Noobie Question Thread (Dumb Questions answered here)

[MrFixIt]

Should I get rid of the Groove I just bought because I didn't know any better?

You can always use it for target practice...

 

[BrotherDave]

Should I get rid of the Groove I just bought because I didn't know any better?

Nah, any disc is worth a test drive first. The only reason to drop a Groove immediately is if it's obviously way too fast for you.

Grooves are great for dyeing practice too.

 

[SDMike]

Nah, any disc is worth a test drive first. The only reason to drop a Groove immediately is if it's obviously way too fast for you.
Grooves are great for dyeing practice too.

How can you tell if a disc is way too fast for you? Serious question.

 

[Dan Ensor]

I thought I had a good explanation for mike. I was wrong. Sorry for this post.

All I'll say is that a disc shouldn't fade out until late in the flight.

 

[knave]

Yep, what ^ he said.

 

[BrotherDave]

How can you tell if a disc is way too fast for you? Serious question.

It's all relative, more or less.

Easiest with stable (middle stability, i.e. straight) discs. These feel very "speed stable" to people that can't get them up to speed, meaning they act more overstable than they really are. A good example would be a Wraith, if a player uses a Wraith for headwinds and throws it into a proper headwind and the disc goes straight or turns over (b/c the wind moving over the disc makes the disc behave as if it was travelling at a faster speed) than that player wasn't getting the disc up to speed enough to see the true flight of that Wraith.

Generally, a good thing to do is to take some discs of varying speeds and throw them all in a field for distance (not necessarily max D lines but long golf distance lines where accuracy is still important) and just observe the consistent results of which discs are out ranging which and by how much. For example, say you threw a Teebird, Wraith, and Cannon and the Teebird consistently flew farther than the other two. There's a great chance the Wraith and Cannon were too fast for you. Or all three are pretty close together, like within 15-20' from shortest to longest. Pretty good chance the Wraith and Cannon were a bit too fast unless you're getting 400'+ out of all these.

Bottom line is that elite throwers can throw midranges like 400' and most drivers are definitely capable of that, you just have to give the slower ones more height to carry that far. Of course I'm not advocating sticking to putters and mids until you can throw them hella far but your drivers need to decidedly out range your mids, your mids out range your putters to put things in basic context. If you can get a full flight out of your disc i.e. turn and fade when you want it for a good distance without strong-arming and OATing the hell out of it then you're generally good to go.

Blake Takkunen of DGR had a nice guideline of benchmark discs like an Aviar, Roc, Teebird, etc and what distances players of certain skill level should be able to consistently achieve but I couldn't find it.

 

[holotone]

How can you tell if a disc is way too fast for you? Serious question.

I'd say that as a general rule of thumb you should only throw putters / mids until you can get them out to 300ft, then add in fairway drivers until you're throwing 350ft, and only bust out distance drivers (speed 10 an above) if you're throwing 350+.

 

[BrotherDave]

I'd say that as a general rule of thumb you should only throw putters / mids until you can get them out to 300ft, then add in fairway drivers until you're throwing 350ft, and only bust out distance drivers (speed 10 an above) if you're throwing 350+.

I'm going to respectfully disagree a little bit.

Even absolute beginners are fine throwing really slow drivers like Cheetahs, Leopards, Cyclones, etc, especially in base plastic. Drivers teach you how to throw with proper nose angle a lot better than the more nose up forgiving mids and putters. The other wrinkle to this is that even if you can't throw a driver that much farther than a mid or putter, they're still useful b/c they fly on lower lines easier and if you play predominantly wooded courses often you'll encounter a lot of low ceiling fairways where a driver is often a more rewarding choice.

Basically, anyone trying to become a well-rounded a disc golfer shouldn't be afraid to bag a slow fairway driver at all. You just don't want to fall in the trap of, "well, I should drive my driver off the tee every hole b/c it says driver on it, and only use my putter to putt with," and so forth.

 

[Time2Shine]

I'm going to respectfully disagree a little bit.

Even absolute beginners are fine throwing really slow drivers like Cheetahs, Leopards, Cyclones, etc, especially in base plastic. Drivers teach you how to throw with proper nose angle a lot better than the more nose up forgiving mids and putters. The other wrinkle to this is that even if you can't throw a driver that much farther than a mid or putter, they're still useful b/c they fly on lower lines easier and if you play predominantly wooded courses often you'll encounter a lot of low ceiling fairways where a driver is often a more rewarding choice.

Basically, anyone trying to become a well-rounded a disc golfer shouldn't be afraid to bag a slow fairway driver at all. You just don't want to fall in the trap of, "well, I should drive my driver off the tee every hole b/c it says driver on it, and only use my putter to putt with," and so forth.

Pretty much how I feel about the whole thing.

I agree that atleast 1 fairway and distance driver should be in every bag.

:hfive:

 

[dgar]

I'm going to respectfully disagree a little bit.

Even absolute beginners are fine throwing really slow drivers like Cheetahs, Leopards, Cyclones, etc, especially in base plastic.

Thanks for the info...curious why you say "especially the base plastic" I'm a new player, been at this a couple months now, usually play 4 or five times a week, and I'm finally throwing a few drivers that don't immediately hook left.

My current drivers are a Dragon, and a 150gr beat in Leopard DX, I think the 150 gr may be too light for me, I just purchased a Valkyrie 168 in CH plastic yesterday.. haven't had a chance to throw it enough yet to see if its going to work for me.

I'd like to keep throwing my drivers, maybe add a few, but was curious about the base plastic comment, I just prefer the feel of the Champ plastic although I understand it takes longer to break in.. but in the heavily wooded course I play trees seem to speed up the break in period.. another reason I like the champ plastic is they don't seem to get nicked up nearly as bad when I'm chopping timber with my disc.

Thanks

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Base plastics are generally slower and have more "glide" to them than compared to premium plastics which are faster and generally more overstable than a base plastic of the same mold.

Its not a huge deal though as there are still understable premium plastic discs and IMO boils down to the players own preference in cost, feel and availability. I dont carry any baseline discs fwiw but they have unique flights and beat in to become some of the most workable discs you could have.

 

[SDMike]

Thanks for the responses guys some good info there. Like I said I'm only 4 months or so in so still learning.

The reason I asked mainly was because I started out with a NukeSS as my only driver which is now beat in pretty good. I am now turning it over or flipping. Today I drove it pretty consistently 375-400 on long T-shots that needed it and it was a feeling of accomplishment to see the disc start on a slight hyzer and then pop up and just gooooo.

Conversely I have a standard Nuke and another SS that I haven't thrown much that really seem to fade hard. I'm wondering I need to throw them each more to get them seasoned before I will really see what they will do or could it be that they are just still too fast for me?

Appreciate all the feedback, one think I am really digging about this community is the general helpfulness of the people involved.

 

[BrotherDave]

Base plastics are generally slower and have more "glide" to them than compared to premium plastics which are faster and generally more overstable than a base plastic of the same mold.

Its not a huge deal though as there are still understable premium plastic discs and IMO boils down to the players own preference in cost, feel and availability. I dont carry any baseline discs fwiw but they have unique flights and beat in to become some of the most workable discs you could have.

Precisely, well stated. For n00bs, it's generally best to err on the side of caution and try base plastic first b/c: A) it's cheap, B) it's more likely to be straight and C) a lot of the older discs fly better (glide, go farther) in them (b/c their molds were designed before the Champ kind of plastic was available).

For beginners that play predominately wooded courses, base vs premium debate is murkier. Base plastic does get beat up and warped a lot faster but it's not as bad as people make out. You just have to do what the old timers did, bend them back into shape, throw, and repeat. If you couldn't get x-outs and factory 2nds for pretty cheap, I'd still probably prefer starting out on base plastic. A lot of the faster discs (speed 10+) do kind of suck in base plastic b/c of all the weight along the wider rims makes them taco-prone.

Thanks for the responses guys some good info there. Like I said I'm only 4 months or so in so still learning.

The reason I asked mainly was because I started out with a NukeSS as my only driver which is now beat in pretty good. I am now turning it over or flipping. Today I drove it pretty consistently 375-400 on long T-shots that needed it and it was a feeling of accomplishment to see the disc start on a slight hyzer and then pop up and just gooooo.

Conversely I have a standard Nuke and another SS that I haven't thrown much that really seem to fade hard. I'm wondering I need to throw them each more to get them seasoned before I will really see what they will do or could it be that they are just still too fast for me?

Appreciate all the feedback, one think I am really digging about this community is the general helpfulness of the people involved.

Nukes are pretty inconsistent so you probably just need to break those in and see what you have. Your distances are a little on the minimal limits for having business throwing something as fast as a Nuke so I can't really comment on them being too fast without seeing you throw. You could see some benefit from throwing something a little slower or you could be a form tweak away from tacking on an extra 50' or so onto your throw, could go either way.

 

[disctildeath]

I'm going to respectfully disagree a little bit.

Even absolute beginners are fine throwing really slow drivers like Cheetahs, Leopards, Cyclones, etc, especially in base plastic. Drivers teach you how to throw with proper nose angle a lot better than the more nose up forgiving mids and putters. The other wrinkle to this is that even if you can't throw a driver that much farther than a mid or putter, they're still useful b/c they fly on lower lines easier and if you play predominantly wooded courses often you'll encounter a lot of low ceiling fairways where a driver is often a more rewarding choice.

Basically, anyone trying to become a well-rounded a disc golfer shouldn't be afraid to bag a slow fairway driver at all. You just don't want to fall in the trap of, "well, I should drive my driver off the tee every hole b/c it says driver on it, and only use my putter to putt with," and so forth.

I have to agree, I've been playing for 6 years and most of the people I know along with myself will never be able to throw a mid-range 300 ft, and believe me I've watched every clinic video possible, have a portable I practice on regularly (an hour almost everyday) and still never get consistently better (does help with putting) or get this kind of distance with putters or mids. I throw a Teebird much more consistently and with better control than a mid-range even on densely wooded courses. I will agree with the person you quoted in the sense you should probably stay away from anything with a rim over 2.0 cm if hitting 400 isn't a realistic possibility, but especially now with Innova running the Beast in Blizzard (hopefully the Orc is coming soon) and base plastics offering light weights it won't hurt players to use a driver.

 

[dgar]

? about used and new disc

Sorry these may be silly questions..

What is the "sleepy scale" people use when selling disc.


The Inova disc that have the BIG star are often times advertised as First Run, is this correct? Also many of them dont have the mold printed on them? sure would be nice to have the name of disc to simplify identifying it later..

One last one.. Jolly Rancher plastic.. please explain, I have a Mako 3 St Patricks day stamp I believe I read that it was JR plastic.. seems very similar to Champ plastic


Thanks

 

[MrGlass01]

Sorry these may be silly questions..

What is the "sleepy scale" people use when selling disc.


The Inova disc that have the BIG star are often times advertised as First Run, is this correct? Also many of them dont have the mold printed on them? sure would be nice to have the name of disc to simplify identifying it later..

One last one.. Jolly Rancher plastic.. please explain, I have a Mako 3 St Patricks day stamp I believe I read that it was JR plastic.. seems very similar to Champ plastic


Thanks

1. Sleepy is stickies on top of the market place. It's the way we rate used discs for sale or trade.
2. Those are referred to as protostar and yes they are first runs.
3. Jr plastic is newer champ that looks like jolly ranchers. It's stiffer and the mako3 is probably jr. Hope this helps.

 

[NuNinja]

Sorry these may be silly questions..

What is the "sleepy scale" people use when selling disc.


The Inova disc that have the BIG star are often times advertised as First Run, is this correct? Also many of them dont have the mold printed on them? sure would be nice to have the name of disc to simplify identifying it later..

One last one.. Jolly Rancher plastic.. please explain, I have a Mako 3 St Patricks day stamp I believe I read that it was JR plastic.. seems very similar to Champ plastic


Thanks

Disc Condition Scale aka "The Sleepy Scale"
10 - Never thrown, no ink, brand new condition
9 - Field tested or used for one or two rounds
8 - Lightly used with very minimal wear
7 - Used with some minor dings or scuffs but still in good shape
6 - Typical used disc with the usual dings, scratches but still worthy
5 - Kinda beat, significant wear, has lost a good bit of it's stability
4 - Beat up turnover disc with some evident war story wear
3 or under - Beat to Hades dog chew toy

I believe first runs are now usually tournament stamped. I don't know if this has always been the case, but some(if not all) newer "Protostar" discs are not actually first runs. Someone will correct if I am wrong.

Innova calls it "Jolly Launcher". It tends to be a bit more gummy or grippy and clear/glassy than older champ runs in my opinion.

 

[PMantle]

When people set up a photo shoot in #6 fairway because they don't know there's a disc course there, do you:

attempt to get them to move
throw way around them knowing you're going to lose a stroke
skip the hole?

 

[plastic cannon]

I would tell them that they are in danger of getting hit.

 

[Halcón]

When people set up a photo shoot in #6 fairway because they don't know there's a disc course there, do you:

attempt to get them to move
throw way around them knowing you're going to lose a stroke
skip the hole?

I'm assuming they are in a public park, right? They have the right to be there also, so I'd probably skip the hole. If they were just arriving, I might wave that I'm throwing. Either way I'd warn them of the danger of being in the fairway.