PS3 Sports Champion: Disc Golf Video Preview
September 30, 2010
Want to see a really good looking Disc Golf game in motion? Check out the below article and video preview of the Disc Golf feature from Sports Champions for the PS3/Playstation Move. While nothing can compare to the real thing and it will most likely get boring after a few rounds like Tiger Woods, it’s still really, really nice to look at.
Sports Champions Week: Disc Golf
Posted by Jeff Rubenstein // Social Media Manager
I’ve played disc golf once before, and the course wasn’t anywhere near as nice as the one in Sports Champions.
After the rapid, manic action found in Gladiator Duel, an event like Disc Golf is a fun, relaxing way to wind down. That calmer place doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take full advantage of the PlayStation Move technology, however. Producer Jeremy Ray shows us why Sports Champions presents the best “frolfing” experience you’ve ever seen in a video game.
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2010 US Women’s Disc Golf Preview Video
September 23, 2010
While the choice for background music on this video is questionable, we are always ready, willing and able to throw some love to the ladies. The US Women’s Disc Golf Championships start this weekend in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Check out the video below and a full preview at PDGA.com and, if you are in the area, try and make it out to support this great event.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts(another) Disc Golfer Breaks 24 hours of Play Record
September 20, 2010
It seems Disc Golfers are all going crazy. Below is the 3rd time we have published a story in the past 2 months of claims for breaking the most Disc Golf holes in 24 hours. Check out the snippet from the story on Lowe Bibby from North Carolina. The link is also below to check out the full story.
NewsObserver.com
BY SARAH NAGEM – STAFF WRITER
Lowe Bibby of Garner says he played 1,114 holes of disc golf over the weekend in a bid to smash the loosely verified world record for holes played in 24 hours for this Frisbee-based derivative of the far clubbier sport.
Bibby, 51, estimates that he walked at least 65 miles through Elon’s Beth Schmidt Park from noon Saturday to noon Sunday as he played a sport that has steadily gained popularity. A revolving cast of caddies carried his discs, and his family escorted him some of the way.
Bibby’s plan was to play at least 12 hours. But by midnight Sunday, Bibby had played 572 holes and knew he was on pace to break the record. Last month, three men said they played 1,035 holes in Minnesota. “I was making really good time, so let’s go for it,” Bibby said.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/20/692079/disc-golfer-says-his-24-hours.html
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) PostsDave Feldberg Video: Golf of The Next Generation
September 17, 2010
Check out the well produced video, below, of Dave Feldberg talking about Disc Golf as the ‘Golf of the Next Generation.’ The video touches on what type of person Dave thinks makes up a Disc Golfer, his involvement with Oregon University’s Disc Golf program and more. More coverage on Mr. Feldberg coming in the future – also, be sure to show him some support by visiting his website here.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) PostsGet to Know One of Disc Golf’s Best Ever – Juliana Korver
September 13, 2010
5 Time Women’s World Champion, Juliana Korver takes time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for us about her life in and out of Disc Golf.
1. So tell us a little but about the ‘La Vie en Rose’ tournament that you have put together over the past few years for Women Disc Golfers:
La Vie en Rose was created to make women feel special. I wanted the event to be about friendship, teaching and the love of the sport. I didn’t want it to focus on competition, but rather on convention. One way to help accomplish this was to have it at a venue that encouraged all the women to stay together in a common campground. Thus the women would get to spend time together off the course as well as on. I wanted to offer technical help for any player who was interested. Though I recognize my own bias in the matter, I believe that Shawn is one of the best teacher our sport has and he works with anyone interested during the weekend to help them with their throw.
2. What are your thoughts on the growth of the women’s side of Disc Golf?
Over the years I have tried to find ways to increase women’s participation in disc golf from creating a database for women to find free places to stay with other female disc golfers when they travel to events as well as creating a women’s disc golf website with information about how to start and run women’s leagues all the way to donating hand quilted disc golf wall hangings to every A-tier event I played in for 2 years. The quilts where given to the first women who finished out of the cash. I’ve also done demos and clinics and used to email every TD on the schedule who had an email address and gave them a list of things they could do to promo women. If they responded and let me know what extra effort they were making, I would mark their tournament as a woman friendly event on my online disc golf calendar. Then I would send out emails to the list of women disc golfers that I was accumulating and let them know of all the events that were really trying to do more for the women. I used to have much more energy in this area then I currently do. I don’t know that any of it actually helped. Obviously, this is not an easy task and I no longer think there is an easy or a fast solution. I think we need to introduce as many children and young women to the sport as we can and that will eventually filter up to all the women’s divisions.
