Things need to change for the better of disc golf

[AndyJB]

Guts looks fun as hell to play. But, is there any depth to the play? Strategy? (I have no idea, I'm just now seeing this for the first time) If there were some kinda strategy, roster changes, substitutions, timeouts, etc, it might make for something beyond a random documentary or a once in a while viewing. Just my $0.02.

Not really. A lot of hucking.

Ultimate is probably the most mainstream of the flying disc sports, and likely because it has all the things you mentioned above.

 

[OpposableThumbs]

Step 1: Get a whole bunch of money.
Step 2: Find someone who can make quality video.
Step 3:

Step 4: Profit.

Seriously though, I love disc golf as it is. I'm quite fond of the coverage as it exists, YouTube to me is the best method of Disc Golf coverage consumption. Also, the quality of the videos you see out there is improving all the time, just like the quality of play. But could DG break through to another level of popularity? Who's to say that this isn't how the NFL felt in its nascent days though? This feeling of a small community, just playing a game we love that the world suddenly falls in love with?.. I know this is a looong stretch, and there are factors to football that people love to watch that just aren't present in DG (violence to name one), but given a perfect storm of funding, marketing and production (not to mention a badass event or two to cover) our beloved game could become the next fringe sport some people watch on ESPNU or something.

 

[DiscinFiend]

Disc golf will make for boring television, no matter how high quality the production quality. I'd rather play. Good luck with your youtube channel, even if a dancing cat video will always have more hits.

Ball golf, poker & NASCAR are boring to watch & they're all on TV

 

[AndyJB]

Methinks you guys have forgotten how long disc golf has been around. I turn thirty this year and have been playing since I was seven years old...at that time, midern golf discs had been around for five or six years, the first beveled edge disc slughtly longer, chained baskets had been around about he same time and the pole hold was around ten or twelve years old I believe.

So disc golf has had a very long gestation period....when other sports (Im thinking mainly stuff like football, baseball, basketball, organized boxing, auto racing and the like) had been around as long as disc golf has they were already covered widely and various technologies (radio and television) were being adapted just to be able to cover them.

So maybe YouTube, SpinTV and DiscGolfPlanet will be to us what early radio was to baseball? Or what early televisiob was to football and basketball? But then again, maybe not. Like I said earlier, I dont think our future is in more money to/for the sport, but rather hyping its healthful benefits and cheap equiptment to get more casual players.

 

[Grungedude42]

Ball golf, poker & NASCAR are boring to watch & they're all on TV

Truth. I never said boring things aren't on television. But I did suggest disc golf would be another boring thing. I find most things on tv boring, though. Which is why I prefer to play instead of watch.

Seriously, how do people watch poker? It's unbearable.

 

[DiscinFiend]

I never got that and sports fans puzzle me. I like to watch an expert play to learn but other then that why would I care if 1 franchise beats another?

Illuminati, they want us fighting among ourselves & distracted with stupid s*** so we don't release how badly were getting f****d over.

 

[B3NDER]

I'm fuming right now. That's about all I can say without being banned.

Edit: Seriously; if we ever meet in person, don't tell me your dgcr name.

Whoa man, I think you choose a bad night for your first beer.

 

[Dthunderchicken]

Why does everyone think disc golf needs fixing? Or that we need to "grow the sport?"

:thmbup:

 

[scarpfish]

So I was thinking there needs to be better coverage of tournaments in quality and entertainment and need to have a youtube channel made for disc golf with interviews,tournament recaps,montages,contests,giveaways,weekly disc golf news and much more an livestream at tournaments in future who is with me who wants to help and make this happen?

Well, give the OP some credit here. He at least wants to get disc golf on the "television" of the future, and not the television of the present.

Thing is, disc golf is in some respect is already on that medium, minus the live stuff.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Why does everyone think disc golf needs fixing? Or that we need to "grow the sport?"

Disc golf has exploded in popularity in the last three or four years. Everyone knows someone who plays these days. When I started as a kid, it was a handful of us and our late-hippie parents throwing frisbees at trees or poles. I loik now and am frankly amazed we have any kind if coverage at all.

Disc golf is fine. It will never be MLB, NFL, NBA, UFC, NASCAR or even the PGA...and why should it? Its a simple, fun, fairly cheap GAME that people of all ages can pick up and enjoy. Bringing in sponsors and big money and all the bull**** that goes along with that takes away from the spirit of disc golf for recreational enjoyment. So lets focus more on (as been mentioned here on the forums, and this thread, many times) environmental conservation and more courses in public areas. There is no reason to turn this into what golf has become.

**** you. If you want one particular spirit, you can have it. I want more than just that one. But I'm "taking away from your" what ever. **** you. You are the elitist, btw. "Oh, my sport has "spirit" and is better than yours." Well ****, mine has spirit too. Golf has a great big spirit too, btw. But you don't want to allow diversity in disc golf. You're an ass. An elitist, exclusionary ass.

Baseball has double plays, home runs, races to the bases. Football has high speed collisions, last second tactics and critical timing. Hockey has fast skating, precision plays and fights.

Disc golf has flying plastic and chain hits that sound a million times better in person. It's not even on par with golf for making exciting television. More like... Bowling. :\

Disc golf has headwinds, tailwinds, crosswinds and GUSTS! Holy ****, is that going to flip!?! Chastity belt, nubbins, and that root just totally screwed that roller! In conclusion, **** you.

Truth. I never said boring things aren't on television. But I did suggest disc golf would be another boring thing. I find most things on tv boring, though. Which is why I prefer to play instead of watch.

Seriously, how do people watch poker? It's unbearable.

It's not unbearable. Not if you understand pot odds and betting strategy. Or gyroscopic wing physics.


I had never known how many of you are the ones keeping the game in the woodshed. I'm rethinking my decision to join this site. I thought people here might love disc golf. I can see that I was wrong about many of you. The desire for the sport that comes from the highest levels of competition is what brings [some types of] people to love sports. I'm incredibly angry, frustrated, and disappointed with you.

This is exactly why I dropped Criminology as a major. This mindset of "We know it's broke, we know how to fix it, we like it the way it is". :wall:

 

[disc qualified]

Dan, maybe sip a little chamomile tea, put on a Celine Dion CD, take a few breaths and a watch a sunset, dude cause your blood pressure must be off the charts

 

[Streets]

**** you. If you want one particular spirit, you can have it. I want more than just that one. But I'm "taking away from your" what ever. **** you. You are the elitist, btw. "Oh, my sport has "spirit" and is better than yours." Well ****, mine has spirit too. Golf has a great big spirit too, btw. But you don't want to allow diversity in disc golf. You're an ass. An elitist, exclusionary ass.






Disc golf has headwinds, tailwinds, crosswinds and GUSTS! Holy ****, is that going to flip!?! Chastity belt, nubbins, and that root just totally screwed that roller! In conclusion, **** you.




It's not unbearable. Not if you understand pot odds and betting strategy. Or gyroscopic wing physics.


I had never known how many of you are the ones keeping the game in the woodshed. I'm rethinking my decision to join this site. I thought people here might love disc golf. I can see that I was wrong about many of you. The desire for the sport that comes from the highest levels of competition is what brings [some types of] people to love sports. I'm incredibly angry, frustrated, and disappointed with you.

This is exactly why I dropped Criminology as a major. This mindset of "We know it's broke, we know how to fix it, we like it the way it is". :wall:

This may be the best rant I have ever seen. Most of which I agree with. :hfive:

 

[scarpfish]

I don't think anyone is suggesting the game be kept in the woodshed. We're suggesting let it grow organically through participation, the way that it has successfully done for more than 30 years. People who pick up a hobby in that fashion tend to stick with it. Conversely, people who pick up a hobby because they saw it on television and think its the new trendy thing to do tend to go off to the next new trendy thing on television when they get bored with the trendy thing that they're on. Poker would be an obvious example of this.

And those of you with your "blow it up big time" dreams don't seem to realize that a non-participant isn't going to appreciate the subtle nuances in a disc golf video that you do. You appreciate these things because you play the game. To the uninitiated, disc golf is a bunch of burnouts chucking orbs of plastic at a poorly constructed barbeque grill. The only way you can really educate and convert those folks to your way of thinking is through, dare I say it, playing the game.

 

[Dan Ensor]

Dan, maybe sip a little chamomile tea, put on a Celine Dion CD, take a few breaths and a watch a sunset, dude cause your blood pressure must be off the charts

I'm about to go dig some tee pads, so I should be able to vent some frustration. Besides, I'm more of a Joni Mitchell sort of guy

DG going mainstream will not destroy "the" spirit of disc golf (or disc golfers). If it does, the spirit was weak and needed to be culled. It's not, though.

 

[B3NDER]

Carrot Top has boiled over. opcorn:

 

[Dan Ensor]

I don't think anyone is suggesting the game be kept in the woodshed. We're suggesting let it grow organically through participation, the way that it has successfully done for more than 30 years. People who pick up a hobby in that fashion tend to stick with it. Conversely, people who pick up a hobby because they saw it on television and think its the new trendy thing to do tend to go off to the next new trendy thing on television when they get bored with the trendy thing that they're on. Poker would be an obvious example of this.

And those of you with your "blow it up big time" dreams don't seem to realize that a non-participant isn't going to appreciate the subtle nuances in a disc golf video that you do. You appreciate these things because you play the game. To the uninitiated, disc golf is a bunch of burnouts chucking orbs of plastic at a poorly constructed barbeque grill. The only way you can really educate and convert those folks to your way of thinking is through, dare I say it, playing the game.

Poker went mainstream 5-10 years ago. What happened to that sport? It went from about 20 players in a tournament typically to 3000+. Poker is more "boring" and "nuanced" than disc golf.

("sport" might not be the best word ... w/e)

 

[Terry 44]

More courses
More clinics
More coverage
More personal ownership of courses (clean, free of trash as in picking up after yourself)
More involvement in leagues, tournaments

 

[tbird888]

You argue (rather emphatically) about the excitement of the game, yet you start a thread about extending the amount of time someone has to throw. So more inactivity (less action) to make people excited to watch? Sounds a little counterproductive to me.

 

[scarpfish]

Poker went mainstream 5-10 years ago. What happened to that sport? It went from about 20 players in a tournament typically to 3000+. Poker is more "boring" and "nuanced" than disc golf.

("sport" might not be the best word ... w/e)

Recent news article suggests that the party's over. Granted, government intervention had a little to do with it.

http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/poker-trend-is-waning-in-las-vegas

 

[Shipley]

It really is though, why watch a sport when you can go play a sport? I never got that and sports fans puzzle me. I like to watch an expert play to learn but other then that why would I care if 1 franchise beats another?




The one exception is crazy **** like MMA or extreme sports where they just put their body and life on the line on some crazy stuff. I will say that a good discgolf montage is worth watching tho, always gets me in the mood to chuck some discs.

People watch sports because they're entertaining, duh!