Game Plan: throw these frisbees...into the basket

[discallday]

"Just gonna throw these fribees towards the basket, and then try to throw them inTO the basket." (First minute of https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=51&v=_rR_Iumg-bM)

Sometimes discussion between interviewers and players regarding game plan or strategy is funny. This is the case in many sports, with many athletes, but dg does seem to have a set of oft repeated game plan answers, such as "stay in bounds," "play safe," "take birdies when they come," etc. Basically, stay on the safe side of balancing risk-reward, because this tends to produce lower scores on average.

These kinds of answers are so frequently used, that they can make the player and/or the interviewer appear slightly silly. For the player, I sometimes think: well I guess it's not a clearly elaborated strategy that's separating their performance from the rest of us lesser disc golfers. For the interviewer, I sometimes think: what did you expect them to say - "summon the wind god to send opponents' shots OB on hole 8, and then prey on their weakened mental state by casting the imperius curse, thus destroying the rest of their round?"

Since disc golf is a game of a player against themselves and the course, the idea of strategy, which usually revolves around offense and defense in other sports, doesn't always seem to be particularly developed. Or conversely, a player might have clearly established ideas about what they will try to do on many/all of the holes, but the nature of the general "game plan" question does not always open the door for such a detailed answer.

I'm not 100% sure what to make of Locastro's answer. Perhaps he was implicitly poking fun at the game plan question a la: "c'mon Terry, I'm not gonna give you a rundown of our complete strategy on my 30 second walk to the first hole before the round starts."

Or maybe: "C'mon Terry, I'm Nikko ef*in Locastro, I don't follow game plans. And for that matter, any rapscallion who does is missing the point of disc golf."

But the most likely interpretation seems to be that Locastro simply didn't give this 2nd of 2 doubles rounds much prior thought - which is hard to fault, because (as Miller alludes to) with the alternating tee-shot format in this round, play can be difficult to predict/plan for.

Though the game plan question is not a creative one to ask, I think in this video it did serve to establish the relaxed atmosphere in this less serious of events, which actually was pretty appropriate. But has anyone else had similar thoughts that certain interviewers should more fully consider how they're wording their questions, or what they're trying to find out with their strategy questions? Or, has anyone else thought that the strategy question is completely useless? Etc.?

 

[Pbmercil]

Yess!!! Loved the tongue and cheek answer.

Unfortunately athletes in the big sports are extremely well trained to give basically useless, nondescript answers to media at all times. The media, needing access to the athletes to exist, plays along and gives them nothing but softball questions so they can play fill in the cliche.

The cool thing about disc golf is that our athletes, because they are under much less scrutiny and the stakes are considerably lower, really have no reason to play that game. It's not hard to get them to give real answers to interesting questions. Unfortunately, the small group of disc golf "media" for whatever reason, has taken to emulating their big brothers in traditional sports media. Like a good media person, Terry needed a soundbite for his video so he lobbed Nikko a standard softball, because he was going to get the soundbite he needed regardless of what Nikko said. "Well, ya know Terry I'm just gonna take it one shot at a time out and play my game" .... how boring. I would love to see our small but growing group of disc golf media to start thinking more cricically about what they ask the players and start getting some much more interesting dialog going. The players are super hungry for any kind of exposure, I think it's a win win for everybody.

 

[onemilemore]

Yess!!! Loved the tongue and cheek answer.

Unfortunately athletes in the big sports are extremely well trained to give basically useless, nondescript answers to media at all times. The media, needing access to the athletes to exist, plays along and gives them nothing but softball questions so they can play fill in the cliche.

The cool thing about disc golf is that our athletes, because they are under much less scrutiny and the stakes are considerably lower, really have no reason to play that game. It's not hard to get them to give real answers to interesting questions. Unfortunately, the small group of disc golf "media" for whatever reason, has taken to emulating their big brothers in traditional sports media. Like a good media person, Terry needed a soundbite for his video so he lobbed Nikko a standard softball, because he was going to get the soundbite he needed regardless of what Nikko said. "Well, ya know Terry I'm just gonna take it one shot at a time out and play my game" .... how boring. I would love to see our small but growing group of disc golf media to start thinking more cricically about what they ask the players and start getting some much more interesting dialog going. The players are super hungry for any kind of exposure, I think it's a win win for everybody.

I'm completely on board with the idea that we need to ask tougher questions, but the access problem still exists. With disc golf being so small, the number of influencers is even smaller, so anyone rocking the boat will bring a lot of attention to him or herself quickly.

That said, there's no harm in trying to ask some tougher questions and gaining some more access. For every robotic McBeth response, you'll likely be able to find someone who will open up. Just have to get them at the right time and place.

 

[BgWvDave]

I got a kick out of Nikko's response. was tongue in cheek and absolutely got a laugh out of me. Keep it simple Nikko! haha.

 

[Smigles]

I have heared good players saying that you should stop thinking and just throw. Maybe that's what Niko meant with "keep it simple" and "just throw the Frisbees into the basket".

Or maybe he really did not think much about it before the round. Specially with alternate shot, you can plan all night, miss a simple putt on hole 1 and from there on you are never on game plan again.

 

[7ontheline]

Or maybe he really did not think much about it before the round. Specially with alternate shot, you can plan all night, miss a simple putt on hole 1 and from there on you are never on game plan again.

It was alternate shot but Men throw the odd holes, Women throw the even so some strategy could still hold.

If anyone is going to give you an off the cuff you gotta be a character in this life if you want people to remember you reply, Nikko has gotta be on that list. So why over complicate a simple mind. Nikko was probably honest and didn't put much thought into a strategy other than trying to be on his best behavior since it wasn't all about him.

I would have like to heard Nikko's response to when do you throw your MVP

 

[Smigles]

It was alternate shot but Men throw the odd holes, Women throw the even so some strategy could still hold.

Oh, I did not know. That's not really alternate then, is it?

Anyway thanks for clearing that up.