadsheet looked like with me and it was really cool to see the way that she thinks and how she organized her discs. And it was really cool to see the way that she thinks and how she organized her discs. So she had a spreadsheet with here's the disc, here's you know all the specs, the manufacturer, the weight, the flight numbers, and then she had notes about when it was the best time to use that disc or what shots they were good for. So I did the same with my discs, as I duplicated her spreadsheet and listed my discs that way and I went out and spent what was it?
Speaker 1:two and a half hours with you out in the field a few hours but trying to figure out um spots that I needed my discs and what they do. So that was on the spreadsheet as well. And then I had gotten into the habit last year of, before a tournament, laying in bed when I can't sleep and going through trying to make those decisions of what disc am I going to throw, what am I aiming for? And um, kind of taking the uh, some of the nerves out of playing the tournament because I already have my decisions made and I know what I want to do and about where I want them to go.
Speaker 1:So that visualization and so, um, they have really nice uh pictures for Fort Steilacoom, um, and so when we got those from Danielle I was like why don't I just actually draw this out on the caddy book where I want my disc to land and really game plan it out? What would it look like for that round? And so that's what really inspired me to actually use the caddy books in that way is actually going through and coming up with a plan so that when I'm out there I already know what disc I want to throw and where I aim, and at least that takes the guesswork out of 18 of my shots for a tournament yeah, and any chance you can have to simplify the game, uh, is is a good thing.
Speaker 3:Well, let's talk about that for a minute. That's a great place to start is? You know, in order to construct a caddy book accurately, you have to. Well, maybe let's define what a caddy book is. So when you a caddy book is when, what Jenny did is she took the map of the course.
Speaker 3:Fortunately, you know, some maps are more detailed than others and the more detailed the better, because important landmarks and things are going to come into play later in the discussion. But take that map of the course and line it up by hole, by hole by hole, and basically be able to do flip cards. She punches a hole in it, puts a little binder clip in it so that it all stays together, and has little flip cards where we can keep notes about all sorts of different things and we'll talk about all of those different deals in a little bit. But that's what a caddy book is. It's just another tool to put in your little bit. But that's what a caddy book is. It's just another tool to put in your tool belt and once you start using one, it's going to become an invaluable asset to your game in any given situation.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you that when we played the Cascade Challenge that was probably my fourth tournament using the caddy book, and when I was at round three of shelton so I'd played it like five times I had notes was that a really crappy day? That was a really crappy day and that was I was really um.
Speaker 1:You know, I had some of our local pros start following us around and they were commenting on how good I was in the wind, and it was because I had notes on what I needed to do so that I could refer to those notes. And I'd played it five times and had my notes of what worked, what didn't work. And so I was really um. It increased my confidence and it also took out the oh man. I'm nervous because now I have some pros watching me and I don't want to have a bad shot, but it's like I've done this five times. I have the notes right here. I just need to do this.
Speaker 3:Well, and it seemed, it seems like it evolves too, cause you know your first round, you take 18 shots out of the equation. The second round, you can essentially take what is 3 times 18?, 72?, no, 56? Is it 56? Yeah, you can take 56 shots out of the equation, essentially.
Speaker 1:Right every time you play you holes, or 18 shots already planned out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then and then, when you play more subsequent rounds, you can add more data to that and it uh snowballs and you can get a really, really clear picture of how to play that course and what your uh high percentage shots are going to be are going to be.
Speaker 1:It also helps with um. One place I'm at with my game is um because I'm playing the longer holes and I have a longer range is not feeling like I'm forced that I have to throw a mid range or something smaller. The second shot that it might even be better to do to like 250 foot shots with my driver and that'll get me ultimately closer. So it takes some of the guesswork out and, honestly, it takes away some of the need to need one of the um range finders.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and so now we're getting back into kind of where we are going.
Speaker 3:Before the the detour to explain what a caddy book is, um, the heart and soul of any caddy book, uh, not only is going to be the course map, um, and your game plan, but the heart and soul, what makes it all possible, is you need to construct what's called a shot disc matrix, which is kind of what you were talking about with Kayla and her spreadsheet.
Speaker 3:That had all the stuff and I do this and I do that. And so what we did and I imagine all the pros have done this at some point or do it constantly, if not before every tournament figure out what your discs are doing, figure out their ranges, and not from an anecdotal point but from a hard data point, because there are optical illusions and things out there on the course. You might think that something's 200 feet away, but it's only 175. Well, if you throw a 200-foot disc, it's going to go way, way, way over the basket when there's your bogey putt. So it's important to go out and construct this thing. So, jenny, when we went out and did that field exercise just kind of talk me through it what did we do?
Speaker 1:Well, first you badgered me into watching. Watching Holland Handley's video on what is it that you're subscribed to? Is it Power?
Speaker 3:Disc Golf oh Power Disc Golf.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Power Disc Golf Academy.
Speaker 1:And that one talked about taking your discs and filling 12 slots in your bag with your overstable, understable, neutral and your driver's mids, putters and fairway drivers, something like that. It was like there's like 12 to 16 different slots and it's a great video. It kind of changed the way that I was thinking about my discs anyways, because they have the flight numbers and the flight numbers are going to do something different depending on each person because of how they throw and their mechanics and there's all sorts of factors in it. So finding out which discs do what for you which is very much what we're about is finding out what your game is, as opposed to, like Brandon and I have very different games. So whenever he tells me that, oh, that disc is an Innova, this or an Innova that it's like dude, that means nothing because I don't throw Innova.
Speaker 1:But being able to make those connections of you know, here's my most under stable disc. Here's my reliable straight disc. Here's my most understable disc. Here's my reliable straight disc. Here's my. I need to do a go to the right, whatever that's called, or if I need to do a long pushing hyzer Turnover. Yeah, that one.
Speaker 1:Force turnover. Yeah. So, knowing what those discs are, we went out in the field and you're like here, I put all these cones out, now pretend they're trees and throw around them and it's. It's kind of hard to do but it, I mean it works. But it's like wow, that is the smallest tree I've ever tried to go around, so it was. It was fun trying to figure out that and it made a big difference and I cleaned a lot of discs out of my bag that day yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 3:So what the what the field work drill is that we did? We were constructing a disc shot matrix, and so this is going to give us some important information. That's hard data. We can get basically an average idea of where her discs are going to break. So when the turn and the fade switch over, that's the point at which the turn switches over to the fade and the disc turns over and starts going to the ground. So the bite point is really important because then you can know when you know things are going to move around on you and what you can expect from that, and also understanding the different shots and techniques and things that you can get out of some of these different discs.
Speaker 3:So when we went out to do the field work, the drill that we set up was it was we put three cones to mark three throwing positions One center, one about 20 foot to the left of that, one, 20 feet to the left of that, one 20 feet to the right of that. So if you imagine something like a soccer field, uh, along the one of the lines, probably like uh, down by the goal somewhere, the goalie box, um, put three cones, one on each corner and one in the middle. We were in an open field when we did this, but a soccer field. This could give you a good visual of the different lines and things painted on it. So, uh, from the small, uh penalty goalie box is the um is one center, one on one cone on the right, one cone on the left corner.
Speaker 3:And then, uh, we took our range finder and planted three cones at 150 feet out, in line with those same cones that we just put on the line as best we can. We just eyeballed it, you know fairly well. And then we put our basket, our practice basket, 200 feet out, and the reason that we chose those distances was because it's about 75% of Jenny's range overall, maybe 70-75% of Jenny's overall range. So it would be a good chuck, but it would not be taxing so much on our arms, so that we could throw a lot and figure out what's going on there. Start off at the lower ranges, because that's where you're going to make your initial cuts and everything, and then, as you progress, you're going to be making less throws because you're throwing less discs.
Speaker 1:We also use that to help me determine how many discs I need to throw to get warmed up.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right. We kept a shot count and uh, made sure that um, or or found out about the range where Jenny's feeling warmed up and and so now we throw that many shots between before each tournament. Uh, so that's another thing that we derive from going out there and actually doing some field work and taking some data. And the more active you are in disc golf, the less time it's going to take you to warm up. So if you play a round or two a day, it's going to take you less time to get warmed up the next day and the next day and the next day, especially if you fall into a groove day and the next day and the next day, especially if you fall into a groove, um. But like Seth Muncy said last year, you can't emphasize enough the importance of a good warmup.
Speaker 3:And so we put the basket over at, uh, 200 feet out of the center cone, um, out from the center cone.
Speaker 3:So the entire setup is think of like a big 200 foot house looking shape, anyway. So what we did is we took a butt ton of discs out there and Jenny threw some of her favorites and went through some of those she was kind of wishlisting and seeing if they worked or not. And we went through, went from the center cone and just tried to throw out towards the basket. And then we went around the right side cone and the right side cone or left side cone and then switch positions and went to like the far right uh throwing position, and went around each of the cones to the left on like an anhyzer line. And then we went to the other side and did the hyzer lines uh, from the far left position, around each one of the cones to see what the disc did. And we so the discs at 150 feet. They were strictly out there just to measure what's happening at that interval, so that it was easy math.
Speaker 1:And then, once we made our initial cuts, that was only for mids and putters, and then we went out 50 feet further for the drivers oh, that's right, that's what we did yeah so anyway.
Speaker 3:Um so, after we made the initial cuts and everything, uh went through and tested them again, right? Yeah, I made some cuts and then went through them like twice went through through them like twice, made some more cuts and got it down to what would you say, maybe five or six discs.
Speaker 3:I think I ended up with like 12 in putters 12 in putters, okay, and then you only had a few drivers that you ended up with. So then, like she said, we moved the whole setup out another 50 feet. So we moved the measuring cones out to 200 feet and we moved the basket out to 250 feet and then we had her throw her drivers and measure what they did. What they did, and, being that we knew the width of our setup there, which was 40 feet, and we knew the length of our setup, we could set up a grid and with that grid we could figure out flight patterns. We could figure out right exactly where those things break.
Speaker 3:You know those flight charts that you see on the walls in your disc golf shops. Well, they actually do mean something. However, if I could throw like those charts, say that those discs are supposed to fly, then I would be really, really, really good. So what's most important here is to make sure that you create your own flight chart in a way that's going to make sense to you, going to be measurable, give you concrete data and actually be representative of the way that the discs that are in your bag fly for your particular style of game Last year when I did the clinic with Ella and Holland and they said, now that you have your mechanics down, you're going to start throwing the disc and it's just going to flip over.
Speaker 1:And because your disc is now flying the right way, having those really understable discs that we start with aren't going to keep working for you that way.
Speaker 3:Well, let's talk about that for a second. I get sidetracked again. But, Jenny, keep working for you that way. Well, let's talk about that for a second, get sidetracked again. But Jenny, your form has come a boatload of, made a boatload of progress. Like I think that you've probably between last year and this year, you've added a hundred feet to your stroke. Like, what are you doing differently? What's helping you out? Like that's a great point that you just brought up that I'll stick in there somewhere so last year I spent the year doing stand stills.
Speaker 1:I only did stand stills and I worked on the uh, what I thought was throwing flat, just working on those mechanics without a walk-up, towards the end of last year and then this year I have now reincorporated a walk-up and it's not with the walk-up and the stand stills, it's less about throwing the disc and just having really good mechanics and not trying to throw the disc, it just goes you're talking about with your, with your new form?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, and I've gone up to I'm no longer throwing lightweight discs, I'm throwing like max weight discs yeah what I never thought I could what are your f9s?
Speaker 3:you're like 178 something like that. 73 and yeah, and they, they flip up like no problem. Yep, yeah, they're, and that's because of the rotations and the spin that you're generating on those things, like they're going 100 extra feet. Uh, you know, we got that one snapshot of you and it was like perfect, it could have been on like Sports Illustrated. It was such good form.
Speaker 1:If Sports Illustrated ever had disc golf.
Speaker 3:I think wasn't Paul McBeth on Sports Illustrated at some point. I don't know, I thought he was, or was it Men's Health or something like that.
Speaker 1:No clue?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I don't know, just some little disc golf trivia lore yeah, paul McBeth. Yeah, when he did disc golf's $10 million man or something like that, I don't know Whatever it is. Anyway, caddy books.
Speaker 3:All right. So, um, we're talking about your disc shot matrix. So we got a lot of valuable information from, uh, that drill in particular, uh, where your disc cuts over, how far it's going to cut over from left to right. Uh, how far you can throw in realistic terms. Um, you know, I'm going to say this about my fellow gentlemen out there Um, throwing 400 feet is a long way, uh, throwing 300 feet as a long way if you actually go out there and measure it. So you know, the old talk around the water cooler or the, uh, the port-a-potty before a tournament, as it may, is, uh, you know, oh, yeah, this, this, I could throw 400 feet or whatever. And, uh, you know, and I doubt any of these guys have actually gone out there and really measured it. So the whole point of doing this field exercise is to be really, really honest with yourself, measure everything and really understand the backbone of how your game works and where those things end up flying to backbone of how your game works and where those things uh end up flying to.
Speaker 1:So yeah, because I know the thing is like distance, like how far can you throw? And it's like, oh, I can barely. Like I remember I would throw uh like 12 shots on a hole and I can make it like 30 feet. Well, watching people that are just starting, it's because they don't actually have the mechanics. And once you have the mechanics, the distance comes with that. And, honestly, the courses that we play here in Washington, I mean we're not up at kayak where we need 600 feet. Like there are plenty of shots like Freddy's over here.
Speaker 1:I don't think anything's above 300 and it's, it's more of a approach game very short and technical courses with a lot of obstacles and I think one of the comments I heard about the pros at shelton was they appreciated that the shelton course they actually had to bring out, bring out their mid-ranges, because a lot of the pro courses it's just distance, distance distance driver putter, but with the short technical approaches or short technical shots they actually get a chance to use other discs that they don't use as often. Yeah, yeah, for sure. At least not for pro events, maybe for just for fun, for sure.
Speaker 3:Hey, real quick though, shout out to Connor O'Reilly, like that guy's a class act and he just he stood there and kind of chatted with me for a minute and he signed all the kids discs and everything. Just a heck of a nice guy and glad he made it up here to, uh, you know, play our little course up here in shelton washington and shout out to kirby too, kirby snyder, for also uh letting the kids uh kind of fan around him too so thank you, kirby, kirby's the man, kirby's good guy and then didn't we sick james on uh clint clint, oh yeah, we clint you know it was so.
Speaker 3:It was so funny because I was walking around with Mariah and Mariah was like are these, are really the guys we see on TV, like who's that? Like well, that's Chandler Fry, and there's, you know, vino, what, how do you say it? Vino, makala, that's how you say it. Yeah, vino, and who? Else was on that ticket, I know, but the big one was.
Speaker 1:Nico and well, and I was like hey, I'm like hey.
Speaker 3:Mariah. Who else was on that ticket, I know, but the big one was Nico. Well, and I was like, hey, I'm like, hey, mariah, there's Nicholas Ansela. I'm like you've seen him on TV, right, he's been on coverage a lot, and she's like I don't know, no, I don't know. And then she finally got a good look at him and it was like, oh, they look different in real life, right? Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:But shout out to those guys and thanks for everybody that made the trip up to Shelton to play the Q series up there in Shelton. That was a blast. So, anywho, yeah, back to Kenny books. We keep getting bouncing all over the place. It is a true intentional disc golfer podcast. We are just off the rails.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, the disc, the disc shot, matrix, this is your flight chart that you make yourself, and it needs to be honest about how the uh discs fly for you, because everybody's different, everybody's arm speed is different, and one thing that we've learned from this in this fieldwork drill is some of the ideals that you know.
Speaker 3:We think that in a perfect world, this is how this would work is that you would have some form of this right before each tournament, or at least the important ones, where you could go through each one of your discs and you knew how those discs were flying under that elevation, under those weather conditions the heat, the humidity, all that kind of good stuff and really kind of get it dialed in for which area. If you're a traveling disc golfer, if you're a weekend warrior like us, you can skip a few or whatever, maybe recalibrate mid-season, but the key to this is that the more data you collect, the more dialed in your game is going to be and the more information you're going to have, and information is never a bad thing. There's such thing as bad information, but never information being a bad thing.
Speaker 1:This is Seth Muncy from Disc Golf Strong. Thank you for listening to the Intentional Disc.
Speaker 3:Golfer Podcast Great to have you here. So understanding your disc shot matrix is going to help you to form your caddy book when you go out and you start actually gathering data out there on the course. And so, like Jenny, when we went and played the practice round at Silicon, what kind of data do we collect? And everything on that we didn't actually have the book then. Oh, that's right, we had it at tournament day, right. But we did make a few notes, like in your phone and whatnot. It seems like a lot of people have some form of this right.
Speaker 1:Yes and whatnot. It seems like a lot of people have some form of this right yes and no, but the thing is is that a lot of people get in the moment and then they don't follow their game plan. And when, honestly, part of the game is when you see people no longer following their plan, you know that either something's really changed or they're, you know, really scrambling. So with the caddy books, like I said, I use this for notes for me of what disc I would throw for my drive, kind of where I'm aiming for or where my preferred landing zone would be, and then also, like courses like Shelton, it's like, okay, so wind, what would be my alternate disc if there's wind? What? What is my game plan there?
Speaker 1:So that I already have two potential shots that are, um, significantly more likely to happen than you know the million things that could happen. And that way at least I have a game plan. So then when I get out there I take those notes and it's like, yes, this worked or nope, that was a really bad idea. I should. And then between rounds I can go back and check my notes and see if I want to keep something, change something, depending on whether, how I'm feeling how the disc is doing like it's. It's a good place to have everything written down.
Speaker 3:That's intentional, and it also doesn't look like you're on your phone that's a good point about not being on your phone, yeah, and not like paying attention. Yeah, I've come to dislike strongly technology as of lately. Ideally you would start constructing your caddy book like before the before any kind of tournament round, um, and, like I said, collecting as much data as possible. The more data the better, but at least you owe it to yourself to put in a practice round before the tournament and fill out your caddy book. Then, if you have it by then, but fill it out, then Maybe contact your local disc golf association and see if they can send you the media file or something.
Speaker 1:So not all of them have the media file. So a lot of the times if the course has the picture at the tee box, take a picture of it and then you can edit it on word or the other option is, if it's on you disc and it has the the smart course where you can see it through the picture, you can screenshot that and make that into a caddy book as well, oh no kidding, you can do that too. Yeah, that's what I had to do for one of the courses.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's nifty, yeah, that's a cool trick, yeah, and so you owe it to yourself to go out and play a practice round. I mean, if you're weekend warriors like us, you can make it to pretty much any of the courses that you're playing in half a day or whatever, and be able to play it real quick and be home for dinner. But that'll give you the chance to at least experiment with some of your ideas and get some feedback on that. So you're very clear on tournament day, if you can't do that, I mean, show up early for your tournament and walk the course. Um, and I even suggest walking the course backwards.
Speaker 3:Start at 18 basket and walk backwards through the course, and you'll be.
Speaker 3:It'll be interesting to see you. There'll be different gaps, different lines that you can see and, uh, you know, figure out your shots from there and then stand on the tee pad and shoot some distances with a range finder. Um, you know two important landmarks like, say, there's a big tree right in the middle of the fairway, about 155 feet out. Well, actually, stand on the edge of the tee box and shoot it with your uh range finder and come to find out. Oh well, that tree is actually maybe 200 feet out, and it just looks closer because it's very, very narrow and takes up a lot of space. And so that would be important because you could take that data, put it against your disc shot matrix and select a disc that. Oh well, you know what I need a disc that's not going to break until like 250 feet, because that's where the corner of the fairway is, and so all of that information can be put into a decision-making process to take, you know, multiple shots off of your game.
Speaker 1:Well then, if you don't have time to say, run the course, or you're worried about running it blind, it's once you have your game down to kind of more of a mathematical equation where it's you know this disc does this. At this distance you can kind of go through a caddy book or a picture of the course and be fairly confident in planning out your game in the way that it's going to work through yeah, and like you, you know that's a great point.
Speaker 3:A lot of the local pros, um, and even some of the tour pros that we've talked to are, you know, reduce your game down to the simplest factors, take as much guesswork out of it as completely possible, and maybe you know, if you have the opportunity, boil it down to that one thing that you can control whether it be your form, whether it be your line, whether it be your dis-selection, it can be a ton of different things. So you know the sky's the limit. But you know, simplify is a good tip that I've been getting from a lot of the pros and higher and stuff.
Speaker 1:It's also something I've been trying to get you to do for a while as well I, but you know what.
Speaker 3:I'm married, so I can't ever admit that you got me on something. Okay, I already married you.
Speaker 1:It's it's husband law well to all the fans out there that actually like my advice certainly let brandon know that it might be worth listening.
Speaker 3:Oh, is this going on the blooper reel? All right.
Speaker 1:No, that's, that's oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know we are in discussions about creating a blooper reel this year, so, uh, that might not be so family friendly, I don't know yet. Well, it'll all be done in good taste though. Huh. Well, it'll all be done in good taste though, yeah. So mark out distances on your caddy book, and if you have that shot, matrix, and have that dialed in, it might change your mind about a lot of different decisions that you're making, and especially understanding if your disc is going to break right, break left, how far off a center it's going to finish, and if you have your own flight chart, you can pretty much map out the course.
Speaker 1:Yeah Cause, by that time then it's just kind of watching the game and it's like, yep, that worked, nope, that didn't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So like when we, when I was out there, actually um taking uh notes during the round, um, Some of the things that I, you know, I kept detailed notes on this and some of the things that I took down were, like, environmental information, Like was there a wind that day? Because it was a rough day.
Speaker 1:So I only put certain notes on my caddy book and there was space that I'm like, okay, I'm going to have notes for a while. No, brandon wrote like paragraphs of notes of things that I'm like I don't care about that, like I get, that's how he thinks and that's his game, but those aren't the notes that I wanted. That would have helped me the way that I think well it's.
Speaker 3:It's that kind of stems from a conversation and also kind of a common complaint about UDisc and other data-keeping things for disc golf. It doesn't really tell the whole story. It's like, okay, you're keeping stats on your stuff and you go off the fairway. Well, how far off the fairway Did you have an open line? Are you behind a bush? Are you buried in a hole somewhere? It doesn't tell the whole story, you know, and like, circle one isn't always the same as being on the green, because sometimes there's a you know big rhododendron right there blocking your way. So, uh, you can keep more detailed information and shot type information, whether your putt was obstructed or not, whether it's uphill, downhill, you know, sidewind, whatever. You can do all of those things.
Speaker 1:Plus, if you have a caddy book on paper like the ladies that I played with, they actually saw that I printed mine out and so they printed one out too, but they were smart and they put it in like a Ziploc bag because it was raining. I didn't do that because I wanted to take notes.
Speaker 3:Which comes down to tip. Number two is if I were to do the caddy book over again, is we're going to have to figure out some way to protect it from water in case of bad weather?
Speaker 1:Well, I told you that I wanted to laminate them, but then you have to take notes with like a Sharpie or a marker, and it can change.
Speaker 3:Well, as soon as water gets on there, it's going to wash away the marker, so it's pointless. Anyway. So when we were out playing the round, because we did not do our caddy book ahead of time, we had kind of a basic idea. Because we did not do our caddy book ahead of time, we had kind of a basic idea because we had played the course a few times. As far as, like, the first shot goes, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:When we went to Stilicum, I had it planned out.
Speaker 3:The whole. Thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had the entire when I did it. For actually every tournament I've played since April I have had a caddy book that I print out and I pre-plan every shot I'm going to make and I take notes on what things could potentially change that shot okay, so you you put it in there as degree of change well, like I would write f9 or roadrunner, depending on what I need, or or F9, slash Diamond, and then when I actually went out there like so the one from Shelton right here, like it has it's completely destroyed, hence the waterproof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it has all the notes like where I landed and what I threw. And then it's if I haven't made any new notes, like I know that that worked well and so it was just check. Yep, that's the first shot. Yep, that's the first shot. Yep, that's the first shot. And then, as I went through, I actually started making them with okay, if I land here, throw this, land here, throw that. Okay, I need to learn to not throw my putter 50 feet past the basket, that type of thing. That type of thing, yeah.
Speaker 3:Good stuff, yeah. So we sat down and we planned it out the night before we did that for me.
Speaker 3:You have yet to actually do it well, it's when you play a course so much you do some form of this anyway inside your brain because you like, like, say, like nad park, I know basically about every single shot in every single position that I could throw if I had an ideal round and I'm going to disagree with you, because we are trying to be intentional and if you want to be more intentional about the game, you need to write it down on paper with purpose and then follow the plan because I think, I think if you do this for the next tournament, if you actually plan this out for the Windfall Masters, you are going to have a huge increase in how well you do in the game.
Speaker 3:Well, we're going to need to go down there and put in some work.
Speaker 1:I've played Evergreen enough that I can look at the caddy book from here. I mean, we just played. It was it last weekend? There's a few holes that I'm still not 100 on well, I'm not saying no, I am saying that, however, you should be able to still plan it out from.
Speaker 3:I can get a pretty, I can get a pretty good idea for sure, for sure. But, um, yeah, so we, we planned this thing out and had a. You know we played the course enough that we had it pretty much memorized. But we I remember this we sat on the couch now that you're jogging my memory we sat on the couch and figured out like landing zones, different places, lines to the basket. You know we even marked out important distances, or no, that was the next day. You know we even marked out important distances, or no, that was the next day, and we got a fairly detailed idea of what the game plan is going in the next day.
Speaker 3:And Jenny, did you find yourself throwing some different disc selections than you maybe?
Speaker 1:would have normally thrown. Yeah, so going through, I know I sound sad. So I bought some really pretty discs and I just finally bought the duplicates of those discs. And those discs are, uh, now in a pile right here under our um kitchen bar counter because they're not in my bag anymore. So I got to add in some dream discs like the Thought Space. I just think they're beautiful and I actually now have one in my bag, so I'm happy about that.
