Success Warrior: Alan B. Rowley II - Beachbody.com, P90X, Voluntaryism, Voluntarism

Disc Golf Evolution and Life

My brother and I played the course near his home on Thursday.  A switch in plans made necessary by a babysitter glitch.  It turned out to be a very surprising day.  This is the only course we played last year and the first course that we played this year, near the end of June.  Now, near the end of August, we don't look like the same players from two months ago.  We don't keep actual score, which is unfortunate.  Instead we just keep track of where we are in relationship to the other guy.  If I had to take a guess, I would say that I have taken at least 9 strokes off my game for this course.  I'm going to tell you, as best as I can, how that happened and then, as a bonus, I'll relate it all to life for my readers that don't give a rat's ass about disc golf.

1.  I changed my discs.  I bought a bunch of different kinds of discs, took them to a football field, and chucked them over and over to see how they all flew.  If you have friends that are discers, you could borrow discs to reduce the price of the learning curve.  I just read about different discs and tried the ones that I thought would help me out.  Some did.  Some didn't.  Some are in my bag.  Some are collecting dust on my shelf.  If anyone wants a 175g Innova Champion Groove or a 171 g Innova Star Monster or Discraft Xpress (unknown weight), let me know and I'll send you the one you want.

2.  My favorite driving disc (a 166g Innova Viking), I ended up with on accident.  I threw my 175g Innova Star Destroyer on a really crappy drive.  I threw what I thought was the same disc for my second shot and it was a much better throw.  When I picked up the disc for the third shot, I realized that it wasn't mine.  I hiked back and found my disc to finish the basket.  When I started practicing on the football, I found that the Viking flew the best for my style of throwing.  And yes Mark, had the owner put his info on the Viking, I would have gotten it back to him.

3.  I changed my grip.  I didn't want to change my grip but if I was going to compete with my brother, I had to give up the familiar and try a disc golf grip.  I tried several and ended up with a two finger grip.  I still use my fan grip when I'm closer and want to take better aim but my driving is all done with my new grip and it has probably added a minimum of 50 feet to my drives and sometimes a lot more (usually when I don't want a lot more).

4.  I played several different course this summer.  New courses, new looks, new challenges.  Trees, elevation, water, 100 degree weather, blisters, and lots of very nice people.  By playing different courses, I was forced to try different kinds of shots.  I've thrown hyzers, anhyzers, tomahawks, skip shots, forehands (some that were incredibly crappy), and whole bunch of weird positions like kneeling, splits, and just about facing the wrong direction.  Most of the weird shots weren't very good but some were surprising and all of them were a great experience.

5.  I played against my brother, which was equal parts fun and challenging.  This last time out, he still won 2 out of 3 rounds but they are always close.  If he wasn't better at driving than I was at the beginning of this season, I wouldn't have felt compelled to get better.  Now we are talking about entering tournaments so we can find people better than us to play against, while still having fun.

6.  Having nothing to do with the game itself but just a bit of trivia for you that I found out after our last series.  If you drink copious amounts of Blueberry-Pomegranate G2 Gatorade, the next day your poop will be an alien-esqe neon green that pretty much glows in the dark.  Try it and see.

All of these things added up to a much improved game and provide lessons that can be used in any area in life:

1.  Try different tools.  Read different books.  Get a different perspective.  Find objects that truly make you better and more efficient and get rid of the rest.  It's not about having the most discs in your bag, it's about having the right discs in your bag.  Don't be afraid to try something new and give it away if it doesn't work out for you. 

2.  Some of the best things that happen in life happen by "accident".  I don't believe in accidents but some great things can happen without conscious planning.  Be aware of those opportunities and don't be afraid to try something new that happens across your path.  It may be just what you needed.

3.  Try different approaches.  Read books, watch videos, read magazines, talk to people.  Learn different ways of doing what you're doing and see if a new way feels more right for you.  Don't get locked into a pattern out of ego or complacency.  You lose nothing by giving a new approach a shot.  The old way will still be there to fall back on if nothing works out but my guess is that you'll find something that at least tweaks the old way to be a little bit better.

4.  Go to new places.  Get out of your comfort zone once in a while.  New experiences create more experience.  You don't have to do great at it.  You just have to try something new.  It's about fun, learning, adventure, and breaking out of patterns.  You may find that your comfort zone is more interesting when you return and you may find yourself returning there less often.

5.  Travel the path with people that will make the journey fun and watch for people that will challenge you to be a better person.  Fill your life with both kinds.  In some things, they may be the same people.  In other things, you may have fun people for some activities and challenging people for others.  They make the journey worthwhile.

6.  You're bound to see some weird shit from time to time.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Charlie Brown's Kite Eating Tree . . .

is omnivorous.

Can you see the bit of blue glinting in the son about 12 feet up in this disk golf eating tree?  Bastard!  Got my disk on 2 out of 3 rounds but I'm getting ahead of myself on this story.

The story starts at six in the morning when I did my killer intense ab workout.  What does that have to do with my disk golf story?  Nothing really but how many people can say that they did 60 minutes of super intense ab work at six in the freaking morning.  I'm still going to try and tie this back into the story, if for nothing else but for the chance to say that I worked my abs like crazy (at 6 in the morning, you know).

Anyway, after a shower and breakfast I was on the road to Solitude, which sounds like a slow, boring movie about some guy who loses his family to tragedy and has to find a new life for himself.  Road to Solitude starring Tom Hanks.  Look for it this Christmas.  Warning, it's a chick flick.

I arrived at Solitude only to find out that they are having a disk golf tournament that will span 3 days and there isn't any open play until about 3:30.  I have to be on the road by then so Solitude is out.  Damn you Tom Hanks!

Speaking of which, Tom Hanks ran out of gas about 20 miles out of Wendover last week.  It made the local paper.  The local tow truck fixed the problem, free of charge.

When my brother showed up, we made the command decision to try the course at the University of Utah.

"You know where that is?" I asked.

"Nope."

"I was hoping to follow you."

"Guess I'm following you," he said.

So I lead and quickly got on the phone with Tia.  It reminded me of a scene out of Criminal Minds where they call the computer geek, "Baby Girl", on the phone while they are desperately trying to find the serial killer before he kills again.  Coming out of the canyon even added to the suspense as I lost cell coverage and the phone went dead.

"Nooooooooooooo!" I screamed picturing the poor girl being buried alive while I drove aimlessly around cursing my luck.  Then I remembered that I was just trying to find a disk golf course on a college campus and that I knew where the campus was so all was not lost.

"If you can hear me, I'll call you when I'm out of the canyon."

Tia did her best to guide me in despite the fact that Salt Lake city has made the street signs small enough that you can't actually read them until you are right under them, going straight, while Baby Girl is saying, "That's the street that you want to take a right on."

Damn you Tom Hanks!

A little zig through construction and a zag back up the hill put us in the area.

"You should be there," she said.

I pulled into a parking lot and we looked around.  We were, in fact, as close as we could be since the road that went to the course was also under construction.  You know the joke right?  The two seasons in Utah?  Winter and Construction.

It was near 100 degrees so my disk bag actually had more Gatorade in it than disks.  I would end up drinking all of them plus a couple more that I had in the cooler in the car when I got back.

Let me tell you the cool part of the day.  I was actually out-driving my brother.  There were several factors why this might have happened:

1. I changed my grip, dropping my long-beloved Ultimate fan grip and going with a two-finger grip that gives the disk much more speed leaving my hand.
2. I changed my main driving disk.  I was using a Destroyer and I changed to a Viking.  I still like the Destroyer for shots that I need to keep near the ground but my Viking just absolutely sails.
3. My brother seemed to be struggling from basket to basket.  Something in his game has changed and he wasn't sure what it was (not that it stopped him from beating me 2 to 1, in a best of 3 rounds day).
4. I did 60 minutes of killer ab work at six in the morning, giving me that much more power on my throw.  Hulk Smash!

So, it was about 100 degrees and we started playing around 11:30 and played for 3 hours. 

"Okay, here's the plan.  Let's wait until the hottest part of the day in the middle of August and then go throw Frisbees around on the dead grass that has been burned away from the blistering heat for three hours.  Ready?  Break!"

The good part about the plan was that we were the only fools out on the course.  Not that there were lots of people out there, all of whom were smarter than us, looking at us saying, "Look at those two fools."  Nope, other than the construction guys taking break under one of the few trees that offered shade, we were the only two people out there at all.  If you're willing to risk 3rd degree burns to your forehead, you can have the course all to yourself.

My brother won the first round and I played a really amazing second round, which included an ace (a hole in one) and my longest putt success ever.  I was on, despite the fact that I had a blister on my foot and my forehead was about to spontaneously ignite.  My brother wore a hat to protect his head.  Down to one fool on the course.

Like our other long days, the third round came down to stamina.  Who could be the least sloppy after playing for a couple of hours in 100 degree weather?  This is the round that you see in the picture at the top of this post.  Following this shot, I tried a forehand shot to finish getting to the basket.  I tried 3 forehand shots for the day and I'm usually pretty good at them for short to medium distance.  Today, I was as good at my forehand shot as the president is at bowling (except that I'm not going to mock the Special Olympians).  I threw my shot from this tree so that it landed under the next tree.  Under!  Under an evergreen.  I was able to throw a recovery shot from there that gave me an easy shot to the basket but all the baskets are Par 3 so it put me down one. 

By the end of the front 9, we were tied.  It stayed that way all the way to hole number 17, which is a basket with a slight right turn to it.  I put my drive into a tree.  Not the same tree but just as sadistic and did it such a way that my next shot was going to be a forehand shot.  Lovely.  That shot hit another tree.  It didn't go under the tree but it cost me a stroke and the game.

Up for next week are a couple of 9 basket courses: Utah State University in Logan and John Adams in Brigham. 

Is La Beau's still in business? 

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook

 

Disk Golf: Solitude and Creekside in Holladay

What a day!

This is a picture of the first tee.  For the rest of the pictures, visit my Facebook page.

Damage report Scotty!

• Sore quads
• Really sore calves
• Lots of scrapes and scratches (but none picture-worthy)
• One head over heels fall (but aikido training is great at injury avoidance)
• Left ankle really sore
• Right hip even more sore
• Blister on right big toe
• Sunburn on neck and shoulders

All of it totally worth it.

Here's a rundown of the day:

0430 - Check email and Facebook.

0500 - Load car.

0520 - Hit the road.

0730 - Arrive at Creekside.  My brother was already there.  He said he wasn't going to be there until 8.  I thought I would have some time to practice with my new disks.  He did offer to play a round there while we were the only ones there but I thought we should head up the mountain.   It turned out to be the right choice.

0830 - Arrived at Snowbird ski resort.  Too bad we were trying to Solitude ski resort.  We missed a key sign and drove up the wrong canyon.

0900 - Arrived at Solitude.  We picked up a scorecard and asked for direction to tee #1.  We were told that the lift wasn't running today so we would have to hike up.  The first choice was to hike in the wrong direction until we reached a mountain bike trail and then follow the bike trail up (being careful to watch for speeding mountain bikes coming down the trail).  The second choice, if we were adventurous, was to just hike up under the ski lift where there was no trail.  We chose adventurous (and burning calves - go see the pics).  We were sweating like banshees and our calves were screaming like pigs by the time we got to the top.  I'm so glad that we did the climb first thing in the morning when it was cooler.

0930ish - We started our round of disk golf.  The course is 8,000 feet long from tee to basket to the next tee.  We figured it was probably closer to 10,000 feet when you added in all the searching for disks.  The trees and foliage were *thick*.  Even on a good shot, it took a bit of looking around to find your disk and we threw a lot of terrible shots.  On one hole, we probably spent about 20 minutes looking for disks.  As tough as the Solitude course was, we didn't lose a single disk.  In fact, I found one on hole #18, which was kind of a weird story.

Hole 18 of Solitude is over 1,200 feet long with a 400 foot drop.  It's amazing.  I can't throw that far but my brother can.  We decided to each throw two disks just because we wanted to watch them fly.  My brothers first disk hooked to the right and didn't even make it halfway.  My first disk, a neon orange Destroyer, went down the middle about halfway.  My brother took his second attempt and threw his disk about 1,000 feet down the hill.  It was off to the left a few hundred feet but it was dang impressive none-the-less.  I threw my second throw (a neon green Groove) and it was pure crap.

We hiked down and found my Groove and his hooked disk.   We hiked over to the middle and searched around for about 5 minutes until we found a neon orange disk.  I threw that further down the hill.  It still wasn't as far as his so we hike down to it.  When I picked it up, I realized it wasn't mine.  I hiked back up the hill and after another 5 minutes, I found mine.  What are the odds that someone lost a neon orange disk in the same area where I threw my neon orange disk?

That last hike really worked the front of my toes as they jammed into the front of my brand new boots and gave my quads a killer workout.  I skipped my morning workout so that I could get an early jump on the day.  This month, Thursdays have been leg day so I don't feel like I actually skipped my workout.

All of the baskets at Solitude were long distance, which gave my brother the distinct advantage, since he can throw farther than me.  He beat me by 7 throws.

1230 - We stopped at Porcupine Pub & Grill for a snack.  Cory (my brother) had a friend tell him that we should stop in for nachos at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon.  When we came out of the canyon, we stopped.  The nachos are *supposed* to be an appetizer.  We had just hiked up to 9,000 feet and walked 2 miles coming down and were hungry and we couldn't finish the *appetizer*.   I can't imagine eating the nachos and then eating a meal.  My brother said that maybe it was an appetizer for 8 people.  All the tables are set up for 4 people. 

We didn't stay long because the place was so noisy.  We couldn't visit because of the noise so we just ate.  It probably took us about 10 - 15 minutes to be full and we were out of there.  Our whole conversation was a couple of yelled sentences about how crazy it would be to come here and try to visit with people at your table.  Everyone was yelling like they were in a rock concert.

1300 - We arrived at Creekside and played a couple of rounds.  We were tired after doing Solitude but I just feel like I need to play 3 rounds when I come in from BFE.

To fill you in on how distance is a factor, most of the Holladay baskets were about 300 feet.  On Solitude they were 500+, where I lost by 7 throws.  I lost the first round of Holladay by only 1 throw and won the second round by 1 throw.

I changed up my grip in Holladay to see if that helped but I still was 25 - 50 feet short of what my brother can do.  He was also spot on with his putts in the front nine of the last round.  My putts got better and better as the day went on as I found a style that fit my way of playing. 

1700 - Finished the last round and headed home.  8 hours of disk golf.  What a day!

Consumed for the day:

• One protein bar
• 125 ounces of G2 Gatorade (each)
• Half an order of nachos
• Lots of water

I'm hoping we can do something similar in a couple weeks.  I'd like to get in a couple more disk golf days before summer ends.  One up at Solitude when the lift is running and one at another course.  The next one will probably have to be a week from Sunday and the next one two weeks after that.

Summer is going to be over way too soon.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook

Getting Ready for Thursday, Still

We went into town today for some essentials and some non-essentials. 

First, I needed hiking boots.  I had proved that to myself with the 45 minutes of hiking I did on Sunday.  My New Balance cross trainers just didn't do the trick and I'm nervous that the hike up the ski slopes is going to be similar.  It won't be harder.  I went up some pretty darn steep stuff on Sunday.  The shoes actually didn't have too much wrong with them except the sharp weeds attacked my legs and I'm thinking that a bit more ankle support would be a good idea. 

Actually that's a bit controversial because we use so much assistance in what we do that we actually weaken our bodies so that they depend on the support.  I have some VFFs (no support shoes) on the way (a subject for a different post) and if they were here, I would try them out.  As it is, with my injured left ankle, I'm opting for support this time out.

On to the non-essentials.  I picked up some new disks, just because.

Three distinctively different disks and I'm not just talking about the colors.  They all have different flight patterns.  I thought I would try some different disks out to see what works best with my style. 

Speaking of which, I'm probably going to have change my the throw I use for my drive.  My brother said he added 25 feet to his drive so he'll be *way* out-driving me.  I've been stubborn about changing my throw just out of stubbornness's sake.  I didn't want to try to learn a new technique.  Old dog, new tricks, and all that rot.

I was going to buy a new bag for my disks today instead of buying disks but last night my mom invited me over to their house and said that my dad had a surprise for me.  I had to earn the surprise with a bit of computer work to help him download, organize, and email photos.  The surprise was a new disk golf bag.

There are several cool things about this bag:

1.  It was a gift from my dad.  That has to top the list.

2.  It's bigger than the bag that I was using.

3.  It's actually *designed* for golf disks whereas my old bag was not.  This keeps the disks upright and has a place for a drink and a cell phone and other pockets for other stuff.  Stuff is good.  Pockets for storing stuff is great. 

4.  It comes with that bandoleer looking harness so that the bag can be worn like a backpack just in case you find yourself hiking to the top of a ski resort because they won't run the ski lift on Thursdays.  Cheapskates.  This little feature, which may seem innocuous to some, is going to be a life saver on Thursday.

That last shot was to show the harness.  This is the shot with my new disks thrown in.  See how the bag keeps them upright for easy access?

  
Is this thing handy, or what?

It's got a putter pocket on the outside for your favorite putter.

I think I'm just about set.  Tomorrow I'll pick up a bunch of Gatorade/Powerade (whatever's on sale) and some tape.  I tape my middle finger because I use a fan style throw and tend to wear the skin off my middle finger after a few hard throws (and most of them are hard throws - at least the tee shots).  I'm hoping to change this with a new throwing style but I'm going to get some tape so I can use my old style when I'm not going for extra distance.

On top of the bit of disk golf shopping, we went up to Brigham City and met with some old friends, played miniature golf with Trey, and raced around on go-karts.  It's been a summer of play for us.  I'll have pics of all of these other activities up on my Facebook page tonight, if you're interested.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook.