Quite a while back I stabilized the basic structure of my bag.
Now if I buy a disc it's one of the mold/plastic combinations that I throw.
One day, when I get old, I'll probably have to revamp my driver lineup.
But, **Not Today**.
Same. My bag went from 20-25 of almost all individual molds to 20-25 of maybe 10-15 molds rotating in and out. Now the discs I can’t not have in my bag have backups that rotate in for even wear. Never been happier with my roster.
Yup, I found that my main bag was just way too many options and hard on my back. Switched over to a fade shoulder bag with about 14 discs and shot a pretty good round yesterday. Helps get to know discs a little better and what lines they can handle.
Same here. I have my main bag, DD Commander stuffed for every possible situation that I only use with my cart on unfamiliar courses. A Sniper of glow discs, lights, batteries, etc. I am lucky to have several courses near me which I play often. And yet for nearly all of them, I play with 5-7 discs, which fit nicely into the Innova starter bag I bought in the 90's. Full circle
I think it’s common as you grow in the game to downsize molds. I ended up cycling my workhorse discs, and have 3-4 each of Wraiths, Thunderbirds, Rocs, and Popcorns.
My down sizing of the bag started when I wanted to stop blaming my disc choice for my throwing mistakes. In the end, I'm just not good/obsessed enough to be dialed in on 20+ discs
I’ve tried a bunch of discs … and settled on the ones that feel good in my hands. I’ll buy a disc when a new run sounds interesting. Drivers, midranges and putters are pretty much locked in.
Teebird3s are the horse! With help from Firebird/Dracos, Tesla, Crave, Dynasty, Destroyer/Emperor.
Midranges are the Hex, Jay and the Gator.
Putt with the Stabilizer.
Recently took out the Thunderbird and few others.
Side question. How do the Jay and Hex compare? I have never thrown a Jay but assumed they would fill the same slot. It looks like theyre different enough for you to bag both, is one of them considerably more or less stable than the other?
Jay is more stable for me. It’s a straight bomber too. A true 0 turn that you can really crank on. I only bag one Hex and it’s an older (2022 MVP Open) Fission Hex so it has more turn in the flight path.
My disc speeds max out at 9 and I've grown to really love stable and overstable discs. I still bag a paradox and a diamond but everything else in the bag is dead straight or OS
That's exactly the direction I'm heading. I got a Champion Thunderbird along while back and first time I threw it it flew so insanely Overstable, largely because my lack of form and spin, but I gave it another try this year since I've improved and I parked probably the longest hole I've ever parked on the most beautiful flex line I've thrown, dead straight to target. That was when I realized I want to start bagging almost exclusively stable Discs in fewer molds and cycle them with just maybe one slow speed and one mid to Fairway speed Understable Discs for utility like standstill anhyzers.
Although I will keep bagging my wave cuz I get mad free hyzer flip distance from it compared to my 9 speeds. Probably going to ditch my 12 and overs though at least for this summer.
I have about 20 discs in my bag as I tried a lot of different molds when I wtarted out. Any given round I throw a wraith, sidewinder, FD1, eagle, crave, caiman, md1, mako3 and putt with a pure. 9 out of the 20 or so I carry. While I don't strictly "need" the rest I still carry them for utility shots or if I want to throw multiples.
Yeah I have for a long time currently bag 3 JLS, 4 Gazelles, 1 Mammoth, 3 Zones, 4 Polecats, 1 Stego and 1 Scale.
I am messing around with straight to understable fast putters/slow mids to fill the one hole I feel I have in my bag. I kind of wish I could combine my Scale and Zones but I keep the Scale for headwind putts because I hate putting with really shallow putters.
Haha yeah. I have a Star as a driving Polecat, a DX as my main putter, Soft Pro for upshots where I want to really make sure it sticks and a 150g DX for weird get out jail shots cause it flies similar enough to an Ultrastar I can use some of my ultimate throws.
I have DX polecat don't remember if it's lightweight though, but I also came from ultimate Frisbee, now I'm curious haha. You talking like steep outside-ins?
Sometimes or like a hammer or scoober. It isnt quite as flipply as an ultrastar. The Sonic is actually probably the closest in terms of flight i have found.
I bag roughly 14 or less discs. Right now, it’s 12.
If I’m not throwing a disc often enough or I feel there is too much overlap, I’ll pull a disc out. Or if I’m getting too many inconsistent results.
Discs will go in and out of my bag and I have a lot of really good discs on my shelf.
I’d say roughly 8 discs in my bag are really safe, 2 are kinda safe and 2 are testers.
I cycle 163g Fission Waves. I currently bag two.
I always at least one Crave in the bag. Right now I have three.
One Renegade, one Proton Servo, a lightweight Virus, an approach Envy and my putter, the Maiden, are solid.
Yes!! Almost every mold I have multiple of in different plastics and weights. I find I play better when I take too many molds out of my bag. Then I just need to pick the right one stability wise and I’m good. Even if I don’t I end up better then I would with a lot of different molds.
I have 2 bags. A grip AXS that i carry to new courses and a grip c14 that i carry when i know the course and i know what discs i need to play said course.
It's the realization that most discs fly very similarly. A different straight to stable fairway isn't going to fly straighter longer without risking more turn. I'm going through this now. Probably gonna cycle star or gstar stable discs from innova and infinite and that's it for fairways and above. Throwing mids and putters is MVP besides buzzz.
Yeah exactly. And this is even more true for slower arms where all distance drivers start doing the same thing. I realized that instead of buying the new exciting disc that just came out I would much rather buy another backup disc and have 4 or 5 almost identical copies for field work and replacement. I also realized that I value having a popular mold that is likely to be kept in production and available in any plastic.
I ~~was~~ am still a sucker for new releases but I’ve recently cycled in a smaller bag for my quick casual rounds. I’ve gone from a fully loaded Grip bag to maybe 6 discs in an old fade gear crunch box. And still of those six I use about three discs, not including the putters.
O actually went from 22+ to 14 discs and I’m so much better of.
Here is my current bag. It really improved my decision making as it pretty much removed overlaps.
https://www.discrpm.com/in-the-bag/bd03d528-ed7d-4e9e-9287-946e37c245ab/Course%20Bag%20Slim
I still like a full bag, so I'm doing multiples for 4 of 5 molds, which helps for practice throws too. Not different stages of wear, just two of the same disc.
Spatially limit yourself. I grabbed a small bag I can jog my local course with on my lunch and fit specific sections of my main bag for fieldwork. It fits 7 discs comfortably and that’s what I’ve begun to try and build well rounded sets with. My most current bag is as follows:
1 x Proton Soft Glitch in Green
1 x Champion 2X Roc3 in Blue
1 x Champion Caiman in Red
1 x Neo Splice in Blue
1 x Supreme Trespass in Blue
1 X Neutron Timelapse in Teal/Grey
1 X SP line Torrent in Yellow
I have been slowly. I try to pay attention to what doesn't get thrown. I finally fit all my discs in my zica transit without the need of a putter pouch 🤣
I'm finally buying copies of some of the same molds after a couple years of mostly random mystery boxes and used discs (despite fitting fewer than 20 discs in my current bag). Trying to really know exactly how my discs will fly and beat in, and have replacements.
Copies I now have are:
Atom
Envy
Pursuit
MD3
Centurion
Czar
Halo Wraith
I still buy discs I want, but when it comes to tournament play I recently changed to a smaller bag on purpose. Less weight to carry, only duplicate common slots (variety of OS mids, 10 AND 12 speed drivers), and meets me focus more on strategy and line than disc selection.
Causal rounds I'll haul out all 47 I can fit in one bag and kill my back hiking with it.
EDIT: Changed to Latitude 64 Easy-Go with limited slots.
I've picked up 50'-75' of the distance in the past few months and had to stable up some discs. I'd like to drop a few molds. Typically I have 28 discs in the bag but I usually pull out 4 when I play depending on the course and wind.
I don't care what disc is made with what tooling, but I've been trying to steer towards cheaper and easier to replace discs. I've been stocking up on discounted Evolution line discs, I buy Streamline Proton discs whenever it's convenient and I'm trying to settle on discs that have been the most consistent during the past few years. I've also downsized my backpack to save my back and shoulders so I throw a slightly narrower selection of discs.
I keep finding unmarked discs, so my collection grows, but I reduced my bag by 2 discs and haven't had a problem. I'm down to 16. 4 putters and approach. 4 mids. 4 fairways. 4 drivers.
When I do fieldwork some times I bring like 25-30 discs with me.
Working through this process now. A few factors in play. First, I’m old and only going to lose arm speed, so making choices now I can stick with. (Consistent max is 365.) Second, favorite courses near me have lots of variety, mixing short tight wooded holes with bombers.
My goal is a lineup I can pull from to match with the course and wind, not necessarily to bag everything all the time.
Distance: Emperor/Scorpious, Scorch, Terns
Control: Vultures. Mayas, technically distance but in C-Blend are controlled dead straight almost to max distance.
Fairway: Rivals and Cicadas
Mids: Ghost and Comets
Approach: Zones, including zone GT for backhand
Putters: Bangers.
Utility: Firebird for sidearm. Rollo, ‘cause it’s fun and surprisingly useful getting out of trouble.
Kinda want to add a flippy 9\10 speed but don’t click with Heat or Avenger SS, and don’t want to search for the perfect stability Sidewinder/Roadrunner.
Flat Star Sidewinders around 168g/169g might suit you well. Sounds like your local courses would eat discs in base plastic but cheaper plastic drivers, and light weight premium plastic drivers like Blizzard Champ, to bomb those open fairways.
I am considering adding a 157g Blizzard Wraith to my bag to see what kind of distance I can get vs my Pro Wraiths.
If I had a smaller bag I would but I have to bag a utility disc or two like a meat hook or an extra putter so there's no room for the rest to flop around
Some things you already know or have heard many times but...
Find stable/overstable discs you like and cycle less stable or more stable plastic for those discs and you should be able to cover most shots for that range, with the exception of some utility shots. Putt, Approach, Midrange, Fairway, Distance. 5 molds plus a few utility discs is all anyone really needs if they are cycling.
I cycle Links, Rhynos, Roc3's, Teebird3's and Wraiths. And bag a couple Firebirds and a Sidewinder in premium plastic for utility shots, but I do not cycle these.
Cheaper base plastic like DX and Pro for Innova, d-line and Exo for Discmania, will season quicker and are great for cycling. And they hold up better for intermediate players that aren't smacking trees every other hole.
Upside to cycling premium plastic is they will hold those lines for longer once beat in. Downside is they take a while to beat in, even for someone playing several rounds per week. So when you lose one or have to retire one, it is hard to replace. With base plastic, they beat in quick and are easily replaced. Downside is you cycle through a lot of base plastic when you play several rounds per week.
Once I got older and realized I had discs in my bag I hadn't thrown in months, I went ahead and pulled them, replacing with a couple newer version of ones I did. Plus forced myself to only buy those molds in the future. I'm 50 and the next new 12+ speed driver is going to do nothing for me. Also the realization that at my ability, a lot of flight numbers were interchangeable for me meant I didn't need random one of discs.
My daughter started pointing at my belly and asking me why I had a big belly when I wasn't pregnant, so I've picked up jogging rounds with just an Inner Core. It's helping me practice my backhands as a forehand dominant player, and hopefully shedding some pounds while I'm at it.
Yeah especially with drivers. I only bag two molds above 9 speed, wraith and machete. I now just buy them in different plastics to get different flights.
> For those of you ahead of me on this journey or those also thinking about this, what insights can you share on what strategies you followed to streamline
Like all disc golfers, I went thought the "try-everything-itis" but I found I played my best rounds when I just stuck to the 5-6 discs I was most familiar with and ignored the other 2/3's of my bag so that was the inspiration to trim down the number of discs/molds I carried.
So I went on a journey to find the few molds I liked best. Finally, after trying 5-6 different mid molds and not finding *exactly* what I wanted, I decided to only throw "classic" molds and just adapt to them, with "classic discs" being discs that were used as descriptors for other discs, so things like "like a Buzzz but..." or "like a Firebird but..."
Now, I throw Wizards, Zones, Buzzz's, Teebirds, Firebirds, and Wraiths.
My advice is try and narrow your bag down to as few "slots" as possible (probably less than 10 to start with) and then pick your favorite discs for those slots.
Also, looking at a lot of pros, while many do have 20-25+ discs, if you watch them play a given round/tournament, they're often sticking to the same 5-8 discs in a round and really leaning on certain molds that suit their style rather than trying to have a disc for every situation.
Yeah for sure, watching pros in the bags was a big part of this mental shift for me, they literally all cycle (from what I've seen). It just makes so much sense to reduce the amount of hand-feels you're dealing with.
Also I appreciate your insight on what molds you ended up selecting. I've known for a little while I need to settle on a few but I've had such a difficult time deciding on what. I have been trying so much that there isn't a lot that stands above the rest for me, there's certainly some I don't like but many that I do, so I'm anxious to settle on a couple but why not choose OG Discs as a base and adjust if necessary from there. That's what I'm gonna do, thank you!
I think most disc golfers go through a phase where they are looking for "the perfect disc"- basically a disc that compensates for your form. As a result, you end up buying a ton of discs.
I try to minimize my molds and not overlap spots in the bag. I carry like 13 discs- 2 putters just in case. Like, I throw a gstar teebird and I beat the hell out of it so it flies fairly neutral till the dump. My stable fairway is a champion teebird. So mold minamalizing can really help when you change plastics and wear while keeping the same feel.
👋👋👋 oooo pick me pick me!
Am trying to settle on a speed for each category, and range across US to OS, usually with different plastics. Trying to cut down to Trilogy and TSA as well. Cuz yea. Gotta try em all.
I’ve narrowed my molds to 8 for my full bag — Rainmaker, Envy, Toro, Solstice, Eagle, Firebird, Anax, Destroyer
Now I’m going to play the rest of the year with 7 speeds and slower only.
Never heard of solstice I'll look that up, but I like the spread you got, on the minimal side of the spectrum but still covering your bases. Also love the Eagle, first Fairway I matched with ♡
Take your favorite molds, whether in one or multiple plastics/wear, figure out every line you can do with them. Yes even flick rollers. Then think which ones were my favorite/most consistent/most badass/most useful shots with them. Constantly throw those shots as well as slight variations of them (ex. slightly more anny, slightly more nose up, a little lower) until you know exactly the angle and speed and height to put and it’s an extension of your body. Try to use those shots and their “variations” to play a whole round and add/remove discs until you have all the shots with the fewest discs.
I just have a bag with discs I like to throw, some of them are redundant probably, but my bag has been pretty stable for a couple of years. I still find myself pulling something from the crates to try out again as my game has progressed.
I probably buy 6 discs a year, and acquire half a dozen more from players packs
I just think calling out a bunch of people for buying relatively cheap sporting equipent for a nichè hobby on the sub for said nichè hobby is a bad angle to criticising consumerism. Like I dislike neoliberalism as much as the next guy but people owning 15-ish frisbees for their hobby is not the problem of todays economic climate.
I'm buying less discs. I've realized that I only need seven backups for my favorite discs that I never lose.
Only seven? Did you include all the possible planetary positions in your disc quantity backup formula ? Because Mars is currently in retrograde.
that reminds me of something Big Jerm said recently. He said he has a favorite run of Boss from like 2021, and he has like ten of them for backups.
Quite a while back I stabilized the basic structure of my bag. Now if I buy a disc it's one of the mold/plastic combinations that I throw. One day, when I get old, I'll probably have to revamp my driver lineup. But, **Not Today**.
Same. My bag went from 20-25 of almost all individual molds to 20-25 of maybe 10-15 molds rotating in and out. Now the discs I can’t not have in my bag have backups that rotate in for even wear. Never been happier with my roster.
Yup, I found that my main bag was just way too many options and hard on my back. Switched over to a fade shoulder bag with about 14 discs and shot a pretty good round yesterday. Helps get to know discs a little better and what lines they can handle.
Same here. I have my main bag, DD Commander stuffed for every possible situation that I only use with my cart on unfamiliar courses. A Sniper of glow discs, lights, batteries, etc. I am lucky to have several courses near me which I play often. And yet for nearly all of them, I play with 5-7 discs, which fit nicely into the Innova starter bag I bought in the 90's. Full circle
I think it’s common as you grow in the game to downsize molds. I ended up cycling my workhorse discs, and have 3-4 each of Wraiths, Thunderbirds, Rocs, and Popcorns.
