Minimizing tournament bag

[gcr_russell]

Ive wanted to try this for a while but never can let myself do this. In a tournament most of us carry way too many molds/discs. It causes second guessing on the teepad and probably lends itself to some sloppy decision making. My next tournament will likely be the beginning of June on wooded courses and Id like to try and carry less than 10 discs for it.
I'm thinking
Anode
Axis
Vector
River
PD2
Cannon

This should meet all of my needs just fine, and I'm thinking may help my scores in the consistency department. I'd even consider minimizing the bag more than that.
Has anyone tried a heavily minimized bag in tournament play, and if so what were your results?

 

[gcr_russell]

I've also considered shelving anything faster than the river and just adding an overstable fairway driver in there, but it's just too much fun to bust out a big disc on the really long holes, even though I'm comfortable with my river at 400'.

 

[deBebbler]

We held a 2-Disc Challenge last summer during one league night, and I scored the same as my avg score for the course in singles league play. Despite lacking distance and a number of shots I normally would have, it showed me that I regularly make a number of poor disc selections per round with a full bag.

My only suggestion, if you think those discs would suit your needs, would be to keep those molds and add backups for the discs you can't do without (goto distance driver, putter, etc) until you get 10 discs.

OK, one more: If your 6 discs are premium discs, I would also suggest getting some of the backups in lower end plastic for rainy tournament play where you need a dependable grip (e.g. its nice to have one DX Roc or Pro-D Buzzz when it rains).

 

[KenTyburski]

I haven't tried this for tourney play, just for casual rounds. But now that I have a bigger bag for tourneys, I may use my smaller Innova starter bag, put the disc dividers back in, and take just 6-8 discs when I go play casually. Who knows? I might find I like the idea and decide to play a tourney with the small bag one day. I guess this is a reason to buy a NutSac.

In fact, recently, I forgot my bag and my putters one day when I was rushing out to play my local course. I had a duffel bag with a mixture of stuff in it in my car, so I just played with three loose midranges (Z Buzzz SS, GL Core, and FLX Drone). Tied my personal tournament best from the long tees.

 

[KenTyburski]

OK, one more: If your 6 discs are premium discs, I would also suggest getting some of the backups in lower end plastic for rainy tournament play where you need a dependable grip (e.g. its nice to have one DX Roc or Pro-D Buzzz when it rains).

Or if, God forbid, you lose one. :|

 

[KenTyburski]

I've also considered shelving anything faster than the river and just adding an overstable fairway driver in there, but it's just too much fun to bust out a big disc on the really long holes, even though I'm comfortable with my river at 400'.

Yeah, I'm with you here. I love having a few nice long glidey drivers available. I don't know that I can throw my River 400', but I haven't really tried. Still, a good idea. It's always nice to throw minimal discs; you get to know them so intimately.

 

[gcr_russell]

Yeah I have a nutsac, and I think I want to use that instead of my grip bag and just carry a jug of water with me too. If nothing else I will have satiated my curiosity. Tournaments for me are about fun first and performance second. Good thing too, or I would have had a horrible time last weekend.

 

[Dr.Seuss]

This should meet all of my needs just fine, and I'm thinking may help my scores in the consistency department. I'd even consider minimizing the bag more than that.
Has anyone tried a heavily minimized bag in tournament play, and if so what were your results?

I played the GBO this year and there were 40 MPH winds all weekend. It was an interesting way to play and by Sunday I had moved my bag of 16 down do 12 and 2 were back ups. I took discs out that I new were either not consistant for me with the wind in play or that I was not going to use at all during the round.

I agree that taking them out helped with my disc selection on the tee, it allowed me to focus on making the best disc choice in the wind. I find myself taking out any distance drivers when I play short courses or wooded courses.

 

[ohtobediscing]

For the rest of us, it really sucks when you pull out a disc, consider it, reject it and put it back, pull out another disc, look at it, scratch your crotch and return the disc, and on and on and on and on...

 

[Star Shark]

Only thing you're missing is a meathook that I could see. A Firebird or XXX could come in handy. It's amazing, though, how little you need most of your bag. I threw Sylmar with just a Shark and shot -2 <my record at the time was -5>.

 

[weeman]

I did this last tournament between rounds. First round was calling for rain so I carried an extra disc or two but ended up not using them or multiple others in the bag. So I slimmed down between rounds and took out five or six discs.

Usually if I know the course I'm going to I'll cut down the number of discs I'm carrying anyway to the bare essentials. Especially in tournament because of the other extras that I carry; snacks, extra water, chair, rain jacket, umbrella. So really the total weight almost balances itself out.

 

[ringerguy]

You will like it for the simple fact that you will be lugging around much less dead weight.

 

[sonny]

You've probably heard the old saying: it's the Indian, not the arrow. It's really true.

I've done a lot of experimenting with this topic and I have proven to my satisfaction that I play better with a 10-disc bag than I do with a 20-disc bag. What's really surprising though (at least it surprised me) is that I play better using just four discs than I do with a 10-disc bag. So I've given up carrying a bag unless I am playing a course where there's a good chance I might lose a disc.

And I do OK with the minimal line up. I don't play a lot of PDGA tourneys, but I've won the GM division the last two years in the big local tourney. I'm holding the #11 bag tag (out of about 45 or so) in the local club, which I figure ain't too shabby for a 58 year old guy. And it's just more fun playing without lugging a bag around.

If you're thinking of minimizing the discs you carry around, then you probably should. You can do a lot more with less in my experience.

 

[Menacewarf]

Only thing you're missing is a meathook that I could see. A Firebird or XXX could come in handy. It's amazing, though, how little you need most of your bag. I threw Sylmar with just a Shark and shot -2 <my record at the time was -5>.

he mentions a PD2.

 

[gcr_russell]

Next tournament is two courses and two rounds per course. I'll be doing this at least the first round at each course, and if I dont play like garbage I'll keep it up through the whole tournament. And the las poster was right, the PD2 is my way overstable utility disc that I can use for specialty shot and short or long overstable duties.

 

[VictorB]

Ive wanted to try this for a while but never can let myself do this. In a tournament most of us carry way too many molds/discs. It causes second guessing on the teepad and probably lends itself to some sloppy decision making. My next tournament will likely be the beginning of June on wooded courses and Id like to try and carry less than 10 discs for it.
I'm thinking
Anode
Axis
Vector
River
PD2
Cannon

This should meet all of my needs just fine, and I'm thinking may help my scores in the consistency department. I'd even consider minimizing the bag more than that.
Has anyone tried a heavily minimized bag in tournament play, and if so what were your results?

Best advice I can give is practice how you play, and play how you practice.

I did this a couple of years ago. Just had destroyer, teebird, predator, roc, comet, challenger in the bag (was actually 12 total discs). -edit: hey, pretty similar to my setup right now! guess I liked that theory- Played about half the season that way, so it wasn't a distraction at tournaments and local minis.

Just don't over-minimalize. You need to have the tools to take care of any weird situations that might pop up in tournament play, so don't limit yourself too much.

 

[jtreadwell]

While I haven't started playing tournaments yet (timing always conflicts with my odd work schedule) I try to keep my bag minimized as a rule and never carry more than 10 - 11 discs. Of the discs I carry now, I really only use the Banger, Roc, Banshee, Eagle, and Archon. I find the more options I have, the more second guessing I do.

 

[Jeasy13]

I carry
2 pro destroyers
Star destroyer
Champ destroyer
Flippy blizz destroyer

1 CTD
1 STD

2 z Stalkers

1 opto Fuse

1 FlX Buzzz
1 Glow Buzzz

1 Z wasp

Xlink VP
Xlink Ridge
Xlink Summit

2 soft magnets

I think I carry 1 putter mold too many, but my magnets get everything inside the circle, and then I have a OS/Stable/US driving/approach putters with the vibrams. I used to throw my magnets of the tee also, but one good tree hit and they're tacoed.

I carry 5 destroyers for a reason. My 2 pros are perfectly seasoned, straight flying machines.
The Star and Champ are still pretty beefy, amd they handle most of my sidearm Duties. The Blizzard gets used for super long annies and flex
Shots, and is my go to tailwind driver

 

[T.Hizzle]

OK, one more: If your 6 discs are premium discs, I would also suggest getting some of the backups in lower end plastic for rainy tournament play where you need a dependable grip (e.g. its nice to have one DX Roc or Pro-D Buzzz when it rains).

Microfiber towels are cheaper and D/DX plastic is a waste of money.

 

[The Hammer]

Microfiber towels are cheaper and D/DX plastic is a waste of money.

Plus, it rarely rains in Arizona. No need really.