Practice bag setup questions

[Quinntastic]

As the summer season seems to be winding down already up in the northland, I'm starting to change my mindset more into practice and improvement. I've had a solid summer of experiments and technique tweaks, new discs, reviving old discs and finding my form. Its been a ride for sure and I'm wanting to keep progressing.

Ive had quite the year, last summer, August 12th to be exact, I was admitted to the hospital with necrotizing pancreatitis. I'm lucky to be alive is an understatement lol. 2 months only hydrated by IV and no food, relearning to walk, it's been a journey so far. I've had to really try and set myself towards some goals, both for my physical recover, and for my own sanity at times. It's been a long road and I am happy to say I've recovered more then anyone expected me to so far. I know that disc golf has been a big part of that for me. Not that I plan on being a touring pro, but I enjoy the challenge of bettering myself and I know there is much more in the tank for me. Anyways I'm off subject now, but I just wanted to say thanks to all the people on here who have been so helpful in traversing the awesome game we play.

So back to my main reason for this post. I have finally, after a long few months, started to feel like I have a solid understanding of my game and what suits me. I've spent a fair amount of time, as we all have I'm sure, acquiring discs that suit my needs and trying to get a good bag of discs for practice work. I've posted a lot recently and have put up a post on my bag for rounds, but I would like some thoughts about people's attitudes for practice setups.

I won't get into weights or too many specifics for simplicities sake;

Distance Drivers:
I have 8 destroyers total, in pairs of stability (2very OS, 2 strait-OS, 2 US, 2 rollers)

Fairways:
OS fairways are FD3 (actual bagged mold) 11x firebird, xxx, and a savant(numbers seem to be deceiving but it flies close to my Fd3 so I keep it for practice)

Higher speed fairways are Mint alpha ( actual bagged discs, one apex and one eternal) 2 champ thunderbirds, and a PD

Then I have a a few teebirds, 2 champ, 2 DX glow with some early turn, E* with turn, DX that flips, but I also have a DX eagle, opto saint pro and a DX banshee that all fly similar.

Then a stack of roc and roc3s, varying plastics, about 12 in total. I had been playing for years and just never clicked with it, until this year when it all made sense what the hype was. Also have a glow buzzz, QMS, and a Pine that I have in my bag cause I like how they fly.

I have a couple P2s for putting, and I use a c-line p3 for approaches and drives. but have a stack of marshals that I used to use as my main putter early this year. I'm assuming these would be fine for form analysis and basic practice even if I don't use them in rounds anymore?

So should I be more concerned with having the exact mold, or more concerned with having as similar a flight pattern as possible? In other words could I practice with a teebird, an eagle, and a saint pro that all had similar flights and still be effective with my practice long term?

Also, should I be practicing with discs in as many conditions as I bag? I carry 2-3 teebirds all with different stabilities during rounds, so should I get 2-3 more discs in each stability, making 9-12 total discs for that slot? Or would it be smarter to just practice with the stability I use most often exclusively?

Same with a roc cycle, it's hard to have exactly the same stability unless they're all new. So is it worth getting to a point I have exact copies? especially considering most of my discs are used when I got them so they all have special quirks now, which is great on the course, but in practice I'm unsure if I'm practicing inconsistency. Sorry for the long rant and again thanks for the help!


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[RFrance]

For what it's worth, I went through the pancreatitis thing 32 years ago, so you have my sympathies. Unfortunately, diabetes is probably in your future.

Now to the important stuff. My usual practice bucket is 12 discs. Any less, too much time picking them up, and any more, too much time hunting for them. I have 4 putters, 4 mids/fairway, and 4 drivers. I switch them out to try to match my bag. What I'm finding is that I'm rediscovering discs that I had as my form improves. Discs that used to hook left now fly straight with a gentle fade. An understable disc flies more like what inboundsdiscgolf chart shows. I probably should throw my bag more on the practice field but I know it won't be the same as what I see on the course.

 

[SaROCaM]

I think it depends on what school of thought you follow regarding your discs. If you accept the philosophy of cycling molds/manipulating the discs, then you can get some solid practice with the same mold in different stages of wear. If you follow the school of thought of throwing different molds/discs the same way but letting the discs do the work, then you'll probably want to go the route of getting multiples in the stabilities you want.

For the molds you have cycles of, such as Teebirds, Rocs, Destroyers, I would say just think of it as learning the life cycle of the mold rather than learning the individual discs. Even if you don't have multiples of the same stability, you can practice manipulating the disc to fly certain lines by varying the amount of hyzer, power, etc. That way you can know what adjustments you need to make based on where the disc is in the mold's life cycle. For example, see if you can make a 7/10 Roc fly substantially the same line as a 9/10 Roc.

 

[Meillo]

So should I be more concerned with having the exact mold, or more concerned with having as similar a flight pattern as possible? In other words could I practice with a teebird, an eagle, and a saint pro that all had similar flights and still be effective with my practice long term?

My Teebirds and Eagle feel so similar to me that I throw them interchangingly in fields work. My QJLS seems to require a different nose-angle and I have some trouble mixing it into my Teebirds/Eagle for the same shots. It's fine if I throw the Teebirds nice and flat and use the JLS for rollers. I can throw the JLS laserbeam straight as well, just not when I've thrown laserbeams with Teebirds right before. But maybe that's just missing practice ...

Also, should I be practicing with discs in as many conditions as I bag? I carry 2-3 teebirds all with different stabilities during rounds, so should I get 2-3 more discs in each stability, making 9-12 total discs for that slot? Or would it be smarter to just practice with the stability I use most often exclusively?

If you have a dozen discs in different conditions, can you still remember which one is which? Use only as many discs as you can remember if you practice placement or hitting certain lines. But if your practice is e.g. all about nose angle, than the disc conditions and number don't matter but only the mold. Thus it depends on what you practice.

 

[Casey 1988]

I actually just use my regular discs in a field but sometimes when trying out putters, I take a few with me to test for certain shots. I found a few years ago that my g9i Wizard was not a good disc for me as I used it for only one type of shot 50-40 feet from the basket, So I took it out as I can use my old Max weight Pro Shark For that same shot as well as others, then late last year I got rid of my light DX Shark as it was too light, most of South Dakota has wind so I tried to look for another Pro Shark, that or R-Pro but could not find one so I settled for a Star Shark without flight numbers, those you can still find today even. I don't think the Shark is a super big seller. I also found that somehow overtime I could not throw my Wasps anymore so I pitched them from the bag, I still have them though the Shark flies like the ROC but with less drop and more glide at the end of flight, so I probably will never throw a ROC like disc again, Wasp being one of them. I also this year figured out how to throw my Destroyers both Champion a 167 gram and a 170 gram one is for windier conditions as the Star ones with players names on them I find that each one is different to the player so I go with finding Flatter topped Champion ones, they are good disc. I also replaced but still have the older JK Champion one to my new Glow Champion Valkyrie, just look for a flatter toped one to match more my old JK one that started out blue but due to having an old 2008 yellow Star Ice-bowl Valkyrie behind it for about 9 years the disc turned like a grass green with more blue to it and the disc was very hard to find on the course. Both the Valkyries the older 2008 Star one and the new Glow one fly about the same. Reason I went with Glow was the disc had the feel of old Champion plastic when new. Also the JK Champion Valkyrie was getting a bit worn in, I had it over 10 years in my bags over the years.