Tree Love: Is it Rooted in Something Else?

[U_NICED_ME]

All of us have had the rounds, some of your opponents seem to get nothing but tree love and usually it's the person that's winning. I have thought the same thing, I'm losing because of bad luck. And that jack-a@@ gets kicked good every time. So we make a snarky remark like "Sneaky" or "Home Boy Route" or my very favorite "you should play the lottery tonight".

So when you see Tree Love happen a lot for one player (usually the one that's winning) during a tourney, you start to figure up the odds and you conclude, 'No one can be this lucky all the time'.

This comes from Billy Crump, his argument for the Tree Love Phenomenon is that the player is only slightly missing the line, therefore they are more likely to kick into the fairway. Which does make sense on a cognitive level.

Still the question remains, is there really such a thing as "Tree Love"?

 

[discflinger]

I totally agree with Billy. Nice release makes for better ricochets, too.

 

[Mind Expansi0n]

Yes, but it has nothing to do with the trees being helpful. It's preparation, course familiarity, disc selection, and knowing when/how to power down to achieve better accuracy. Good players will usually know the odds of a given 'familiar' shot as it applies to their ability ... they minimize their mistakes by throwing accurately and with less power (less power results in a smaller kickoff a tree) and know where on the course you can take risks and where you are going to pay dearly for a missed drive. It also depends on the type of trees - cuz the cedars/pines/junipers around here provide absolutely no love; you hit them, your disc dies and/or sticks. Then again, a hardwood trunk in the same position is going to send the disc kicking off to the side. Also, throwing from within/under trees is an entire art of DG in it's own right.

 

[optidiscic]

ummmm I disagree....if you are hitting trees or hitting tiny gaps after missing your lane....you are tempting fate....over the course of a round ora tourney these things usually shake out......no one ever remembers the favorable kick they always focus on the unlucky kicks

 

[discflinger]

Shake out…nice word play!

 

[zenbot]

I have found that Vibram discs are incredibly fortunate in the woods. Instead of deflecting energy and shooting off in some crazy direction they absorb and then continue forward as best as they can. I've been a Vibram tester for a while now and I have noticed it consistently with every disc since they sent me since the Ridge.

I spent nearly an hour looking for my tester Ascent near an "impenetrable" tree I hit on a downhill 500'+ hole. I thought it was lost, wouldn't get to review it, and lose my reviewer spot. Turns out it kept going through this giant oak about another 150'. Luckily another group found it.

 

[E-man]

One can hug many trees, but still fall victim to the "nice"...

 

[wraithrower]

I've found that more snap (or spin) can really help you in the woods. I have a lot of this and its either that i get a whole lot of love or a whole lot of hate from the trees. Its not usually in between.

 

[bholy08]

It just happens.

 

[Frosty]

I totally agree with Billy. Nice release makes for better ricochets, too.

Definitely!

 

[GLong]

One can hug many trees, but still fall victim to the "nice"...

this

 

[GT Chris]

While there is always some luck involved with tree kicks, I feel like the better players can improve the odds of getting a favorable kick while reducing the odds of an unfavorable one. It's similar to the way better players get "lucky" with fewer rollaways because they know how to get a disc to land properly.

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

 

[Lewis]

So when you see Tree Love happen a lot for one player (usually the one that's winning) during a tourney, you start to figure up the odds and you conclude, 'No one can be this lucky all the time'.

I tend to make the opposite conclusion: that the person is winning because he's getting tree love. Over time it evens out, but I would guess the odds are that someone happens to have a lucky streak at pretty much every tournament. If it's the same guy over and over, week after week, month after month, they're probably doing something subtly different, like hitting the inside of the tree rather than the outside. But I don't see this as much as I see the random runs of good and bad luck.

On the comment that Vibram discs seem to get friendlier kicks, it would make sense if it's true that they're more flexible than plastic discs. The way I see it, a more flexible disc can absorb and release the energy of an impact more gently, which allows it to change directions less violently. To test my hyopthesis, you could measure how a rolling billiard ball bounces off a rigid obstacle and then compare it against how a rolling tennis ball bounces off the same obstacle.

 

[holotone]

Still the question remains, is there really such a thing as "Tree Love"?

I'm surprised I actually have to say this out loud but, no, magic is not real.

 

[jtencer]

Life goes on.

 

[Hampstead]

I have found that Vibram discs are incredibly fortunate in the woods. Instead of deflecting energy and shooting off in some crazy direction they absorb and then continue forward as best as they can. I've been a Vibram tester for a while now and I have noticed it consistently with every disc since they sent me since the Ridge.

I spent nearly an hour looking for my tester Ascent near an "impenetrable" tree I hit on a downhill 500'+ hole. I thought it was lost, wouldn't get to review it, and lose my reviewer spot. Turns out it kept going through this giant oak about another 150'. Luckily another group found it.

In an open field I can't throw my Ascent to save my life, but if I'm in the woods that thing can make it through the tiniest of windows.

 

[DaddyTookTeebirdAway]

I'm gonna come right out and say it. An individual player, even the most skilled, has no control over which way a tree will kick his disc. Particular discs may have more of a kick than others, but the difference between a disc kicking the right way or wrong way really only depends on which side of the round tree surface you hit, which may be the difference of a couple inches. A terrible toss is a terrible toss. A few inches difference one way or the other does not make it less terrible unless by total random accident.

 

[All Day]

I typically overcome tight wooded holes by throwing a disc that doesn't matter if it hits a tree. Enter the FLX Buzzz and Vibram Ibex, to name a couple. Both discs can absolutely nail a tree and show almost no sign of hitting the tree at all. Throwing either one of those tends to boost my confidence for that reason alone, and I end up gliding right past the evil trees and not have to worry about tree love altogether.

 

[gknmnstr]

Every course has "That One Hole" that has an ten foot wide super straight fairway. At a course near me "That One Hole" is 450' long. A tough hole to say the least. I watched Niko Locastro and Will Schusterick bounce about ten discs each off of trees. After seeing some lucky bounces and some unlucky bounces I feel confident in saying that tree love is just dumb luck.

 

[bluedodger]

Tree love is real!! At least it feels like that when I'm 10 strokes behind and my friend is just dominating all of us!