2021-02-28 Similar Bags My bag has a kind of structure that I discover in some other bags as well. These are two ITBs that match well with my own: 1) Ballard [0] - D P2 (2) - Sonic - Zone - Meteor - Roc3 - Teebird - Firebird - Orc 2) Serena of Ace Run Disc Golf [1] - JB Focus - DX Rhyno - Lucid Truth - 400 M4 - MF Teebird - Champ Valkyrie - Star Destroyer 3) My bag - D P3 (2) - JB Zone - DX Roc3 - ESP Comet - ES Teebird - Star Valkyrie - M OLF - Lucid Felon -fi Let's analyze the structure of these bags. Putters: Clearly, each has a putting putter (P2, Focus, P3), likely two of them. This makes putting practice so much more convenient. Some also might reserve one of them for putting only, the other one for throwing. Oftentimes the putting putter acts as a straight throwing putter as well. This is the case in all of these bags. Then each of the bags has an overstable approach disc and driving putter (Zone, Rhyno). (Ballard additionally includes a Sonic as a very straight touch shot approach disc.) I.e. two putters, one straightish-stable for putting and straight throws and one overstable for approaches and harder drives. Midranges: A stable midrange (Roc3, Truth). A more understable midrange (Meteor, M4, Comet). Here we have some variance: The Meteor is clearly understable. The Comet is pretty neutral. The M4 is almost stable. IMO having a midrange for the understable slot in the bag, like Ballard has done, is a good one. I personally don't really throw understable lines, thus the Comet is understable enough for me. It definitely provides new lines over the Roc3. Serena's M4 probably overlaps much with her Truth, but as she said that both these midranges and especially the M4 are new to her bag, that part of her bag still needs time to settle. Drivers: A straight-stable driver (Teebird). Each of the bags includes a Teebird. This is a dependable choice for fairway work. Overstable driver (Firebird, Teebird, Felon). In Selena's bag the MF Teebird seems to act as the overstable driver. A very overstable disc is a unique tool in a bag that few want to leave out. In my own bag it's a disc thrown rarely, but it feels good to have it available for those situation (wind, spiking down, skip shots, flex lines). Distance drivers with turn and fade (Orc, Valkyrie, Destroyer, OLF). Such a driver can do about everything. It's versatile and provides the most distance. (I bag both, a Valk and an OLF. This is the part of my bag that isn't settled well, yet. There's a lot of overlap between the two.) This brings us to the following bag structure: - straight-stable putter - overstable putter/approach disc - straight-stable mid - more understable mid - straight-stable driver with moderate fade - overstable driver - long driver with turn and fade The main (straight-stable) slot is filled in each speed category. The under- and overstable slots are filled alternatingly: OS putter, US mid, OS driver. OS mid work can usually be covered with either the OS putter or the OS driver. US driver lines can usually be covered with the US mid. All drivers are pretty much packed into one speed class. The Garu bag consists of: - straight-stable putter - straight-stable mid - overstable driver - driver with turn and fade My additions to that are: - The overstable putter as such approach discs are extremely valuable, which can be seen by their increasing popularity in re- cent years. This is a tendency that came up after the Garu bag was defined. - The straight-stable fairway driver. There's no better disc for dependable fairway work. Compared to the other drivers it has not the hard fade and the skip potential, on the one end, and not the turn and the risk that it brings, on the other end. A Teebird- like disc is just too good to not bag it. (When the Garu bag was defined, speed 7 discs were still used for distance work, thus the separation into fairway, control and distance drivers did not exist in the way it does today.) - The slightly understable mid. In the Garu bag this disc is covered by a beat-in version of the stable mid (as the Garu bag is about molds, not discs). It probably is the least important disc in my bag, but if you don't have a single slightly under- stable disc, then you cannot really power down for ``just stay in the fairway'' play. When I played the Safari Doubles last year, I went from rough to rough. Powering down can help in such situa- tions. Plus there are scramble situations where you want a disc to turn or at least hold an anny, despite throwing up in the air or when you have bad footing. This mid can cover these cases. (Otherwise your straightish putter is the best alternative.) IMO the here presented 7-slot bag is a great minimal disc bag to cover as many lines as possible. This is the reason I am not the only person to play with a bag structure of that kind. Its limitations are: - No roller disc. One would need to force the turn-fade-driver into a roller line, which makes rainbow rollers impossible. If rollers are an important part of one's game, an additional disc would be necessary. - Forehands and backhands are necessary. If one only throws back- hands, additional understable discs will be necessary. Equally if one needs separate discs for forehands and backhands, more discs are needed. My own bag: The VL/OLF situation is unsolved, currently. The Valkyrie actual- ly is my main straight driver. But lately the MOLF performed so well. I really don't know. I'm keeping both in the mix, current- ly. My main discs are: P3, Zone, Teebird, Valk/OLF. Felon and Comet are situational discs -- my most overstable and most understable discs. The Roc3 is kind of a main disc, but it is so new and there's few room between Zone and Teebird. The Roc3 has served me very well, with success and consistency, easing many of the Zone/Teebird lines. I just haven't really developed a feeling on how to deal with the overlap. The P3 and the Teebird, followed by the Zone are the discs that I know the best. The Teebird is the driver I am most familiar with, on all lines and throwing techniques, by far. The P3 as my put- ting putter and short approach game, like layup thumbers, scoobers, short rollers, is very well known to me in all kinds of ways ... just not so much for throwing. There I'm well familiar with the Zone: forehand and backhand approaches and short drives. Valkyrie, OLF, Felon and Comet all have much larger areas of throw/flight conditions I do not know equally well. I know these discs well only for what I usually do with them. In contrast: The P3 and Teebird I know well with anything that can be done with them. ;-) This year's topic will be to figure out the Valk/MOLF situation and the place for the Roc3 in the bag. (The Banshee will be out when winter ends. Then it'll be a wet weather disc to be put back in situationally.) [0] https://youtu.be/vojdsLFV4KQ [1] https://youtu.be/lDJiAmT57Us http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke