Step 1: get girl interested. Step 2: keep girl interested?

[mashnut]

Only teach when she asks for advice or seems very frustrated with her throw. Even when she is obviously doing something that is killing her distance or is technically against the rules(ie stepping in front of her marker). If she is having fun, keep your mouth shut and let her play. And the hanicap thing is a great idea but even that can be thrown out. Just let her compete against herself if she wants. My wife knows I'm more consistent,(I practice she doesn't) if she was trying to beat me even with a handicap I think it would frustrate her. Having a disc that she can be consistently STRAIGHT and hopefully FAR with is also very big. If she's always in the trees she is going to hate it.

This is good advice, my gf had a lot more fun at first when I only gave her advice if she asked for it. Now we both help each other with form, but we still try to keep it from being a constant thing.

Mulligans are a great idea volklgirl! My gf takes a mulligan for every 9 holes we play (more if she's having a rough day), and it really helps her enjoy tougher courses more if she doesn't always have to play from a terrible lie.

 

[TalbotTrojan]

I agree with Amenz on the coaching only when she wants it. I am one of those guys that just has the bug to coach other people but I have learned that even the, "calm down and focus" comment frustrates people. So, if someone asks for help I am more than willing to give advice, not that I can follow it myself but I have watched enough of the videos online to know what I should be doing.

On another note, I think the big thing for most women are knowing that there are other women out there playing as well. So, getting her sister involved is great but if you can find a women's only clinic or something through a local club or something like that, that would be best.

 

[Moffwicket]

Ok, it's hard to give advice without knowing what your fiancee is thinking, so I'm gonna assume based on how my wife approaches disc golf.

-Except for beating me on a random short hole now and again, my wife has no hope of competing with me. Nobody likes to lose, even girls. Solution? Don't compete with her. You can keep your own score, but maybe she doesn't want to. Disc golf is fun even without scoring.
-Similarily, don't be a rules stickler. If she drives straight into the woods, let her shoot over. Let her step past her disc, stuff like that. This should be a given, but you shoot from longs, she shoots from shorts.
-Keep the tips to a minimum. Maybe twice per round. She probably doesn't like being told what to do.
-Unless she's really athletic or dedicated to getting better (and its okay if she's not), realize that her drives won't get much better. She will probably never have "good" form. I've taught my wife to throw every shot anhyzer, so with the fade her shots will go farther than they would otherwise, and they will end up relatively straight ahead.
-Compliment her on nice shots and putts. But don't overdo it. You will seem like you're patronizing her if you do.
-Like everyone else has said, make sure she gets to pick out her own cute new discs. Remember, cuteness is way more important than weight and flight characteristics. My wife started playing with some crappy thing I found somewhere. Then she bought her own disc and hated it. Eventually she bought a new version of the crappy one she started with.
-Make it a group outing with other women. We go with my friends and their wives sometimes.
-Realize that she will probably never love disc golf as much as you. Don't expect her to play everytime you feel like it. I'm going to assume since you two are engaged, you spend a lot of time with her. As time goes on and your relationship develops, you'll both want more time away from each other. Frisbee golf can be your "guy time" thing you do away from her if you need to play more often.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Amenz]

-Compliment her on nice shots and putts. But don't overdo it. You will seem like you're patronizing her if you do.

yeah, I get more excited half the time when she makes a good shot. great advice.

 

[solomon.trenton]

Take her to an easier course to get her confidence up. That usually helps me. A lot of it is just having confidence. My bf tells me good throw and gives me tips to get a little better, that also helps.

agreed, maybe like a short par 3 (shrugs)

 

[whitechocolate]

Volkgirl and Moffwicket had some great suggestions.

