2017-02-10 First Birdie For one month I only did field work on the soccer pitch, now I returned to the disc golf course ... with great success! After warming up and some putting, I joined with another single player (more advanced, of course) for three rounds. Already on the first round I shot one stroke better than my previous best. The second round was even better. I started off with my first par on the 100 meter long hole one. Then I continued to throw par. Only on the last hole (another 100m) I had to take a bogey. This left me with a 28 (one over par) and four strokes better than last month. What a training success! On the last round I experi- mented a bit, threw some sidearms as well, which I haven't prac- ticed much, yet. The sidearm drive on hole 4 wasn't all that bad ... and after a great putt, I had my first Birdie! Yay! :-) The round resulted in another 31 (four over par) and again better as anything before today. The reason I was better than before was the greater consistency with my drives. I threw farther with more than just luck. But I had quite a bunch of tree hits, thus what really saves my game are my approach shots. This is where I excel, currently. I usual- ly am able to lay up well. And finally, I missed few putts. Some rather long ones went in (sometimes surprisingly) and the others were intended layups. I don't care much about laying up, I suffer more from wrong decisions between running and laying up and that wasn't the case today. (I stopped using the fan grip for putting and returned to the old grip: two fingers around the rim, the middle finger stretched out and the index finger to the outside of the rim. It feels better this way, and I was successful with it today.) Although I had all of my seven discs with me, I played with only three of them, as I wanted to. (I did some additional training shots with the others, but not more.) The three I used were the P2, the Comet and the Teebird. I never felt the need for another disc. For most drives, I took the Comet. I might have used the Teebird more often if I'd throws with an X-step more often, but as I had problems to get the right direction with the run-up, I switched to standstill drives most times. For that the Comet works better, as the Teebird needs more power. I used the Tee- bird, however, for Thumbers over the tree on hole 3, for a few drives and for all of the (few) sidearms. I never teed off with the putter, but used it for most of the upshots. The main technical problem I suffered from was throwing nose up. Peter told me this and he's right. Concerning putting, there was one situation when I actually al- ready had known that I would miss when I got into position. Thus, in such a situation, I should rather stop the routine, take some steps back, breath deep, think something else, then face it again and just make it in. On the course I was several times reminded on Danny's mantra ``Slow is smooth, and smooth is far''. Just let it flow! You'll hit less trees and also get better flight lines, which take your disc farther. This was the reason I threw my Comet farther than the Teebird: The Comet works well from a standstill, whereas with the Teebird I always had the feeling that I needed to really rip it for a straight flight with any distance. Currently I'm fully happy with the path and pace I'm moving on. I'll just let it continue to flow this way. Concerning discs, I'll stick to the P2-Comet-Teebird combo for rounds but will do fieldwork with all the seven discs I own. These seven are still few for appropriate training, thus I plan to get me some more. I am sure that I want an S-Line P2 as a throwing putter. A DX Teebird (or a C-Line FD?) would be good as well. I feel that I cannot get the most distance out of my 175g Champ Teebird because I cannot get it to turn a bit. A fairway driver that allows a flexshot is what I want to have. Regarding what I'm throwing most, another Comet would come to mind, but I don't feel a need for that, as the Buzzz and DX Roc are good enough replacements for the field work. (When thinking about new discs I'm always having the small bag idea in mind; I'll only get me what I need to have.) http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke