August 2010 DG Posts
Below are my posts from August 2010. Note that Barbara and I went to Oregon on vacation for the last two weeks of the month. I was able to play a couple of rounds with my brother Tom at some nice courses in Oregon.
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Note that we planned to play in Sisters Oregon later in the week, but they closed the course due to extreme forest fire conditions - Sigh ...
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Sunday, August 22, 2010 - Greenway with Tom
This was a fun round with Tom through a local park. We played the 9 hole layout twice. On this course the signage was great. Every teepad had a nice sign listing the hole number, the distance and a map of the hole. It was also easy to find the next hole. There were not a lot of obstacles, however the holes had reasonable distances. Most were over 250 feet with a few 400 feet holes. This is good distance for a local 9 hole course. The other problem is that the course often followed walking/biking paths that were well used. You had to be careful to throw when there were no pedestrians around. Another fun round with Tom.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010 - Pier Park with Tom and Grant
It was a little hard to find the course. I had mapped out the directions from Google Maps. After about 15 minutes, I realized that my brother had taken a different route that I had mapped out. After a few wrong turns, we found the course. It was a nice course in a wooded city park. The first two holes played around a softball field. The first hole cuts through the left field and the second throw was over the center fielder and into right field. Luckily, we were able to play between softball games. The rest of the course plays through the woods. I found it to be a fun moderately-challenging course. The course did lack in signage. Some of the teepads had the hole numbers, but there were no teepad signs. Also there were some errors in the course map. About 2/3rds the way through the round, a local turned to us and said that the course map was worthless! In fact, we are pretty sure that we missed hole 10. Anyway, it was a lot fun to play with Tom and Grant.
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Update to Blake
Hey Blake,
I hope things are not too stressful for you with your move coming up. Ah hell, moves are always stressful. I guess I should say, I hope you are dealing with the stress well. :-)
I have been having issues where I will completely lose the feel of the hammer pound for entire field sessions. But I am pretty sure that I have figured out the problem. Often when I get to the field, I want to throw farther and start pulling my arm faster before the hammer pound. This dawned on me during my last field session. So, I used almost no arm motion, almost entirely hammer pound with the wrist and the feeling came back.
One part of me feels really stupid. I have known for a couple of years that if my forehand throws are bad, then I need to slow down my arm. Why did it take me so long to realize that the same applies to my backhand? (handslap to forehead) I looked back at my notes from our phone conversation and it clearly says "slow in - fast out". Sigh.
Another part of me is pretty excited. Not only do I have the hammer feeling back, I am also very confident that if I lose the feeling, I can get it back by just slowing down my arm. Also, my backhand throws have started to lengthen out. I have added probably 40-50 feet to my drives and I have not worked too hard yet to re-build my throw from the hammer pound back.
I going to take a break for the next two weeks since my wife and I are leaving for vacation tomorrow. I am planning to devote a number of field sessions to re-building my throw after I return from vacation in early September.
Take care
Steve
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - Bag Tag at Aptos High
I had a fun round with Doug, Mike and Damon. Jacob had a bad case of poison oak and his Dad (Mike) was busy last night. I shot a +4 that was a stroke better than my previous scores. Probably the best news was that I threw almost entirely backhand. My backhand drives have not quite reached the length of my forehand drives, but are much more consistent. So I have less bogies but not as many birdies. In fact, last night there were no birdies at all and I still had one of my better rounds. Another encouraging thing is that my backhand drives are slowly lengthening out.
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Monday, August 16, 2010 - Early round at Dela
I was playing along and thinking about how much trouble I am having with the backhand version of the hammer and how easy the forehand version is. Then I was thinking that when I have problems with my forehand, it is almost always because I am pulling my arm too fast. When this happens, I just slow down my forehand pull and I almost always get my snap back. Aha! When I am thinking this, I am on a hole that crosses a big meadow. I throw a backhand concentrating on the hammer with almost no arm movement, all wrist and I get the hammer feeling back. I get really excited, I empty my bag (12 discs), just backhand snaps down the fairway. I go pick them up and snap them back towards the teepad. I do this three times, just snapping the discs up and down the fairway (note that my round was at 7am and almost no one else was on the course).
I looked back at the notes from our phone conversation and it clearly says slow in - fast out. Sigh.