In the 17 years that I’ve been in the sport, the percentage of women PDGA members has not oscillated more than a percentage. We are around 7%. I find this disturbing and frustrating. I feel the women are an untapped market for disc golf. This might not be a popular opinion, but I actually think that having 4 or more women’s divisions at an event that barely has 10 women is hurting the efforts instead of helping. I used to push for TD’s to overlook the 3 person minimum suggested to offer a division when it came to the women, but I’ve changed my mind. Somehow we need to loose the attitude that every player should be offered a division in which they can win. Again, I wish we could get away from that attitude and just enjoy the sport and the time spent with our fellow disc golfers. One way to address this would be to significantly lower entry fees so people don’t feel like they have to win to get their money’s worth. People should feel like they have already won before the event even starts. In the am fields, I would rather see very low entry, I great player’s pack and just trophies for prizes. Then it might not be so important to the players to have advanced, intermediate, novice, advanced masters, intermediate masters and so on. This is especially important in the women’s fields. If we combine all the divisions, then many events actually end up with a good number of women who can play together which makes the experience much more enjoyable then having a division of 2 and being randomly placed with the last person from some other division.
3. You’ve admitted that you spend a lot less time playing these days, what is your favorite memory from a past tournament that you played at?
It is definitely winning my first pro world’s title. I had a lead going into the final 9, but I didn’t take anything for granted. Even on the last hole, I was nervous and tried to stay focused on each shot. When I had only 1 shot left, I remember walking up to my disc and Anni Kreml gave me a look as if to say, “are you crazy?”. She stepped in front of me and said the rest of the group would finish first. Then when they had all holed out, it was my turn. One tiny little putt for the World Championships. It wasn’t that I was nervous about making that putt in front of the gallery (which, by the way contained both my mother and my grandmother) it was that all the planning, training, and work that I had put in over the last 3 years was about to result in what was then my ultimate goal. It was completely overwhelming. After the putt I collapsed on the green in tears. I know this sounds completely melodramatic, but the sense of accomplishment and joy washed over me and I couldn’t hold it back.
4. Which player (male or female) do you enjoy watching the most?
That is a very easy question to answer, though it may not be the answer you were hoping for. It is by far, my husband, Shawn Sinclair. He is so smooth when he throws. The most common thing I hear people telling him is that he makes it look effortless. I love his style and technique, but watching him play also makes me think of all the ways disc golf has effected my life and how it has made my life better.
5. Tell us a little bit about your life outside of Disc Golf now – what keeps you busy?
I am a software engineer. Shawn and I started a web development business in 2006. We have done consulting work for a number of companies and currently I am working with Tribune Broadcasting designing software that is (to put it simply) used to run their TV stations. I love the work. I didn’t know if I would get back into programming after being on the road for disc golf for so many years. I’m grateful that I was able to do so. I usually work from home, but when a product is near completion then there is a lot of on site time while we watch and react to how the people use our system.
I also spend quite a bit of time working on our house. It is a 100+ year old Victorian in Bowling Green, KY. It was 8 apartments when we purchased it. We are completely renovating it and restoring it back to a single family residence. I tend to do the monotonous jobs such as scraping (this includes all the molding in the house as well as the house itself), painting and pulling nails out of very old full dimension piece of oak. It has been an incredible learning experience that is very rewarding. We are doing everything (that we legally can) ourselves. It is a slow process, but I am (for the most part) enjoying every bit of it.
As far as an athletic outlet, Shawn and I started running a couple of years ago. Since then we have run 4 half marathons and are currently training for our first full marathon in early December. We also just competed in a triathlon so we have added biking and swimming to our workout routine. During the spring and fall we also enjoy tennis.
Other hobbies include quilting, knitting and sewing and I’m just starting to get into making jewelry.
6. Outside of Disc Golf what is your favorite sport to watch?
I actually don’t spend much time watching sports. I would much rather be participating then watching. But I do get excited on the rare occasion that the Ironman World Championships in Kona are shown on TV. I also like to watch track and gymnastics.
7. Where do you see Disc Golf in ten years? Is ESPN a possibility?
Of course it is a possibility. I certainly wouldn’t say it is a likelihood, but 10 years is a long time. I think we need to focus on putting in great courses instead of as many courses as possible. I think we need to focus on great tournaments instead of as many tournaments as possible and I think we need to get kids involved. Then, hopefully, we will have the numbers and the recognition to really explode into the mainstream. I think pushing to get us on TV is a little premature, though I’m certainly not going to discourage anyone from doing so. I think we need to worry less about how fast we can get to the end goal (whatever that may be) and concentrate more doing what we are currently doing well. But also, never forget to enjoy the ride.
8. What is your favorite course and why?
I did have to think about this quite a bit as there are many beautiful and unique courses out there. Beauty is definitely something that weighs heavily on me when I judge courses. I also prefer courses that have pars in the 60’s and have true par 4’s and par 5’s. I don’t like a course that makes you play the same type of hole over and over. I want to play the course once and be able to replay it in my head without the holes running together. I also prefer rolling hills and big majestic trees.
Now to actually answer the question, I need to apologize for my own biases once again, but I think right now I would say my favorite course is Pickard in Indianola, IA. This is a course that I originally designed and helped install, but it has changed considerably since then. Before the IA worlds, Justin McCluen was primarily responsible for changing the layout. The park made a much larger area of land available for the course to utilize and it went from a good course to an epic course. It is on the outskirts of town so it is very isolated from people, cars, and city noises. It has fun shots, challenging shots and many memorable shots. It is hard, but rewarding if you know your own abilities. It is also very beautiful and being that I grew up in Iowa, I feel very at home on the course. I find it peaceful and serene.
9. Humor us – do you think you will continue to play, say, after you turn 60?
Yes, I think I will continue to play. I’ve never said that I was retired. I have always hoped that I will once again feel the desire to compete in disc golf.
10. What do you miss the most about actively playing on the PDGA tour?
My favorite part of touring was the freedom. Because of that, I have consciously molded my life and the work that I do to maintain a certain amount of that freedom. I suspect I will always do so.
Interview Conducted by Drew Price of AceRunners.com
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) PostsZeteter Disc Golf Brings Style & Passion to Disc Golf
September 11, 2010
AceRunners.com is all about spreading our love of Disc Golf and we do our best to promote and support any brands and initiatives we think are good for the Sport. One of the brands we think deserves some attention is Zeteter Disc Golf, a disc golf company based out of Detroit Michigan, that produces apparel, equipment & custom discs for the most avid of disc golfers. Below you can learn a little more about the history and future of Zeteter from the guy who runs the shop – Nick Chmiel.
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Disc golf is freedom. Disc golf is a game I stumbled into, back in 1998, while just hanging around a local park with a friend. I never actually noticed there were disc golf baskets there until we happened to find two discs in the weeds one day. Right then and there we began throwing. We didn’t care about score or the fact that we could only throw about 50 feet, we just enjoyed it, no worries. It was free to play, it was in the woods, and you could bring beer. We were hooked.
The first time it crossed my mind to make a custom stamped disc I was actually on the course. It was like a light bulb turning on. I think I was throwing a Hawk at the time. I just really looked at the image and thought, “How cool would it be to have skulls on my disc?” The “Big Think” was born. I have been an artist all my life and I just incorporated that part of myself into the game. After doing a little more research I discovered there really wasn’t a company out there that produces disc golf themed apparel. Not the way I intended anyway. I wanted to bring that 80’s skateboard feel into it. I loved that stuff when I was a kid. Remember Jim Phillips’ screaming hand illustration for Santa Cruz Skateboards? That’s what inspired the Skeletee design.
Our goal right now is creative expansion. I entered the “vector art” arena in 2006, about the same time I produced my first custom stamp. So my transition has been from mainly doing hand drawings and dabbling with Photoshop to creating all my graphics in Illustrator using vectors. At the moment I’m really focused on tapping into creativity more. getting outside the box and being acceptive of different styles that I might not have initially experimented in. Trying to find more angles.