Speaker 1:But going through this, it was well. I really don't need to keep a mamba in my bag when I can do the exact same thing with a mantra and do it better, and it just works better. So, yes, we had it all planned out and going through these steps of figuring out sorry, figuring out what the discs do for me and becoming more intentional with the game, simplifying as much as possible's. Now I have discs thati can do different shots with, with a lot of the same mechanics. They fill the same hole that having two would be. And then I'm not oh, do I want the uh mamba or do I want the mantra, like I?
Speaker 3:the question's gone, because I only have one yeah, each disc in your bag has a specific purpose and it's not necessarily there to you know, just because you like it to be there. Yeah, yeah, each one of those discs is assigned a specific shot shape and then a backup of each disc yeah, so I also have um.
Speaker 1:I've gone through and and tried to get the exact same disc as much as possible, so now I have one in my um. Typically it's in my cart and then I've I take um. I have all my discs in the putter pouch, so that's how few discs I have. Is they all fit in a large putter pouch? And then I usually keep a second set of the same discs in the cart and those are my backups in case I lose one or something like whatever. If I think it would really throw off my game by not having that disc, I'll put the duplicate in my cart, along with all my water and my coats and my towels and all the things that moms might need extra, extra snacks for my caddy, you know, canoe oar.
Speaker 3:Yep the trolling motor. Yep Bug zapper, gotta have it. Yep, the tennis racket Tennis racket that was a revelation in this house. You know, I've always wanted one of those electric tennis racket things Ever since I was a kid, and they are just so darn cool.
Speaker 1:I'm still terrified. My mom would never let me have one. She would never let me have one. I don't understand it. Back to disc golf. Yeah, but so I?
Speaker 3:actually, the flies are so freaking big that we had to zap them twice he's not wrong, they're well-fed flies, let me, she is so anyways okay back to the disc golf bag.
Speaker 1:So I have, uh, two bags. I have my go bag and then I have my tournament discs and it, it. It actually is helping me to learn my discs more. And also I have my second set of discs that are starting to get used and beat in as much as my tournament discs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you like, if you lost one in a tournament, you could switch over and it would be very, very similar to what you're throwing already. There wouldn't be much of a transition. So what you're kind of talking about is like disc cycling Sure, sure.
Speaker 1:I don't know what disc cycling means other than brandon's decided we need to go down to see matt at 360 and we come home with a bunch more discs like that's the cycle.
Speaker 3:My bank account goes down every time we walk in the door. Um, but no, it's uh. Uh. Thanks for supporting us. 360 disc golf, or are we supporting them? I don't know. I think it's mutual. It's probably mutual. You know, scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, type of thing. I can't sing their praises enough. They're great people down there and they know their stuff when it comes to disc golf. Been in business for what? A ton of years, yeah, enough.
Speaker 1:Didn't they just celebrate like their 20th or something?
Speaker 3:20th year anniversary, the biggest pro shop in the Pacific Coast. I thought it was Something like that. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know, it's disc golfer heaven. But anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah, so disc cycling. Disc cycling is understanding, understanding your discs, stability as the plastic breaks down and kind of making sure that your discs stay in a similar zone as to what you're used to throwing Um, because you know we've all had that, that sidewinder, that's a you know, overstable, overstable, overstable, and all of a sudden one day it flips up and flies straight and it's like, oh crap, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:So keeping track of that kind of stuff is another thing that you can use your disc shot matrix for is understand the different weights and flight patterns of different discs and how they morph and change over time. Right, jenny?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say I haven't experienced that probably as much as you have, and I don't know. I hit a lot of trees a lot harder I was going to say I don't know if it's because you hit more trees or you just throw harder, but I haven't experienced it as much in my game so far. Now that's not saying that I'm starting to experience it now, because I am starting to like I notice the difference between my two bags.
Speaker 3:Well, I think it just goes to say the more consistent you get, the more you're going to notice these small, you know, differences in flight paths and weights and different things like that.
Speaker 1:You're probably right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the more you hone in on the bullseye, the more stuff there is going to be around you.
Speaker 1:All right, so back to caddy books.
Speaker 3:Back to caddy books.
Speaker 1:Brandon, if you actually were to set up your caddy book, all right. What information do you think you should have in there?
Speaker 3:well, I'll, I'll go off of your caddy book, because you have a blank one right there. I know I have a blank one right there, but I'll go off of like what I did with your caddy book is so I Well hold on before you go there.
Speaker 1:I do want to know if the stuff you put in my caddy book is actually the stuff you would want in yours. Yes, okay.
Speaker 3:Yes, what I would want in my caddy book is I want hard data, I want things you know. I want to know wind speeds. I want to know if there's a big downhill. You know what is to know wind speeds. I want to know, uh, if there's a big downhill, you know what is it Is it about? You know guesstimate is it 50 feet, 30 feet, 20 feet, whatever? Uh, is it five feet? You know? Is your putt uphill? Is your putt downhill? Um, did I already say wind speeds? I already said wind speeds. You know, um, you know if you? Uh disselection.
Speaker 3:So what I'll do is I'll put a like a little number one, uh, on the side. Well, first of all, let's, let's walk through this. Well, I'll go, I'll go from the standpoint of, like when I was caddying for you. I don't always caddy for Jenny, so you know, maybe she doesn't always have time to keep the notes that I would keep, or, and it's also differences in just note taking and stuff I would keep, or, and it's also differences and just, well, note taking and stuff. But no, I like to keep data points, things that I can measure, because those are things that I can interpret and duplicate in certain situations. I try to be very scientific about it and make it into quite literally a math problem, like what you're saying, and so I try to. I try to take down as many data points as as possible and, being that I had the luxury to do this for you, uh in round, what am I trying to say here?
Speaker 1:you're talking about data points, and let me tell you that when I was the scorekeeper last year at the cascade challenge, the player who was the most about their stats was Niklas. He was all about his stats. He would come over and talk to me and make sure that I put things into UDisc at the time the way that you know, the way that he saw it too, and so it was um. As a a math teacher, I truly enjoyed hearing how much he cared about his stats and his data points. So you're saying that it's important to quantify as many things as possible so that you can take out any possible variables when you're looking at the way your game plays. So talk about your data points.
Speaker 3:Thank, you, jamie, some of the things uh like. So take, for example, ford, still a come of, uh, you know a lot of. You are probably not familiar with it, but uh, right off the tee box it's uh kind of a you know slow pushing uh turnover shot off to the right If you're a right-hand backhand player, um, and there's a big downhill, probably, I would say I don't know 20, 25 feet downhill. Downhill right in front of the tee bed, um, and the basket is also down there too. So I would take all of those notes into consideration. What I would do is I would, you know, write the you know decline of the shot. Uh, when we're covering that, so off the tee box, it would be, of course you know shot one is when we'd have to deal with that, so off the tee box, it would be, of course you know shot one is when we'd have to deal with that, so shot one. I put a little one next to the you know shot and I'd take some notes of you know what was my wind like, what were the conditions, like you know, maybe you know if I had a strong wind, I'll put you know wind, you know, 10 to 15 miles an hour from right to left or left to right, you know, headwind, tailwind, whatever it may be, uh, and then I make note of which disc I used and or was being used. Not me, it was Jenny, jenny was playing.
