Anyone have advice on what discs (drivers, midrange and putters) a beginner should start with? She's currently driving with a Sidewinder, and for the most part it hyzers out pretty quick. So, she needs something that is pretty "flippy" like possibly an Archangel, Dragon, Stratus or Stingray. Bruce, maybe you'd have a good idea since your daughters most likely started out with "flippy" discs.
She uses a Breeze for a midrange, and an "X" putter for putting. The Breeze doesn't hyzer out too much.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
In general, stay away from overstable discs and stick to lighter weights. The discs you mentioned are all good beginner discs (as should be the sidewinder). Some would proabably encourage a beginner to not throw drivers at all at first and stick to midrange and putters. This tends to help the beginner develop good form from the start.
My wife doesn't play too much, but she has found a lot of success with the Archangel for her driver. She also uses a Buzzz for her mid-range, and a Rhyno for her putter. She mainly uses the rhyno at really close range (under 15'), and she gets a lot of help from it NOT rolling after she misses. My wife started throwing a disc maybe 40' when she started (if she was lucky), now on a good throw with the Archangel she can hit 80'-100' or so. It's not great, but it's enough to keep her happy. I really think that important to NOT emphasize scores at first because my wife will be discouraged quite easily if I consistently get 3's and she's thinking about how she is lucky to get a 4 or a 5. She averages a 6 on a lot of holes.
The Breeze is a great disc to use for a mid-range. I would probably still recommend a Wizard for putter too, although just about any putter you can't really go wrong with. If the driver isn't working out, I definitely agree with Mike and say to just stick with the mid-range and putter all the time at first. Another female that we took out for her first round I gave her a Champ Valk in the 160's, a Buzzz, and a Wizard. She was able to get a LOT more distance out of the Buzzz than the Valk. I have since picked up a 150 Valk that my wife can throw similar to the archangel, but she still prefers the archangel.
The Dragon is definitely another good choice. A Shark would be good as well.
One of the key factors, especially for beginning female's, is LIGHT DISCS. That gets the most positive results and will help her WANT to play more and not be discouraged when her disc doesn't even go half as far as yours does. Once they get started and work on their throwing technique, then watch out ;) The Brakel girls are a testament to what can happen!
my girlfriend throws a 165 dx valk a 170 roc and a 170 wizard. I started out giving her one of my old 174 dx valks and she loved the feel. But it was way to heavy for her. so i got her the 165 and she tosses it almost 200. One thing I might suggest would be give her something light and mildy overstable and go practice throwing helix shots. If she can turn over the disc, even if she keeps burnin it, it will eventually come back for her and she will be happy with distance but the accuracy :dontknow:
Women and girls who are teachable should be started on lightweight understable discs that they can learn to throw straight. Learning to throw the helix for distance first is like skipping coffee and starting your girls on crack cocaine. Diana started that way before we knew anything and her game is still messed up because of it, even though we've tried to unlearn all that.
Kelsey, Jenny, Emily and Sarah all started on 150 D XLs, also known as the 150 Flathead Driver if you get them from DGA, and 150 Cyclones. Those are still good starter discs. Kelsey and Jenny have stayed with 150 and lightweight stuff they can throw straight. Jenny is the current Junior Girl National Driving Distance Champion. She won that with a 150 DX Orc. Kelsey is a current potential Slayer.
When we are trying to sell appropriate discs to women, Diana and I steer them towards 150 Champion Sidewinders and 150 Valkyries of all kinds. If they can overpower those discs we go to the 150 DX Orc. The next step up from there is the 150 T-Bird and then the 150 Firebird. We have some 150 DX Wraiths but have not had a throwing party with them yet.
We had a new girl at league today who had never thrown a golf disc in her life. She had a 175 Leopard in her hands that she was borrowing from Rachel. Right disc, wrong weight. We looked in everyone's bag until we found a 150 DX Valkyrie. She learned to throw that straight pretty quickly.
I like the idea of starting out with midrange discs and putters. This teaches people to throw correctly instead of always trying to overpower the disc. I started throwing my dirves alot flatter and better when I went to just throwing midranges and putters for awhile. Stick with lightweight discs. When ready for drivers. Bruce is right on with what he said. I have thrown the 150g Wraith and it is pretty stable. I would defintly wait for awhile till throwing the wraith. But when she devlops good technique and power. I think the 150g wraith will be a great disc for smaller arms.
my 1st disc was a panther and 15 years later i totally suck at disc golf in every aspect of the game......so don't start her off with a panther.
Really good advice. thanks guys.
were does one find these 150 gram disc. i go to all the places that sell disc around here and cant find anything under 165. Any help would be great. thanks.
Erik
I bring 50 or 60 150 gram discs to every IOS tournament. If you are not coming out to Rockford this weekend, I could leave some 150 discs with Jon.
Clark's advice about starting on midranges is definately what you would do if you were running a school to teach people to become champions on a fast track. Usually I'm selling discs to people who want to throw farther, not play better. You can't tell a customer what they want, but you can give them what they need sometimes.
Thanks guys for the advice! (This is DougEDawgs girlfriend.) I can't wait to throw a disc straight for a change! Hopefully one of those discs will do the trick.
Bruce,
I won't be able to make Rockford, but please bring the 150's to Streamwood.
Thanks.
*shameless plug* I will be picking up some 150 (and lower for a couple of discs.. ie 135g DX Ace and some other low weights for kids and 150's for those that want lighter stuff), but I will not pick up the discs for another 2 weeks or so. I guess I can take requests ;) The lighter than 150 stuff is really just the Ace, Shark, and a Polecat. But that would be FINE for some kids that want to learn how to play :)
8% goes back to Discontinuum on any purchase (just make sure you tell me when you order) :)
Or just buy from Bruce. Bruce is very cool too :)
Thanks,
Scott
ps. this is what I can get in 150 weight (list subject to change at any given moment)
DX Goblin, Aero, Cobra, Coyote, Roc, Shark, Stingray, Archangel, Aviar Classic, Aviar Putter, Banshee, Beast, Birdie, Cheetah, Dragon, Eagle, Firebird, Gazelle, Leopard, Orc, Polecat, Spider, TeeBird, Valkyrie, Viking, Whippet, Wraith
Pro KC Pro Roc, TeeBird-L
Champion Stingray, Aviar, Banshee, Eagle, Leopard, Sidewinder, TeeBird
Star Valkyrie, Aviar Putter, Sidewinder, TeeBird
I'm NOT going to buy every single one of those in the 150 weight (although it would be nice to stock all that *eventually*). But suggestions from that list will be accepted. I do plan on ordering Archangel's at 150 and Dragon's at 150 already.
Thread Drift--Just out of curiosity, what is a helix. You were talking earlier about "throwing a helix".
Quote from: DougEDawg on July 27, 2006, 06:00:45 AM
Thread Drift--Just out of curiosity, what is a helix. You were talking earlier about "throwing a helix".
They just mean throwing a more overstable disc on an anhyzer line so it flexes back out. More distance for a beginner but kills your form in the long run. One of my friends bought a Z-flick as his first disc, and he has never gotten away from throwing like that.
Thread Drift again--So, instead of throwing a helix, you should pick a driver that when released flat or at a slight hyzer angle will turn for all or almost all (ideally all) of the spin? Then, at the end of the spin the disc should start to fade?
Yeah, we've been teaching "our" teachable girls to throw drivers they can throw flat and straight on a long line [for them] that then fade at the end. This is what the Discraft and Innova pros have taught at our junior clinics and at the clinics for the downriver junior club. It seems to work for our girls. We have 12 to 15 year old girls in our league winning tournaments in the Women's Intermediate and Advanced divisions.
With regard to the men's side, It seems like that has become the "old school" way of thinking. Now a-days, almost everyone's using fast overstable discs that hyzer out the whole way, but still go over 400ft because today's discs are so much faster.
I still haven't developed the technique to use the faster discs, and have gone back to "Old School" for now.
Throwing DX Teebirds as my main driver has been one of the best things I've done for my game.
Quote from: discmonkey on July 31, 2006, 09:41:49 PM
Throwing DX Teebirds as my main driver has been one of the best things I've done for my game.
hey Tim, I've still got that one for you. I should've had you follow me to my car, since I stood down there in a semi-heat-stroke stupor for about 15 minutes yesterday and by the time I got back to the trailer you'd left. Maybe Streamwood....
Sorry about that. I actually went out and played another round (how stupid was that??) and completely forgot about it. I guess the heat was messing with me as well. Definiteley Streamwood.