Having fun with the little guy!

[Flyguy46]

I am in the process of getting my seven year old out on the course more often. He has a basic bag with kid weight discs. It is awesome to see his game improving every time we go out. :clap:

Anyway, we went out a few days ago and met up with another player and his daughter. We played a course I had not played before. During the first few holes, Adam showed my son a way to throw his disc. The technique Adam showed my son increased his throw distance dramatically!

Because of his increased distance on my son's throws, I made him a deal. I wanted him to work on getting his throws more consistent and to build even more distance into his throws. He currently is running three kids weight discs. My deal to him was that if he could prove to me that he gets better with those discs, I would eventually get him a few more discs.

I am stoked to say, now that I made that promise, he has wanted to go out and throw every day. And, through this whole process of going out and throwing with him, my game is improving. I am currently running a full bag of discs, but sticking to three main discs. My game has improved dramatically over the course of play.

I do have one thought though and wanted your opinion. Most courses, at least here in the Metro Denver area are Par 3 courses. What I want to know is, does it make sense, as my son is starting out, and I am returning to disc golf, to make all holes Par 4's? I am consistently throwing +1 with a very low but improving ratio of Par 3 pars.

So, is it worth bumbing all courses to a Par 4 as a recreational player right now?

Oh, side note. I have been keeping track of my son's score but not sharing it with him. I have told him he is taking strokes off his game. I really only want him to have fun right now and not worry about his score.

I also want to thank the disc golf community for welcoming my son to our wonderful sport with open arms. He is really excited to keep playing. Thanks again all.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Firstly, that's awesome and thanks for sharing! My three year old is getting out more and more and loves throwing chicken wing rollers off the tee and putting out for me. Her mid-range game is basically wandering away somewhere on the hole, so that part needs work. :|

I think you're doing well to not make scoring a main focal point. To that point, I wouldn't worry much about what Par is set at, rather, concentrate or emphasis "least strokes possible" attitude. Pars, birdies, etc. will fall into place naturally as the kiddo progresses.

Until they show specific interest on that stuff, I'd just worry about spending quality time outside hucking plastic with the little one, and enjoying that.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Also, par is a whole can of worms here, just fyi.

 

[Steve West]

Personal Par is fine. Set par at whatever he would get if he didn't hit any trees or miss any putts he should have made. Some holes are likely par 5 for him. Maybe par 6 or 7 on the long ones.

One way to set personal par is to divide the length of the hole by the length of his drive, round up and add one.

Do this for the both of you, if you want to compete (maybe only in your own head for now).

Let him know when you adjust his par when he gets better. Earning lower personal pars can be a goal.

 

[Countchunkula]

My boys are currently 6 and 9 and pretty much every time I'm out on the course it is with one or both of them. I just try to focus on two things with the kids: fun and safety.

Rather than closely tracking scores and praising improvements there, I try to focus on enthusiastic praise for good (for them) shots. It makes for a better round when we are all cheering each other on. My little guy has turned into quite the sh!t talker though, which was a surprising development, but he's having fun (and mostly confines the trash talk to his dad).

The one thing I'm really working on teaching them at this stage is how to play safely. Just the basic stuff: don't throw until it's clear, let people know if you are going to take a second shot from a lie, whoever's out throws first, don't get ahead of that person, etc.

When they were younger, we didn't focus much on score, but now they want to keep track of how they are doing. We'll compare scores each hole, but I don't keep track of their round scores. While it would be interesting to see how they are improving, it could also be discouraging if they were trying to compare themselves against my scores.

We do highlight certain milestones though. It was so cool when my older boy got his first 3 at a little over 4 years old. It was a wide open 215ish foot hole. Two 80' forehands, followed by a forehand throw in. I must have looked really funny celebrating.
His longest drive is still the 350+' roller off of a hilltop tee at about 2 years old. At that age, he was in the jogging stroller for most of the round, but would chuck one off the tee and putt out on most holes. Hole 1 at Mason County Beast in Michigan tees off from the top of a huge hill. He got a forehand roller down about 10' in front of him and it just kept on picking up speed down the hill. Crossed over and back across the park road at the bottom of the hill (waaay off line to the right, but still hilarious to watch).

Best of luck with indoctrinating your son into the cult of disc golf. I'm hoping DG will continue to be something my boys and I can do together for many years to come.

 

[Jukeshoe]

Personal Par is fine. Set par at whatever he would get if he didn't hit any trees or miss any putts he should have made. Some holes are likely par 5 for him. Maybe par 6 or 7 on the long ones.

One way to set personal par is to divide the length of the hole by the length of his drive, round up and add one.

Do this for the both of you, if you want to compete (maybe only in your own head for now).

Let him know when you adjust his par when he gets better. Earning lower personal pars can be a goal.

Actually, they're all par 3's.

 

[thecandydan]

What I want to know is, does it make sense, as my son is starting out, and I am returning to disc golf, to make all holes Par 4's?

Sure, why not? My son is 12, we've thrown together every single day for the last 5 years. When we started and threw with other father/son duos what we'd do is play dads against sons (doubles) and dads were Par 3 and kids were Par 4. Worked well, kids usually won and they'd root for each other since they were a team. So, one way we'd use different pars.

Anyway, enjoy and have fun, throwing so much with my son has been one of the true joys of my life. Hope it is for you too!

 

[Flyguy46]

Thanks guys. The part question was more for me and my sanity. I am taking his score more for my education than for his. I don't even let him know I am keeping score for him. We are just put to have fun.

 

[Ryan P.]

I do have one thought though and wanted your opinion. Most courses, at least here in the Metro Denver area are Par 3 courses. What I want to know is, does it make sense, as my son is starting out, and I am returning to disc golf, to make all holes Par 4's? I am consistently throwing +1 with a very low but improving ratio of Par 3 pars.

Yes, 100% for sure do this. The best way to play (from a psychological perspective) is to set a personal par on every hole and ignore posted par. Walking up to a hole and saying "I expect to get this, if I do well I'll get a little lower, if I do poorly I'll score a little higher" is a better way to approach any hole than saying, "Well someone wrote par 3 on this so that's what I'm going to aim for."*

On the other hand, if you want to frustrate yourself and have improper expectations, go for the second method.

Even the pros do this. If you watch the Preserve Championship, the top 20 distance throwers are going for hole 18's green in 2 shots, even though it is a par 5. Ricky Wysocki said yesterday in his post-round interview that guys at his skill level expect to get to the green in 2.

This skill is an excellent one to learn because it will help you make decisions mid-hole. If you throw a great drive and you're in the center of the fairway, it's easy to know what to do. But if you throw into the rough and have a tricky lie, helping to assess your own skill level (and asses your own par from that specific lie) will help you avoid trying hero shots. You'll find yourself thinking, "Par for me, from this lie, should be one more than I actually want it to be, so I should make the smart play rather than the high risk/reward play."

*hopefully the course designer thought about his holes well enough to set par appropriately, but even if so, they probably didn't cater the par to your specific skill level (even if they were intending to do so). It's a designer's job to do set par appropriately, but since every player is different and there's no way for a designer to customize par for every player who will ever play the course, it won't be customized for you.

 

[Flyguy46]

Yes, 100% for sure do this. The best way to play (from a psychological perspective) is to set a personal par on every hole and ignore posted par. Walking up to a hole and saying "I expect to get this, if I do well I'll get a little lower, if I do poorly I'll score a little higher" is a better way to approach any hole than saying, "Well someone wrote par 3 on this so that's what I'm going to aim for."*

On the other hand, if you want to frustrate yourself and have improper expectations, go for the second method.

Even the pros do this. If you watch the Preserve Championship, the top 20 distance throwers are going for hole 18's green in 2 shots, even though it is a par 5. Ricky Wysocki said yesterday in his post-round interview that guys at his skill level expect to get to the green in 2.

This skill is an excellent one to learn because it will help you make decisions mid-hole. If you throw a great drive and you're in the center of the fairway, it's easy to know what to do. But if you throw into the rough and have a tricky lie, helping to assess your own skill level (and asses your own par from that specific lie) will help you avoid trying hero shots. You'll find yourself thinking, "Par for me, from this lie, should be one more than I actually want it to be, so I should make the smart play rather than the high risk/reward play."

*hopefully the course designer thought about his holes well enough to set par appropriately, but even if so, they probably didn't cater the par to your specific skill level (even if they were intending to do so). It's a designer's job to do set par appropriately, but since every player is different and there's no way for a designer to customize par for every player who will ever play the course, it won't be customized for you.

Ryan, thank you for that. I thinnk from a mental aspect being over 1 on every hole is frustrating yet consistency seems to be the name of my game. I do remember way back in the day when I started playing, we played the holes one par higher than cousre. Once we started "birdying" ever hole we then dropped to the course Par to a 3.

I have been using the Wysocki thought of throwing to the green in two. Although my throws are on the short range right now as I am working with a couple new discs that are helping ot improve my game. Biggest thing for me right now is gettting consistent distance on my drives and mid range shots first. Once I have those dialed in I should be able to start to need fewer throws to get to the green.

I appreciate your response to this.

Stay sane out there! And if you "lose your marbles", just ask and I wil be happy to help you find them again!

Flyguy46

 

[wproct]

It's just great that you and your son are enjoying playing the sport together and having fun. He may be a future pro disc golfer, you never know. Personally, I was about 67 before I ever played my first round, but I keep score every time I play, whether it's a solo round or with friends. I don't worry about par because I know that I will never make it. But by keeping score I know whether I am improving, playing poorly, or whatever.

 

[Flyguy46]

It's just great that you and your son are enjoying playing the sport together and having fun. He may be a future pro disc golfer, you never know. Personally, I was about 67 before I ever played my first round, but I keep score every time I play, whether it's a solo round or with friends. I don't worry about par because I know that I will never make it. But by keeping score I know whether I am improving, playing poorly, or whatever.

Yeah, I love playing a solid round with my son. And as for scoring, as I get older it is no longer about the score but about the fun. I do have to agree that "keeping score" gives a benchmark of improvement. Right now, I don't "keep score" with my son, but I can tell you he has dropped over 40 strokes since we started playing.

Thanks again for the comments.