Keeping a positive attitude is just hippie malarkey

[Discwrangler]

The main component to outbursts and rudeness is fear. If you're afraid you do dumb things (the war on drugs, loaded weapons in the house etc).

Play your best and enjoy your time.

 

[Dan Ensor]

I don't think OP ever advocated acting rude or obnoxious. Your mentality doesn't have to affect your actions, and is less likely to if that mentality is intentional.

I see validity in both arguments. I think everyone has a base emotion that they play best in.

Haters gonna hate. That's what they do. Don't let them throw your game off.

 

[Ryan P.]

Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, you're right.

-Henry Ford

 

[Dan Ensor]

All of the "greats" in every sport play because they love the game and have fun doing it. Anybody taking a sport half way seriously is playing to win. Any real DGer even playing a casual round with your buddies for "entertainment and social bonding," is trying to beat their pals. Finding the balance between focusing and playing great and enjoying yourself is what all the truly great players do.

I hope you're wrong. 'Cause I'd kinda like to be great. And I rarely try to beat my pals. They're more fun to hang out with when they win.

 

[JoeBob21]

Dan Ensor, you posts are contradicting each other...

 

[DeadEye]

Why isn't OP banned yet, if he's a secondary account of a banned person?

We know it's not because he contributes anything.

 

[zenbot]

I just try to get to a point where outside thoughts cease to exist, if I can block out everything and completely concentrate on my shot I do so much better it's ridiculous. It's almost like a brief meditation before I shoot.

Johnson?!? Where have you been?

 

[Kodachrome]

if i'm constipated, i get pretty irritated. i push harder with the same results. . if it ain't there, it ain't there, and your attitude is not the cause of your failure.

probably can't post the video because it's so profane, so we'll just go with the old saying . . .

coffee is for closers.

OP, i see your point, but i prefer to keep my mind blank and keep to myself. positive attitude is great, but doesn't really help me focus. DG is about doing the same things with great consistency, just like any other sport. keep your mind out of it except for calculations and let your body and disc take over. i find i shoot best when i'm sort of zoned out because i just know what i'm going to do and i know what my disc will do afterward.

and no, i haven't won any championships. it's kind of a moot point; attitude hasn't won anybody anything, but being courteous definitely earns you more respect overall. i don't think DG is so big that sponsors would want to be associated with an asshat. there is a practical aspect to one's attitude, but i wouldn't say it extends to your ability as a disc golfer unless you're truly downing yourself, or so focused on what happened elsewhere that you can't tune into yourself.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Dan Ensor, you posts are contradicting each other...

You're gonna have to point out the contradiction to me. I'm a little slow.

 

[JoeBob21]

And I rarely try to beat my pals. They're more fun to hang out with when they win./QUOTE]

I understand that this is entertainment and social bonding for some people, but for me it's comptetition. Pure and simple. I don't "have fun" playing disc golf./QUOTE]

IDK why inserting the quotes didnt work... quotes from pgs 7-9

 

[Dan Ensor]

And I rarely try to beat my pals. They're more fun to hang out with when they win.

I understand that this is entertainment and social bonding for some people, but for me it's comptetition. Pure and simple. I don't "have fun" playing disc golf.

IDK why inserting the quotes didnt work... quotes from pgs 7-9

When I play with my friends I play forehand or lefthanded. Something dumb like that that I'm trying to work on. Ends up better for everyone. And only if I see that my beating them is going to adversely affect my social life. Some times it's fine to beat them.

 

[dukdukgolf]

When I play with my friends I play forehand or lefthanded. Something dumb like that that I'm trying to work on. Ends up better for everyone. And only if I see that my beating them is going to adversely affect my social life. Some times it's fine to beat them.

you are making even less sense. Now you said the opposite thing like 3 times. You are competitive, you dont like beating your friends because they are more fun when they win but sometimes its fun to beat them. lol.


I disagree with OP, i think a positive mental attitude does help your physical game. I also think positive attitudes in a particular group can help your game just as really negative attitudes can bring your game down.

 

[Mueltrain54]

Think about the best competitive round of DG you have ever played... How did your cardmates fair? I am guessing they also played relatively well. If for no other reason, I always strive to be friendly and positive so that the people on my card play halfway decent and don't have temper tantrums. ****ty play is almost as contagious as a ****ty attitude.

Even if I am on a card with someone I detest I will help them find their disc or congratulate them on a nice birdie. Outwardly I am continuing my positive attitude for aforementioned reasons, but inwardly I am thinking, sure I will help you find that terrible shot thats costing you strokes, or I am using their good results as motivation to improve my own game.

The bottom line in any tourney I play is that I am there to win, but the only rounds I have ever failed to enjoy were rounds where my cardmates played poorly and I fell into the quicksand of a bad attitude and bad play. If everyone has a good attitude and I play poorly, I chalk it up as a good time and re-focus on practicing and playing well at the next event.

 

[discmeettree]

This is for the OP:

 

[Johnny_Crunch]

I think your confusing anger and confidence........ Play confident, not angry.

 

[Teebird Elvis]

Loser talk

Exactly

 

[Deuces]

Every time we step on a teepad to compete we all have 3 battles to fight.

The weather - we have no control over this.
The course - we have no control over this unless you are the one that does maintenance shaping that particular course.
Ourselves - this is the only battle we truly have any control over.

I really like this quote and the insight the author offers below.

"Golfing legend Bobby Jones recognized that being good at golf was not only about having good woods and irons. Said Jones: " Golf is a game that is played on a 5 inch course - the distance between your ears." Bobby Jones had a lot of physical attributes going for him on the course but there is no doubt that he also recognized that golf was in part, a little like chess, and that there was a cerebral element without which the golfer faltered."

The OP here appears to be misguided and somewhat grumpy. The very best players in the world say nice shot when their opponents park a hole and say thank you when their opponents complement their efforts. It all goes back to good ole rule #1 of living a good life: Don't be a d!@k.

 

[Toro71]

It seems like there might be 2 different things here.

You can have a positive attitude, and be a fierce competitor.

Being positive doesn't mean singing cumbaya and wearing flowers in your hair and hoping to lose your card. I'd say that what the OP is talking about is part of having a positive attitude.

But that doesn't mean that you can't also be "professional" about it. I think about McBeth here. The guy's ferocious. I can't think of a worse player to have to face on a final round. But he doesn't seem to have the reputation of being a doosh about it.

Wanting to win is one thing. Wanting your competitors to lose is different. My attitude about that is, I want to win my card against the best possible competition. Better play all around makes me a better player, and if I'm doing my job, I don't need to play head games to win.

I do my best when I look at a competitive round like the blackjack table. Sure, I want to do better than anyone else at the table, but I'm playing against the house, not them, and I can congratulate another winner, if I'm not on the hot streak that night. It's called class, not loser mentality.

 

[smarkquart]

I find the best way to play with friends is to let them handle the scorecard and never ask what my score is. I already know how I am playing in my head, but they do not need a reminder that I might be winning, sometimes by a lot. Most of everyone else I play with are of even ability, so I let them fight it out in regards to who is beating who and by how much. I will just play my game and try to beat them quietly; I will let my throws do all the talking for me.

I can still play to the best of my ability but as long as I do not rub in how we are doing overall, we all have fun. Now, rubbing it in how we might have done on a particular hole, that is a different matter.

 

[smarkquart]

On a slight side note about being too competitive: Three of us were playing last night at a course we all know very well. We know how fast we can normally play and the course was relatively packed. On a Par 5 where I average 4.5 I was being destroyed by bad luck and just poor technique on my part, luckily limiting the damage to a 7. My friends were circle 7 and double circle 11. The group behind us teed off on us before we cleared the first dogleg and one of them yelled out, "we're playing through on the next hole!" upon seeing my friend splash in the water for the second time.

Even with up to three groups playing this hole at once, there is still a little bit of time after the first group putts out and the second group can approach for a putt. He expected us to wait on the next tee so his group could take another five minutes, hole out, and then tee off in front of us. On our average days we were better players than him and his group, but we were all having a bad round. When his friend temporarily lost a disc on the final approach, he nearly lost his temper because he saw that we were not going to wait for his group to meet us on the next tee. That is being too competitive and not having fun just being out. The weather in Minnesota has been so horrendous recently that any time out is a blessing.

We then strung together three straight good holes, putting us on the final tee box that happens to be next to the tee box that we were supposed to wait for his group to play through. They were just now walking up to that tee box and he was clearly fuming. Why bother playing? If you are taking it that seriously, go to a park where people cannot see you being such an ass.