2017-01-16 My Beginning I'm brand new to disc golf. It's just one month since I threw my first disc. This is how it started. In October last year, we've been to the Alps. There, while walk- ing in the surroundings of Gunzesried, we came across strange looking platforms, which we couldn't imagine a usecase for. Then we saw a baskets. We stood there wondering, when one of us men- tioned the term ``Ultimate''. Although it wasn't the right term, it was good enough for us to get the idea of what's going one: Frisbee! (Frisbee sports is rare in Germany, you most likely get in touch with it through Ultimate groups at university, but they are not more visible than underwater rugby.) We even saw some players on the course; that gave us some impression of the game. The disc golf topic popped up again when we discussed Christmas presents for my sister and her husband. Starter sets for disc golf seemed to be just the right thing. Not that it is to be ex- pectet that they would play a lot, but they would likely play from time to time and at least they always have a lot of fun try- ing out such ``fun sports''. Thus, I went to buy starter sets, but really I didn't know where to start. How do you buy golf discs ... in Germany? And which ones? I was clueless. A quick web recherches didn't bring up use- ful answers. (It seems I had searched the wrong way, because now it appears a bit different to me). I solved the problem, by writ- ing to the contact address of the disc golf association of the region I live in. They pointed me to the Crosslap Discgolf Shop. [0] There I found starter sets. I bought a Discraft and an Innova one, without having any clue if these would be good ones. And while I was there, I also ordered a disc for me ... to play catch to warm up with my Fistball team mates. I chose an Innova Aero (DX), which seemed to be a good disc for that use. I still think it is, but an Ultra Star would have been more the thing I wanted. When the discs arrived, I still had no real idea how disc golf works, but if I wanted to give these discs as presents I wanted to at least provide some rules of play knowledge as well. Hence, I searched the web for information. There wasn't much textual in- formation that helped, but Youtube provided great resources. On 2016-12-18 I started to watch disc golf videos on Youtube. By Chrismas I had watched about 70 videos with about 15 hours of runtime in total ... before having thrown a single disc outside. You could say that I was hooked. I became so fascinated to under- stand this sport. Well, I've always had this intellectual ap- proach to sports, the desire of understanding it. Thus it is not unusual for me to spend so much time investigating without prac- tice. Nonetheless, this was the first time I ever learned some- thing on Youtube ... by using Youtube, that means. After Chrismas, I went out with my disc. (Before, I had the feel- ing that it would not be okay to start playing with my disc be- fore the others got their ones for presents.) I went to the soccer field and started to throw. From the Youtube clips I knew roughly how to do it. Of course I tried to get the disc far, but actually I more tried to produce a nice flight line. The Aero flies pretty straight and when I managed to throw it well with good spin, it was so much delight to watch it fly! All I could do then was throwing straight lines. My tries with hyzers and anhyzers didn't work so well. I also tried how far I could get the disc, which were about 40m. Also I did some upshots and tried to hit trees. It doesn't sound much like fun, but still, it was and I went there each of the next evenings right after work, for the half hour of light before dusk. I was really keen on throwing, even if it were only a dozen shots. Also during these days, I read ``The Definitive Guide to Disc Golf'' by Menickelli & Pickens, which I bought in the wish to read a real book, not just watching all those Youtube clips. Although the book is rather on a second draft quality level IMO, it provides a lot of useful information gathered in one place and that was exactly what I was searching for, as a supplement to the Youtube and websites hopping. I continued watching Youtube and reading disc reviews to find out what discs I should get. Just before New Year, I ordered three more discs, after careful weighing it were: Discmania D-Line P2, Discraft Z-Flx Buzzz and Discraft ESP Comet. My goal was to buy discs which which I couldn't go wrong (and I wanted to know how other plastics feel like). There's nothing necessary to say about the Buzzz in this respect. The Comet is praised extremly often. It is used by pros and it is often recommended as a perfect disc if you want to buy just one, besides, many write that it helps you to improve your technique. The P2 is kind of an Aviar, it seems, but not so bor- ingly popular. I chose it mainly for coolness. ;-) With these discs in my bag, I went to the local course at Wiley, Neu-Ulm [1] (about 20 km away), with a friend. She chose the Buzzz, whereas I threw the Comet and putted with the P2. I shot 34 on the nine-hole course with short (50-100m) par-3 holes. The very next day, I returned to play three more rounds on my own. (We had no snow then.) That time I shot my worst (40) and best (32) round since. I also registered for the leisure disc golf meeting, organized by the WSCA club on 2017-01-06. [2] It was held on a six-hole course with short holes. [3] I am satisfied with my performance -- had a lot of pars, no worse than 5 at all, and managed to score 22, 23, 22, and 24. In the end, I became second-to-last, only better an older woman. The result doesn't mean much to me, as all others were advanced and good players. I am satisfied that I did so well through the competition without any horrible throws. The people at WSCA were welcoming. And just the next day, I met two of them again on the Wiley course. They let me enter their round. Not only could I watch them -- real people on a real course, solving the same problems as I had to solve, not a McBeth with super-human putting abilities on a course so much different to the one I am on --, I could also ask some questions here and there. This was much helpful! My impression is that I'm not so much worse with the approach shots, but way shorter and widespread with my drives and that I simply don't make longer putts in. (My putting improved the most, with only the modest training, in these first weeks.) And that's where I am right now, looking forward to see what's coming next. :-) [0] http://discgolf-shop.de [1] http://www.wsca.de/discgolf/parcours/kurs-neu-ulm [2] http://www.wsca.de/news/1214/57/Eisige-Temperaturen-beim- Koenigsgolfen [3] http://www.wsca.de/discgolf/parcours/kurs-wental http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke