Simon Says...

Watch, Listen, Learn

I've been catching up on a bunch of disc golf videos lately on YouTube, mostly the usual, tournament coverage, and the sensation following Brodie and McBeth as Dark Horse takes on the disc golf world of sorts. But there was one group that got  the internal gears cranking again, as Noah of Daily Disc Golf played a challenge round against Simon Lizotte and the related Vlog with Simon talking about the differences between a 975 and 1040 rated player, referring to the previously mentioned challenge.

Now, Simon and Noah rattled off about a dozen different things that separate a "good" player from a "great" player in Lizotte's Vlog. I'm going to completely ignore the fact that in this scenario, we're defining "good" as a 975-rated player...well, not completely. Actually, we're going to filter the vague-ish rattling on about what can be described as a casual round, and recap, and broaden the scope beyond the 6 strokes per round divide between the "good" and "great."

What is the difference between good and great?

I've been playing disc golf for about a year and half. I'm a 40-something, fairly athletic, and in decent shape. I work a regular job and, admittedly, I don't practice enough to move the needle on performance level dramatically. My rating is 839 with 23 rated rounds ranging from a pitiful 768 to an almost head-scratching 944, and even the latter might not qualify me as "good," but we're going to use that as a starting point anyway.

It's been fun learning the game and listening to the career stories of the up-and-comers. Emerson Keith worked at Walmart and played every possible event that he could to learn how to compete. Chris Clemons felt like he was losing out if he didn't throw every day and rushed from work to beat the darkness or practiced on lunch breaks just to get something in to get better.

Allen Iverson wasn't into talking about practice, but greatness doesn't occur by accident. There can be a disparity in raw ability, intellectual processing, body awareness, but the thing that has always separated good from great is practice. Now, we're not going to argue over what your definition of the word is is, we are, however, going to define good and great by this practice thing.

I could pick some arbitrary number (and I will) to distinguish the two. A buddy of mine was reading Paul McBeth's pre-round routine aloud while we were driving to a tournament of our own a few weeks ago. By all accounts, he throws more shots and takes more time preparing before a single round than probably most "good" players get in during a week. The average player may be able to sneak in an hour a day of "targeted practice." By targeted, I mean, not playing, but throwing a specific shot or disc, repeatedly in order to recreate, almost identically, every time. It could also mean a practice round (sans score keeping) with multiple tee shots, practicing normal or recovery shots from a specific location and/or putting practice with 2 successive putts and changing locations or distances. The optimal word is not practice so much, as the word specific, or targeted. Still with me?

Here comes the random number...If the "good" player can sneak in an hour a day for targeted practice, we're going to stretch that out for a bit of separation. For our purposes, we're going to say that a "good" player gets in 10 hours or less of targeted practice per week (on average) and the great players get 10 hours or more. I know we're selling the great players short here since they're most likely getting in much more than that, especially between tournaments, but we're just setting up a guideline here.

We've (well, I've) expanded the range of disparity between good and great. Let's pare down those 11 pieces to 4 things that great players do. It might even make you think differently about your game and give you some goals for that targeted practice.

Great players make bad shots

Even Paul McBeth. I mean, he's won less than half of the tournaments he's entered. Of course, we should all be so fortunate. As great as he is, he's not perfect, because great players make bad shots. And we don't even get to see all of those. But here are a few that stand out for me.

Watch the 2019 Zoo Town Open, when Grady Shue tried to stop his delivery on hole 6 in Round 2 and had one of the most amazing grip locks ever captured on video (perhaps excluding that Richard guy.) Austin Hannum left himself in a less than desirable spot with his tee shot on hole 9 in Round 2 of the recent 2020 Las Vegas Challenge as he clipped a branch and landed well short of his intended landing area.

Nobody is perfect. Keeping that in mind, you're going to make mistakes, just like great players do sometimes. They just have fewer of those moments than the good players. And they do something else better too...

Great players recover

Remember my 2 examples? I know, it was just a few sentences ago. Shue dumped his drive over to the right and just about the back edge of the teepad of the 396-foot par 3, before throwing a solid hyzer into Circle 1 (albeit at the edge of some small pine trees) and saving par with his putt. Hannum threw a forehand, from a knee, under a tree for his second shot on the 601-foot 9th, and got to just outside of the circle before making his putt to secure birdie from a less than ideal position. I'm not certain how far that shot was, maybe flirting with 300 feet. Perhaps more? Impressive.

It's not always as extreme as that, they might just be slightly out of position from where they envisioned their next shot to come from. Granted, it's different playing for a position 500 feet off the tee and 220 off the tee. Are you making shots to get you into position to make another shot? What does your scramble percentage look like? Probably good, but not great.

Great players make putts

Good players make putts too. Just fewer of them and from shorter distances, typically. Drive for show, putt for dough. It's much easier when you can throw a putter 400 to 500 feet. Although Paul made his putt. Simon didn't. In Simon's defense, Paul was closer.

All of the great players make virtually every putt inside circle 1, and a good bit in circle 2. Every part of a player's game has to do with confidence. Confident putts are often made putts. How do you turn good into great?...

Great players practice with focus

I have played more than a few rounds at my local course in Castle Hayne, affectionately called, "Castle Payne." You can catch videos of the Open players tackling this course, which has changed a bit recently due to hurricanes over the last few years. I've done some targeted practice as well, but not enough field work. More field work would have helped me get comfortable with my grip and groove  lines that I am confident and consistent throwing, when I need to throw that shot.

Over the past year, I've seen more videos from Paul talking about different discs, different lines and what he wants to see out of a shot. During the coverage of the Las Vegas Challenge, Nate Sexton talked about throwing one disc over another for various reasons.

Recap: Getting inside the circle

The common thread in all of these is the mental game, and that develops with practice. So what are you working to be great? I've been focusing on putting so that I can finish once I get around the basket, but that sometimes comes and goes too. Working on my approach game has helped me to score better, so I'm trying to be great at that to give myself a chance at tournaments.

I can't put enough emphasis on field work. The discs in my bag now are all ones that I am confident with, how they fly, a few seasoned to help me throw better, knowing what they can do when I execute the shot I want. All of that came from field work and only then, the practical application on the course.

Being great closer to the basket will help me score better, so I'm working on being great from 200 feet and in. Trying to leave myself tap-ins or short putts instead of testers...or worse. I'll do the field work to get better off the tee, but I play more technical, wooded courses in Southeastern North Carolina. Sometimes I could just play safe with putter or midrange to 200 or so and be that 200 feet or shorter, with a shot at getting up and down for par. Small steps, just learning how to make consistent pars, instead of 7 birdies, 4 pars, 4 bogeys and 3 "others" to finish at 3-over.

Great players have all the shots, or can keep themselves from being out of position where they have to take shots they may not be proficient with. Be great at playing your game. Start with parts, build from there. So get out to the field this week...and throw those Flippin' Discs!