Addressing My FAILURE of a Season (so far)…

so this has been arguably the worst start to the season that I could possibly have asked for but I'm not as discouraged as I would have been last year maybe as some people would say that I should be but I feel like I have a really good headp space and so I want to talk about the beginning of the Season why it's kind of sucked some decisions that I made that I have changed and then just play around with you guys while I work on kind of fixing and finalizing some form and talking about some new discs that infinite sent me to try to fill a couple slots Halo Emperors which I cannot wait to just see if they bomb I really hope they're really overstable really care too much about score cuz I am working on some form stuff that we'll talk about but we'll go to off the top hopefully this rain up here holds off but yeah this start of the year has really sucked but somehow I'm still optimistic that I can go and like play very well at DDO in a couple weeks and hopefully start a stretch of good golf I wouldn't expect this head space from myself Mr anxious boy but I also know that a lot of you guys are interested in like warm-up routines and stuff and so I'm going to show you real fast kind of what my warmup has turned into the movements aren't the prettiest I'm still like learning a lot of them my body's getting used to them but they help kind of me up for disc golf and hopefully playing solid rounds it's something I saw Anthony BR talk a lot about where he would just have the set routine every time before he played and it got him in the right mental space as well as being physically ready and I haven't had like that warm-up routine yet and so this is something I've done before every round for the last like week or so week and a half that I'm planning on just continuing cuz I feel prepared to play when I do it 10 minutes and I'm actually warmed up instead of just skipping it or doing random stuff now we'll have a little progression of throws nice and easy warm it up we have another switch I'm going to throw this one as my first hopefully don't need a second I'll tell you why I'm so stoked to have this disc back in the bag but about 310 Straight Ahead we're playing alen the full 18 it's a hard course in number one of the hardest um but it really starts to get his teeth in the back nine which is going to turn into like nine holes of a full hard 18 whole course eventually but for now little Firebird on the middle oh my gosh I love that disc so much it's not even funny yeah I parked it I'll try forand actually have some thoughts on forehand that I'm going to need to iron out but we'll try this interval on a forehand yes dude it worked I figured out something in training and it worked for that forand let's go I'm stuck you still have it thank you do you go diving out there a lot try to nice do you have a great one yeah you too thank you man no no no come on no give it just take it bro oh my gosh all right do it cuz I have fun all right dude thank you yeah have a good one how about this man just hooked it up with one of my metal fake Romans that I dunked in the water one of the only two ones that I have from this Texas Swing run I put the other one in the bag but I missed this one so there's only two of these left you guys always sell off those Romans I'm going to need to run some more Romans I got some more stamps coming up and I have a lot of stuff to talk to you guys about this is kind of like an update video but first that disc that I just threw is a Champion Firebird we'll talk about that first we'll talk about forehand at some point today but that Champion Firebird I realized sometimes you just don't get along with the mold and there's no reason except it just like doesn't click with you and that is what happened with me with the scepter I would lose a lot of Strokes from not throwing the scepter great and I realized I would be in my basement looking at that disc every time I pass it I pick it up be like oh this feels good I love how this feels and I was like let me just put it in my freaking bag I had it in the bag all last season it's like not super Champion fire birdie definitely gotten a little straight and beat in but it's a really nice slot that I can forehand and back in really well and I didn't have any of the discs in my bag that I think you need which are the discs that you put in your hand you're like I'm going to throw a good shot with this that's what this disc has been for me and I genuinely don't think I've had like a bad shot or a bad result since I put it back in the bag I'm bound to have them but even there it's like that's my first actual shot of the day after warming up and it was great all right one for one slight tail coming this way I think we're going to throw on midnight prow 2 think it's about 370 375 down this hill one thing that you'll see me working a lot on with form today hopefully at least is really shortening up this xep there's a lot of like very mechanical reasons for it but my xep typically tends to be too long and then I end up falling onto this foot because there's never any like this left glute never does any work um this is something I'm talking with my trainer a lot about we're probably going to be shooting something this week before I go to DDO about form stuff but I need to honestly stay stable on this foot and not even necessarily on this toe cuz if you get up on your toe I know some people do this but my trainer is like I don't want you up there like I'd rather have your heel close to as close to the ground as possible cuz when I'm on my toe I compensate fully through my calf which is maybe one of the reasons why they look so gnarly if you lower this down it gets put more through your quad and glute the higher this is the more more it goes below the knee and you want more stability from this glute and so really trying to work on stepping up having a short X step that I'm a little lower on this foot so that there's stability here instead of falling on this foot I place and then transfer my weight in a way that my hips stay completely level the whole time so they can spin around one another rather than one hiking and pulling another one through it's kind of odd but hopefully we throw that a lot like that today and don't ingrain any bad muscle memory get stable and tailing come on oh wow yeah this new like stuff does feel weird I still think I'm a little overextended at the top but it's going to take some time and some muscle memory your body like honestly a lot and maybe mostly your nervous system so you talk about like muscle memory that memory is in your nervous system and not even muscle memory but the ability to get in these movement patterns and to feel stable in them I've learned this a lot in the gym as I've been going to this trainer I don't know how long it's been maybe total of six or seven weeks and my strength has shot through the roof like this is more so just to say like how much your body can when you put it in positions that have Integrity which he stops me before I go past a certain range of motion or whatever I've beaten my PRS from when I like lifted consistently when I was in like high school and early college and that's like kind of blown my mind and I've beaten them like doing pause reps and like reps not singles so that's been a little bit crazy it's really taught me to trust the process there also practicing a lot of putting recently has taught me to trust the process with my Putt and now here like my form I know that as long as I continue trying to do what I want my body to do it's going to learn how to do it obviously there has to be some sort of connect there but if it's getting better and better I don't have to force it to be perfect today once to get in the more more advantageous powerful positions and it's going to be able to do that the more that I do it with Integrity not just like repping it out past the point of failure where I'm like throwing bad reps bad bad shots that aren't doing it but trying to throw every shot controlled how I want to the majority of those are like that my form is going to get better also these are coming out soon tough little put here it's my first Putt in the wild with these guys it's great we'll talk forand here and then we'll get into why the season is kind of sucked cuz I haven't posed about it but I had a tournament where I shot 910 rated I shot 100 points below my rating for a round and then a 930 rated round um but I want to talk about kind of those decisions that I made to play that and then decision I'm making because of that but first we need to talk a little bit about forehand stuff that I actually just figured out this morning that's because this morning I was at training I trained uh every weekday and there's just a tennis ball that before I did my warm-ups I was just throwing it against the wall and I was realizing that when I was throwing it my like ktic chain was just moving all right like I would my foot hit the ground it would be a block or a brace as we call it in disc golf it block and then everything else would come through and it would all be smooth and I realized I was starting that throw kind of here with the tennis ball and then I come around in kind of a normal motion I notice a lot of times with my for hands I would start my Four Hands here which is a position in the throw but when I threw submarine with a t ball I'm not starting it here I'm here where this like shoulder is kind of in the correct scapular plane I don't know if that's exactly what it's called but like this is not an advantageous position when you throw this this is not really where you want it to be that's why people call it the deep pocket I almost think that's just like the natural place where your shoulder wants to be is here like if you're here your shoulder if you let it Loose it's going to want to be here so it's probably strongest here in its stability and so similarly instead of being here with my forehand I'm going to try to start my for hands out here and then have a similar motion motion through got a little tail one we got a Zone 210 ft not going to be like a very powerful show of this but very helpful cuz I need to dial in a forehand before I get to ddl I think you can almost see some of this and like the way that Jake Wolf's for him looks so different than a lot of people that's pretty parked and he's a like 90 plus mph pitcher I believe maybe him or Ben one of his their brothers but they throw almost with their hands a little more cocked which honestly I think puts the Forum in a more advantageous position because this is pretty weak position this is a strong position and yeah it can be loose but you want to start it in that position I really am I'm grateful I'm starting to work with this guy and think in terms of like traditional biome mechanics or just scientific understanding of bi mechanics rather than disc golf mechanics cuz we still haven't figured it out I don't think there's almost anybody who has it fully figured out and I think some things that are taught go against traditional understandings of how your body wants to rotate and throw and disc golf really isn't that special of a movement maybe a little bit different of a plane of movement maybe a little bit different of grip uh and way that you throw but it's rotational power I'm really stoked on learning all these things and as I learn them and ingrain them I'll share them with you but it's just kind of crazy to think about it just feels more natural like my shoulder doesn't feel pinched it feels like it's moving how it wants to interesting little byproduct is I thought both I thought that one was parked and that one was like going to be in line with the basket and they're both a little long I'll talk more about these Putters just kind of teasing them for now they should come out sometime in May like them a lot definitely will be throwing them and when it's like colder like it is now or like kind of below 70s 80s definitely be putting with them maybe even when it's warmer but sometimes the stiff it feels really good envy that flies close to a proxy wow another one where I kind of I Juiced it a bit I expected to be pretty parked but tough pot oh wow pulled it bad read oh no way that was such a big drop oh my gosh wow this is quite the start the putts have felt good so that's a win oh my gosh this green is being rough to me today not going to lie I liked almost all those putts something positive to take away and I think honestly that's one of the big helps to me with this terrible start to my season just as it is with the form just trusting the process overall it was really helpful for me that I gave myself like this year as what I kind of feel like as a building year where I'm kind of set my eyes on the first protour event of next year 2025 having that kind of long-term Vision helps me to kind of take the wins and losses as they are and honestly hopefully even develop a process that isn't even relying on like this long-term Vision but it's just my habits are take the good and the bad as it comes and like that's a double I'm one down through four right now and I don't have like this crazy anxiety which I typically would especially when shooting a video cuz I'm like a they're going to care about all these things um and I think that me adjusting my mindset has been very very helpful in dealing with such a bad start and knowing that like it's not the end of the world I'm not a terrible disc golfer like I just haven't put anything together yet and the putting everything together is something I think about a little bit because putting everything together means that there has to be everything to be put together if that makes sense so for instance getting a forehand getting a good pot getting a backhand working on the for working on the physicality working on the mental side all these things need to happen at some point and giving myself such a long time Horizon allows them to happen independently and then come together they don't have to come together immediately and like I have to freak out about that and so honestly what's really exciting is the next week I I play DDO then I come back to Denver and have the first Q Series event of the year and then I have a week off in which I'm traveling to Washington and then I play five a tiers in a row or above I play a Q Series a pro tour plus a pro tour a Q Series and then an e TI I still have to get into the last Pro tours but I'm weightless 10 so I should get in so hopefully stuff comes together during that time but even when I'm the road like I'm still focused on the training side because I don't want to have those seven weeks kind of be a wash cuz I'm so focused on the weekend that I lose sight of the beginning next year which is an interesting mindset for me to have and I think it'll honestly help me to play better um but that's all speculative and right now we're one down definitely not the end world this is tough hole though 370 Straight Ahead could be a big wide Hiser um which I might be inclined to take I really like playing up the middle there's just so much headwind right now that I think we're going to take this Roman that he just found gave back to me around a little Annie down the middle Dam D that was going to be perfect if I missed that but I didn't miss it so we'll pitch up I like the way the disc is coming on my hand today it feels like it's coming on the planes that I want so yeah let's talk a little bit about the beginning of the season I think I've played six events and I've cashed in one I got second in one event and second to Joe Riv in a second round where I missed six Circle one putts lost to him by like three I think overall my putting I mean you've seen it on the first couple holes but not obviously this one it's been feeling so much better and that's another thing where it's just been I've been averaging 200 made putts a day for the past week and a half maybe and just making sure that I see the Disco in the basket and it's one of the things where it's just like practice is the answer during practice there is dialing in on my putting form and that's been helpful but I mean the answer really just is you need to practice and that's one of the things I took so for granted last year I was throwing in like the 1015 1020 range if I made all my C1 putts last year and this year I I haven't been throwing that good honestly everything's been kind of a mess at different times my putting has never been good though and so now working on it so much and knowing that I have as much time from now to the start of DDO as I did from when I started practicing putting I can just maintain this throughout the rest of the year my putting can become a strength rather than just a liability where I get on theg gree and I'm like oh no all those putts in my head I said I was going to make them even up to the last one and then still now I'm like okay I'm going to make this putt like the doubt hasn't crept in because I know that I've been working on my mechanics and I've seen so many putts go in the basket that there's no reason for me to be doubting my putter right now before if I see putts Miss I'm like well I'm having a bad putting day whereas now I feel like I have mechanics and mentality to lean on this one I love to get back on track we're going to try a big forehand here I think the basket is about 375 380 down there do have kind of a tail left to right so I want probably something straight right now what I would probably throw in this wind is this eyel Emperor give it a touch of flex out of the hand let it get back honestly these go so far I'm a little worried I juice it um but I think this is the right disc for me when I'm throwing these harder I really got to focus on still having really good mechanics rather than just like I'm throwing harder let me go so fast this sow so it'll be solid lock hips go through actually that block is weird my hips need to be level to rotate rather than weirdly pitched I'm not really getting there on forehand recently but I think that's almost pin High little left to right slightly higher okay I don't know why this is a funny thing that happens with me sometimes which I don't understand when I was good at putting before I would always make my first Putt and miss my second so honestly not a negative but I do want to be able to make those second ones I think it's a little bit of a lack of focus A2 or Zone I think we're going to go A2 just High and a little little wide that was so rushed 390 into a headwind I think honestly those eat at me more than anything but I just have to take that out my mind and realize I'm a good putter I honestly was like in my head I was like I need to go through my routine where start up come down do a practice rep and then Putt and I was like no I don't need to it's too short and I didn't do it and then I just missed it so this one we got a pretty straight headwind so I think even though I haven't thrown these yet we're going to throw these Emperor first they nice I have two that look very very similar where have to throw them on some anheiser they look like they got that nice anheiser top I think they're going to be relatively beefy they feel honestly almost better than the the one that I lost in the river at the Avary the tournament where I went from basically being contention quadruple bogy in the first hole and then missing cash with the three putt on the final I'm killing it this year but M didn't even Flex it oh no I think that disc is what I want but that was a bad shot uhoh okay it's still stable and it's very far oh that's sick that's really nice okay I like that concrete one the hamburger we'll see and I think those those Halo Emperors are really good obviously going have need a lot more work with those discs but I think they're doing most of what I want them to do drop dang that's sweet it's kind of funny cuz I know my Putters like lost me a good bit of Strokes today but because it's like one less than normal but two the putts are feeling good it's one of those things where I can beat myself up it's like man I'm still missing so many Circle one pots or I can take the positive wow it's feeling better and that positive mentality I think will be really useful for the future and that by talking more positively about it right now I will be able to compete better because it'll give me more energy to instead of being like oh I can't pop this sucks I want to practice more cuz I'm actually throwing it pretty well whoa more win than I thought get through sneak yeah kick didn't see it oh got through safe in like super winding conditions maybe kind of like this maybe slightly more I think 7 down was about 1020 so okay now my confidence is starting to we a little bit on these putts that sucks honestly just break down mechanics no worries I just didn't go down or up where I wanted to got to be able to capitalize on those two through the front N9 I know we can place Back N pretty well all right straight through there is the basket it's kind of a wide Hiser 415 I think it honestly might be this interval this rain is coming out I hate that looks nice here but it's kind of raining this way almost parked a little short we'll try this Emperor this was the one that was I thought more understable but I think I just threw it bad yeah it's beef okay that's money thank goodness pretty parked there we go worked on the right mechanics and we're good I'm going to probably rip through the rest of this course and put it over what I'm saying now but really I'm not as disappointed with the start of the Season as I maybe should be I've been playing a lot of smaller events and I honestly had thought that playing those sanctioned events was really important to me cuz I put such an importance on sanctioned events and then I would get to these smaller events the the local C tiers and I was like okay I got a chance to win and I just couldn't bring myself really to care I more so cared about the bigger ones and I think that that's a problem like I need to care about the smaller ones but then I realized I have seven weeks out of eight of really big tournaments coming up and that's was probably occupying a lot of my mind space so I don't really feel as necessary to play some of those smaller ones so I actually had a flex this week that I dropped and a b tier that I dropped just really trying to get my all Focus wise to DDO and then the stretch and really making sure that I'm maximizing my training in the gym uh and then biomechanically so I know there's a lot to continue to grow in especially as you see my putting needs a lot of work my throwing still does fixing like finalizing a good form and then working from that base and I know all those things uh need to come together at some point but I know that that time is not now even though I think my rating might drop into the 970s it's going to depend honestly at how I play at D and at 303 because both of those are going to be in my rating uh which is kind of fun and I can play well enough that it actually goes up but I also know that if my rating drops it's not the end of the world I'm already basically in all the events that I want to get into for this year I know that uh even with a rating drop ratings are important and they're important to me but I know that they don't dictate everything about me as a player they dictate kind of how I've been playing and how I've been playing is going to be accurately represented cuz it's not been good so I don't have to like worry about that I know that the Optics might not be good but that's totally okay I still feel like there's plenty of time left and I feel like I'm making the right decisions and steps to get there I felt like that before and that's been wrong and so I could be wrong again but every time that it's been wrong I've been able to refine what I think is the right thing to do and I think get closer to the ultimate goal so really really excited for what the rest of the season has in store and some other big announcements that I have coming up for you guys my new Putters which will be dropping pretty soon which I'm super stoked on it's going to be the only run that has this logo uh ever of a two series disc official one shout out infinite shout out you guys hopefully I rambled enough to have the rest of these seven holes and hopefully I'm like six or seven down I think we can definitely get there we're 3 through 10 the rainbow's out the sun is out the rain is out this is weird whatever appreciate you guys so much see you yeah