One part of me feels really stupid. I have known for a couple of years that when my forehand is off, then I need to slow down my arm. Why did it take me so long to realize that the same applies to my backhand? (handslap to forehead) Another part of me is pretty excited. Not only do I have the hammer feeling back, I am also very confident that if I lose the feeling, I can get it back by just slowing my arm down.
---------------------------------------
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - Field Session at Harvey West
I threw 130 drives and never felt the pound. I started with standstill drives and then went to a one step. I tried gripping the disc really hard. About the only thing that made much of a difference was pausing during the reach back. I also tried to add some hip snap. I threw some drives about 270 feet and that felt good.
---------------------------------------
Friday, August 13, 2010 - Early round at Dela with Ben
It was a rare early round with Ben, we threw multiple discs for most shots. I played 1-6 on my own and then Ben joined me on 7. We played 7 thru 12 and then skipped to 16 and played 16, 18 and 19. My play was up and down. I threw a putter on 8a and 12 and was pretty pleased with the results. I had very nice drives on 6, 7, 8a, 9, 12 and 16. Adequate drives on 1, 2, 4, 5, 17, 18.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - Aptos Bag Tag
I had a great time, but I am disappointed with my score. I ended up with a +5, but I hoped for better. It turned out to be a pretty eventful round. Once again, I threw almost all backhand. On hole 6, I throw my drive next to a tree that is known to have a hornets nest in it. I put my bag down about 30 feet away and walk up very slowly and calmly to my disc. About 5 feet from my disc, I notice 5 hornets on my arm. One partner in front of me says, "You have 5 more hornets on your pants." Another partner in back of me says that I have 10 hornets on my back. The guy in back tries to scrape the hornets off with his disc. A few hornets go after him and he runs off. The guy in front tries to brush off the hornets on my pants and they go after him and he runs off in the opposite direction. I panic and start flailing wildly. In the end, I got stung three times all on my left arm. Luckily it is not my throwing arm, so I continue to play. I ended up taking a bogey on that hole, which is a little disappointing as I was set up nicely for a par.
Oddly enough, I made great drives on the next 3 holes. On 7, I had a 15 foot birdie putt. My drive landed within 20 feet of hole 8 (although on the other side of a tree) and within 25 feet of hole 9. On hole 16, one of my partners says, "Steve you are going to have a great drive on this hole." I throw it within 5 feet of the pin!
I finished hole 18 and I was feeling good about my score. I was pretty relaxed when one of my partners pointed out that we had 3 more holes to play, since we had started play on hole 4. Uh-Oh. On hole 1, I proceeded to throw my drive into a tree. Bogey. Hole 2 has an uphill drive through lots of trees. I throw a nice drive up the hill that starts to turn over towards a tree. The same guy who predicted a great drive earlier says "Come back, come back". The disc hits the tree and comes back, rolling all the way back to the bottom of the hill. Another bogey. The third hole is a steep downhill tunnel shot that flattens out about 75 feet before the basket. Usually, I try to throw a forehand drive that hits hard packed ground at the bottom of the hill and skips down to the basket. I throw it just where I want it to go, the disc hits a small pile of leaves and just stops dead. This throw ALWAYS skips down to the basket! Sigh, at least I got a par on this hole.
All in all, I had a great time and can't wait to play in the bag tag next week!
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Sunday, August 8th, 2010 - A round with Rob at Dela - another progress report to Blake
Hey Blake,
As I mentioned before, I have been a forehand dominant player. However I really want to develop my backhand, so I am currently throwing almost everything backhand. And an interesting thing happened yesterday. I tied my personal best at DeLaveaga Park, but not by making spectacular drives, but because I hit almost every fairway. I think I only missed 3 out of 28 fairways. Not only are my backhand drives becoming longer and straighter, but also much more consistent.
Another interesting thing is that it helps my score much more on championship level courses than intermediate courses. DeLaveaga Park punishes players who miss the fairway. On the other hand, there is another local park (Aptos High School) that does not punish poor shots as often. If you make a poor shot, you usually have a reasonable chance to make par.
Also, I have discovered the joy of throwing putter drives on top of the world holes. With the new technique, I get enough spin to keep the putter straight at the pin with little or no fade. A much easier throw to make than these huge hyzers.
There are a couple of things I am going to have to work on. Yesterday, on my approach shots, I hit a couple of low level (< 5 feet) obstacles. In the past, I never worried about those obstacles, my throws were always higher than that. Also, being a forehand dominant player, I have never thrown many backhand anhyzers. I need to get out to the field and practice this throw with different discs at different angles with different levels of power.
