Help me, two weeks till swiss champioinship

[Smigles1]

Ok, i need some input on how to spend my next two weeks training.

First, the situation : The Swiss championship will be held on september 25th and 26th. It will be played on a relatively open course. It used to be a golf course, and it still shows. Nice cut grass, nice layout, not too woody. In fact, there are hardly any trees at all, except for two holes with double mandos between two trees. The main difficulties in the course are the distances and the OB's that they set up.

Now about me : i started playing exactly a year ago. I played only one or two rated tournaments, and it got me a 880 rating. I trained alot this year, and i am confident that i will push this to 900+ ( on a bad day ) or even 950 ( on a good day ). I have 3 taining possibilities :

1 american football field with 5 baskets around it, good for basic training, distance drives training, putting training. Disadvantage : totaly flat, no obstacles, crowded.
1 wood course. Totaly wood. Realy no straight drives, no drives over 300 feet, you are usualy happy if you manage to get trough the first gap. Realy hard course. No baskets, the targets are trees we market.
1 course in a park. Nice layout, a good mixture between long holes and woody ones. But also no baskets

Now the thing : i got two more weeks. Where and what should i train ?

I am tempted to just continue my normal routine, which is mostly basic training on the football field, and a big focus on putting which is still the weakness of my game. I get bored of training every now and then and go to the course and play a round or two, but mostly i stay on the practice field, doing sets of 50 drives, 50 puts, mix in some approach shots etc. The usual training.

But is this the way to go ? What do you guys usualy do before a tournament that you realy want to play good ? Confidence training ? Basic training ? No training / just relaxing ? Should i challenge myself right before the tournament, or take it easy with exercices that i allready know and have a good feeling for ?

 

[JR]

It depends on your game having or not having holes if you do do you think you can fix them in such a short time? Few can will more D. Does the course have elevation changes or curves you're not used to? Practicing those and preferably with a minimal amount of discs you already have and know could help. One needs to stay in touch in putting so I wouldn't break the training cycle. Have you tried the Discraft putting confidence clinic? Just 15 minutes at a time twice a day with a sizeable break in between. The video is on Youtube and www.discraft.com Because there will be OBs I'd train accurate drives that aren't top distance. I've heard it said that golf is a game of mistakes whoever makes the least wins. Feldy said it's a game of inches. Therefore even on long holes where there is OB accuracy will help a lot.

I would rest at least as many days as you usually need to recuperate fully. On the resting days I'd putt less and not drive at all. I'm not sure where to practice is as important as how and what you're practicing.

 

[Smigles1]

My games has holes everywhere And no, i can not fix them in such a short time. ( But honestly, i dont think anyone will ever say that his game can not improve any more... )

The two things i did most lately are 1: Feldbergs putting style. I found that 1 hour video and i am working on that. 2 : Blake's snap driving technique ( as explained in beato's video ). I dont need the putting confidence thingy, thanks, i have seen that vid. My problem with putting is not confidence, it is that i have not found my style till a week ago ^^ I was trying so many different things and sometimes changing style between holes during tournament rounds, confidence was realy the least of my problems The Feldberg style feels right though, i am gonna stick with it and see where it leads me. Precision drives sure are a thing to look out for. I'll do that, limit myself to 350 feet and try to be precise.

Thanks JR, you are always fast & helpful in your answers ( Btw, are you lcgm8 on youtube ? )

 

[JR]

Just happened to be here at the right time. Who am I kidding I'm here often :-D I'm not lcgm8. Juha is also a member here using the same handle lcgm8. I've filmed five events in the past two years with him. mafa here also filmed three events with us last year. I've solo filmed two events this year and lcgm8 more. Timetables for release depends on many factors some of the events haven't been edited at all. We need to sort out manufacturing and distribution once Juha recovers from his surgery to be able to work on editing again. So far the one deal we've made hasn't resulted in sales. Hassle of an upstart company in Finland :-( Our laws don't make it easy to set up and run a business.

 

[JHern]

Practice your putting, that is absolutely everything in a tournament. Watch Mark Ellis' video on youtube about building confidence, and follow his regimen every day until the tournament. It will help you enormously, I promise.

 

[ManU]

I think this is great advice.
I got owned in two tournaments recently because my putting was a waste
You will gain more strokes with putting than with driving...unless you throw 450 and your competitors only 275

 

[Jesse B 707]

play rounds as normal until about 3 or 4 days before the tourney and then begin resting your arm. only putt for these last few days and then the morning of the tourney warm up your arm nice and gently (play catch or something and work your way up to throwing full on drives).......you should be in top form after this

 

[Smigles1]

Thanks for all the advice.

I will take a mix of it Practice mostly putting and precision drives. That and what Jesse said, rest the arm for the last 3 days before the tournament.

JR : I am sure that it must be fun to help Juha making these movies. I think they are the best Disc Golf coverage on the web. Please say hi to him, and best wishes for the recovery of his surgery and for your company ( Have you tried contacting the PDGA directly ? I know they release DVD's of their US tournaments, maybe you can take over the european part of it ^^ Your movies sure are better than theirs )

 

[JR]

We have been working ad hoc so far so there's no company yet. We haven't had luck with involving others so we need to look at what we can do ourselves first. I don't want to shut out any possibility. There have been brain storming sessions about involving others and future projects so we'll see what life brings. If Juha is well enough and nice things happen to our plans my socks aren't the only ones rotating in the feet I can say this about filming: It's hard job. You need to walk more than the players and breathing is bad in most cases so you need to stop doing it often. Sometimes you need to run and try not to breathe afterward. Joy.

The guys had good comments about warming up before the event. It's essential to have the drives and putts both being smooth not forced and herky jerky.

 

[krazybronco]

if you know the course as in the each hole and know where the landing spots are. go the the football field and pratice the throwing the holes and the upshots this helps if you know the lines you want to hit

i know this isnt as good as playing the course but if the course is to far to play a few times before the tourny it can at least help you know what you want to do when you get to the course

i do this when i have played a course before but dont have the time to play a full round becuase you dont have to walk to each drive depending on the course and the upshots i can throw most of my bag before i have to walk and pick up my discs

 

[keltik1]

wie traurig und sweizerisch ist das keinen Taschen haben. es tut mir leid Smigles. :lol:

EDIT: putten übung wurde besser spielen machen. alles andere ist Theorie.

 

[Smigles1]

I would rest at least as many days as you usually need to recuperate fully. On the resting days I'd putt less and not drive at all.

Boy should i have listened to that ^^

Went into the tournament with back pain from playing all week :? Played my worst round ever :?

Thanks for the hints everybody, i followed them for about a week before excitement realy took over and i played too much and realy wanted to push it while i had work and school and cleaning up the wedding party. Wasnt realy the best idea. Saturday was a pure catastrophy. Bad shot decisions followed by bad execution due to a nice stinging pain in the lower back. Sunday was a bit better after a good nights sleep, shot a par round and was more relaxed. But then the tournament was allready over for me ^^

I'll put this one away as a learning experience and follow your suggestions better next time.

 

[JHern]

If you're straining your back, your throw is probably tweaked. You should really try to change your mechanics, because your back should never feel strained.

It is the opposite for me...I had a back ache last week from doing something else, and then I went to play a round of 18 later in order to soothe my back pain. It worked marvelously, the pain went away almost completely after about 4-5 holes.

 

[Smigles1]

To be honest, i think it is more from the walking around and picking up discs and carrying the bag than from the actual throwing. And of course from sitting in front of my PC all day. Damn office job.