Falling Putts can lower your score!

Disc golfer's familiar with the rules of the sport recognize the term 'falling putt' as an infraction that occurs when the disc is within 10 meters of the target. The rules (see 803.04 C) clearly state that a player - when inside this 'putting circle,' must demonstrate full balance after releasing the disc before advancing to retrieve his or her disc. This is to ensure players cannot gain an advantage by shortening the distance their disc has to travel. If this rule were not in place, putting would turn into a Frisbee-long jump hybrid, with players taking 10 paces backward to get a running start before leaping toward the target.

Of course, when this rule is broken it is much more subtle than that. Usually the player inadvertently leans into the shot, and is unable to avoid falling forward. Hence the term 'falling putt. But outside 10 meters, no such rule applies.

803.04 A makes it clear that the main restriction in this regard is that one point of contact (foot, knee, etc.) must be in contact with the ground at the time the disc is released, directly and no more than 30 centimeters behind the marker. And I've discovered that outside 10 meters, the Falling Putt can be a really, really good thing.

All players are different in terms of physical capabilities, of course. But generally speaking most of us can only use our putting style to a distance of somewhere between 30 and 40 feet before the need for more 'oomph' robs our form of its consistency and affects our aim. At this point, players will embrace one of two different strategies:

1. Change from a putting, flip-style throw to a 'regular' throw, where the player stands sideways to the target and pulls the disc back behind her or his body. This method solves the need for increased power and allows the player to regain smooth form, but aim usually suffers considerably.
2. Take advantage of the fact that the rules allow players to 'fall' forward outside 10 meters. When it's legal, and done on purpose, this is usually referred to as a 'jump putt'.
   

I'll usually take the second option, but not always, depending on distance, terrain, obstacles, and situation. And like most players, I initially took the term jump putt too literally. The term implies that you're supposed to jump into the putt, or as you putt, but I learned there are two problems with that. First, if your feet behind the marker leaves the ground before the disc leaves your hand, that is a rules violation. I know it's often hard to tell, because it's almost simultaneous, but it's better to avoid disputes of this nature entirely if you can.

The other problem with trying to jump as you putt is that it doesn't work! If your feet have left the ground before you release the disc, or they leave the ground right as the disc leaves your hand, you don't really get the power you're intending to get. Think of a shortstop in baseball trying to jump in the air and then throw the ball. It can be done, but without feet planted on the ground the arm has to supply all the power. The same is true in disc golf. Also, aim is much less consistent without the stability of those feet on the ground.

Enter the legal falling putt.

I'm not sure how I discovered this, but it enables me to putt from probably 70-80 feet with good control and consistency. By taking the straddle-putt stance (legs apart, facing the basket), then falling slowly toward the target, and putting at the last moment before my feet leave the ground, I get the best of both worlds. The momentum adds significant power, but my arm speed is the same as a much shorter putt. And as long as I don't get too eager and try to jump and throw at the same time, it's remarkably accurate.

Try it, you might like it.

disc golf vs. ball golf: each has a case

Why (ball) golf is better than disc golf, reason #17
There is something poetic and dramatic about the differences between a driver and a putter in golf. To someone that had no idea what either was used for, they would scarcely resemble implements used for the same purpose- to strike a small white ball. One is typically much longer, with a large bulbous head on the other end of what is obviously the end meant to grip with ones hands. The putter, on the other hand, is shorter, with a smaller head at the end. And as different as the clubs are, the swings they are designed for are more different still.

When one looks to 'drive' a golf ball, a full effort is usually employed. The big backswing, the (hopefully) audible whoosh and whack, and the dramatic follow through all contrast beautifully with a putt on a fast green in golf. The operation requires the nerves and steady hand of a bomb-diffuser. When the club strikes the ball, it makes a quiet little click and sends the ball rolling toward a hole not much bigger than itself. Certainly dramatic contrasted with blasting that same ball through a wide open space.

Disc golf possesses many of the most important attributes of golf - risk/reward chief among them - but the differences between a putter and driver are immediately discernible only to the learned eye. They are both roughly the same weight and diameter.

Although a drive in disc golf usually involves more movement of the feet and a faster arm-whip, the contrast between that and a putt is relatively minor.

The best way to sum it up is this: Ball golf players get to whack their projectiles more than twice as far as disc golfers can throw theirs, and yet completing the hole is a far more delicate operation. The contrast between driver and putter, whack and tap, is one of the things that makes golf great, and that contrast barely exists in disc golf.

Why disc golf is better than (ball) golf, Reason #33
Everyone knows that disc golf is "easy to learn, yet hard to master." But simply saying that disc golf is better because it is easier to play than golf is painting with too broad a stroke. There are many unique advantages that fall under this umbrella, only one of which is the following:

Two things combine to make a person's first attempt at disc golf an almost guaranteed more enjoyable, less stressful experience than playing ball golf on a course for the first time.

• Disc golf courses are much less formal environments, with none of the rules and almost none of the social mores of even a public golf course, much less a private one.
• Not much compares to having multiple sets of eyes on you as you swing and miss at a golf ball sitting on a tee. In disc golf, that's guaranteed not to happen! About the only thing that would compare is throwing the disc 180 degrees in the wrong direction (which I've seen). But that's rare, and in disc golf no one seems to care.
  

More signs of legitimacy

When I come across a news item like this one from the Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, GA, it's easy to imagine that disc golf has finally crossed the imaginary threshold into mainstream relevance. The story is about the National Collegiate Disc Golf Championship, the existence of which is a statement in itself. But it's also very well-written, in a straight sports reporting style rather than the novelty/human interest angle most coverage still seems to favor. It's written with the assumption that the reader understand the sport of disc golf. That's not the case today across the country or the world, but apparently in Augusta - at least in one newspaper's mind - it IS there.

And I find the fact that it was published so close to the home of Bobby Jones' Augusta National Golf Course, location of the just-completed THE MASTERS, makes the story more notable, not less. Maybe it's an indication that those that are best-acquainted with the virtues of the game of golf understand those virtues exist in disc golf, without limiting factors such as excessive cost, time to play, and difficulty.

At around 10:30 AM yesterday, an orthopedic surgeon showed me, on my MRI, that the rotator cuff on my throwing arm is undeniably torn. He also showed me bone spurs and told me I won't be able to throw full power for at least a year after the surgery. Panic set in immediately.

At around 4:30 PM, I finished a defiant, or more honestly denial-fueled round at DeLaveaga. All things considered, shooting par with DeLa in the long felt pretty good . . . no, darned good. At least it soothed my dessicated disc golf ego. But man, it's hard to submit to an operation on my arm when I can still play decently, and pretty much without pain as long as I don't throw sidearm, over the top, at a hyzer angle anywhere close to 100 percent, or more than once a week or so. It might be better if I just couldn't throw period. Wait, forget I said that!

the latest on the Santa Cruz disc golf scene

I ordered the 2010 DDGC club shirts recently, and made sure the club logo, 'Epicenter of Disc Golf', was included on the front. Sometimes such things are empty slogans that bare little resemblance to reality. Not so with us.

We're literally like an active fault-line from which tremors small and large regularly emanate. Right now we've got so much going on, all at once . . . . it blows the mind! Or at least kinda boggles the mind.

It's a well know fact that two-time world champ and 2008 USDGC champ Nate Doss is a home grown DeLa local, as is top female pro Carrie 'Burl' Berlager. Now we've also got WonderTwins Avery and Valarie Jenkins living here too. They're not really twins.

This year, 2010, is the 25th anniversary of the Masters Cup. I've got plenty to say about this event's history and its future that I'll save it for another post, but for now a little teaser: The $2000 skins match hosted by Tom Schot's World Disc Sports that has preceded the Masters Cup for the past few years will this year include the past four World Champions. Nate, Avery, Feldberg, and The Champ (Ken Climo).

The cat is . . . rowwwwwrrr . . . out of the bag! A group of determined individuals from Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Jose is bidding to host the 2011 Professional Disc Golf World Championships. The plan is to use DeLaveaga, Pinto Lake, Ryan Ranch (Monterey), CSUMB Oaks (Monterey), and Hellyer/LaRaza (San Jose). We should know fairly soon if this news is more Walter Mitty or Walter Kronkite.

My favorite news of the day: tomorrow kicks off the inaugural season of the Santa Cruz County Interscholastic Disc Golf League. We've got 53 kids from five different schools signed up to play in team competition, with a big trophy cup going to the school that wins each year. We'll also award an individual points winner for the weeks that we use the stroke play format (the other half of the time we'll play match play). And there is no reason the number of schools can't grow from five (SLV, Scotts Valley, Harbor, Aptos, and Soquel) to include Santa Cruz High and schools from Watsonville to represent Pinto Lake.

I know high school sports are cash-starved right now, so maybe the affordable aspect of disc golf, which resonates so clearly these day, will shine a light on some of the other positive elements of the sport. One dynamic in particular that I'm interested to see unfold on the high school level is disc golf's egalitarianism. On the course and at tournaments, you just don't see the cliques and social strata that you see in other sports. Players genuinely want everyone else to enjoy the sport to the fullest, and it shows. As our players sign up to play in this high school league, we're noticing that many of them play other high school sports, like baseball, track, and soccer. In other words, they are they typical 'jocks' that enjoy and excel at all sports. But disc golf attracts a good number of kids (and adults) that never showed interest in organized sports. It'll be interesting to see these kids mix, but I'm confident the established disc golf paradigm will hold true and it'll be a great experience for all.

bridging the disc golf awareness gap

I sometimes wonder, in a what-if kind of way, how quickly disc golf's ponderous growth would accelerate if I could wave a magic wand and instantly communicate the following to the rest of the world:

• The game of golf, in both its iterations, is the greatest individual sport ever invented. Millions of people that would otherwise be receptive to this fact remain ignorant because of the many obstacles they rightly perceive as being prohibitive- cost and difficulty chief among them.
• There is a version of golf that retains nearly all of the facets that make it a great game, while removing these and other barriers.
• Disc golf, while easy to learn and enjoy, is much more complex than simply "throw, walk, repeat . . . throw, walk, repeat . . . " A skilled player has an almost infinite array of options when deciding how to execute a throw, and a learned eye recognizes art when he/she witnesses a shot that is thrown with just the right angle, spin, and power to turn this way to avoid one tree, then fade that way to miss another clump of bushes, then fall to the ground with just enough power to trickle toward the target, and finally stop just short of the cliff behind.

I think these facts, in combination, imparted to a sports and outdoor-inclined mind, will make disc golf irresistible.

New year, same slow, unstoppable growth

Two thousand ten began at midnight, with an incredibly bright full moon. Good omen, I hope.

Disc golf-wise, this is the biggest unknown I've experienced in . . . . since I started playing in the late 80's. At this point I'm guessing I won't play in the Masters Cup, for the first time in 18 years, just like I missed the Faultline. But on the other hand a couple non-playing ventures might show progress. That's a sign of aging, I guess, having ones accomplishments be 'off the course'.

Happy New Year. Make 2010 the year you squeeze the most out of your potential. The year of the sponge.