Mental State: Ratings vs Win?

[DiscFifty]

What makes you a better player, playing to improve your ratings or playing to win? And as a follow up, how does this decision affect your mental state while playing?

[NoseDownKing]

Originally Posted by DiscFifty

What makes you a better player, playing to improve your ratings or playing to win? And as a follow up, how does this decision affect your mental state while playing?

I do neither. I just try to birdie or par every hole. To be honest my goal is to win, but I'm usually not thinking about it when I play.

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[NoseDownKing]

Originally Posted by NoseDownKing

I do neither. I just try to birdie or par every hole. To be honest my goal is to win, but I'm usually not thinking about it when I play.

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The reason why I choose to do this, is because focusing on an end result is useless. You have to make the birdies before winning. Focusing on winning or ratings during a round will often lead to really poor scores. Not always but often.

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[biscoe]

If you are thinking about anything other than one shot at a time you are screwing yourself. Do your focused best on each shot and wins and ratings are simply by products. That being said, now that we do everything on Live Scoring there are times when thinking about the win can come into play- generally only very late in a round though. I have both benefited and suffered from knowing exactly what I needed to do in an event to win (or cash).

[DavidSauls]

I don't see the distinction, other than the last few holes of a tournament that you're in contention. Other than that, playing for a lower score improves both your rating, and your winning.

Edit: Biscoe beat me to it, in time and better wording.

[autocrosscrx]

I don't have disc golf competition under my belt, but I've been in a lot of competitions.

I think your game plan should include whether or not you will be checking scores. And if/when you start checking them at the end. Obviously, if you are on the last hole and looking at a 35 footer, knowing whether you are up 1 or down 1 would be helpful in decision making.

[scooby snack]

Good question. I enjoy the competition so I play to win. Rating will take care of itself.

[coupe]

My goal is to bag a 1200 rating every round, knowing that if I achieve that, I'll win 999999999 times out of 1000000000.

By the end of hole 1, I'm so pissed it ain't happening my game goes in the crapper and end up finishing DFL.



Seriously, focus on executing every shot and wins and ratings will take care of themselves.

[Meillo]

I think that winning takes an additional mind state than playing good. Winning seldom just rolls along, in a relaxed state ... at least not if you play on the same level with the others. Winning means dealing with pressure. In the case of playing well, it might be more of being in the flow. But of course, if you play well, you're likely to win every once in a while.


It would be interesting to see rating vs. win percentage stats of the top pros and if this tells something about their mental condition.

[zontar]

what's winning?