I am surprised I haven't mentioned this yet.
For the past few months, I have been engrossed in a hobby that I have grown to enjoy and love.
Disc Golf
I live about four miles from Henry Horton park and there is an 18 hole disc golf course there. Play is free.
I started out borrowing friend's discs and playing quite badly. Then I bought my first two discs. A driver and a putter. I stilled played badly. Then a couple more discs, and then a few more.
Then I had to buy a bag to carry all the discs I had accumilated. I peaked at 10 discs. Seven drivers and three putters.
Yesterday I lost the very first driver I bought into the woods. Afterwards, something happened.
I found my stroke.
After playing 18 holes, my friend and I decided to practice on hole one and then back to hole 18 (they are right next to each other and for practice, this is what we usually do, 1 to 18 and back to 1, and so on).
On my first practice throw on hole one, I grabbed my Beast. The Beast is a disc I bought on EBay. I had heard good things about the Beast, and I liked the design. It was simple. The Beast is the one pictured in this post.
When I threw the Beast, I let myself relax, and allowed my body to become fluid in motion. I released the disc in an elegant snapping motion. What I saw afterwards was something I had previously been unable to do.
The Beast flew straight and far, going slightly left of the basket to start, but then it faded back right and landed about four feet from the basket.
I realized quickly that I had just thrown something over 280 feet.
My friend and I (after a couple high fives), advanced to the 18th hole and continued practice.
I threw the Beast again. The 18th hole's basket is located just behind a group of thick trees and bushes. The fairway curves a little left, but the basket is tucked to the right behind the bushes and trees. Also, along the left side of the fairway is more trees, so usually you want to throw a disc that goes out to the right, and then breaks left at the end. A lot of people throw it way right and when it breaks left, it comes to rest on the back side of the bushes that obscures the basket, which leads to an excellent second throw.
When I threw the Beast, I threw it down the left side, through the trees. It was like threading a needle. It again flew straight and long. And at the end, it broke and faded back to the right slightly. It landed right under the basket. I was blown away. Normally, it would take me two good throws to reach the basket. This time I reached it in one throw. This hole is about 280 feet as well.
So, in retrospect, I don't know what happened yesterday, but somehow my body did something different at the end of the day on the course. Suddenly I was able to unleash wicked long throws that I never even came close to reaching before.
The only thing left to do is to go back today (if it isn't raining) and try again to see if it was just a fluke. If not, then I can officially say I have reached the next level in disc golf.
Maybe the disc I lost yesterday was holding me back. Maybe it was cursing me. Who knows. But now its gone and I am throwing like I have never thrown before.
In the future, one day I will wake up and say, "Fuck disc golf", and then that will be it. I will move on to something else.
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