We’re in the process now of building our screen printing shop so we can have 100% artistic control over our apparel. We found ourselves limited by not only the experience of our local printers but their print size capabilities and desire to experiment. Not a lot of printers are happy about doing oversized printing and screening odd locations of a tee shirt. We found they were scaling back artwork or making adjustments to accommodate their smaller screen size or lack of skill when going over clothing seams. A lot of times the same screen that was used on a small would be used on an XL. It just didn’t represent us in the light we’re trying to achieve. Wich is, high quality, artist clothing for the disc golf community. We’re also adamant about using eco-friendly inks and chemicals in our production which has proven to be very difficult to find in a local screen printing company.
Over the next few years our aim is to expand our product line and our brands recognition by gaining exposure within the disc golf community. We want to generate more interest in the sport by capturing people’s attention with our crazy ideas. We want to lure them in. Because the more players in the field, the higher demand for new and better courses to be built and the more support we get from the community, the more we can offer back. We want to sponsor more tournaments and players. We want to see disc golf succeed.
I wanted to use this opportunity that Acerunners.com have given us to unveil a new design we’ve just come up with. It will be available in 5 variations on tee shirts, hoodies and stickers. It’s the new “Get Buckets” design. We’re even going to discount the sticker version of this design on Zeteter.com for a little while. These are hand assembled, four color, vinyl stickers (it can take up to 30 minutes to produce just one sticker). The shirt and hoodies will be available in plenty of colors and if anyone would like to throw a suggestion our way feel free to stop by the website and send us a message. Buckets of Style
Thanks for your time,
Nick Chmiel
Zeteter Disc Golf
http://www.zeteter.com/
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) PostsIn the Chains with Chris Millay – ‘Pavlov’s Discs’
September 11, 2010
‘In the Chains with Chris Millay’ is a monthly editorial feature on our site that showcase articles by AceRunners.com member, Chris Millay. Here is his newest contribution…Pavlov’s Discs.
Pavlov’s Discs Millay Loves Partying almost as much as Disc Golf
by Chris Millay
When it came time to write my second column for Acerunners, I was having a tough time trying to nail down a suitable topic. After all, this is disc golf. There are tons of interesting aspects to the game worthy of mentioning in print. The proliferation of women’s and youth programs popping up all over the country, for one. That is where the future of our sport lies. An interesting subject, but no. Maybe I could write about newer, faster plastic and how it’s making courses play shorter. Try to convince someone that your 15 year old DX Eagle flies as far as their brand new Katana or Nuke and you might get stared at like a crazy person. Also intriguing, but also a no. Perhaps I could address new trends in course design and how we’re starting to go the way of ball golf. Most new courses seem to have at least one or two par 4s, and many are now fully loaded with longer, more challenging holes that can range from par 4 to 7. While a very cool topic, I really wanted something that captured the essence of the sport that we love.
It wasn’t until I was out at my local course, sitting by a creek and trying in earnest to come up with a topic, that it suddenly hit me like a disc to the face. My concentration was shattered by the sound of chains in the distance, followed by a loud and triumphant “woohoo!” celebrating a long putt that had just been made. It wasn’t the “woohoo” that caught my attention, though. It was the chains. It hadn’t really occurred to me before how integral a part of disc golf that the chains were. Not their functionality, of course. We all know that chains are required to catch and drop the disc into the basket. I’m talking on a deeper level here. It was the sound of chains, that glorious metallic “ching”, that spoke to me and really got my creative juices flowing.
In the early 1900s, a Russian psychologist named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov conducted a series of experiments designed to show “conditional reflexes” in dogs. He learned through experimentation that he could cause dogs to salivate before a meal by ringing a bell. The dogs came to associate the bell with the meal so, even in the absence of food the sound of the bell would still trigger salivation. These reflex responses only occurred conditionally in relation to previous experiences of the dogs. Put another way, a recognized stimulus created a predictable response. Now what does all this have to do with disc golf? It all comes back to the chains.
The chains are our stimulus, but our response is much more complex than that of a dog salivating in anticipation of a meal. We’re humans after all. Our minds are capable of incredible things, so how could we be conditioned like a dog? Well for starters, the conditioning is different. While a dog has only a few primal urges (eat, sleep, defend, and procreate), we humans have a wide array of urges and instincts with specific emotions attached to them. Pavlov’s bell triggered the dog’s primal instinct of hunger, and the dog predictably started to salivate. But what primal instincts are triggered in us when we get to bang those sweet sweet chains?
There really is no short or definitive answer. People’s internal reactions probably vary according to their commitment to the game. Many of the reactions are probably also in the subconscious and not readily apparent to those opposed to self-analysis. Everyone who loves this sport does so to a different degree and, as a result, everyone feels something different when they hear the “ching”.
At the very simplest, the chains represent the achievement of a certain goal. Banging home a birdie putt is the rough equivalent of a touchdown in football, a 3-pointer in basketball, a goal in soccer, or a 15 ft. throw in midget tossing. They result in a feeling of self-satisfaction and contentment within. Most of these activities are usually accompanied by cheering and fanfare. Do you think a touchdown would be nearly as exciting if there was no roar of the crowd, or at least the high fives of your teammates? The cheers become the stimulus, and the response is to go out and try to repeat whatever we did to evoke those cheers. While some may say that the true athlete wants to excel not because of the fanfare of others, but due to a burning desire within to be the best, it would be wrong to assume that the cheers and congratulations have no effect on their mentality. Humans naturally want to feel good about what they do, and getting recognition for achieving one’s goal reinforces that feeling.
While cheering and fanfare haven’t really found their way into disc golf yet (but they will!!!), the sound of the chains clanging together serves as our internal recognition for achieving a goal in the form of completion of a hole. The emotions carried with this sound obviously depend on how many shots it took to get the disc into its resting place, but the sound always carries some emotion. Birdies sound sweet and eagles sound sweeter. Depending on where the shot was made from, the emotions could vary from contentment to joy to sheer ecstasy. I’m sure many of you have witnessed or participated in loud celebrations that could be heard across the course. The feeling that someone, especially a beginner, gets when they knock down an 80 ft. putt is truly a wonderful thing, and it helps that the chains get louder the further out the shot is hit from. There’s a common expression among the people that I play with when someone newer to the sport makes a long shot: “That’ll keep’em coming back.” It’s true, because humans are addicted to positive emotions. They want to feel that emotional high again and again.
Don’t even get me started on hitting an ace, or a hole in one for the layman. That is the pinnacle achievement in our sport. It carries with it such a huge emotional weight that we felt it necessary to include in our name, Acerunners. The sound of the chains exploding when catching a full force drive can be heard hundreds of feet away and it can induce temporary bouts of insanity in even the most stoic individual. Jumping up and down, hooting and hollering, screaming, or high fives so powerful they leave the hand numb or in pain for several minutes afterwards are all common reactions. Aces are talked about days or even weeks later. Friends are called or texted immediately so that they can be made jealous that they weren’t out there getting their own ace. Getting an ace and hearing that sound is truly more addictive than crack, or so I’m told.
There are other emotions attached to the sound of chains. Relief, for one, when finally completing a hole that has proven to be excessively difficult. Even when faced with a triple bogey, the sound of the chains means that it’s finally over and you can move on and gather yourself up for the next hole. A lot of the times it can be even more satisfying saving par than making a birdie. There you’re just staying even, but you’re not losing ground, and that could be cause to celebrate. After all, no one wants a bogey. Bogeys inherently have a negative emotional impact on people. I think that is why the “clang” sound made when bouncing off of the birdie band that some baskets have is second only to the sound of my alarm in terms of noises that I truly despise. Missing a putt wide and hearing a timid “ching” from the chains as your disc comes to rest on the ground is also a sound I loathe, but it causes nowhere near the raw seething hatred that I feel towards the sound of those damn birdie bands.
I’m sure I could dig even deeper into this subject. If one were so inclined, you could probably write quite an intriguing psychological thesis on the relation of sound to emotions in the sport of disc golf, or sports in general. While I’m definitely not trying to make the assertion that the sound of the chains is exclusively what keeps people coming back again and again to the disc course, it does play a significant role. It’s a stimulus that evokes a positive response, releasing endorphins in the brain and giving you a natural high that you start to crave. Or maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one that hears chains banging in my dreams. Maybe I’m just a crazy person who wears his underwear on the outside of his pants and gets into fist fights with squirrels. Maybe, but I don’t think so. We are one big family, us disc golfers, and I think that we all share a deep love for that sweet sweet chain music.
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) PostsIdlewild, Kentucky – September Course of the Month
September 7, 2010
Our September Course of the Month explores a big one from the Bluegrass State. If you are a fan of this feature on our site and you or someone you know would like to get an article published then click here for details.
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