My Intro to the Dogleg crew!
Posted by Tricia Lafferty
Hey there fellow discers!
I would first like to say how incredibly excited I am to be chosen to contribute to Dogleg Disc Golf’s blog! I figured for my first blog I would tell you a little about me, and how I got started playing disc golf. My name is Tricia Lafferty and I live in a small “village” in Pennsylvania called Hawk Run (population 534), and I am 35 years old. I am currently in college, and work part time from home doing customer service and support online. I’ve always enjoyed doing anything outdoors: fishing, hiking, kayaking, and traveling. Since my work life involves sitting inside, when I am done, all I want to do is go outside!
In comparison to most of you, I have only been playing disc golf for a short amount of time, just about 2 years now. So how did I hear about disc golf? Believe it or not, from playing the Nintendo Wii. Wii Sports Resort has “Frisbee Golf” on it, and it was one of my favorite games. My friends and I would get together to play games, and we often would have Wii Tournaments, and Frisbee Golf was one of our favorites. After awhile, I started to wonder if it was actually a “real thing” and how in the heck would that work since in the game you’re just aiming at a lighted circle that is on the ground extending upwards.
I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods one day looking for kayak paddle leashes and just happened to walk by an endcap that had Innova Starter Packs and some discs. No way! It WAS a real thing! Being familiar with the Wii game I looked over the discs and wondered now where to play and how. Luckily, they had a print out of nearby courses, and wouldn’t you know it, one was about 10 minutes from the store! I picked up the starter pack and in my excitement, forgot about the paddle leashes. I headed out to the course. I walked up towards the tee pad with my new discs in hand ready to play! I looked at the course bulletin board, and read over the rules, now I was REALLY ready to go!
My first throw was definitely not what I expected. The Leopard was the driver in the pack. I put it in my hand and couldn’t really figure out how to hold it. I did my best “beach frisbee” grip and threw it. It went about 30 feet, hooked left and dove into the ground. Hole 1 at this course is a par 3, 210 foot mostly straight hole. I think it may have taken me 6 or 8 throws to get close to the basket. Well, this was an interesting looking device. I could see how it would literally “catch” the disc out of the air. I was probably close to the basket and missed, but then it happened, the ring of the chains. In that one moment, it didn’t matter how many throws it took to get to the basket, that ring meant success. I wanted to hear more of that for sure. I completed the 9 holes at this course and was definitely tired, but knew I wanted to play again.
This is how the addiction started. I’m sure many of you have a similar story. There is just something about hearing the sound of the chains for the first time that rings into your soul. You’re in it for life. Now at this point, I think I am playing 3-5 days a week now that Spring has finally sprung around here.
Fun fact: at the same course today – I threw a beautiful S shot on Hole 1 and clinked the bottom pole.
Intro to the DiscRaptor
Posted by discraptor
Hey guys and gals, just thought I would do a quick post to introduce myself and what I hope to bring to the Dogleg community.
My name is Justin, I’m 27 and currently live in Seagrove, NC with my wife and Hoover my 5 year old Lab/Coonhound mix. I’m currently a photojournalism student with a concentration in sports photography and hope to translate that to bringing the sport of disc golf to the masses through photos. Outside of disc golf my interests pretty much peg me as a nerd, LOL! I’m a huge music fan, mainly heavy metal, but do enjoy music as a whole to a degree. My favorite bands include: Machine Head, Pantera, Amon Amarth, Battlecross and Testament, but the list is quite more extensive. I’m a big tech guy, specifically custom PC builds. I’ve built the last 4 PC’s my wife and I have owned and recently started getting into case modding as well. Art is another big passion of mine. I do everything from pencil drawings to acrylic and spray painting, and yes I do disc golf related work. One project I have going at the moment is trying to figure out a way to do LED paintings that can light up!
I was introduced to disc golf last summer by a buddy of mine, Dex, who I’ve known all my life. He called me up one day and asked me to come down to the park near his house and try it out. I had heard of disc golf before, but never gave it much thought as a sport that would interest me. I am a former baseball and football player used to really challenging sport; I just never thought of disc golf as something I’d enjoy. Well, I get down to the park and my buddy is out there with a bag full of discs. He explains the rules to me, shows me the basics of a BH throw and tells me to let it rip. The disc went 50 ft then hard left into a tree. Needless to say, as a former athlete, I was less than pleased when he put his shot under the basket 245 ft away. I’m not one to give up easily, but looked at Dex while just shaking my head. Dex has been playing for a few years, told me I just had to get the mechanics of the throw down first and that distance would come with playing/practice. The next hole was almost the same story, I threw a disc maybe 75 ft this time, but Dex again parked it at 300 ft. This went on for another 5 or 6 holes and I became increasingly frustrated. That’s when it clicks in Dex’s head, since I’m a former Shortstop and 2nd baseman, maybe I would have better results from a FH throw. He shows it to me, hands me a higher speed/more stable driver and says rip it like you would if you were gunning out a runner at first. It clicked. I put that muscle memory to work, put all I had into the throw and let it rip down the fairway. The disc was parked 5 ft from the basket 315 ft away, my jaw dropped. Watching a disc I had thrown sail that far, that fast, it was like a rocket leaving my hand, and I was hooked.
Since that moment I’ve dedicated my game to driving FH. I drive FH for distance, control, as well as anhyzer now. I will throw close to 95% of my drives FH and probably 80% of my upshots. The FH drive just feels so natural and smooth to me. I seem to generate much more power and snap with far less effort throwing FH as well, but the best thing about it is that is doesn’t hurt my shoulder like a BH drive does. My baseball career ended in High School when I tore my labrum on both the front and back of my shoulder, my family couldn’t afford the surgery to fix it, and they are still torn now. This causes my shoulder to pop out of socket when exerted too much.
Those are the main reasons I’ve come to Dogleg. I want to spread the knowledge I’ve gained over the past year about driving FH and playing disc golf with injuries. I found Dogleg through Twitter and immediately emailed JT when I saw I could join and help contribute. I don’t see a lot of information out there right now about FH driving and disc selection. I hope to help anybody that I can with disc reviews from a FH player’s perspective and any throwing tips I can give. I also want to share what I’ve learned over the last 10 years about conditioning and strengthening joint injuries for recovery, preventive methods and how to translate that into a routine to help with both distance to your drives and overall health.
I would also like to share any disc golf related pieces of art or projects I work on if anybody is interested in seeing them.
I look forward to contributing and talking with the Dogleg community, as well as spreading the word about Dogleg around the NC disc golf community!
-DiscRaptor