Purchase
The first thing to do was to actually make the purchase of the starter kit. My partner J and I would be playing together, so we decided to buy one of each starter set. We bought the Innova 3 disc starter set which included an Aviar putter, a Shark mid-range, and a Leopard Fairway Driver. We also picked up the Innova 8 piece starter set which included a 12 disc bag, a mini marker, a chamois towel, and a Beast driver, Leopard fairway driver, Kite mid-range, Aviar putter and an instructional DVD. When we got to the car we opened the packages and decided which discs we each wanted to use, chosen by color more than anything else really.
The Course
The course we went to was a 9 hole course located in State College, PA. We thought that would be good since this was the first time out. The course was in Circleville Park, a public park, and constructed a few years ago in 2007. There were nice markers at the start of every hole letting you know where the basket was and how many feet it was to the basket. There were nice cement pads to start from as well. The grass was neatly trimmed and I was impressed at how nice it was and that it had been there for so long and I hadn't heard about it. I actually worked in State College for many years, in fact only a few miles from the park. There were several boys there playing already, so we sat at one of the pavilions and watched them throw before we started.
The First Throw
I had done research about the throwing technique of disc golf, and was well aware that it was VERY different from how I knew how to throw a frisbee. I watched a few videos of others playing and saw how it was done, and frankly it didn't look that overly difficult. So as with anything, I am always the guinea pig and have to do things first. I took the disc in my hand and wrapped my fingers around it much like how you would a normal frisbee. I figured out already that doing a run up as I had seen in the videos was probably not wise, and to start out standing first. I had envisioned in my mind that the disc would fly pretty close to the basket and this was going to be pretty simple. I chose to start out with the Leopard because it seemed like a logical choice to start with. I couldn't have been more wrong!
I swung my arm back, and let the disc fly! It promptly went to the left about 20 feet and into the weeds. I went and retrieved the disc and back to the cement pad. I had figured that I probably just let go too soon and to try it again. This time it went farther, but off to the right into the weeds. Again I sadly retrieved the disc and decided this time I let go too late. I told J to try one as I watched. She threw hers similar to a regular frisbee, and it went about 30 feet, and took a nose dive onto the fairway. I took my turn again, and this time I let go at a better spot and it landed just off the fairway in the weeds.
Playing to 9
I have to say that I felt like we were doing better as we got around the course. We decided we wanted to go ahead and keep score, not to see who won or lost, but to have a reference to see if we were getting better from this point. The holes were getting longer in footage as we went, and we were sometimes more than doubling par. But this didn't really didn't matter to me. It was FUN! There was nothing more satisfying than the sound of the chains of the basking clinking off the pole when you eventually got it in. By the time we were done with the course, our arms were aching. We more than doubled par, which we actually found pretty funny. We spent a lot of time hoofing around in the weeds, bushes and trees looking for discs that had a mind of their own and fly where they wanted to. But even though we totally sucked at it, it was still FUN! We considered going through the course again, but I said we probably would regret that decision tomorrow since we were already feeling muscle strain in our arms. We promptly made a decision of when we were coming back to the course again to give it another go. I had also figured out that we were probably not throwing right and that I would have to do some research into proper technique before next time.
Useful Information
Here is a link to one of the first videos I watched on technique. As I found out, we were pretty much doing everything wrong. LOL
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