Are Flex Starts BAD For Disc Golf???

if you look at my PDGA for this year you see that there are zero Flex starts on there and that is for a reason that we'll kind of get into today while we play a full 18 hole round that of course I don't think if we played the normal layout here on the channel also Shades Anthony's back baby we're going to be playing here at Exposition Park everyone just calls it Expo and yesterday very similar conditions to this there was a flex start here so we'll actually be able to like have very concrete reasons as to why flexes aren't quite my favorite but hopefully I'll be able to place on this next year now all the basic reasons why Flex Tarts just are not my favorite in general like the fact that cheating tends to be a little bit easier cuz you're just f up with your buddies at the end of the day if it's like a tags match or a league or whatever I don't think it matters that much like go to tags throw your multiples foot fault a little bit don't like fudge your score cuz that's really bad but like in general who cares but when there's something that's attached to something that can affect actual money in terms of sponsorships I just don't think that a PDGA sanctioning should be on that but I also understand that this is from the perspective of someone who's Semi-Pro who wants to be a pro disc offer and Pro to me means to Cod holder ultimately someone who makes a full-time living from dis Golf and so I do think that there's a place for like ratings in flexes and in leagues basically a flex start every week for a certain amount of weeks and I think that they should be rated in some capacity especially for amateur divisions cuz it's fun to have ratings but I do think that they should be separated from your overall PDGA rating I just don't know if we're at the place where that's even viable going to be trying out these Tha ratus Tour series takao a little more overstable hopefully we can remember how to putt today cuz we have a number that we need to get but beyond all that ratings talk and the cheating and whatnot that can become a little bit easier like you see people who have like consistently well over thousand rated rounds at Flex starts they go play tournament and they can't crack like 980 but the main reason especially here in Denver is because the courses are way too easy for instance here this layout because it's such an easy default layout which we're going to play today 12 down 12 down through 18 holes was $9.99 rated shout out to Isaac manger one of my buddies as well as Oscar Pana for shooting that 12 down yesterday and so today we're going to try to shoot a thousand rated round here which is just 13300 par for me it tends to be easier at the harder courses to shoot 1,00 rated but we're going to try to do it today but if we can at least tie 12 down for every stroke worse than that with my own bag just normal disc going to be playing straight up acting like I'm in a tournament come my announcement which will be coming towards the end of the month one of probably the last three days of the month or so something related to that will be giv away and we'll refer back to this video for that but whole One Straight Ahead 260 ft to get started we're going to go with this prison plasma Envy ultimately the name of the game today is just going to be put it in circle one make your putts bir your die course it's not my favorite especially for tournaments but I think it does have its place in teaching you valuable lessons which is why Denver Disc Off can be a little boring but at the same time it can teach you a lot If eventually I ever get to a course on tour that's way harder than this but also bird your die maybe I'll have better bird your die skills cuz it is kind of a skill set maybe leak that a little short but it'll play does get your heart racing a little bit though when you think you should be parking these holes but I think that's the expectation I need to get out of my head I know that I'm good enough to park basically every hole here there are definitely going to be some holes that have some relative challenge but expecting myself to park every hole is kind of a bad mental head space to get into instead of expecting myself to give myself a look for the birdie and then being able to capitalize on the putts I know my putter hasn't been hot but I know that I have all the muscle memory I have all the skills there I just need to focus and execute as we saw in yesterday where I play tags over at Village greens that I actually remembered how to putt when I focused up and did it getting Heckle by a crow over there this course does have really nice like Safari layouts like one of my favorite tournaments of the year was the Dragon Disc down the 3D that I played here and they like utilize some baseball field some cool triple Mandos there were some par five some par fours this one's going to be 248 but one of the other crazy things about a tournament like the flex start that happen yesterday is when the courses are so easy ratings are based on obviously who's in the field who's playing but also how easy the course is and if it's not hard enough for there to be scoring separation the points per stroke basically how many ratings point you go up or down for every stroke better or worse you shoot gets way bigger so like at a super hard course like when I played New London the points per stroke was like 5 and a half so if I shot one stroke better my rating might have gone from 990 to 995 but at a course like this gosh these guys are just heckling me from all over the place what the heck but at this course you can see 12 down right there is $999 and 10 down is 970 14 1 12 points per stroke so that means that if you shoot 13 down you shoot 1013 which is a lot better than just over a th000 but it also means that so hard to shoot a thousand are better because shooting 13 down anywhere just requires a lot of focus and just like a lot of birdies and that just adds up on you all right there's a ob sidewalk beyond the basket here I'm thinking about just spiking in a Zone sit down oh man I've done that every time I've played this whole recently I've just Juiced it for no reason that's one of the things that I'm hoping to learn today too is since this course is so easy there's going to be some holes that I really need to rely on on a slight amount of touch cuz they'll be a little short and I need to like I shouldn't just throw a big Hiser I should throw something that is like an upshot that's straight at the basket even though it's all these holes can be higher holes I still need to just kind of throw a touch shot at the basket on a touch of flex let it sit down and really down Tempo on the speed