2022-04-16 Discs Over Time While reading old texts of myself I came across these lines in a text from 2018-03, after a bit more than one year of playing disc golf: The Echostar Teebird disappointed, as the Star Valkyrie did, but the latter hadn't convinced a single time yet. Of all the discs I threw on that day, these two -- exactly those that I had disliked the most back then -- are my main drivers to- day! :-D Isn't that funny?! I know very well that I couldn't understand the yellow Start Valkyrie for a long time. It did not work at all for me in the beginning. I don't remember when that changed. At some point I must have understood it. Today, it's my most unique driver. It is straight as no other driver I have. It flies like a Buzzz in form of a driver: slight turn, slight fade, overall straight and neu- tral to shape hyzers and annies the same way. The disc flies a perfect long curve. And it has quite some high-speed stability for a Valk. The ES Teebird at first couldn't equal my Champ Teebird (which was my first driver), plus, it couldn't achieve the same distance as my 158g Star Teebird. In each respect it was worse than some other disc. Then one day, I played Soehnstetten and took the ES Teebird instead of the Champ Teebird to get used to it in order to have a backup for the Champ Teebird. After one or two rounds, however, I started liking the ES Teebird even more than the Champ Teebird, because it is a bit more usable and less overstable. Since then I never switched back. It took 2.5 years for me to find my core bag. [0] In the three years since then the bag has remained much the same. The core discs still are P3, Zone, Teebird, Valkyrie. The Felon utility disc gets used less often. I have realized that overall I make more mistakes using it than I gain over using oth- er discs like the Zone or the Teebird. (This was motivated partly by sonny of the ``I carry my discs in my hand'' DGCR group, and partly by my own findings in tournament play.) The additional (backup) driver changed several times. I had a more understable Valkyrie, I had a DX Eagle, now I mainly take the MOLF. In wet conditions I rather take DX Eagle and DX Banshee. I seldom use this additional disc. There are only some lines that really fit this disc perfectly -- usually long sweep- ing annies that have to come back at the end. This is a line that neither the Teebird (does not want to turn) nor the Valk (does not really come back) provides. Each of them needs to be forced against its nature into it. But for a DX Eagle or MOLF this is the most natural line. The long downhill hole with the mando at the end of the course in Ehningen is an example for such a line. The Banshee is the perfect disc for hole 9 at Wiley. A long slight anny works great with the hole shape and the usual west wind. But all this is additional luxury. Generally I tend to stick to the same drivers. Less is more. Another point of change were the midranges. They are a neglect- able part of my game. Usually I use the JB Zone for all midrange work. The DX Roc3, however, was very successful various time, thus I sometimes bagged it, but didn't much use it in tournament play. After some struggles with too much want and too much power, I started bagging the Comet again, for low-power throws. But that midrange as well is only an auxillary disc. The core discs were the same for half of the time I played disc golf. My bag structure probably is fixed as well. It remained the same for even longer. More understable discs are the only area where things could change or rather expand. Usually I don't bag any un- stable disc. Overall, I do like to play with few discs. I'm limited to shallow stable putters, like the P3. That's the most limiting factor of my bag. I do like a stable but not too overstable shallow ap- proach disc like the JB Zone, but I can approach with the P3s as well. For drivers, I do like playing with one driver only. I'm pretty open which one it is, as long it isn't faster than speed 9. I don't like to throw wide rims. I had great rounds with only a Felon as well as with only a F7. If courses here wouldn't be that long and more wooded, then I'd love to play more with the Comet. As long as rims are shallow and not too wide, everything is fine. [0] http://marmaro.de/discgolf/txt/2019-04-20_felon-eagle-new- bag.txt http://marmaro.de/discgolf/ markus schnalke