Improving your mental game

Welcome. You’re In The Circle. The bi-weekly newsletter with all the best news in disc golf.

📝 On today’s card:

• Overcoming pressure when it counts

• Texas State Championships

• Circle’s edge

Read time: 5 minutes

UP YOUR GAME

Practice is a key element in improving your disc golf skills. As Malcolm Gladwell would assert, 10,000 hours of correct practice is essential for achieving expertise in a skill. One aspect of disc golf that is often overlooked and difficult to practice is how to handle pressure.

Andrew Ahrendt, a clinical psychologist, and avid disc golfer released the first in a series of tips to help overcome the mental barricades of disc golf. Part one is titled Nip the Yips.

In part one, Andrew breaks down what are “the yips” and how is it displayed. For disc golfers, an example could be making every putt prior to a round, but when you go to putt the 10-footer as you’ve done hundreds of times, you completely whiff.

These are mental yips. It is common among athletes across many sports; some professionals even struggle to overcome them. Athletes typically experience this during intense moments, important tournaments, or a win-or-lose shot due to the added pressure on the situation. The yips are psychological and are pressure induced.

So, what now? If this sounds like a problem you have, Andrew has the tips for you. If you don’t have this problem, congrats on being clutch.

Disrupt the yips. Make physical or mental changes to help disrupt the process that leads to the yips.

• Practice diaphragmatic (belly) breathing to reduce stress levels, improve blood pressure, and lower heart rate.

• Implement a pre-shot routine to improve consistency. Keep the routine SER. Short, Easy, and Repeatable.

• Start the routine with a trigger. Either a word or action that will get you focused on the throw or putt, rather than the potential outcome.

In addition to these tips, the need for consistent practice cannot be overstated. Test out these tips, overcome the yips, and continue your journey to being a better disc golfer.

TEXAS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Disc Golf Pro Tour has been in the state of Texas for three weeks now. Their final stop before moving on to Nashville, TN is in Houston, TX for the DGPT Silver Series event, Texas State Championships.

The tournament is held at Brock Park, a new course and city for the DGPT. The Texas State Championships has been an A-Tier and Elite Series tournament in the past, hosted in numerous Texas cities including Houston. For the last two seasons, the tournament has been an Elite Series and National Tour event held in Tyler, Texas.

Free round one tournament coverage is streamed live on the DGPT YouTube channel for both the FPO and the MPO divisions. Live coverage for rounds two and three will be available exclusively on the Disc Golf Network.

Next-day coverage of FPO and MPO feature cards will be available on Central Coast Disc Golf.

Previous Winners

• 2022 (ES) - Ricky Wysocki / Paige Pierce

• 2021 (NT)- Ricky Wysocki / Hailey King

• 2020 (A-Tier) - Bradley Williams / Valerie Mandujano

• 2019 (A-Tier) - Ricky Wysocki / Sarah Hokom

• 2018 (A-Tier) - Anthony AP Perkins / Jessica Weese

ES - DGPT Elite Series | NT - PDGA National Tour

What your need to know

There are some notable players missing due to injury and it being a Silver Series event. Paul McBeth, Ricky Wysocki, Eagle McMahon, Chris Dickerson, Matty-O, Simon Lizotte, Paige Pierce, Valerie Mandujano, Henna Blomroos, Sarah Hokom, and Ella Hansen.

Calvin Heimburg, Kyle Klein, and Cole Redalen have been off to hot starts this season. Calvin has placed in the top three in each of the DGPT tournaments this year, which includes one win. Kyle has three top-ten finishes including one win through the same stretch. Cole has only one top-three finish but has looked very solid to start the season.

Jessica Weese, a previous champion of the event, will look to pick up her first win of 2023 given some of the FPO field missing. So far this year she has two top-ten finishes including a podium this past weekend in Austin.

WEEKLY AMATEUR RANKINGS - TOP 10

LATEST PLASTIC

The PDGA approved fourteen new discs this past week.

• Krut from Kastaplast

• Impetus from Momentum Discs AB

• Fú Xī (伏羲) from Yikun Discs

• Avalanche from Disc Golf Association

• Ronin from Infinite Discs

• Vanilla, Lotus, and Fudge from Clash Discs

• Tiki, Honu, and Frog from AstroDisc

• Spire from Pie Pan Discs

• Peace Train from Jester Disc Golf

• Tara Iti (Fairy Tern, DGFD3) from RPM Discs/Disc Golf Aotearoa

Total PDGA-approved models: 1,742

CIRCLE’S EDGE

• Though he will miss this year due to an injury, Ricky Wysocki has won all six of the Texas State Championships he’s participated in (2013, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022).

• Not receiving custom discs based on his accomplishments was one of Gannon Buhr’s issues with Prodigy. Well, they wasted no time for DGPT The Open at Austin winner. Pre-orders are available for the PA-3 and A2 GB Frozen Longhorn Stamp discs.

• Some pros are on the waitlist for the PDGA Champions Cup. Apparently, registration went under the radar for some. To which Drew Gibson replied, “It’s our job to sign up”.

• Curious how Simon Lizotte is doing since his recent transition to MVP Discs. Well, through two tournaments he has 47th and 2nd place finishes. Check out his update video if you want to know more.

My brain when stepping up to a putt.

RULE OF THE DAY