which is just something I've been struggling with a lot recently cuz I've been focused on throwing hard but I can't lose touch for throwing hard especially CU I'm not throwing that hard at least it's only a par bogey early would be a little detrimental hole three it's straight ahead there's Obi left again I would throw kind of that straight Envy but I think we're going to go this proxy almost similar stability to an Envy but a much straighter mid-flight so if I just throw a Hiser it's like 315 out to the right it shouldn't get back to OB h kind of breaking some of my rules here today honestly cu the way that I've seen a lot of pros play disc golf and the way that I think is probably best is discing up to a disc that you only need to throw 60 to 70% power when it's in the open so you have an open shot throw a Hiser with a disc that you don't really need to throw too hard because if you're throwing a disc that you can get to the basket but to get it maybe 30 ft past the basket you have to kind of juice it a little bit just disc up a little bit when you're in the open because if you have a disc that you can miss long and short with that like increases your window of putting it inside the circle 324 Straight Ahead we're just going to go cd1 on a Hiser little too much disc like I can definitely get there with my mids I slipped but that's why you throw that faster disc cuz I think I just inside the circle even with a little slip there coming back to flex starts though the reason I really didn't play any this year is cuz this year my whole goal in getting a disc off contract which announcement coming within the next couple weeks my whole goal with that was get my rating as high as I possibly could I basically wanted there' be less reasons for a company to say no if you know what I mean I knew that coming in mostly as a Creator instead of a disc golfer would create a little bit of a unique circumstance that really hasn't been done in disc golf yet with like real money so I wanted to make sure that like there were just less reasons for a company to say no to me so get my rating up sell some discs and build my social media and flex startes are not a good place for that cuz you can't shoot really good rounds like I've had friends who shot 10 60 rated rounds at Flex starts but it's also equally easy to shoot 12 down which is a great score basically anywhere like anywhere that you can shoot 12 down or better I think it's a phenomenal score just because mentally it just takes a lot to get there and you still don't even sh th rated and that's how kind of a lot of courses here in the Denver area can play but honestly a lot of it was like contractual for me this year is I didn't want to like jeopardize my chances by playing all right or maybe just like slightly being off but the course is so easy that there's no scoring separation that somebody who 920 930 rated can pop off and have like a really good round that wouldn't be be possible at a course that has much more OB because like I kind of I really shanked that shot on that slip and I still had a circle one birdie you know a lot of courses if it's not just super wide open it's not going to be possible let me throw in the guava here 291 straight ahead I'm making them but I'm still a little scared on my Mak so that second one was a good correction use a little more wrist trust that I can keep it on the right line I think Flex starts are such a good part of this golf which is why I almost wanted to title this video Flex starts are dumb and I might still do that cuz controversial get some clicks I don't know but I don't think they are I really like them for a lot of things but if you're really trying to get your rating up you have to be super picky choosy about the courses that you play for tournaments and the flex starts for the most part obviously if you're good enough you're just going to play well everywhere but I didn't trust myself throughout most of the season to always be that good so I wanted to make sure that I kind of Bring It for the right tournaments and that's why my rating went from 953 95 54 to 988 throughout the season so I definitely am excited to hopefully play some Flex starts here this next year especially as hopefully my contract is never based on rating or at least minimally based on rating cuz cuz of you guys essentially thank you oh that's not at all flat sit down dude hit the tree I just don't trust my footwork here I feel like I'm going to slip every time I'm on these teapad all right hopefully we KN got a bounce then I'm going to really have to focus on maybe adding a slight bit of stagger because I'll probably lose a little power I'll lose a little bit of my typical timing but kind of moving forward into the brace instead of just laterally will be a lot more helpful to kind of stop that momentum is kind of my thought process we'll see if it works that's disappointing so I tried that on the last shot that I threw here which was a strike and it's absolutely under the pin I think strike might have been the right shot anyways especially that sea line plastic gets that was actually something something to learn is it's since it's so cold that Seine plastic is like really stiff which makes it a little harder to throw for sure oh dang means I only have one more party get the whole round it's all right that's doable what's kind of funny too is I don't know if this is just me but I almost always tend to play worse on birdier die courses cuz I feel like it's almost given that I'll birdie like you look at this 220t hole straight ahead and you're like this is a birdie every single time every single hole here you look at you're like this is a birdie every time and so you kind of take your guard off so I really need to focus up a little as well at 220 we're going to give a touch of flex to the zone so we don't juice it too much I know like you shouldn't always play for a number but obviously in these videos I like playing for a number tournaments I for the last like half season I basically never had a number in my head of course there's stuff that like this would be a range that I'd like this would be a range I think would great this would be a range I think be bad but it wouldn't be in my head during the rounds for YouTube videos though one I say fair game cuz it's fun and it creates at the beginning of the video and two I know that there might be times when you need to hit a number like in a tournament you're chasing somebody down and you're like if I shoot 12 down I can win today if I don't I can and so that's in your head and you know that I think all the greats probably do that from time to time and so YouTube videos where there's low stakes obviously like maybe some frisbees on the line in this one maybe who knows not some video coming soon it's not that big of a deal but it's a fun way to practice that and so now knowing I only have one more par for this whole round if I want to get my goal woo that's tough they call 397 so definitely reachable I think interval cuz we got slight head left to right we just got to force it over slightly oh now we got a texture teapad maybe the other ones just get played a lot more in this one roll down all right basically perfectly pin high but a little left really love the reliability of a more overstable putter like I feel so much more trust in the hand that I don't have to like finesse the nose angle I just have to put it on a line and let it do the work it's awesome I might go in oh dang great shot this one is kind of a ace run hole they call it 192 just straight ahead with a glitch stay in the air ah dang it hit the pole though I think I lied to you guys I don't think I hit the pole I'll tell you what though I genuinely think the glitch is going to be in my like actual tournament back all right whole 11 they call 267 straight ahead I think it's going to be a proxy proxy is so good man I'd be surprised if something took that out of my bag too that's a good disc or maybe none of these can stay in my bag because of who I signed with who knows not you you know what I think this Mania really needs to make that I should ask him about I'm just thinking about like my cd1 that's sitting in the water over there still is that sea line is just not gummy enough what if they made a metal flake sea line one still be pretty overstable but not quite as overstable as that and a lot gummier oh baby now one thing I will say about Flex starts is I know it's sanctioned I know it's I know you guys cared about my rating this year almost as much as I did which I massively thank you for you guys are so supportive but I kind of might want to start doing some like a funky like Mystery Box random tournament rounds where it's actually sanctioned you can see what rating I get there's money on the line and we can most likely do those easiest at Flex starts I don't know if I'm able to bring my camera out I don't know if there's a pdj rule against it maybe they'll create one if I end up just doing it without permission but if my contracts aren't based on rating and maybe they will maybe they won't be moving forward and if like I trust myself enough to play well at the actual big events I can play all the small events have fun not care too much about raining and just like make some fire content maybe we'll see maybe not maybe it'll be worth it maybe won't we'll probably test it out a little bit that's like kind of my my keys to success on YouTube typically are just like try it test it if it doesn't work stop doing it more spin ah man that's a bad putt now we got to get everything still got to trust I think I mve my aim Point slightly Center there instead of where it's been slightly right got about a 350t into a slight headwind water shot look it looks kind of icy so you might actually be able to skip off the water if you want not that we're going to try to do that whoa do I have a disc I don't care that much about oh this flat top fire bird see if we can get that there off the ice what well it's going to be one less flat fire bird no what dude I cannot win today literally someone wants to get the taco poo feel free dang it oh sorry Ty still sitting at s down with that par this one's 327 Straight Ahead into a slight left to right so I think we're going to go with this kind of straighter Envy kind of right at it and however many giveaways happens will be announced over on my Instagram at the announcement date in correspondence with the announcement video cuz Instagram's a little easier to run giveaways on all right so the real question is which Potter should I oh my back feels a little lighter right now much better that's what I want ooh no skip there we go oh dude so now we're on Pace for 11 it's two giveaways dang got to get those little flatter so now we got to get 18 to just get to 10 down which it's like 970 I'm excited I'm going to be traveling here soon we're going to have a little Florida series I don't know if there anybody else is going to be there but we're going to go and just see if we can shoot 50 under par across like five or six videos just casual start on Christmas day my little Christmas present to myself and to you guys just casual fun rounds at a bunch of fun courses they're not higher fests can't wait whoa we have an absolutely riveting finishing hole for you guys 210 ft straight ahead don't get too excited yeah I can't wait there's going to be a little more travel coming up here soon some places that have some fun courses there is a fun course that's supposed to be being installed pretty soon it's like a wooded Back N it's going to get turned into an 18 so I'll be there a good bit but yeah we got to get this to limit it to three giveaways get to our double digits which double digits anywhere it's hard to be mad at you know what I mean better we go now is it real quick for the crowd with a glitch oh that needs to sit not this might be gone forever I really hope not Happ you try to throw Ace runs with a glty disc into a Tailwind you silly ghost should be right around the end of the month there'll be three giveaways that correspond to it definitely think Flex starts are blast I do think ratings need to be separated from flexes and leagues they shouldn't count in your like professional PDGA rating maybe they need to be split between Pro and am and I don't really know but I do think there are some things that be can be fixed with them but I think overall there's such a good way to like get into disc golf have fun get into the competitive side and then hopefully want to kind of get up to the next level which is just going to be your typ two round one day or potentially even more tournaments if you guys like this chill Style video we're going to be doing a little bit more with my bag here soon just cuz it's fun to play with this that I like my bag's probably just going to shuffle a ton throughout this offseason I'm trying new stuff out and then hopefully by the beginning of February figure it out so I can hopefully play some tournaments can't believe I donated so many frisbees today I got a couple more glitches though at least and hopefully some more to come for all of you guys thanks for watching JK I just found the glitch it's just also in the middle of the ice Shades Anthony loses for he's going to have to be retired for a little bit he's in timeout Reon three discs in one video when I haven't like lost a single one in months is nasty gross