Speaker 3:But make, uh, make note of what disc was used and what it did. Uh, and the conditions at the time. Um, you know, may I make a general note of what the temperature was outside? Um, because, you know, just fly different in different temperatures. If you're one of those places in the United States or the world that, uh, you know, experiences the four seasons like we do, uh, you know, you know, in winter discs don't fly quite as far as they do in the summertime, when it's nice and like 80 degrees outside. So, um, knowing the temperatures is important information to have. But I just say that for basically the day.
Speaker 1:So what you're talking about is you're talking about the things that you would add as being the caddy and not the person playing. If you're filling out your caddy book while you're playing, you also need to remember pace of play, so you're not able to necessarily get as many notes as what Brandon's talking about yeah, so a lot of times for me, though.
Speaker 1:I wanted to add that I did some smiley faces like some frowny faces, and I also think it helped to play into my game of I was able to express my frustration right then and there, or my excitement, and then move on oh, that's a good point to help with the mental game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, yeah so, um, yeah so, whatever kind of environmental data, you were here, but the uh, you know you were, you're talking a bit about the mental game and uh, so I know that it's like there was a couple of shots, like you know, maybe you like hit the first available tree, just for example, because that happens a lot here in Washington, no matter who you are. Um, but uh, you know we, I think we would make a note real quick, like in the caddy book, like shot one, like frowny face or something like that, or you know, grr, you know something like that, or not even you know, not even write anything, just blank, because you ticked off at it. Uh, so that that aspect of it helped you to get out of that funk and just kind of deal with it, right then.
Speaker 1:And there, yeah, I think it did help a little bit because, even with the excitement like of getting a birdie, little bit yeah, because even with the excitement like of getting a birdie, I actually was able to string a few together at shelton, because I'm serious though I know, but did you ever read your caddy book? What it said. Why from stillicum? No from shelton yeah, it's right here. Yeah, yeah, this is my caddy book was it?
Speaker 3:was it from silton? Yeah, it's right here. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is my caddy book.
Speaker 3:Was it from Stelecombe? It was the last one you played Honeybee.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I haven't read that one yet. Oh yeah, you should check that one out, but trying to stay within a neutral zone so not overexcited and not upset.
Speaker 3:so in between there, Well, that's interesting, so you know upset, so in between there, well, that's interesting, so that. So that works kind of as like a mental reset for you is to make that quick little note and have that, have that moment, and then it's like it's there, it's out there, it's no longer inside of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of.
Speaker 3:I never thought about that like that, but that's very it's like journaling, therapeutic journaling. Well, you know, Jordan Peterson's been talking a lot about this self-journaling, self-authoring program thing that he's you know. From what I can tell it sounds like it's a good idea and that it may be helpful. Yeah, environmental information, but also other data points that we can have, is talk about what disc you use, you know, and that could change from one round to the next and most often does, depending on environmental conditions, Is it?
Speaker 3:raining outside If it's super wet and the ground's wet and it's raining and miserable. That would probably be an important distinction to note on your caddy book.
Speaker 1:With ours. I don't have to denote it because well, the corners are worn away and half the stuff is just pink all over.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, you can use a pink pen on your caddy book.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you can use whatever pen color you want, I know, but I'm saying that it disappeared. It just melted into the paper.
Speaker 3:It did One way or another. It helped your game mentally. It helped you get back on the program, because I remember there was a couple holes it did not go the way you planned, right off the tee box, if I can think of, like number nine at Fort Sillicum, where it went up into the weeds on the right side. You can move on at any point in time, oh yeah, but no, what I'm saying is that you only I believe you still took a par on that because you were able to shake that off. You looked at your book and figured the game plan. You had a backup for this and made the adjustment, and part of your success on that hole was going back to your shot matrix and understanding the adjustment from that location.
Speaker 1:It wasn't going back to the shot, matrix, it was going just back to the plan. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But sometimes don't you have to? Sometimes, when you're going back to the plan, don't you have to modify aspects of it now and again, like, say, if the plan was to end up left and you ended up right.
Speaker 1:Yes. However, I'm not actually going back to like my notes that are the shot matrix, like I know a lot of my friends do.
Speaker 3:We do some form of this in one way or another. This is more talking about actually putting it down on paper and looking at what's in front of you from a purely data standpoint and trying to make those connections and interpretations. Because I know I'm surprised at what I've found and, jenny, you were surprised at what you found. You're going out there this year with a whole entire new bag. Um, I've got six molds in my bag that I haven't really thrown that before because they just work in different ways you've also started like a loneone Star bag and now you have a discraft bag, like it's peculiar.
Speaker 3:I'm just having fun with it. My tournament bag is still all Innova, except for a couple things like the MIDI. I was going to say, except for your MIDI, the MIDI, that's my go-to, but anyway, yeah, yeah. Different plastics, different brands, different flight paths, whatever. You might surprise yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would put out there that if you're one of those especially women if you're a player who just has the discs that the men in your life have told you to just have, um, it's worthwhile to go to the store and actually check out what's out there, find different discs in probably not so used plastics or better plastics. It makes a difference and it can improve your game by having the right equipment and not necessarily just what some guy said hey, this would be perfect for you.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, if they're making comments on that, at some point in a competitive disc golf career, whatever height that may take you to, you owe it to yourself to know your game and know it inside and out, to the point where you don't need to necessarily have those support figures around you. And there's nothing wrong with that, because you know everybody has doubts or wants to ask a question once in a while. They're not always going to be around for one reason or another. Say they have a work function or something going on, and you know being able to still be successful on your own um is much desired, I would think well and I would say playing the women's events and then also playing a lot of male dominated events.
Speaker 1:Um, I get to the point where it's like I'm not carrying my bag. I have someone else touching my stuff. Like I love you, go away, I need to just get back to. I have to be self-sufficient for the game. So there's times where I kick my caddy off to the side because I'm not carrying my bag anymore or I'm not pulling my cart and I I need to center myself back on.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is how I normally play when I don't have a support person with me well I you know I like the role of being the support person and filling out your caddy book because it also gains me valuable insights to my game, because a lot of your shot shapes and patterns follow a lot of my shot shapes and patterns and uh translate over to my game in a nice way. So it's helpful for me to play that role.
Speaker 1:And not even that, but, like as a teacher, my background. As a teacher, one of my favorite things I did was I went and watched other teachers teach and made reflections on how I teach and what I like that they're doing and how can I implement that in my classroom. So you're going through the same step and I know we discussed it about the cascade challenge of how we watched some of the pros and even when we're watching TV, it's getting us to think about what we do and seeing what they do well and what they don't do well and reflecting on our own practices, and that's why we created this entire podcast in the first place all right.
Speaker 3:So we got through. Shot one on the caddy book um, take down environmental conditions, data points, blah, blah, blah. All right, so shot number two. I'll do the same thing, so I'll put a little two in a parenthesis on my caddy book and I'll take a note and I'll say okay, this is the disc that jenny threw. Let's say that she's throwing a Latitude Brave, her new favorite disc. She loves it. I'm so happy for her. But anyway, what?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't throw that for a second shot. It would be either my soul, my rollo. Are you talking?
Speaker 3:about a whole number one. Still, yeah, okay, yeah, it would be your soul or your rollo.
Speaker 1:Or my Tersis.
Speaker 3:Or your Tersis, or my Deputy, yeah, one of those. Whatever that second disc is, I make a note of that and I would take a range and figure. You know, just a guesstimate of how far we are away from the basket, you know. Another reason to use the range finder is that your estimating ability has become more and more accurate because you understand what you're seeing. So even if you don't have a rangefinder, it's very helpful to get one.
Speaker 3:I get a range and find out how far she was away from the basket. I'd make a note in the caddy book, maybe draw on the map a little bit with a dark pencil so I can erase it to show where she landed, what the result of it was. I'll make a note if, like, we hit a tree or something of that nature, Just whatever happened on that shot that I can measure, I'm going to make notes of it. And then same thing on like number three. I'm going to say, okay, you know, here's where it landed and this is the results. And then all the way up until the hole is finished, and I'll do this and sometimes I'll make notes on the map itself of I'll shoot an important line mark. Let's say there's a big rock in the middle of the fairway, like on a kayak, the big rock in the middle of the fairway. Maybe I'll shoot that and say, okay, you know that rock is 275 feet out. So essentially, you know out of play if it was jenny's game. Um, you know in play if it was mine.
Speaker 1:But you know, towards the end of my shot and I like having the notes actually on the picture of the caddy book as opposed to on. I mean, I take notes on the back too, but it's good to be able to see if this is where I was trying to aim for and whether I actually like that was a landing zone with that disc or not. So it also helps to make your skills better of being able to go through the thought process without being on the course.
Speaker 3:Well, and I love being able to do it that day in live action when you're playing, because you know, in certain circumstances the weather conditions and things can change between round one and round two, but in a lot of circumstances they're pretty similar, maybe within a few degrees, you know. Maybe it's dry, maybe it's wet, who knows, you know. But let's just assume the data and information you can take from the tournament day of having somebody walk around do this for you a husband, a wife, whatever, um, hopefully somebody with good handwriting, uh, not in this case, but uh and um, then you can find out how you're playing that day. And so one of the things that we did is, during our lunch break, we went through that caddy book and had a pretty good discussion about what changes we could make and, uh, you know, at the looking at the, how the weather conditions were affecting disc choices and in in layouts and things like that.
Speaker 3:So, uh, jenny, do you you know? Do you remember? Like, what all we talked about? And like I know we made some changes? What, what kinds of things do we look at?
Speaker 1:and so I know you keep going back to the first one, but for me the biggest change was being at shelton and it started getting windy and oh, that's a good example for us how to throw in the wind and, like I said at the beginning of this, I had some pros, our local pros, comment on how well I was doing using the wind to my advantage, because I had this little cheat sheet that you gave me right before the round because I couldn't remember what I had to use for what disc.
Speaker 3:What scenarios?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was a testament to you knowing how to do that, and then it helped me, um, to be really successful that round.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and so you had that backup plan and ultimately, that backup plan uh paid off. It saved, saved you some strokes and um um, you ended up doing pretty well at that tournament, didn't you?
Speaker 1:yeah, I.
Speaker 3:I took a second well going like you went from what fa3?
Speaker 1:you were fa3 yeah, so last year jumping up to fa40 yeah, last year I did fa3 and um, since I'll be 40 in nine, eight, oh man, eight days, eight days.
Speaker 1:So I got to jump up to FA 40 this year and I decided to um, instead of trying to do the um, fa two or one, to just jump up to FA 40. And you know, take a risk and play with better players, because that we have a group chat for a lot of the ladies that I tend to play with at the tournaments a lot, and we discuss, you know, what division are you going to do? At the end of last year and they're like well, you know, move up um, try and play with better players to get better. Or some people are working on their confidence or working on some other things, so they, they, they decided not to move up divisions or you know choices. So I uh, bumped up to fa40 and I've done it for pretty much every event, unless there's one where I, like, really want to play with someone you've improved each event also like yeah, I've been playing above my rating well, which is nice.
Speaker 3:Well, like your first go about in FA40 didn't go so well, but now we're kind of approaching like the early of the midseason grind. You are in top form and are playing extremely well. A lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Yep. So yeah, caddy books, so I do. I do remember we made some changes in the in between rounds or whatnot to your bag, or not to your bag, but to your game plan and you shot. How many strokes lower did you shoot the second time around?
Speaker 1:I are you talking about still a coon?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it was.
Speaker 3:Like four or something like that.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was significant. I'd have to look.
Speaker 3:I don't know, but it definitely paid off in Shelton. Shelton is just, it's a big, wide open course, so, yay, not you know, there's some trees and stuff when you get in the woods sections. But also Shelton is known for the wind, because it comes ripping up the hood canal there and goes up the hill, and so you know, oh yeah, big, wide open field, but it's going to be windy. So good luck, have fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, round two. I went from an 81 the first round at Still a comb to a 74.
Speaker 3:So so what? That was a improvement of six shots. Seven, seven shots, so that was an improvement of seven shots. So just by taking notes and record keeping on this round, we're able to save you seven strokes Uh, the second time that you went around. So what, what if I? What if I went to any golfer and said, hey, you know, I know how to take, instantly take seven shots off your score. I don't know a golfer alive that wouldn't take that deal right. Just just by doing that one, this one simple thing. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that wins you tournaments yeah, so I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm even looking at like the cascade challenge and round one I was 67. Around three I was 64. I'm not going to count round two, cause that was the hard one.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But well, well, little changes. I dropped three strokes.
Speaker 3:Well, you compare, you compare, um, compare, like and like. Uh, this, the second round of the Cascade Challenge, was a completely different course, but the first and third day were the same course. So if you compare the two, you drop three more strokes off your score.
Speaker 1:Well, and I want to say that I'm getting more accurate with it, because Shelton Springs the following weekend, I believe I had a 70 the first round and 69 the second round. There you go, so it's just you know.
Speaker 3:So if you can go out to a course and continue you know it regularly drop one or two or five shots like that's proof in the pudding right there. I mean, these caddy book things are working out, uh. But that is also coupled with a lot of hard work and a lot of personal growth and development and a lot of practice. There's no replacement for hard work.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the second round we made the adjustments brought the scores down significantly, and the scores have been going down and down and down ever since, just both because of personal improvement and also, uh, knowing and learning more about your game. So I guess the theme of this episode is like you know your game, do you really know your game?
Speaker 1:yeah, and do you have someone in your life you can talk to about your game because it actually does make huge improvements being able to have your life. You can talk to about your game Because it actually does make huge improvements being able to have that person you can talk with, even if it's just a process, but Jenny will be first to say this Her and I think very differently about it.
Speaker 3:I think more mechanically in engineering, because that's what I do, like physics and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yep, I was going to say that I will try and find that first caddy book, because I still have them all, but I'll see if I can get them uploaded to our Instagram and potentially our Facebook so you guys can kind of see what we're talking about.
Speaker 3:That would be great.
Speaker 1:And then we'll see how Brandon does using his the Windfall Masters Cup. I'm excited for that one, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, because it's the same layout twice. Yeah Right, I don't have to. I don't have to make adjustments, unless I screw something up.
Speaker 1:You might want to make adjustments.
Speaker 3:I might want to make it Well, it's data points. It's about understanding your game, you know, without the emotions, because you know when we get emotions involved in these decisions we start to make mistakes, and anybody that has ever played the sport of golf in any of its forms understands that. You know, emotional control and regulation is one of the most important aspects of the sport and I think that's one of the things that makes it so attractive is because it's so very much split down the middle half physical, half mental. So that was kind of a discussion on caddy books and how we use ours and some of the data and results that we've collected. But you owe it to yourself to know your game and that in itself is going to upgrade your athletic performance. Even though you're not making any huge physical changes. It makes a big difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need to know your game and be intentional about it, and this is going to probably open your eyes to things that you were not aware of, especially if you go through and do the shot matrix. Um. Check out that video by Holland Hanley on power disc golf Academy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, power disc golf Academy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a uh, eye opener for me. And then you know, actually sit down and look at a caddy book and it's like you know, we look at the picture when we get to the tee box and it's like, oh, I think it's there, I can kind of see it.
Speaker 3:but when you actually sit down and intentionally write out what you want to do, it changes your game well, another thing to note is, like a lot of these placards that you see at the uh, at the beginning of the tea pads, the distances and things are as the crow flies. So no, no trees, no lines, no anything. Somebody stood in that spot, shot a laser and ranged it in, or sat there with a tape measure and actually walked it out.
Speaker 1:And if you're a forester or anything like the woods around Washington, you know trees grow and all of a sudden there's bushes and branches and anybody. A little tree could turn into a really big uh mando in the future.
Speaker 3:So a really big mando.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a big mando like that takes that shot out of play at rain shadow, but almost yeah, uh, oh, I remember I was gonna say what jenny is saying is is right.
Speaker 3:You know how many times have you been in that situation where you're not really sure what to throw. You go to your favorite disc and you're like, okay, you know I'm going to do this just because you know it's comfortable, I feel comfortable with it, blah, blah, blah. But the payoff is that if you keep all these data points, you can go back to that and say, well, you know, here's the shot, the shape, the disc. You know I've done this before and it's only had like a 30% success rating, as where, if I have this shot shape and I can manufacture this somehow, it has more of like a 70% shot rating and so it can make help you make decisions as far as your shot shapes, decision-making approaches, drives, all the different aspects of the game. That's what I'm saying about making emotionally-based decisions in your game. It may feel good, but it's not necessarily going to produce you the best results, and so having concrete data points that are going to better interpretable is very, very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Go with facts, not feelings. It makes a huge difference. And if you've never even thought ahead about what your game is, I mean if you say that you're going to make a plan, even just try sticking to the plan, like go do a casual round and stick to the plan and see what that feels like, Because you know that might be just enough to change your mind.
Speaker 3:All right. So, uh, we're going to get wrapped up here at this. Uh, season two episode of the intentional disc golfer podcast. How about you guys, our people out there in listener land, why don't you shoot us an email or leave us a comment? Let us know how you guys use your caddy books and let us know some things that we missed or what you would put in there, or if you have any good ideas, and also share your caddy books. Let's see what they. Let's see they look like you know, but keep it clean, uh, for sure. Um, you know no, no cussing or politics, or you know the big five or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:I don't know they put that in their caddy books. Politics.
Speaker 3:No, but they put that on social media, maybe not, I don't know. Anyway, let's, uh, let's hear about your caddy books and the different, different things that you uh take note of in your caddy books and how you use those, and you know, let's, uh, let's also go a step further and let's hear the stories about how they've improved your game and how they helped you. So, um, that email again, if you want to reach out to us, is theintentionaldiscgolfer at gmailcom. That is theintentionaldiscgolfer at gmailcom. That is theintentionaldiscgolfer at gmailcom. So, jenny, you got any more? Any things you want to anything about before we sign off of here? Nope, are you sure you don't have anything?
Speaker 1:I'm hungry.
Speaker 3:Sign up for Sirens of the Springs. All right, all you ladies out there, get to this disc golf tournament. It's going to be great. Sirens of the Springs, shelton Washington. When is it again, jenny June?
Speaker 1:June 22nd, the Saturday before Father's Day.
Speaker 3:June 22nd. Be there or be square, all right. So anyway, this is the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast, and we really truly believe here that disc golf changes lives.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, it is not. It's a Saturday after Father's Day, it's a Saturday after Father's Day.
Speaker 3:Yes, june 22nd. Yes, that's the right date. Yes, june 22nd 2024,. Sirens of the Springs. Bring your family women's disc golf tournament. Meet the professionals, play with the amateurs, sign up yourself, win fabulous prizes or even sign up for the raffle.
Speaker 1:Join now on disc golf scene that is Sirens of the Springs at Shelton Springs, washington why do I see you as like a little boy standing in front of the mirror, practicing this voice?
Speaker 3:Get down. Don't make fun of my voice. Why are you? Doing this. Anyway. So here you're crying, All right. So anyway, back to the story here. Thank you guys for listening to the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast. We truly here. We do believe that disc golf does change lives, so go out there and grow the sport. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1:This is Eric Oakley and thank you so much for listening to the intentional disc golfer podcast go out there and grow the sport.
