Disc Golf: Let It Throw
Well, it hasn't quite turned out that way, at least not yet. Instead, I have been tethered locally due to a family member's medical issues and also (not related) COVID. So, I have been grounded. And as my near future and perhaps more long-term came into focus, I had to look around to see what I could put my hand to so to speak and disc golf came to the fore.
Although I'd love to mountain bike more, I have calculated that about once a week is all I can risk. The more I mountain bike, the greater likelihood I will get hurt. Being tossed from the bike is a reality and it happened to me several weeks ago. Fortunately, it was a soft landing that only resulted in my right calf being mauled by the pedal. Disc golf is decidedly less dangerous.
For the last couple of years, a buddy and I made up silly frisbee games at a local park, like SCUD, where one of us would attempt to knock the other's frisbee out of the sky. Then it occured to me that we were essentially playing a mutant form of disc golf and why not just go above board and buy some discs. So, for 17 bucks I acquired some discs and was fairly surprised to discover that disc courses are all around.
Seek and ye shall find type of deal...search Google and Throw, more like.
Thus, since mid-summer I have been hurling which is my pet name for playing. I am exploring local courses and throwing 3-4 times a week. At worst, it is walking/hiking for exercise. At best, it is a game where I am getting better game by game. Although competition, particularly with others, has always proven to be both a pleasure and a pain. I really have no desire to try and best others in some dumb attempt to prove my worth, as I did with basketball for decades. I seek for self-improvement.
I do occasionally meet up with others, either intentionally or happenstance. Either friend or stranger. And sometimes the other individual or group take it quite a bit more seriously than me. And, I want to distance myself from that. If it is not fun, I don't want to do it. If I get a whiff of that besting other vibe, I make a mental note to avoid such a person in the future.
I have learned some interesting lessons from disc golf. Here are some of them, I am sure there are more:
- There are internal characteristics that I have, some that are static and others that are changeable. I have to play with what I have. This is obvious but many spend an enormous amount of time and energy wishing for something that just isn't in the cards. Play what you have with wisdom.
- The discs themselves are designed with different throws in mind. Distance, accuracy, stability, and the like. The disc is the tool for the task and having the right disc for a particular throw, does make a positive difference. Some disc golfers carry around a backpack full of discs. I was playing with a dude a couple of weeks ago that had a disc with a sharper edge which causes it to be thrown and to stick in the ground like a tomahawk. That disc is designed to keep it from rolling down a hill. His disc embedded itself into a slope. Pretty cool.
- The courses themselves obviously have characteristics such as terrain, trees, angles, distance, and etc. Angles, in particular, are a crucial part of the game, figuring out the route for the throws.
Disc golf is actually a pretty decent analogue for life's course. There are things we have to accept, things we have to try and change, and the degree of influence we have in-between these two polarities. I find fault with going to either side of the equation too often. Most of life's issues can be influenced in one way or another, for good or for ill. Yet, there are realities that cannot be changed.
So, as is the case with my present life station, my goal is to be content with the current realities but to make my best throw regardless. And have some fun along the way.
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