Ken Climo's Thoughts on the Game of Disc Golf

This post provides links to two websites that are Ken Climo's philosophy, thoughts, instructions, viewpoints, etc. about Disc Golf.

This Ken Climo link has four pages to it chock full of Climo's words. There's a lot of material to be gleaned here.

This Climo link is a more recent, condensed version of the previous link. These should be helpful in one's pursuit of bettering their game.

Ken Climo's Mando Minute

The video in this post is one of Ken Climo's Mando Minute videos. A very short video discussing one item of disc golf. This video has Ken discussing "keeping" the disc "On The Line." A lot of beginning players round the arm or keep the arm away from the body as they drive the disc where they should keep the arm close to body. Hope viewers find it helpful.

Ken "The Champ" Climo and the Power Grip

Ken Climo is the guy a lot of players look up to and to because of his excellence as a player. Good reason for this as he's a 13 time World Champ! More than anyone else in the game. The next few posts will feature articles and/or videos about "The Champ."

The video below comes from a workshop on the Power Grip videotaped by and for TheUltimateDiscGolfShow.com. There's good video capture of the hand and finger placement coupled with Climo's clear explanation of how to place the disc in the hand, how to place the fingers, the muscles and tendons used, etc.

More Driving Distance - Hip Shift

A brief little clip by David Feldberg on Fly Feldberg website addresses a problem I've noticed in my driving a disc golf disc. That problem is I've been off balance at the completion of my drive. If my diagnosis is correct then what Dave Feldberg describes in the short video below should help correct the problem. What I need to do is to shift my front hip skyward so my upper body and throwing arm are not out in front of my front leg and foot. This should result in a longer drive. Now to get some time in the field working on that hipshift.

Watch the video as Feldberg explains it much better.

Buidling The Bag with Avery Jenkins: Drivers

The 6 minute 20 second video below features Avery Jenkins providing insights into selecting good drivers for your disc golf bag. He knows discs, what the numbers mean, and what the discs do. Good advice for beginners and intermediates.

Building The Bag with Avery Jenkins: Putters and Mid-Range Discs

Avery Jenkins provides insights into what discs make up a well built group of putter and mid-range discs for one's bag. This approximately 8 minute video promotes Innova discs as Avery is an Innvoa sponsored player. There are a variety of different companies making disc golf discs these days. New ones appear as well. The one thing about Innova is it's been making discs for the longest time. So, you probably not going to go wrong with any Innova product.

Enjoy!

Fieldwork

If you follow disc golfers, play with some of the pros, read disc golf blogs, etc., you're likely to hear the word "Fieldwork." All fieldwork consists of is throwing your discs on a large piece of ground such as a football or soccer field at a local middle school so one can get to know how their discs fly as well as to practice throwing the discs and improving accuracy.

The video below is of Paul McBeth, the 2014 Memorial Champion and a fine young player, doing field work with midranges. As I understand it, and every player is different to some degree, the goal of field work is to become more familiar with a specific type of disc such as mid-ranges or drivers. Another observation is that the more experienced players have certain discs which are consistently their go-to discs in the mid-range and driver category. Watching McBeth's video you'll see he has a number of Innova Rocs, a couple of gators and a Mako or two. This is a good video that provides an approach to fieldwork that's not difficult to incorporate into one's own practice. Enjoy!

Lost and / or Found Discs

Read an insteresting blog post from the South Palm Beach, FL area I thought I'd pass on to our community casual league players.

The subject matter is lost discs. Folks can lose a disc in several places and several ways. They throw too many and forget how many they've thrown and where they all landed. Or, they can get lost in the weeds, woods or water.

At some point down the road, such discs do become found by other disc golfers or disc golf harvesters, aka: squids, who don a wet suit and face mask and hunt for discs in lakes and such.

The post I read mentioned the fact that these 'squids' after 'harvesting' the discs out of the local water hazards on the course(s) then sell the discs. The harvesting of discs was witnessed by a member of the Palm Beach Disc Golf Club. The club approached the harvesters and "politely asked that the disc harvesting stop immediately."

After several attempts to resolve the situation with no positive result, club members took the issue to the police. The police informed the club that disc golf discs with names and id on them are still considered personal property and are “not abandoned.” The post makes no mention of further action taken by the local police. However, the post's author does note that several of his "own discs with the word “TooNA” " were seen for sale on online auction sites. You can read the whole blog post here.

Since I began disc golf about three or four years ago, I was told to mark my discs with my name, phone number, and PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) member number so if one is lost and later found I would get it back. For the most part that has held true as I have had a few discs lost and returned. Though I did have one disc I lost in one spot, found by someone who called me up but it had already travelled to another local course. After leaving it where I could find it, and before I arrived, someone else made off with it.

Another league player was out on a course where he and his playing partner threw two discs across the creek. They noted the exact location of their discs and sfter completing their round they went to retrieve the discs and they were gone. Both discs were clearly marked. They've never been contacted about them.

I haven't contacted the local police to see if their take on marked discs is the same as the South Florida police or not. That'd be worth a phone call, I'm sure. But for a later time.

One day while helping a fellow player find a favorite disc lost in 5 foot tall grass, the player told us a story of a disc he lost. It was some time later when he received a phone call from an individual who had found his disc. The finder asked how he could get it back to him to which the player told him where he lived and asked where could they meet up. Turns out the caller was from Texas and he found the disc on a Texas course. The player of the lost disc told the caller to just keep the disc as it wasn't really worth the effort to send it back. So, though some might provide a finders fee, or gladly meet up with the finder to get a disc back, sometimes geographical distances prevent easy return. Or, one could say that letting the finder keep the disc was a finder's fee.

It is the right thing to make an attempt to return a found disc if there are owner's info on a found disc. Or, one could take it to a local Disc Golf Supply shop such as we have in Iron Lion here in the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities. Often times they'll know how to contact the owner. Many players play with their favorite discs because they work especially well for them, so if one should find a disc that is marked, make every effort to return it to its owner. And, if you value your disc, mark with your contact info if you want the best chance at getting it back.

A Disc Buying Guide

It's that time of the year. Winter's almost gone. Spring's soon to come. If you're like me, you can't wait to get out and throw some plastic. Maybe it's time to get some new discs, too.

Lots to consider in making purchases as there is any purchase. There's cost. There's ability level. There's color. There's plastic types. Are you a beginner, intermediate or pro player? Gotta be honest here! I tend to under rate myself but I still feel like a beginner as my drives and scores are still in the beginner range.

Infinite Discs has an excellent beginner's Infinite Discs Buying Guide. It's well worth the time taken to read it as there is a wealth of information that will greatly increase one's understanding of disc golf.

Quad City residents can also visit Iron Lion Disc Golf Supply in Moline as Chase is an experienced pro disc golfer and very knowledgeable on the subject and the products they sell.

I'm not expert enough at the game to be able to advise a person as to what to purchase. There's discs for beginners such as the Innova Leopard which received the most votes in an Infinite Discs poll taken asking what was the best disc for a beginner. The second highest voted disc was Innova Valkyrie with the third highest voted being the Latitude 64 River. You can read more about this poll and other comments on Infinite Discs June 25, 2013 Blog.

Heavy Disc and the Distance Check List

Heavy Disc is a disc golf blog by disc golfer from Colorado.

His Distance Check List post contained a four point checklist to consider when driving the disc from the teepad to the basket. It's a great check list to review and keep in mind until there comes a time when a disc golf drive is as second nature as tying one's shoes!

The four points are:

1) Slow Down - distance isn't accomplished the same with a disc golf disc as it would be with a football throw, "...we're accelerating it and spinning it out of a lever. When you accelerate and spin it - the disc will travel." It's important to slow down on the steps up to the point of release. I've seen Felix, a league player, do this consistently with every drive be it from the fairway or teepad.

2) Tight and Low - "...keeping the disc pulled tight and low to your chest. Coming away from your chest is going to take the snap out of the whip that you're creating with your arm. Bringing the disc up above your upper abdominal muscles almost always leads to trying to strong arm it." The back hand drive in disc golf is pretty unnatural but essential to master. I've got a long ways to go with it.

3) Driving with Your Elbow - This goes hand-in-hand with 2) as you shouldn't be acting like a batter trying to hit the ball out of the park as it puts one's body in a poor position for follow through. And follow through is very important in achieving a good drive! So, if you learn to drive "forward with your elbow" you'll "also keeping your upper body forward during your follow through."

4) Squeezing - In most martial arts, the concept of being totally relaxed until the point of striking with an explosion of force is the goal to shoot for. "Squeezing your grip hard at the end of the release will help to create the spin you want on the disc. Also important to note that you want to keep the nose down."

All these points are explained in greater detail along with a video on improving distance and a video from an overhead angle of disc golfer back hand driving at the Distance Check List post on Heavy Disc blog.

Disc Golf Grips Sum Up

Over the past few weeks I've covered disc golf grips at the request of a reader, co-worker, and player in the Clock Tower Disc Golf League. I hav a PDF of the various grips I screen captured and cropped from various videos. The document is set up so one could print it as a two sided page and the grips should line up behind each other. A person could then trim it, get the individual grips laminated and keep in one's disc bag as a reference. If you're interested in this PDF, send me an email at joe.nobiling@gmail.com and I'll return a copy to you.

There are many variations within the world of grips. Players develop variations on their own or other players share their grips. A player in our area shared his variation on a power grip where instead of four fingers he only has two as he feels it gives him the same distance but better control and accuracy. I've used this grip with a good degree of success.

While doing research for the previous grip posts I came across a list of alternative grips by Dave Dunipace of Innova. This link is found at Dave's Grip Tips.

Disc Golf Roller Shots

The Roller Shot in disc golf is another effective tool for a players toolbox. As the name implies, a Roller Shot causes the disc to roll on the ground as opposed to flying through the air. This can be a good technique for very tight spaces with little or no room because of too many low hanging branches, get-out-of-trouble-shot, etc.

Below is a video from a Louisville Disc Golf Club where they discuss thumb, cut, backhand, sidearm rollers, the angles necessary, and their preferred discs for rollers.