where did 30 seconds come from?

[cglasford]

Ok I understand the rule of 30 seconds but I'm curious as to where it came from and why? why 30 seconds? is there a reason or was it just some arbitrary amount of time that someone at some point decided was enough? I know disc golf takes a lot of things from Ball golf but this is not one of them.

[txmxer]

it is in the rules as far back as 1982. No idea beyond that.

3.0 EXCESSIVE TIME
1. A maximum of thirty (30) seconds is allowed to each player to make a throw once the playing area
is cleared and the previous player has thrown. On the first infraction per round, the player is officially
warned by any member of the foursome or by a PDGA official. A one throw penalty will be assessed
for all subsequent infractions in the same round. All the other players of the foursome must agree that
more than thirty (30) seconds were taken or it may be called by a PDGA official.

[cglasford]

Originally Posted by txmxer

it is in the rules as far back as 1982. No idea beyond that.

3.0 EXCESSIVE TIME
1. A maximum of thirty (30) seconds is allowed to each player to make a throw once the playing area
is cleared and the previous player has thrown. On the first infraction per round, the player is officially
warned by any member of the foursome or by a PDGA official. A one throw penalty will be assessed
for all subsequent infractions in the same round. All the other players of the foursome must agree that
more than thirty (30) seconds were taken or it may be called by a PDGA official.

Thanks, I tried to google it's origins and couldn't find much.

[seedlings]

This one guy called Carl in the late 70s used to wait until his turn to throw, when he’d start telling jokes, use the bathroom and drink a frosty beverage from the cooler. Carl was generally a fun guy until the rest of his card started to hear about how late they were getting home on golf nights. Hence, the 30 second rule was born. (Side note, Carl never did follow the rule…)

[/sarcasm]

[araytx]

okay, the answer I am going to provide is via word of mouth. I have absolutely zero documentation, only the conversations had with players when I first began playing around here. I have a local club that is (was) very old, even when I first joined in 2005 or so. As a senior grandmaster having been playing 16 or 17 years, I regularly play against people locally who've been playing for 40.

The thought process going back to when the sport was informal (without a written rule book) was that it shouldn't take a player (or worded another way, "the expectation was") maybe ten seconds, 15 at the most to make your throw. Now remember most courses were very similar and there weren't bags with 20+ discs in them back then; there in fact was very little choice of discs either. [sidenote: Imagine the surprise when I tell people that for the XD disc (originally, "Aviar XD"), the letters stood for "extra distance." Newbies don't really get that.]

However, back to the point. The people playing "back in the day" thought 10-15 seconds was enough, so when they went to make a written rule book, they actually padded the time with the thought, that, "if we make it 30 seconds, we should never have a hassle over time because no one takes more than 10-15 seconds now."

So my thought process today is "How's that working for us?"

[txmxer]

Originally Posted by cglasford

Thanks, I tried to google it's origins and couldn't find much.

I believe Chuck provided links to early versions of the rules in one of these discussions.

[txmxer]

Rules history is available on PDGA site:

https://www.pdga.com/rules/history

You can d/l the PDF's back to 1982.

[ThrowBot]

Originally Posted by araytx

The thought process going back to when the sport was informal (without a written rule book) was that it shouldn't take a player (or worded another way, "the expectation was") maybe ten seconds, 15 at the most to make your throw. Now remember most courses were very similar and there weren't bags with 20+ discs in them back then; there in fact was very little choice of discs either. [...]

The people playing "back in the day" thought 10-15 seconds was enough, so when they went to make a written rule book, they actually padded the time with the thought, that, "if we make it 30 seconds, we should never have a hassle over time because no one takes more than 10-15 seconds now."

So my thought process today is "How's that working for us?"

Thanks for the history lesson! That makes a lot of sense, but yeah most players these days would not think of that context.

The sport has certainly undergone an amount of
Locastrofication.

[araytx]

Originally Posted by cglasford

Thanks, I tried to google it's origins and couldn't find much.

I did provide the "why" above.

[Cgkdisc]

Click on Article V regarding Field Events and scroll to section 603.02C on the time allotted for making your five throws in 2 1/2 minutes during the Distance competition in Overalls. That's an average of 30 seconds allowed per throw. I suspect that the same average timing was used for disc golf rules. The primary reason for the time limit has more to do with not delaying your throw, waiting too long for favorable wind, not the amount of time it should take to think about and make your throw. We know players can throw faster with only 10 seconds for Ultimate and 7 minutes to make 28 throws in Accuracy including the time to move from station to station and get your discs returned from the player retrieving them for you.