Taking Time Off and Other Stuff

[BillFleming]

Wanted to share this:

Been playing a bit over 2 years. 61 years old. Having fun, but not a really good player. My PDGA rating is 615 (it's been as high as 652 and low as 603). I had to take three weeks off due to being oncall for work and moving. During that three weeks, I didn't throw a disc. The only disc related things I did was to buy something to organize my discs and I watched disc golf videos (lots).

Yesterday, I went out and played a round in the league I normally play with. My best ever round was 18 over, but I'm usually between 20 and 30 over. My first day back, I shot a personal best of 11 over. I'm hoping it isn't a fluke and that I will do better next week.

What changed?

1. I gave my elbow and shoulder time to heal. I'm RHFH dominant and I've been a bit sore.
2. I didn't have my 'preconceived notions' of what I would do. (this is important)

When I play a course multiple time, I "know" where my throw will end up at. I get to the first tee and I already know I'm hitting the first tree on the left.

But after my break, I no longer had those 'preconceived notions'. I wasn't sure how I would do since I hadn't played in so long. This time, I "missed" the first tree on the left and actually threw the line I wanted to. This continued throughout the round. To my amazement, I actually had the lead through most of the round. I have to say, leading off on each hole is much better than always being 'BOB'.

I think I need to "take each round as it comes" and don't focus on the bad throws as being my normal throws.

Anyways....I'm going to see how this goes, my next tournament is on February 13th. Hopefully my rating will go up.

 

[Getty]

I'm in week 3 of a forced 6-week lay-off due to knee surgery. I'm hoping that my FH, which has been suffering due to soreness, will come back to me. I've felt like the knee has been stable enough to do some clean-up work on the local course, and I'm back to the practice basket for putting. Maybe I'll even get the 50' back that I've lost on my BH once I'm 100%.

 

[R-Ogre]

Happens all the time. Don't know that I understand why but it does.

 

[mojorooks]

Wanted to share this:

Been playing a bit over 2 years. 61 years old. Having fun, but not a really good player. My PDGA rating is 615 (it's been as high as 652 and low as 603). I had to take three weeks off due to being oncall for work and moving. During that three weeks, I didn't throw a disc. The only disc related things I did was to buy something to organize my discs and I watched disc golf videos (lots).

Yesterday, I went out and played a round in the league I normally play with. My best ever round was 18 over, but I'm usually between 20 and 30 over. My first day back, I shot a personal best of 11 over. I'm hoping it isn't a fluke and that I will do better next week.

What changed?

1. I gave my elbow and shoulder time to heal. I'm RHFH dominant and I've been a bit sore.
2. I didn't have my 'preconceived notions' of what I would do. (this is important)


I think I need to "take each round as it comes" and don't focus on the bad throws as being my normal throws.

HAHA! This is about my skill level. My best at my local course is +16. I'm glad others suck as bad as I do, lol. When I calm down and relax I can do my best. But when I realize I need to calm down, I stress myself out. My best rounds come when I'm distracted by the conversation of my group and don't get in my head. I'll have days when I make par the first couple holes, then I stress myself out and have a meltdown hole.

 

[klodkrawler05]

This is reassuring to hear! I'm in the midst of a month off due to elbow pain and have been really regretting seeing the regression in what little form I've built.

 

[DiscFifty]

I'm hoping it isn't a fluke and that I will do better next week.

What changed?

1. I gave my elbow and shoulder time to heal. I'm RHFH dominant and I've been a bit sore.
2. I didn't have my 'preconceived notions' of what I would do. (this is important)

Yep...at our age it's a combination of muscles, tendons, etc, being healthy again (over use is a real thing in disc golf) and like you said the mental aspect of just relaxing. Been through this several times over the years. I realized for max performance on the course I can't play full out every day of the week. So I try to play no more than 2 days a week at full competitiveness. The other days I do a mix of field work, putting, approach, etc. I also can't stress enough how important strength and flexibility workouts are. Seems like quite a few old dudes (that I've met locally) get the flexibility part, but ignore the strength workouts.

 

[Puckstopper]

I definitely feel like I play better after a brief hiatus. In good weather I play disc 3-5 times per week and play hockey at least one night per week, usually 2-3. Consequently, fatigue, soreness and injuries are near constant companions. In the past, When work got crazy or family circumstances necessitated taking a break, the first few rounds of disc are noticeably better than the mean. Lately I've found that using a percussion massager before and after rounds (and hockey games) results in significantly less soreness. 5 minutes of using the TheraGun before I head to the course, a few minutes of stretching my back and legs once I get there and then repeat the process in reverse when I get home after and I'm usually much less tight for the rest of the day.

 

[BillFleming]

While there's a focus on recovering from soreness, and that was a big part of it, don't overlook my "reset". I had gotten into bad habits throwing and the time-off let me forget those bad habits and start anew. Sometimes, all it takes is to start over and I think that was the most important part of my break.

I was never one for stressing out about my game or lack of it (heck, I commonly wore a tee shirt that says "World Okayest Disc Golfer" and had a trophy on the shirt labeled "You Tried!"). That's me in a nutshell. Probably my biggest issue was tweaking things, making my game worse, and not being able to figure out how to get back to where I had been. Being able to change my thoughts from "I always hit that tree on the left", to "It's been a while and I'm not sure how I'll do, so I'll throw this line and see what happens....OH, it went where I wanted it to go."

We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks; hopefully I can keep this going and not fall back into bad habits. I'll keep this updated as I go.

 

[autocrosscrx]

I only play about once every 3 weeks or so in the winter (that's about how long it takes for me to forget how muddy and gross the courses get here).

I can't match summer scores because I'm losing some distance due to conditions and my putting suffers, but I definitely throw better after a break. My head fills up with foot here, elbow here, power pocket, don't reach past here stuff pretty quickly, whereas I tend to just throw after a break.

 

[Jay Dub]

While there's a focus on recovering from soreness, and that was a big part of it, don't overlook my "reset". I had gotten into bad habits throwing and the time-off let me forget those bad habits and start anew. Sometimes, all it takes is to start over and I think that was the most important part of my break.

I was never one for stressing out about my game or lack of it (heck, I commonly wore a tee shirt that says "World Okayest Disc Golfer" and had a trophy on the shirt labeled "You Tried!"). That's me in a nutshell. Probably my biggest issue was tweaking things, making my game worse, and not being able to figure out how to get back to where I had been. Being able to change my thoughts from "I always hit that tree on the left", to "It's been a while and I'm not sure how I'll do, so I'll throw this line and see what happens....OH, it went where I wanted it to go."

We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks; hopefully I can keep this going and not fall back into bad habits. I'll keep this updated as I go.

The bold part is where I think it is, or why you played better.
The way I always put it is I believe we all, at least I do, play better "instinctively". Playing after the time off your brain has shut down all that over thinking about your game (same thing you said with different words).
Realizing this helped me play better in the long run. It helped me relax and not over think things as much as I was. Like anything, it doesn't work all the time but when it does you know it and can learn from that.

 

[Agricolae]

...I believe we all, at least I do, play better "instinctively"...

I agree with JDub and several of the others here on this. Operating instinctively...unconscious mastery...in the zone ...all are the same and allow us to perform tasks that are more difficult with conscious thought.

Try this: pay attention to your breathing. Make sure to breathe *correctly*...deeply, and at just the right pace. Try to keep it up for 5 minutes.

Try driving along a narrow road at highway speeds ... with a police car following closely behind. Don't make any mistakes!

Guitar player? Try thinking about that difficult lick coming up in the next bar, the individual notes, and how you'll execute it this time. Don't screw it up this time!!

Some things are best left to the unconscious mind. But this only works after having put conscious thought, time and effort into acquiring and locking in mechanical skills through drills and practice.

To Bill's point ... yes, I, too, find that I play better after taking time off because I'm more in tune with the whole experience rather than details of mechanics. But give me time - minutes, hours, or days - and I'll go right back to overthinking.