2019-03-24 Safari Doubles Today I played the Safari Doubles tournament [0] in Ehningen. My partner was one I got assigned, Andreas Rau, not the best player, but one I had a fine time playing with, and he could putt well. :-) My focus wasn't on the end results but on having a good time. That worked out well. The course was 15 long holes. Six were par three and nine were par four. In the morning we played normal best shot doubles. In the after- noon we played best shot doubles ``confirmed'', meaning that both players had to putt successfully to hole out. That was a good format. In the bag: I went with eight discs, didn't change anything during lunch break. The bag was perfect. - D P3 (2): Two identical putters. I used them for all putting and some of the upshots. Maybe it was the slight wind or maybe I just started to like overstable approaches, but more often than usual I approached with ... - JB Zone: Bagged the JB Zone not the ESP Zone as usual. During winter I rather played with the more grippy plastic. Now I'm liking the JB Zone a lot: it's grippy in the hand, it brakes on the ground, it's more workable, also it's purple. Only when I would like to have a bit of skip or slide at the end or for short rollers on hard ground I like the ESP Zone more, but with that one I don't approach as often. IMO it worked really well with the JB Zone. I threw a lot of approaches with it. Nice disc; stays in the bag now. - ES Teebird: That's the straight-to-fade driver I used most often during the last time. I wanted to beat it in a bit to have it a bit straighter than the Champ Teebird, thus I threw it more often. Now it became the number one Teebird. It still hasn't lost noticably of it's fade. I used it for all straight-to-fade shots, which were about 1/3 of the driver shots or even less (because of the many long holes). Used it for some thumbers as well. Teebirds I do like thumbing the most. - Champ Teebird: Pure backup for the ES TB. Not a single shot with it. I could have left it in the car and probably will do so the next time (if I bag a disc like the Felon, which can general- ly act as a backup). - Star Valkyrie: My main driver today. It used to be a disc I didn't like throwing at all. But over the last half year, it be- came my main driver. (Funny how that goes, sometimes!) Not only has it the most neonish color of my discs and is thus best visi- ble in the rough, but also does it fly so well. I used it for about 2/3 of all driver shots. - Pro Valkyrie: A bit more understable than the S VL, but I rath- er manipulate release angles with the same driver than switch drivers, thus the P VL had only two shots each round (forehand high around a corner with as few fade as possible, and slightly uphill without fade, this kind of stuff). Furthermore it's my backup for a straight driver. I could have worked with a straight DX Teebird here as well, but the P VL is a nice disc nontheless, just more of a backup overall. - Lucid Felon: Overstable utility, just because you never know ... It's worth bagging such a disc. If I drop the backup Teebird and use the Felon as the backup, it's even more worth it. I used it for one shot each round. The first one was rather bad. The other was a successful skipshot, which only such a disc allows. Overall I am very happy with my bag. It offered everything I needed. I can optimize, dropping the second Teebird. The only thing not present is an understable disc. A Leopard would add the right travelling shot that I currently simply don't have. I'm still practicing this shot, thus I'm not fully confi- dent throwing it in a tournament yet. As well, it could help with some roller play, which I currently don't do at all for drives. And last, I would have an understable utility option for like fast-turning thumbers and stuff. Not necessarily now but in the foreseeable future, I'd like to add such a disc. There was one single throw where I couldn't really decide dis- tancewise between the Zone and the Teebird and would have liked to have the Wasp with me, but the Zone flew just fine, so that's rather a non-issue. As much as I like the Comet, it isn't really necessary. There's no hole to fit it in ... well, theoretically there is but practi- cally not. The P3 covers those lines all well enough. Form and throws: Since I use the Sexton grip forehand I have few wobble and am confident in throwing forehands. I utilize them when the are the better option. I rather use the long forehand drive than the backhand anny if the angles are a bit better this way. Most times I throw the Teebird and Zone forehand, but I also throw the Valk and occasionally the P3. I throw few short forehand approaches, but I can if necessary. My backhand drives were fine. I had very few stallouts, but still several slightly nose-up flights. I was pleased with my distances and most times with my accuracy. Hyzers were too tight sometimes, but that's an issue I know of. Annies were the biggest problem. Since I improved my form the slight hyzer release comes much more natural and annies feel kinda awkward. This I have to work on. I threw four or five thumbers, all with the ES TB. The first two were bad. I had both of them fly much to the right, not sure why. But then I also had a great thumber approach in the woods which got us a birdie. I threw one backhand skipshot, which worked out just as I wanted. I threw one short forehand roller, which died half way. Putting: My putting was good! For the first time, I am very satisfied with my putting. I didn't think much about it, spin-putted relaxed from the belly. That's a rather newish way for me. It worked out well. Maybe I only perceived it as such as we played doubles and my partner putted well, don't know. But there was maybe only one putt during each round I thought was bad. Well, maybe that's be- cause we did a very good job approaching close to the basket. That was really the strength of our game: leaving us short putts. Especially during the second round when both of us had to putt it in, we simply tossed our approach close enough to avoid putting trouble. :-) Most notably: I canned one 12m putt. Overall play: We were a good team. I was the better player (for the first time), but Andreas stepped up when I was performing low and he did great putting. Furthermore, he took the stress of my shots. Often he approached into far putt distance already, letting me throw an even better approach for a short putt. I simply had no worries throwing my shots. Same for putts and drives. I like playing doubles, as you can play tactical with safe shots and going for it. We formed a nice team in this regard. In the first round we played +1 (3 bogeys, 2 birdies). That was fine for me. We even took the box from the later winning team, but unfortunately only on the last hole. ;-) The second round we played +4 (1 double-bogey, 3 bogeys, 1 bir- die). The double-bogey was the only hole we both shanked our drive, plus, due to some confusion, took a mando penalty (we might have been able to play from the other drive from out of the scrubs). The other bogeys were mainly really long holes. In summary: I see a big step of improvement in my play, just everywhere. Ap- proaches, wind reading and different throwing techniques were good already, one year ago, everwhere else there's been a big step forward. It's good to see the result of the work done. Also, the bag feels just so well! (And is still slim.) [0] https://turniere.discgolfclub.de/event- details.html?event_id=177&Event_Name=04_DGCA_New_Season_Safari_Doubles http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke