2011 Am Nats online video series

[Disc Golf Live]

You can ask him yourself, Bruce. That's Brian Earhart, one of our locals. I'm guessing he felt he would get better grip behind the tee than on the tee.

I think that's correct.  I sat under the tent there just after the first rain began and caught the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cards trying to tee off.  One early guy slipped badly on the tee, and seeing that others were considering their options.  And the turf option wasn't much better or worse than the pads themselves. 

Overall, the footage I took is a foot-fault fest.  Guys usually don't/can't watch their own feet, so we can't expect them to call their own violations.  Fellow contenders often don't want the scrutiny which will come if they were to call a violation on another player, so that's not a great route either.  I still think it would be fun to send an official with the top groups, ready to call any and all violations.  I'd even give them yellow and red flags to toss as soon as they see the violation.  That would make for some fun video and tighten things up considerably.  Yet officials at majors are very reluctant to crack down on this...

Pros are generally better at hitting their mark.  Put an Am on a goofy lie on a hill and he'll step on his disc/mini, or miss his mark all together way too often.  Start calling the foot faults and we'd see a lot more guys tighten up their play or stop using run-ups all together.  Maybe they should relax the rules on stance, since we don't follow them, anyway.

I'll have the final story up sometime on Monday.  These longer pieces take a good while to render and upload, but I'll have get it up there as soon as I can.

Thanks for watching.

Joe

[Tom McManus]

You can ask him yourself, Bruce. That's Brian Earhart, one of our locals. I'm guessing he felt he would get better grip behind the tee than on the tee.

I'll have the final story up sometime on Monday.  These longer pieces take a good while to render and upload, but I'll have get it up there as soon as I can.

Thanks for watching.

Joe

Nice work Joe. Thanks.

[Jon Brakel]

I have no doubt that the illegal jump putts today will be made legal by a rules change in the near future. If no one is going to call it then why not make it legal? 

[Bruce Brakel]

Earlier in the video the TD told Mark Ellis and one group that they had to tee from the tees, which would be the rule if he had said nothing.  I'm just not understanding why the player would feel at liberty to completely ignore the tee while teeing off.  I could see that in the Rec division at some local tounament but a top amateur at a major?  It is not like he missed the tee or stepped off the end.  He took a run up that ended well short of the tee and did not use the tee at any time. 

[roman]

Mark Ellis asked if they had 1ft leeway on either side of the tee this year like they have in previous years, and the TD said no, they had to throw from the rubber pad. I think in that context the TD said you can't tee off from either side of the pad.

[pdga#7648]

brian placed a mini on the tee pad, then tee'd off behind his mini, which was on the edge of the tee pad.   why are sooo many here always looking to call foot faults on people?  jump putts are Legal!  aren't they?  or are you guys mad that you can't make any of your jump attempts?  just curious?

[Dan Michler]

brian placed a mini on the tee pad, then tee'd off behind his mini, which was on the edge of the tee pad.   why are sooo many here always looking to call foot faults on people?  jump putts are Legal!  aren't they?  or are you guys mad that you can't make any of your jump attempts?  just curious?

I agree Doug.  Who cares about any of this?  Let the touring players nitpick over minor rules violations.  I don't think amateurs are gaining much with all these Foot Faults Caught On Tape.  As far as your comment about jump putts....it is legal to putt and then jump, but not legal to jump and then putt.  Your foot must be down when you release.  I've never seen it called, and I don't plan on calling it myself anytime in the future.

[pickax]

Some of this is to help people know the rules. If a tee pad is provided, it must be used (803.02.A). While Brian placing a mini on the tee pad is a novel approach. There is nothing in the rules that allows for that action unless a throw actually landed there.

Edit: included rules citation.

[buettgdj]

I was with Brian all weekend and he said that Chuck Kennedy was standing next to him on 13. Brian asked if he could tee off behind the tee pad and Chuck Kennedy said "yes" it is legal to do that.

We are also getting away from how incredible of a shot that was. Not only was it raining and he was behind the tee pad, but he fell down and still made it to the top of 13 for an 80 foot eagle putt on a par 4. I think David Wiggins Jr. also landed somewhere in that vicinity. On the nice days, I only got half way up the hill.

That's what I call MASHING a disc.

[Bruce Brakel]

And when putting you must have a point of contact on the line of play within 30 cm behind your marker.  So when you start with a point of contact behind the marker and move it away before you throw, it is an illegal putt.  

These are the rules.  If you don't like them, play women's softball.

[Bruce Brakel]

I was with Brian all weekend and he said that Chuck Kennedy was standing next to him on 13. Brian asked if he could tee off behind the tee pad and Chuck Kennedy said "yes" it is legal to do that.

Sounds like Chuck Kennedy.  He is wrong about the rules 80% of the time. 

[pdga#7648]

if you release the disc with a foot on the ground, it is ok. all the foot faults Bruce pointed out look fine to me. the disc was released with a foot touching the ground!  and none that he pointed out were called were they? huh, what do ya know?

[pdga#7648]

These are the rules.  If you don't like them, play women's softball.

what does this mean? women's softball don't have rules??

[Steven Jacobs]

I don't give a crap.  Brian MASHED it in the rain while falling down 

[pdga#7648]

brian placed a mini on the tee pad, then tee'd off behind his mini, which was on the edge of the tee pad.   why are sooo many here always looking to call foot faults on people?  jump putts are Legal!  aren't they?  or are you guys mad that you can't make any of your jump attempts?  just curious?

I agree Doug.  Who cares about any of this?  Let the touring players nitpick over minor rules violations.  I don't think amateurs are gaining much with all these Foot Faults Caught On Tape.  As far as your comment about jump putts....it is legal to putt and then jump, but not legal to jump and then putt.  Your foot must be down when you release.  I've never seen it called, and I don't plan on calling it myself anytime in the future.

without instant replay or a slo motion video, how can 1 really be sure?  your eyes can't watch a players feet and the release of the disc at the same time!  like Dan said, that's just nitpicking. must be the guys always losing that make a call on someone during a tournament?
now, I have watched alot of videos where Barry calls foot fouls,(foot that is not directly behind mini, in front of lie) mostly on Nikko, but never fouls on jump putts!

[Jon Brakel]

These are the rules.  If you don't like them, play women's softball.

what does this mean? women's softball don't have rules??

Women's softball used to have one of their balk rules broken all the time. They changed the rule to make the accepted form of pitching legal.

[pdga#7648]

thanks Jon. I was confused big time on that one.

[Bruce Brakel]

I think amateurs should be sportsmen, and sportsmen play the game, any game, in such a way that it is clear that they are following the rules.  It is really poor sportsmanship to cheat because no one is calling it or cheat becauase it happens so fast no one can call it.  How about just not cheating?

[Jon Brakel]

There are clearly a lot of legal jump putts. I know quite a few disc golfers that make jump putts that anyone can see are legal. People, in my opinion, should not make jump putts that are ambiguous in nature. Since we don't have slo-mo instant replay we should play in a manner in which we don't need slo-mo instant replay to know if we are playing legally.

[damonshort]

I can't really recall ever seeing a clear case of a jump putt where the player's in the air before the release. The idea behind it (I always thought) is that the act of pushing off w/ the jump helps propel the disc. If you're already in the air, there's no force involved; the putting motion isn't like a basketball jump shot and I don't see any physiological advantage to putting while you're airborne.

Now, I could see an advantage to jumping before throwing a thumber or something to clear an obstacle, but that's a different motion (and still illegal, of course; I did it myself a few wks ago but it was a casual round - and no, I didn't call myself on it.   )

as far as the slick rubber teepads; if they didn't tell every group that they couldn't tee off from somewhere off the pad, I'd like to think that common sense and safety would prevail, but maybe not.