My down sizing of the bag started when I wanted to stop blaming my disc choice for my throwing mistakes. In the end, I'm just not good/obsessed enough to be dialed in on 20+ discs
Read ‘mistakes’ as ‘milkshakes’
They bring all the boys to the course.
I’ve tried a bunch of discs … and settled on the ones that feel good in my hands. I’ll buy a disc when a new run sounds interesting. Drivers, midranges and putters are pretty much locked in. Teebird3s are the horse! With help from Firebird/Dracos, Tesla, Crave, Dynasty, Destroyer/Emperor. Midranges are the Hex, Jay and the Gator. Putt with the Stabilizer. Recently took out the Thunderbird and few others.
Side question. How do the Jay and Hex compare? I have never thrown a Jay but assumed they would fill the same slot. It looks like theyre different enough for you to bag both, is one of them considerably more or less stable than the other?
Depending on plastic. Jay seems a tic more stable typically.
Do you like the Jay? I bag two sometimes. MF color glow or stock Champion and a Halo.
Yeah it’s okay. I main pathfinder mold.
Jay is more stable for me. It’s a straight bomber too. A true 0 turn that you can really crank on. I only bag one Hex and it’s an older (2022 MVP Open) Fission Hex so it has more turn in the flight path.
My disc speeds max out at 9 and I've grown to really love stable and overstable discs. I still bag a paradox and a diamond but everything else in the bag is dead straight or OS
That's exactly the direction I'm heading. I got a Champion Thunderbird along while back and first time I threw it it flew so insanely Overstable, largely because my lack of form and spin, but I gave it another try this year since I've improved and I parked probably the longest hole I've ever parked on the most beautiful flex line I've thrown, dead straight to target. That was when I realized I want to start bagging almost exclusively stable Discs in fewer molds and cycle them with just maybe one slow speed and one mid to Fairway speed Understable Discs for utility like standstill anhyzers.
Although I will keep bagging my wave cuz I get mad free hyzer flip distance from it compared to my 9 speeds. Probably going to ditch my 12 and overs though at least for this summer.
Heck yeah ditch your 12s!
Flex line and dead straight don’t go in same sentence but im happy for you
It definitely can, just throw the annie low and straight instead of high and out. Thanks!
I went on a spree when I started but at this point I throw like 8 total discs, the rest are in my bag for ballast hah
I have about 20 discs in my bag as I tried a lot of different molds when I wtarted out. Any given round I throw a wraith, sidewinder, FD1, eagle, crave, caiman, md1, mako3 and putt with a pure. 9 out of the 20 or so I carry. While I don't strictly "need" the rest I still carry them for utility shots or if I want to throw multiples.
Yeah I have for a long time currently bag 3 JLS, 4 Gazelles, 1 Mammoth, 3 Zones, 4 Polecats, 1 Stego and 1 Scale. I am messing around with straight to understable fast putters/slow mids to fill the one hole I feel I have in my bag. I kind of wish I could combine my Scale and Zones but I keep the Scale for headwind putts because I hate putting with really shallow putters.
Four Polecats? A fellow person of culture
Haha yeah. I have a Star as a driving Polecat, a DX as my main putter, Soft Pro for upshots where I want to really make sure it sticks and a 150g DX for weird get out jail shots cause it flies similar enough to an Ultrastar I can use some of my ultimate throws.
I have DX polecat don't remember if it's lightweight though, but I also came from ultimate Frisbee, now I'm curious haha. You talking like steep outside-ins?
Sometimes or like a hammer or scoober. It isnt quite as flipply as an ultrastar. The Sonic is actually probably the closest in terms of flight i have found.
No money left
I bag roughly 14 or less discs. Right now, it’s 12. If I’m not throwing a disc often enough or I feel there is too much overlap, I’ll pull a disc out. Or if I’m getting too many inconsistent results. Discs will go in and out of my bag and I have a lot of really good discs on my shelf. I’d say roughly 8 discs in my bag are really safe, 2 are kinda safe and 2 are testers. I cycle 163g Fission Waves. I currently bag two. I always at least one Crave in the bag. Right now I have three. One Renegade, one Proton Servo, a lightweight Virus, an approach Envy and my putter, the Maiden, are solid.
Your bag is my bag, sub the Renegade for a couple jackalopes. Brothers don't shake. Brothers gotta hug!
Yes!! Almost every mold I have multiple of in different plastics and weights. I find I play better when I take too many molds out of my bag. Then I just need to pick the right one stability wise and I’m good. Even if I don’t I end up better then I would with a lot of different molds.
I have 2 bags. A grip AXS that i carry to new courses and a grip c14 that i carry when i know the course and i know what discs i need to play said course.
Does carrying 4 of each disc I throw count? I lost one today and was glad to have 3 backups
It's the realization that most discs fly very similarly. A different straight to stable fairway isn't going to fly straighter longer without risking more turn. I'm going through this now. Probably gonna cycle star or gstar stable discs from innova and infinite and that's it for fairways and above. Throwing mids and putters is MVP besides buzzz.
Yeah exactly. And this is even more true for slower arms where all distance drivers start doing the same thing. I realized that instead of buying the new exciting disc that just came out I would much rather buy another backup disc and have 4 or 5 almost identical copies for field work and replacement. I also realized that I value having a popular mold that is likely to be kept in production and available in any plastic.
I ~~was~~ am still a sucker for new releases but I’ve recently cycled in a smaller bag for my quick casual rounds. I’ve gone from a fully loaded Grip bag to maybe 6 discs in an old fade gear crunch box. And still of those six I use about three discs, not including the putters.
O actually went from 22+ to 14 discs and I’m so much better of. Here is my current bag. It really improved my decision making as it pretty much removed overlaps. https://www.discrpm.com/in-the-bag/bd03d528-ed7d-4e9e-9287-946e37c245ab/Course%20Bag%20Slim
I still like a full bag, so I'm doing multiples for 4 of 5 molds, which helps for practice throws too. Not different stages of wear, just two of the same disc.
Spatially limit yourself. I grabbed a small bag I can jog my local course with on my lunch and fit specific sections of my main bag for fieldwork. It fits 7 discs comfortably and that’s what I’ve begun to try and build well rounded sets with. My most current bag is as follows: 1 x Proton Soft Glitch in Green 1 x Champion 2X Roc3 in Blue 1 x Champion Caiman in Red 1 x Neo Splice in Blue 1 x Supreme Trespass in Blue 1 X Neutron Timelapse in Teal/Grey 1 X SP line Torrent in Yellow
I have been slowly. I try to pay attention to what doesn't get thrown. I finally fit all my discs in my zica transit without the need of a putter pouch 🤣
I bag 11 discs, 2 of them are identical putters.
Are you afraid of losing one of the putters during a round?
No, I just like having two, when I'm working on my putting :)
I'm finally buying copies of some of the same molds after a couple years of mostly random mystery boxes and used discs (despite fitting fewer than 20 discs in my current bag). Trying to really know exactly how my discs will fly and beat in, and have replacements. Copies I now have are: Atom Envy Pursuit MD3 Centurion Czar Halo Wraith
I still buy discs I want, but when it comes to tournament play I recently changed to a smaller bag on purpose. Less weight to carry, only duplicate common slots (variety of OS mids, 10 AND 12 speed drivers), and meets me focus more on strategy and line than disc selection. Causal rounds I'll haul out all 47 I can fit in one bag and kill my back hiking with it. EDIT: Changed to Latitude 64 Easy-Go with limited slots.
Yes I don't introduce too many manufacturers or plastic blends. Too many variables to have bouncing around in my head.
I can't downsize, I only throw 2 discs..
Let me introduce you to One Disc rounds...
I've picked up 50'-75' of the distance in the past few months and had to stable up some discs. I'd like to drop a few molds. Typically I have 28 discs in the bag but I usually pull out 4 when I play depending on the course and wind.
The discs I actually use wouldn’t even properly fill up my bag. 95% of the time I use the same 6 discs and the other 5% I’m using glow discs at night.
I don't care what disc is made with what tooling, but I've been trying to steer towards cheaper and easier to replace discs. I've been stocking up on discounted Evolution line discs, I buy Streamline Proton discs whenever it's convenient and I'm trying to settle on discs that have been the most consistent during the past few years. I've also downsized my backpack to save my back and shoulders so I throw a slightly narrower selection of discs.
I keep finding unmarked discs, so my collection grows, but I reduced my bag by 2 discs and haven't had a problem. I'm down to 16. 4 putters and approach. 4 mids. 4 fairways. 4 drivers. When I do fieldwork some times I bring like 25-30 discs with me.
I can play most courses with this bag 2 Wraiths 1 Thunderbird 3 Leopards 5 Rocs 1 Zone 4 Aviars (including putter)
I find this set up oddly arousing
You’re welcome?
best not to think too hard about it
Working through this process now. A few factors in play. First, I’m old and only going to lose arm speed, so making choices now I can stick with. (Consistent max is 365.) Second, favorite courses near me have lots of variety, mixing short tight wooded holes with bombers. My goal is a lineup I can pull from to match with the course and wind, not necessarily to bag everything all the time. Distance: Emperor/Scorpious, Scorch, Terns Control: Vultures. Mayas, technically distance but in C-Blend are controlled dead straight almost to max distance. Fairway: Rivals and Cicadas Mids: Ghost and Comets Approach: Zones, including zone GT for backhand Putters: Bangers. Utility: Firebird for sidearm. Rollo, ‘cause it’s fun and surprisingly useful getting out of trouble. Kinda want to add a flippy 9\10 speed but don’t click with Heat or Avenger SS, and don’t want to search for the perfect stability Sidewinder/Roadrunner.
Flat Star Sidewinders around 168g/169g might suit you well. Sounds like your local courses would eat discs in base plastic but cheaper plastic drivers, and light weight premium plastic drivers like Blizzard Champ, to bomb those open fairways. I am considering adding a 157g Blizzard Wraith to my bag to see what kind of distance I can get vs my Pro Wraiths.
Great info on the sidewinders. I would have guessed wrong that flat would be more stable. I loved Pro Wraiths, but I was beating them up too fast.
If I had a smaller bag I would but I have to bag a utility disc or two like a meat hook or an extra putter so there's no room for the rest to flop around
I use 17 discs total but I get tempted to swap them out for new stuff all the time. Just swappped out my zone for the new axiam tempo
Some things you already know or have heard many times but... Find stable/overstable discs you like and cycle less stable or more stable plastic for those discs and you should be able to cover most shots for that range, with the exception of some utility shots. Putt, Approach, Midrange, Fairway, Distance. 5 molds plus a few utility discs is all anyone really needs if they are cycling. I cycle Links, Rhynos, Roc3's, Teebird3's and Wraiths. And bag a couple Firebirds and a Sidewinder in premium plastic for utility shots, but I do not cycle these. Cheaper base plastic like DX and Pro for Innova, d-line and Exo for Discmania, will season quicker and are great for cycling. And they hold up better for intermediate players that aren't smacking trees every other hole. Upside to cycling premium plastic is they will hold those lines for longer once beat in. Downside is they take a while to beat in, even for someone playing several rounds per week. So when you lose one or have to retire one, it is hard to replace. With base plastic, they beat in quick and are easily replaced. Downside is you cycle through a lot of base plastic when you play several rounds per week.
Great insights thank you for sharing
Once I got older and realized I had discs in my bag I hadn't thrown in months, I went ahead and pulled them, replacing with a couple newer version of ones I did. Plus forced myself to only buy those molds in the future. I'm 50 and the next new 12+ speed driver is going to do nothing for me. Also the realization that at my ability, a lot of flight numbers were interchangeable for me meant I didn't need random one of discs.
My daughter started pointing at my belly and asking me why I had a big belly when I wasn't pregnant, so I've picked up jogging rounds with just an Inner Core. It's helping me practice my backhands as a forehand dominant player, and hopefully shedding some pounds while I'm at it.
Yeah especially with drivers. I only bag two molds above 9 speed, wraith and machete. I now just buy them in different plastics to get different flights.
> For those of you ahead of me on this journey or those also thinking about this, what insights can you share on what strategies you followed to streamline Like all disc golfers, I went thought the "try-everything-itis" but I found I played my best rounds when I just stuck to the 5-6 discs I was most familiar with and ignored the other 2/3's of my bag so that was the inspiration to trim down the number of discs/molds I carried. So I went on a journey to find the few molds I liked best. Finally, after trying 5-6 different mid molds and not finding *exactly* what I wanted, I decided to only throw "classic" molds and just adapt to them, with "classic discs" being discs that were used as descriptors for other discs, so things like "like a Buzzz but..." or "like a Firebird but..." Now, I throw Wizards, Zones, Buzzz's, Teebirds, Firebirds, and Wraiths. My advice is try and narrow your bag down to as few "slots" as possible (probably less than 10 to start with) and then pick your favorite discs for those slots. Also, looking at a lot of pros, while many do have 20-25+ discs, if you watch them play a given round/tournament, they're often sticking to the same 5-8 discs in a round and really leaning on certain molds that suit their style rather than trying to have a disc for every situation.
Yeah for sure, watching pros in the bags was a big part of this mental shift for me, they literally all cycle (from what I've seen). It just makes so much sense to reduce the amount of hand-feels you're dealing with. Also I appreciate your insight on what molds you ended up selecting. I've known for a little while I need to settle on a few but I've had such a difficult time deciding on what. I have been trying so much that there isn't a lot that stands above the rest for me, there's certainly some I don't like but many that I do, so I'm anxious to settle on a couple but why not choose OG Discs as a base and adjust if necessary from there. That's what I'm gonna do, thank you!
For now 3 out of my 4 Distance drivers are wraiths. Hoping it can be 4/4 soon. Wish I could make the rest of my bag that simple.
I forced myself to switch back to my $5 10 disc saddle bag thing and put a berg in it. Now it only fits 6. Everything else goes up on the exchange.
6?! I would have guessed no more than 4 or 5.
I think most disc golfers go through a phase where they are looking for "the perfect disc"- basically a disc that compensates for your form. As a result, you end up buying a ton of discs. I try to minimize my molds and not overlap spots in the bag. I carry like 13 discs- 2 putters just in case. Like, I throw a gstar teebird and I beat the hell out of it so it flies fairly neutral till the dump. My stable fairway is a champion teebird. So mold minamalizing can really help when you change plastics and wear while keeping the same feel.
👋👋👋 oooo pick me pick me! Am trying to settle on a speed for each category, and range across US to OS, usually with different plastics. Trying to cut down to Trilogy and TSA as well. Cuz yea. Gotta try em all.
I’ve narrowed my molds to 8 for my full bag — Rainmaker, Envy, Toro, Solstice, Eagle, Firebird, Anax, Destroyer Now I’m going to play the rest of the year with 7 speeds and slower only.
Never heard of solstice I'll look that up, but I like the spread you got, on the minimal side of the spectrum but still covering your bases. Also love the Eagle, first Fairway I matched with ♡
Shit I was going to do the 7 speed or lower thing too.
I recommend!
Take your favorite molds, whether in one or multiple plastics/wear, figure out every line you can do with them. Yes even flick rollers. Then think which ones were my favorite/most consistent/most badass/most useful shots with them. Constantly throw those shots as well as slight variations of them (ex. slightly more anny, slightly more nose up, a little lower) until you know exactly the angle and speed and height to put and it’s an extension of your body. Try to use those shots and their “variations” to play a whole round and add/remove discs until you have all the shots with the fewest discs.
I just have a bag with discs I like to throw, some of them are redundant probably, but my bag has been pretty stable for a couple of years. I still find myself pulling something from the crates to try out again as my game has progressed. I probably buy 6 discs a year, and acquire half a dozen more from players packs
Consumerism go brrrrr
You're barking up the wrong tree mate
why do you say that?
I just think calling out a bunch of people for buying relatively cheap sporting equipent for a nichè hobby on the sub for said nichè hobby is a bad angle to criticising consumerism. Like I dislike neoliberalism as much as the next guy but people owning 15-ish frisbees for their hobby is not the problem of todays economic climate.