Take care
Steve
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Thursday, August 5th, 2010 - a round with Ben at Aptos
Mid-afternoon, Ben called and asked if I wanted to play a round after work. He wanted to play at Aptos. About half way through the round, we met up with Mike and his 7 year old son. We finished the last 5 holes with them. It was a fun round. I decided to work on my backhand, so I threw backhand the entire round. I did not keep score, but it felt pretty so-so. Mike's son was very good for a 7 year old. He has a nice forehand.
--------------------------------------
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 - early field session at dela
Mostly drives - I was experimenting with the run up. Also, i was trying to reach back farther. It seemed to add distance. I was pretty pleased with the results. I still wonder if the disc is not ripping out of my hand. I would like to experiment with my releases.
---------------------------------------
Sunday, August 1, 2010 - Field session followed by a round at Aptos High - another progress report to Blake
Well Blake, I don't know what to say - Sunday, I went to a football field to work on the new technique. And I lost it. My drives were going the old distance and scattering across the field. I tried everything I could think of, to get it back. I re-did the drills. I tried standstill, one step, x-step, flat release, anhyzer, hyzer. Nothing seemed to work. By the end of the session, I was pretty frustrated.
So I went to play a casual round ... and it came back! I just relaxed and threw the disc, dead straight low line drives. Most drives were longer than my previous drives. Most of the holes on this course are up hill or down hill, so I am not sure how far my drives were actually going, however they were longer than previous throws. And the longer approach shots were cool. I don't worry about direction so much, only distance. The discs just go straight at the basket with a bit of fade at the end. Kind of like push putts where you don't worry about direction so much, you just worry about how hard to toss the putter.
I am not sure what conclusion to draw here, but it sure felt good to get the feeling back.
One other thought. Once you mentioned that it was easier to feel the technique on anhyzer throws since you are pulling down. I think I noticed something similar on flat downhill throws. There were a couple of long downhill holes, not top of the world type holes, but more moderate downhill slopes. It seems to me that I get significantly more spin, speed and glide on those throws. Again, pulling down. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a field session throwing downhill to get the feel of the technique?
Steve
------------------------
Note that we planned to play in Sisters Oregon later in the week, but they closed the course due to extreme forest fire conditions - Sigh ...
---------------------------------------
Sunday, August 22, 2010 - Greenway with Tom
This was a fun round with Tom through a local park. We played the 9 hole layout twice. On this course the signage was great. Every teepad had a nice sign listing the hole number, the distance and a map of the hole. It was also easy to find the next hole. There were not a lot of obstacles, however the holes had reasonable distances. Most were over 250 feet with a few 400 feet holes. This is good distance for a local 9 hole course. The other problem is that the course often followed walking/biking paths that were well used. You had to be careful to throw when there were no pedestrians around. Another fun round with Tom.
---------------------------------------
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - Pier Park with Tom and Grant
It was a little hard to find the course. I had mapped out the directions from Google Maps. After about 15 minutes, I realized that my brother had taken a different route that I had mapped out. After a few wrong turns, we found the course. It was a nice course in a wooded city park. The first two holes played around a softball field. The first hole cuts through the left field and the second throw was over the center fielder and into right field. Luckily, we were able to play between softball games. The rest of the course plays through the woods. I found it to be a fun moderately-challenging course. The course did lack in signage. Some of the teepads had the hole numbers, but there were no teepad signs. Also there were some errors in the course map. About 2/3rds the way through the round, a local turned to us and said that the course map was worthless! In fact, we are pretty sure that we missed hole 10. Anyway, it was a lot fun to play with Tom and Grant.
---------------------------------------
Update to Blake
Hey Blake,
I hope things are not too stressful for you with your move coming up. Ah hell, moves are always stressful. I guess I should say, I hope you are dealing with the stress well. :-)
I have been having issues where I will completely lose the feel of the hammer pound for entire field sessions. But I am pretty sure that I have figured out the problem. Often when I get to the field, I want to throw farther and start pulling my arm faster before the hammer pound. This dawned on me during my last field session. So, I used almost no arm motion, almost entirely hammer pound with the wrist and the feeling came back.
One part of me feels really stupid. I have known for a couple of years that if my forehand throws are bad, then I need to slow down my arm. Why did it take me so long to realize that the same applies to my backhand? (handslap to forehead) I looked back at my notes from our phone conversation and it clearly says "slow in - fast out". Sigh.
Another part of me is pretty excited. Not only do I have the hammer feeling back, I am also very confident that if I lose the feeling, I can get it back by just slowing down my arm. Also, my backhand throws have started to lengthen out. I have added probably 40-50 feet to my drives and I have not worked too hard yet to re-build my throw from the hammer pound back.
I going to take a break for the next two weeks since my wife and I are leaving for vacation tomorrow. I am planning to devote a number of field sessions to re-building my throw after I return from vacation in early September.
Take care
Steve
---------------------------------------
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - Bag Tag at Aptos High
I had a fun round with Doug, Mike and Damon. Jacob had a bad case of poison oak and his Dad (Mike) was busy last night. I shot a +4 that was a stroke better than my previous scores. Probably the best news was that I threw almost entirely backhand. My backhand drives have not quite reached the length of my forehand drives, but are much more consistent. So I have less bogies but not as many birdies. In fact, last night there were no birdies at all and I still had one of my better rounds. Another encouraging thing is that my backhand drives are slowly lengthening out.
---------------------------------------
Monday, August 16, 2010 - Early round at Dela
I was playing along and thinking about how much trouble I am having with the backhand version of the hammer and how easy the forehand version is. Then I was thinking that when I have problems with my forehand, it is almost always because I am pulling my arm too fast. When this happens, I just slow down my forehand pull and I almost always get my snap back. Aha! When I am thinking this, I am on a hole that crosses a big meadow. I throw a backhand concentrating on the hammer with almost no arm movement, all wrist and I get the hammer feeling back. I get really excited, I empty my bag (12 discs), just backhand snaps down the fairway. I go pick them up and snap them back towards the teepad. I do this three times, just snapping the discs up and down the fairway (note that my round was at 7am and almost no one else was on the course).
I looked back at the notes from our phone conversation and it clearly says slow in - fast out. Sigh.
One part of me feels really stupid. I have known for a couple of years that when my forehand is off, then I need to slow down my arm. Why did it take me so long to realize that the same applies to my backhand? (handslap to forehead) Another part of me is pretty excited. Not only do I have the hammer feeling back, I am also very confident that if I lose the feeling, I can get it back by just slowing my arm down.
---------------------------------------
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - Field Session at Harvey West
I threw 130 drives and never felt the pound. I started with standstill drives and then went to a one step. I tried gripping the disc really hard. About the only thing that made much of a difference was pausing during the reach back. I also tried to add some hip snap. I threw some drives about 270 feet and that felt good.
---------------------------------------
Friday, August 13, 2010 - Early round at Dela with Ben
It was a rare early round with Ben, we threw multiple discs for most shots. I played 1-6 on my own and then Ben joined me on 7. We played 7 thru 12 and then skipped to 16 and played 16, 18 and 19. My play was up and down. I threw a putter on 8a and 12 and was pretty pleased with the results. I had very nice drives on 6, 7, 8a, 9, 12 and 16. Adequate drives on 1, 2, 4, 5, 17, 18.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 - Aptos Bag Tag
I had a great time, but I am disappointed with my score. I ended up with a +5, but I hoped for better. It turned out to be a pretty eventful round. Once again, I threw almost all backhand. On hole 6, I throw my drive next to a tree that is known to have a hornets nest in it. I put my bag down about 30 feet away and walk up very slowly and calmly to my disc. About 5 feet from my disc, I notice 5 hornets on my arm. One partner in front of me says, "You have 5 more hornets on your pants." Another partner in back of me says that I have 10 hornets on my back. The guy in back tries to scrape the hornets off with his disc. A few hornets go after him and he runs off. The guy in front tries to brush off the hornets on my pants and they go after him and he runs off in the opposite direction. I panic and start flailing wildly. In the end, I got stung three times all on my left arm. Luckily it is not my throwing arm, so I continue to play. I ended up taking a bogey on that hole, which is a little disappointing as I was set up nicely for a par.
Oddly enough, I made great drives on the next 3 holes. On 7, I had a 15 foot birdie putt. My drive landed within 20 feet of hole 8 (although on the other side of a tree) and within 25 feet of hole 9. On hole 16, one of my partners says, "Steve you are going to have a great drive on this hole." I throw it within 5 feet of the pin!
I finished hole 18 and I was feeling good about my score. I was pretty relaxed when one of my partners pointed out that we had 3 more holes to play, since we had started play on hole 4. Uh-Oh. On hole 1, I proceeded to throw my drive into a tree. Bogey. Hole 2 has an uphill drive through lots of trees. I throw a nice drive up the hill that starts to turn over towards a tree. The same guy who predicted a great drive earlier says "Come back, come back". The disc hits the tree and comes back, rolling all the way back to the bottom of the hill. Another bogey. The third hole is a steep downhill tunnel shot that flattens out about 75 feet before the basket. Usually, I try to throw a forehand drive that hits hard packed ground at the bottom of the hill and skips down to the basket. I throw it just where I want it to go, the disc hits a small pile of leaves and just stops dead. This throw ALWAYS skips down to the basket! Sigh, at least I got a par on this hole.
All in all, I had a great time and can't wait to play in the bag tag next week!
------------------------------------------
Sunday, August 8th, 2010 - A round with Rob at Dela - another progress report to Blake
Hey Blake,
As I mentioned before, I have been a forehand dominant player. However I really want to develop my backhand, so I am currently throwing almost everything backhand. And an interesting thing happened yesterday. I tied my personal best at DeLaveaga Park, but not by making spectacular drives, but because I hit almost every fairway. I think I only missed 3 out of 28 fairways. Not only are my backhand drives becoming longer and straighter, but also much more consistent.
Another interesting thing is that it helps my score much more on championship level courses than intermediate courses. DeLaveaga Park punishes players who miss the fairway. On the other hand, there is another local park (Aptos High School) that does not punish poor shots as often. If you make a poor shot, you usually have a reasonable chance to make par.
Also, I have discovered the joy of throwing putter drives on top of the world holes. With the new technique, I get enough spin to keep the putter straight at the pin with little or no fade. A much easier throw to make than these huge hyzers.
There are a couple of things I am going to have to work on. Yesterday, on my approach shots, I hit a couple of low level (< 5 feet) obstacles. In the past, I never worried about those obstacles, my throws were always higher than that. Also, being a forehand dominant player, I have never thrown many backhand anhyzers. I need to get out to the field and practice this throw with different discs at different angles with different levels of power.
Take care
Steve
--------------------------------------
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 - a round with Ben at Aptos
Mid-afternoon, Ben called and asked if I wanted to play a round after work. He wanted to play at Aptos. About half way through the round, we met up with Mike and his 7 year old son. We finished the last 5 holes with them. It was a fun round. I decided to work on my backhand, so I threw backhand the entire round. I did not keep score, but it felt pretty so-so. Mike's son was very good for a 7 year old. He has a nice forehand.
--------------------------------------
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 - early field session at dela
Mostly drives - I was experimenting with the run up. Also, i was trying to reach back farther. It seemed to add distance. I was pretty pleased with the results. I still wonder if the disc is not ripping out of my hand. I would like to experiment with my releases.
---------------------------------------
Sunday, August 1, 2010 - Field session followed by a round at Aptos High - another progress report to Blake
Well Blake, I don't know what to say - Sunday, I went to a football field to work on the new technique. And I lost it. My drives were going the old distance and scattering across the field. I tried everything I could think of, to get it back. I re-did the drills. I tried standstill, one step, x-step, flat release, anhyzer, hyzer. Nothing seemed to work. By the end of the session, I was pretty frustrated.
So I went to play a casual round ... and it came back! I just relaxed and threw the disc, dead straight low line drives. Most drives were longer than my previous drives. Most of the holes on this course are up hill or down hill, so I am not sure how far my drives were actually going, however they were longer than previous throws. And the longer approach shots were cool. I don't worry about direction so much, only distance. The discs just go straight at the basket with a bit of fade at the end. Kind of like push putts where you don't worry about direction so much, you just worry about how hard to toss the putter.
I am not sure what conclusion to draw here, but it sure felt good to get the feeling back.
One other thought. Once you mentioned that it was easier to feel the technique on anhyzer throws since you are pulling down. I think I noticed something similar on flat downhill throws. There were a couple of long downhill holes, not top of the world type holes, but more moderate downhill slopes. It seems to me that I get significantly more spin, speed and glide on those throws. Again, pulling down. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a field session throwing downhill to get the feel of the technique?
Steve
posted by Steve @ 2:07 PM
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