discs

Poll 38: What’s the oldest piece of plastic you carry?

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OK, old timers (and newer players), it’s time to figure out some ages.

Now I realize some of you players will go and buy an older disc because of its plastic or whatever, but that’s not necessarily what we’re seeking here.

One of the Rattling Chains folks sent me an idea for this poll and I really liked it. I’m not too sure if this is exactly how he saw it, but the more I thought about it… well, the more I got curious about the way we’ll be doing this poll.

But more on that in a moment.

Let’s check back for last week’s poll first.

We wanted to know how long you’ve been playing this fine game of disc golf. We had 189 responses for this poll.

The winning choice was 3-5 years, which received 38 votes (20 percent). You’ll notice it’s not a crazy majority here as the votes were extremely spread out.

A year or less took second (36 votes/19 percent), followed by 1-2 years (34 votes (18 percent), 6-10 years and 11-20 (25 votes/13 percent each), 21-30 years (18 votes/10 percent) and more than 30 years (13 votes/seven percent).

That’s quite a spread-out set of data, which is good. It’s nice knowing people of all experience have stopped by here!

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Oh, brothers: MVP Disc Sports turns from hobby to profession

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By Steve Hill — Rattling Chains staff

The story is the same for every disc golf manufacturer.

Follow along with me if you’ve heard this one before: Two teenagers find disc golf and fall in love with the sport. At the same time, the young men spend their summers working for their father, who just so happens to own a plastic injection molding company.

One day, the teens approach their dad with the idea of making a golf disc and, thinking it will be a good learning experience, he gives them the green light. The disc catches on and soon, a company is born.

Wait, that’s not how every disc golf brand is created? Well, chalk up another point in the “unique” column for MVP Disc Sports.

Now 21 and 23 years old, respectively, brothers Brad and Chad Richardson have used a grassroots following to build MVP into a competitive company that continues to strengthen its position in the market via a new spin on disc technology.

And it all started, oddly enough, with a car door handle.

‘A Good Lesson’

Maple Valley Plastics, owned by Don Richardson, has been in business since 1967. In addition to making a variety of products for government contracts and toy companies, the primary focus of the business is the automotive industry. After seeing an interior door handle that was made of a stiff core material and covered with a rubber-like material for a soft feel, Chad was inspired to apply the design to a golf disc.

“This led to the idea of a softer material on the outside of the disc for chain-grabbing properties in a putter,” Brad said. “But rather quickly it evolved into the discovery of using a dense, rubber-like material for an enhanced gyroscopic property of a disc.”

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A hearty thanks to the readers who help us continually improve

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Allow me to take the time to thank everybody who has given us feedback during the past couple of polls.

Recently, a few of us have been wrestling with how to move forward with the future of Rattling Chains. I have always realized how big of an undertaking this blog is and I’ve often felt blessed with having so many talented writers join the staff.

The reality is, I’d never have gotten through nearly 10 months without having a staff — an unpaid volunteer one at that.

Alas, one thing I always knew would happen would be change. Jumping into something like this, there was always the realization we’d have to change with what worked and what didn’t. And, with no money involved, you have to roll with the punches the blog brings, such as content.

Remember, everybody who writes for this site does it because they love to write about a sport they love. And, real life takes precedence.

During one of those stretches, my will was tested. Not because I was mad or upset at anyone, but because I faced the reality of what this site is. It’s an endeavor I took on without having anybody else to write. I got lucky people wanted to be involved and jumped on board. And they believed in what the vision was.

As the site has grown, it’s taken different forms. We went from being a seven-post per week site to three and, currently, back to five. We’ve been pretty good about doing things on a regular basis and it’s been fun.

This isn’t a job, however.

Writer’s block happens. People have other things come up. The site becomes a bore in stretches because one just doesn’t want to write. I spent many years in newspapers — I understand it happens.

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Part 1 of the ground-up approach to saving strokes

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By Jack Trageser — Rattling Chains staff

You’ll often read the term “saving strokes” in my instructional posts because I believe the best way for an average player to improve his or her score is to cut down on taking unnecessary bogeys, doubles, or worse.

Birdies are wonderful, but for those who consider breaking par consistently to be a lofty goal, the quickest way to get there is to identify the avoidable mistakes we repeatedly make — and eliminate them.

There are many ways to do this, and the good news is most don’t require increased athletic talent so much as an understanding of three things — what’s likely to happen given the situation, your current skill level, and a number of environmental factors.

This post focuses on a big part of what happens after the disc leaves your hand — specifically the moment when it obeys the law of gravity, as all discs must eventually do. What goes up must come down, and unless your disc lands in a tree or on a roof or somewhere else above the playing surface, it’ll end up hitting the ground.

The question to ask yourself is, when you’re planning the shot you want to throw, how much thought are you giving to what happens after your disc first makes contact with the ground?

If your honest answer is “none” or “not much,” you’re likely taking some unnecessary strokes during your rounds. And if you’re like me, you might have been giving the subject plenty of consideration for years and still not realizing the important points.

My goal with this lesson is to list a few factors related to the angle or texture of the terrain that may affect your decision making when determining the exact shot you plan to execute. In the first part, we’ll cover the best ways to deal with holes that slope — uphill, downhill, and side-to-side. The second part will address the texture of the terrain — thick grass, dirt and rocks, thick brush, and hard-pan. Each presents special considerations, and we’ll cover ’em all. Now, on with the book, er, blog learnin’!

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Poll 37: For the longest time…

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This week, we’ll be covering your time in the game.

It’s funny because in my short time playing this game, I’ve come across people who have been playing for 30-plus years and still have the crazy love for it.