Here are a couple of things that we do when the fiance and I play together:

-I always get her disc from the rough. I pull it out of trees, bushes, tall grass, water, whatever it is. I let her play from the edge of the fairway if she wants. The couple steps out are not going to make or break her round. It just makes it easier for her. She sometimes take the hard shots, but this is more comfortable.
-I always let people play through who catch us. I let groups of 4 to 6 pass at times if they are play faster. There is no sense in make her feel more uncomfortable or self-conscious.
-I always tee off first and then let her tee. Then I throw a second one. For awhile, she will play her shots all the way through. When she starts to get tired or frustrated, we then turn it into "you play from my better throw". I play from the worse throw which gives me an opportunity to work on getting out of trouble or longer approaches. She used to just throw from my drive when she got tired, but this adds a little bit of competition to help it stay more interesting for both of us.
-I also pack a little more of a variety of discs in my bag than I would normally carry. This way I can let her try different things if her discs are not working, or I have something for her to try for a certain shot.
-I only give her one tip a round for improvement. I will wait until a handful of holes are played and give her one suggestion of an adjustment.
-I teach her it is only disc golf and who cares. It's fun. I two holes. I five holes. I've snowman holes.

I cannot believe I am going to admit this publicly, but I am 32 years old and don't care about being cool anymore. We have little cute things that make her happy.

We have what we call "par kisses". She hits a 3, you get the picture. But everytime she hits a 3 she gets super excited now. We celebrate. Stupid little games with each other make it fun. Make up your own. We do all the time for all kinds of things. But than again, we're childish.

She has her own discs. The only one I would throw is the Buzzz. But like we tell everyone else; what works for one person does not work for everyone. If she wants to keep knocking down 50 foot putts with her Aero, that's cool. That's what she does. If she wants to throw the TeeRex and have it go crashing into the ground after 50 feet with a hyzer, that's cool too. She is learning that right now her longest distance disc is a Pro TeeBird L. It just takes time.

Make it fun, don't make it training for her first tourney. She's not. She's trying to spend time with you doing something you enjoy. That evening, do the dishes and curl up on the couch and watch "Newlywed, Nearly Dead" on TLC (I think that's the network). It's hilarious.

 

[elmattarino]

Yeah, you really have to make it entertaining. I am getting my wife comfortable going out with me. I'll play and she'll walk the dogs alongside. She'll throw one every once and a while but she hates to play putt putt (BG) because she can't get the ball in the hole. She's not very patient...

Find something that works and go with it. Give incentives for good play. Maybe like beat the score on the front nine over the back nine and we'll see a chick flick... I hate them but keeping it G-Rated, make it interesting XD

 

[Disc Dog]

Thanks for the tips guys.

She has put out an invite to her sister; who's husban plays so that might help.

She hyzers even the 150 shark I am wondering if maybe I should get her a 150 Stingray, if that might even help her. Kinda way over-compensating but just might make it straight for her.

I might know a nice easy course to take her to; good idea!

Get her something like an archangel. It is very understable, and the speed to make it spin is low, and I find easy to throw. Because of this it will sail straight for her. It has worked for a couple of friends.

 

[volklgirl]

We too, have stupid stuff we do when we play together....

Hole #9 is the "gotta kiss me now" hole; if I beat him on a hole, not only do I get the box, but I get to play grab-a$$ too ; if he beats me on a hole, he has to kiss me. (Somehow it looks like I win every possible way on this ). Then I treat him to ice cream when we're done. It all keeps me entertained and keeps him from taking it too seriously.

 

[colodiscgolfer]

Get her something like an archangel. It is very understable, and the speed to make it spin is low, and I find easy to throw. Because of this it will sail straight for her. It has worked for a couple of friends.

My wife starting playing about a month ago, and getting her an archangel was one of the best possible things for her game. She added 60 ft to her drive instantly (200-225ft now), and can actually get it to go the direction she tries to throw it without having to compensate for the natural precession of the disk. I always make sure to get her disk for her when she throws it into a creek, tree, swamp, etc... just to be gentlemanly. She's pretty competitive and athletic, so she's not so into giving her mulligans, or other special rules. She's been getting quite a few pars on 300 ft range holes lately, and I think after we sort out a few more kinks, she'll be able to pick up some birdies too. We have a pin in the backyard to practice on, so her putting is fairly solid (oddly enough she's MUCH better from 25-35ft than she is from 10-20ft). One thing she really likes is to keep tracking her progress, and as long as she's getting better she's happy... even if she's not scoring as low as me and my buddies.

 

[billnchristy]

It might help to show her tournament results too. After I told my wife what pro women score (well out of her league, but attainable compared to pro men) she was very relieved.