Success Warrior: The Blog That Embraces ADHD

Disc Golf Tournament Update

So,

In my last post, oh so long ago, I mentioned that I would be playing a tournament in the freezing wasteland of Utah winter and that I was probably going to play in more tournaments in 2017.  I thought I should update my blog to say that I had done both.

The End.

I think this may have been his best post in a long time, maybe ever.

I thought that I would give more information on each of the tournaments.

Not necessary.

Nope.  You've summed it up nicely.  Remember, leave 'em wanting more.

I think that applies to stand up comedy.

And sex.

And blog posts about disc golf tournaments.

The first one this year was so fun that I will never do it again for fear of ruining the memory of what a great time I had.

You expected different?

Dude, you hate the cold!

The temperature was in the teens and there was about 18 inches of snow on the ground.  I tried to dress very warm while, at the same time, I tried to hinder my movement as little as possible.  I packed hand warmers, a balaclava, football receiver gloves that allow me to throw a disc with only a little loss of distance and control, and warmer gloves to go over them between throws.  This tournament drove home something for me that I intellectually knew but that I didn't really know, if you know what I mean.

You hate the cold.

Christmas Story is a great movie.

There is a difference between knowing something and having a true understanding of it, or of that knowledge being ingrained enough that it's just part of you.  I don't know if I'm explaining the concept well enough to pass it on but I'm going to leave it at that.  There a subtleties to disc golf discs that were on the periphery of my knowledge but have really been driven home since my last post.  Lots of things affect the flight of disc golf discs.

Lots?  Is that a scientific term?

His explanation of the physics behind the flight of disc golf discs should be interesting.

I can't name all of them off the top of my head but here's a few: weight, type of plastic, elevation (discs fly differently here at 4,400 feet about sea level than say, San Francisco), year the disc was made (a 2016 Wave might fly differently than a 2017 Wave), condition of the disc, and...

Temperature!

We knew that.  Hell, everyone knows that.

Well, now I truly do too.

We spent more time looking for discs in the snow than we did throwing the dang things that didn't fly like they were supposed to.

You mean, like they do in the summer.

Because temperature changes how discs fly, as everyone knows.

I didn't even stick around to see where I ended up being ranked when the round was over.  I just got in my car, cranked on the heater, and headed home.  It wasn't pretty and I won't be back.

For fear of reliving the memory.

Or fear of falling down and not being able to get back up.

The next tournament was called Winter Wizards but it wasn't really winter.  There were a couple of interesting things about this tournament.  First, as part of the registration, you received 2 Gateway Wizard putters.  You could opt to get a third one but had to pay for that one.  You could only use these discs for the tournament.  Second, all of the holes were less than 300 feet but there were 40 baskets per round.  It was a two-day tournament with one round each day.

What were the interesting things?

I'm sure he'll get to them.

The first half of the first day, I was doing really well.  In fact, I got an ace (hole in one) that was worth $125.  Then the wind picked up and so did my scores.  I'm still learning how to play in the wind.  Well, I'm still learning everything, but I've been working on throwing discs in the wind.  Luckily, if that's how you want to look at it, it's been windy a lot this spring so I've gotten lots of practice.

You didn't mention wind in your list of things that affect the flight of a disc.

A gross oversight, I would say, considering the topic would come up later in the same blog.

I figured cough, cough that everyone already knew that.  It's common sense really.

Uh huh, sure.

And they know how to compensate for said wind?

Headwind - disc up, tailwind - disc down.

What about cross winds and tornados?

And they know what disc up and disc down mean?

Anyway, the second day, there was no wind and I was back on my game again, although I didn't get an ace.  I was on the lead card for my division with a guy that I met at the previous ice wasteland tournament.  It was a beautiful spring day and out of driving, putting, and up game, up game is my strongest.  This was basically an up game tournament where every drive was essentially a putter upshot.  I started the day in second place and ended up taking first place in my division.  I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  I don't know if it's the fact that it's a tournament or all the pro tournaments that I watch but I don't have much confidence in how my game compares to others.

Just like your skill at blogging.

Harsh!  True but harsh.

The next tournament that I played in was the Utah Open.  Trey went with me as my caddie.  His job was fairly easy since I was given my father's day present early for this tournament.  I got a Zuca disc golf cart (which is the reason for the opening pic for those who are interested).  All he had to do was pull the cart around.  He really enjoyed it though (the tournament, not necessarily pulling the cart around) and has decided to get back into disc golf and to take part in tournaments.  We met Ricky Wysocki at the tournament and had him autograph a limited release disc for us and got our picture with him.  His tournament was the next weekend but he took part in the amateur tournament in a fun way.  There was a fundraiser raffle for one of the disc golf courses that we played at and the winner got to have the current disc golf world champion as their caddie.  How cool is that?

There were three rounds guaranteed for the tournament.  The top 50% of the field, not by division, would go on to play a fourth round.  The top 5? winners would get to play with the pros the next weekend.  I missed being in the top 50% by a few points so my day ended early.  I didn't bother to check how I placed since I didn't make it to the final round.  Yesterday, I was checking my Infinite Discs profile for something and I saw that they had information on a couple of my tournaments.  It turns out that I took third in my division at the Utah Open.  Again, how cool is that?

Note: If you haven't watched how the pros played in the Utah Open, you should.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  You can find coverage on YouTube.

The last tournament that I played (and so did Trey) once again had restricted disc use.  This time they gave you a putter, a mid-range, and a fairway driver.  Infinite Discs hosted the tournament in conjunction with the disc companies promoting the various discs.  The three discs are yet to be released discs for 2017.  There was a Dynamic Discs Deputy (putter), a Westside Pine (mid-range), and a Latitude 64 River Pro (fairway driver).  I liked the Deputy and Pine so much that they ended up going in the Zuca.  There was essentially only 1 division so I was playing against the entire field.  I had a few dumb mistakes and bit a bad luck (like everyone, I'm sure) and ended up tied for 7th.  Once again, most of the baskets were on the shorter side taking my lack of driving distance out of the equation for all but a couple of the baskets.

So, what you're saying is that you have a small driver.

Size really does matter.

Speaking of comparing myself to others...

Keep it in your pants.

Practice with your driver in private.

Before my first tournament, I took a guess at what my PDGA was.  I guessed that I was probably about 850.  To put that in perspective, top pros are usually rated over 970, and tippy top pros are rated over 1,000 (Ricky Wysocki has a 1049 rating).  I decided to look at what my current rating is for this blog post: 880.  I wasn't far off and possibly not surprising, I underrated myself (although it was largely just a guess in the first place).

The usual divisions in tournaments (that are open to everyone) are:

• Open (pro)
• Advanced (amateur)
• Intermediate (amateur)
• Recreational (amateur)

Within each division, there are commonly subdivisions based on gender and age.

I played in the Intermediate Master division the first couple of tournaments.  For the Utah Open, I decided to go up a level and give Advanced Master a try.  I was disappointed that I didn't make it to the final round but then was stoked to find out that I placed third.  The next tournament for Trey and me is this Sunday.  I've decided to step it up again.  I've registered in the Open Grandmaster division.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll try to be much better about updating this blog so it doesn't drag out quite so long.

Whatever.

Promises, promises.

Updating following tournaments at least so they don't build up and then spew forth in one huge projectile vomiting post.

Parent-Teacher Conference

So,

We just had parent-teacher conference for Trey, which has renewed my conviction to finish getting my degree so that I'm free to home-school.  The teacher, who is a friend that we trust to be honest with us, announced that there isn't much more that she can do for Trey.  He's in second grade and his last test scores show that he's doing fourth grade math and at least fourth grade reading.  The reading test only covered the first quarter of fourth grade and he scored 100% on the test so next time, she's going to give him a higher level test to see where he tops out.  All of this sounded fantastic to me since we've been teaching him math and reading at home.  In fact, she pointed to some of the things and said that she knew he didn't learn this stuff in school. 

Then she hit us with the bad news.  In math, he's so far ahead of everyone that she won't be able to spend time teaching him.  In reading, there is one other student that is in the ballpark with Trey that she can pair up with him and have them work as a team.  Other than that, she said he'd just be sitting in class nodding his head and jumping through boring hoops showing that he understands what she's teaching him and this was not likely to improve until he gets to junior high school where they have advanced classes for students.

She did give us some advice for things to work with him that would make him stronger, things that they barely scratch the surface of in school, like science and nonfiction reading comprehension (wtf?).  She suggested that he be in some kind of music training because of his ability there.  He loves art too and every couple of weeks, we have to go visit his art teacher after school so he can show her what he has done.

Before school that day, we were out shooting hoops.  When we came home, we played Magic: The Gathering (which he is now obsessed with since he found out how many Magic cards there are in the house).  His nightly "homework" takes him about 5 minutes tops to complete.  He reads quite a bit each day because there is a reward for the top reader each month, which he announced on Friday would be him this month.  The student who consistently beat him in amount of time reading each month moved.

It would be disingenuous to blame just the competition for his reading since both of my daughters are outstanding readers and were reading several grades above their level when they were in school.

This is obviously a proud-dad post but there is more to it than that. 

The American school system is a failure in both its stated purpose and now, even its actual purpose.  The American school system is about indoctrination and not education.  The graduation rate is about 75%, which isn't saying much given the standards, and means even less for people in urban areas where the graduation rate is 25%.  There are over 1,500 high schools that are labeled "dropout factories" because less than 60% of the students graduate.  Less than 60% is an "F".

Knowing this about the school system gives parents the power to change things, to some degree.  I realize that the system has been set up to encourage single parent families (although I believe the UK may actually have a better system in place for destroying the nuclear family) and that corrupt practices of the government puppets of the 1% mean that many people have 2 or 3 jobs so school is more of a tax-paid babysitter than an educator.  However, for those of us that can find any time at all to spend with our children, it is possible to actually teach them.  It is possible to counter the government's dumbing down of generations of children. 

I've already covered the increasing failure to indoctrinate.  I certainly don't take part in it.  Most of the students in this city refuse to say the pledge of allegiance.  I don't know if Trey knows it or not.  I've never asked.  I suppose I should so I can tell him that it's bullshit to pledge allegiance to a flag or to a gang of criminals.  I think he's picking some of that up already, just in the little bits of ethics that he asks about. 

Speaking of ethics, how about a "Homework Help" question for the week?  I'll be posting my answer after I get some sleep but I'd love to hear your answers:

Where do individuals get their basic ethical instincts?  Small children are taught in the home, school, church and community.  The things they learn there are hopefully to do the right and ethical thing whatever the situation.  Now, as individuals mature and become decision makers in corporate world at mid and higher levels....where bonuses, incentives, etc. are tied to their performance appraisals....do you think they will bend those early childhood ethical convictions for that extra dollar?  If so....why?

Saturday Video: Somebody That I Used To Know