But I’ve also noticed the generation gap of long-time players and newer players. There’s definitely a different feel. Maybe it’s because it seems like there’s so much to digest when starting now.

Starting way back when, it was more minimalist. These guys (or gals) had the chance to grow with the sport and technology.

Anyway, we’ll get back to that in a moment.

Let’s quickly re-visit last week’s poll. I say quickly because we didn’t get much of a turnout for this one, which is quite disappointing, if not just because as writers we’re interested in what the readers want to see.

As I noted in the post, we won’t necessarily be changing things based on the poll, but it helps us when deciding future things.

I’ll be covering the past two weeks worth of polls as well as some other things about the site in a post later this week.

Last week we asked about the content you, the readers, like best on Rattling Chains. Each person was allowed to vote for two options. We had 65 people cast votes, for a total of 122.

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The winner of the Lace is…

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Last week, we ran our review of Vibram’s newest disc, the Lace.

The disc is the first long-distance driver released by the company.

And the winner of this disc is…?

In conjunction with the review, we also were giving away the disc used by P.J. Harmer — a 173 gram beauty.

Between the comments on the website and the re-tweets, we received more than 50 entries for this disc. That’s awesome, especially knowing somebody is going to be lucky enough to own this disc!

There were some great comments about Vibram and its line of discs on the original post, so I’d encourage you to go back and check out those. If you haven’t already, go check out our unbiased review. We give a different look than most reviews, offering an objective look from the eyes of two players of vastly different levels.

Anyway, enough of the blabbing.

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Going toe to toe with EMac

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Despite resembling a prizefighter of sorts, Eric McCabe uses his ability to throw plastic to earn his knockouts. (photo by P.J. Harmer)

It seems fitting to have played a round of disc golf with 2010 PDGA world champion Eric McCabe in Canastota, New York.

Canastota is home to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. It’s also home to one of Central New York’s hidden gems when it comes to disc golf — Oxbow Falls Park.

I say this spot is fitting because when McCabe stepped out of the car driven by Syracuse-area pro Eric Trippany, my first thought about McCabe was not “disc golfer.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought McCabe was in Canastota for a prize fight. See, with his reddish beard and smaller stature, he seemed more like a welterweight fighter than a disc golfer.

Picture the famed pugilists from Boston — that’s the first thing I thought when I saw McCabe.

All that seemed to be missing were McCabe’s fists to be taped up and some old-school trainer with a deep and growling voice (such as Mickey in the Rocky movies) hollering advice…

“Get ’em EMac. You’re a machine! Knock him out!”

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Saying goodbye to the holes that shaped my anhyzer

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I have a decent backhand these days, but it wasn’t always so.

In the past, I used to throw nothing but forehand shots. Over the years, this old shoulder of mine has had it with forehand and overhand shots. Heck, even just watching someone blast an overhand shot into the stratosphere can make me wince.

Nearly two years ago, I came to the conclusion that not having a backhand throw was not only holding my game back, it was threatening to cause permanent injury. Over that time, I managed to hobble together a decent backhand, which netted more distance and less discomfort, but there was a hefty void with the lack of a forehand shot.

That’s why I set out to develop a consistent anhyzer shot at the start of the summer. Well, that and the fact that I was constantly reminded of my deficiencies by holes No. 8 and No. 9 at my local course.

The problem with these holes is they have mandatory doglegs to the right.

This presented few obstacles for a younger, forehand-throwing André, who could bend it right around those doglegs with a quick flick. OK, maybe not every time. Still, it was with much more frequency than an older, backhand-throwing André has been able to muster. But I digress.

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Product review (and contest): Vibram Lace

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By P.J. Harmer and Jack Trageser — Rattling Chains staff

Vibram has taken its next step in the disc golf market.

After months of anticipation, the Lace — Vibram’s first long-distance driver — was released to the public Nov. 23, or Black Friday as many refer to the day after Thanksgiving in the United States.

Reviews from around the Internet seem to be extremely positive for the new disc, which Vibram says is a stable driver.

When you get to Jack Trageser’s part of this review, you’ll get a more in-depth feel about the disc and what it can do for somebody with a stronger arm and with more ability to do what he wants with the disc.

My part is going to talk about the disc from the vantage point of a light-armed thrower and one who doesn’t have a lot of control over a disc.

Allow me to note I’m a Vibram user. The Ibex is one of my best discs as I can actually  get it to (usually) do what I want. I also putt with a Summit and, in the past, I’ve carried and used a Trak, V.P. and Ascent. So it’s safe to say I like Vibram’s products.

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Poll 36: The content at Rattling Chains

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As noted last week, we are doing a two-week set of polls covering our site. It’s mainly to use as a tool to try and improve what we are already doing.

It’s also to help us understand our readers a bit.

The reality is, blogs aren’t always successful. You can’t base everything on the amount of visits or hits you get. You have to base it on your readers. Many blogs have people who visit once and never come back. Some blogs get massive hits, but the content isn’t great.

We aim to have a solid following and to them, we strive to give the best possible content. In many facets, the content on Rattling Chains isn’t available anywhere else based on what our writers go through to give you these things.

Before diving back into that, let’s check out last week’s poll about visiting the site.

Though we hoped for more voters, this kind of proved the point originally thought — the readers we do have seem to be loyal. And, in turn, we hope to be loyal to you.

Of the 76 people who voted last week, 49 percent (37 votes) said you visit the site daily (whenever a story is posted). Second place, understandably so, with 17 percent (13 votes) was when you see something that interests you.

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