I’ve been suffering from this for a long time now, and I really can’t explain why it happens. I could chalk it up to age, health, etc, but if that was true my practice rounds would suffer the same fate.
How can I play so well in practice rounds and then literally fall apart in tournaments?
I’ll have a run of decent play and then I’ll have a run where it seems I can’t throw the disc at all and to make matters worse, I’ll make these poor decisions that results in added strokes. I’ve played a few recent tournaments and at times it literally feels like I have no clue how to throw a disc, that combined with missed putts resulting in very low rated rounds. I will admit playing tournaments in 95-100 degree temps is something every year I tell myself I’m not going to do, and granted heat IS a factor for this old man, but it still shouldn’t factor enough to cause the consistency of my skillset on the course to fall apart.
My disc golf overall rating fell dramatically in the last update resulting in a near 10 point loss. I’m back to a recreational level ranking which is very close to my initial rating when I first started playing 10 years ago which is just so incredibly disappointing. Granted I’m mainly concerned with my overall Global Masters Ranking where I’m trying to get into the top 50 in 2024. I’m currently ranked 76th, and it’s going to take several good rounds to give me a chance to move into the top 50.
One thing that is clear, is that when I play in actual tournaments I still… get that feeling of nervousness, excitedness, anxiety, etc. I know my body suffers from a very high “fight or flight” reaction to stress (lots of heart issues I’ll document in future posts) , but in some circumstances it might actually help. For instance, even though I have not had a traffic ticket since I was in my teens, I’ve had some very close calls in regards to car wrecks and when that adrenaline kicks in my quick decision making has kept me from being 6ft under. (Knock on wood… lol..) But in a slow paced game like disc golf, where the mental decision making is probably 70% of the performance scale, any self imposed anxiety greatly affects the mental decision capability in my opinion. For example, looking back at my recent tournaments, on several holes I could have saved strokes by just relaxing and throwing a slower speed disc 250-280ft and taking an easy par instead of trying to throw faster speed discs further resulting in less control and increasing the odds of getting a bogie or worse.
So for the next few tournaments I’m going to go back to a mental thought process that helped me play more consistent (and also helped a disc golf buddy of mine win a tournament, yes you Anthony!), the 80% factor. If I step up to the tee and I think I have at least a 80% chance of getting the birdie, I’m going for it, otherwise do whatever it takes to get the easy par and move on. I’ve done this in the past to get my game back on track. While it works, it’s not an aggressive style of play so I’m not going to get very high rated rounds playing like this, but at this point I need to get back to playing relaxed, smart disc golf.
Fishing has been good! Hoping to start documenting some fishing outings soon. 🙂
July 20, 2024
