Creating your own luck

It seems to me that people talk all the time about certain players being lucky instead of complimenting them on their good play and decisions. My question is aren't these players creating their own luck? Sure, hard work is the greatest factor in creating your own luck. You work hard, develop rhythm and routine, and when you miss it won't be by much. But what about mental decisions? What about the risk/reward factor?

For example, consider taking a low percentage shot that could have horrible results if you miss versus taking a high percentage shot that has favorable results if you miss? If you take the second scenario and you miss, you'll still have a good chance to recover from your mistake. Would some of you say that's not being lucky but it is playing smart? By playing smart the individual has increased the number of lucky breaks he will get and decreased the number of unlucky breaks that will happen.

Does this just come with experience? Does it come with having a stellar mental game? How can someone improve in this area?

[tbender]

"Luck is the residue of design." - Branch Rickey

[gnduke]

I would tend to agree with your statement generally, but I do know players that do not pick clean lines and almost never get bad kicks from it.

This is on courses where there is no really clean line, just preferred routes through the trees.

Players that have never met a tree they didn't like. Players that if they threw a shot straight into the woods it would get kicked back into the fairway.

Then there are those that throw beautiful shots that nearly always manage to hit something and end up with a bad lie.

It is better to be lucky than good, but it is best to be both.

[boru]

Generally, if I'm playing well, luck also goes my way. If I'm sucking, chances are I'm not getting any breaks either. For example:

Going into the last hole of a casual round with my friends, I'm looking at my best score ever (-2) and a few bucks in skins money. My tee shot is just a little off, and slices through some branches halfway down the tight fairway. I never see it hit the ground. After looking for a couple minutes, we spot the disc up in a tree. Tough break. But as I'm walking over to it, the disc drops from the tree! I par the hole and collect.

Another night, another casual round, it's really windy and I'm generally playing like crap. It seems every time I throw, the wind picks up, and every time my friend throws, it dies down. I throw an upshot into a hideous gale, not sure if even my Z Xtreme can keep from flipping. Far from it. The disc actually fades left, lands on an edge on the sidewalk, and rolls, propelled by the wind, back behind my original lie. Then it rolls off the sidewalk into the OB road!

And then there are the trees. Everyone has had wonderful shots ruined by the tiniest of branches, but it works the other way too. After struggling through a monthly tournament one windy morning, I had finally found some semblance of a game during a casual round in the afternoon. I tried to throw a forehand anhyzer off the tee on a 240' hole with a mando right tree dead center about 100' out. There was a huge wind at my back, so I leaned hard on the shot, causing it to turn too much and head straight for the mando tree. The disc glanced off the right side of the tree, straightened out, and cruised on a line to the hole, for an ACE! Huh?

[vwkeepontruckin]

I read somewhere that Good Luck is being prepared, and having good timing or something like that. No one wins tournaments entirely on luck. No one.

[scottsearles]

Power create's LUCK ;)

[md21954]

luck is when preparation meets opportunity

[james_mccaine]

My experience leads me to believe that the luckiest golfers tend to be those with good attitudes: ones that don’t complain a lot and those that aren’t usually stressed out. I know it’s not rational, but I’ve seen it too much not to acknowledge it.

The flip side is also true. Whining, moaning, stressing out, even when “legitimate” usually brings bad luck. Watch for it the next time you see someone start cursing the gods early in the round. See if you think those rounds end up with more bad luck than probabilities would predict.

[prairie_dawg]

Power create's LUCK ;)



or TACOs :D

luck comes from good karhma. its as simple as that to me.

My experience leads me to believe that the luckiest golfers tend to be those with good attitudes: ones that don’t complain a lot and those that aren’t usually stressed out. I know it’s not rational, but I’ve seen it too much not to acknowledge it.




I think you are right on the money with that one. Might be something that can't be proven, but in my experience that's how it works.

My luckiest day of golf came in the final round at last year's Animalfest tourney, held in Warwick, NY. I was in 3rd, 5 down from first and decided that I would just have some fun, and if things worked out, great. If not, I still had a pretty good tourney so far and that was fine with me. I wasn't competing with the guy in first, I was just looking to shoot a personal best on the layout we were playing and if that worked out, great. Let me tell ya, I had some of the best tree love that round that I have ever seen, and it didn't hurt that I was a putting machine, missing nothing from 30 feet or closer in the entire round. I'm not sure if it was the luck that helped the putting confidence, or vice versa, but after a while I just knew I wasn't going to miss. The couple of times I did get stuck early on in the fairway it seemed like I knew I could get out of it, and saved a bunch of pain with thumbers or rollers.

I ended up winning by 1 on the last hole, thanks to the leader hitting a tree early off the tee. :)

[scottsearles]

Power create's LUCK ;)



or TACOs :D



Not with C.E. PLASTIC

But for my DX plastic i prefer "Arriba Fire Roasted Green"
unless it is my own salsa ;)

In my, personal opinion- no player is "more lucky" than anyother player. However if one was to define luck (ones personal fate), what I just stated would be untrue.

Some days you have it, other days you don't. Disc golf is really a 50/50 game, you're either on or your not. You drain the putts, or you don't. There is no "almost" in the game of disc golf, although many players will bring that word up during a round.

As you were saying about high percentage/low percentage shots.. experience helps in thoes situations. Sometimes the low percentage shot can produce amazing results if you can hit your mark, whereas the high percentage shot will get you out of trouble but won't help you win the round.

A friend of mine once said, "You have to know when to layup, and know when to go for it" Not to poetic, but it's true, and it's also helped me to become a better player.

Knowing what to throw in a windy situation could be classified as luck by someone who has no idea what headwind and tailwind is, but just part of the game for someone experienced. However, just because you know what to throw, and how to do it, doesn't mean you can execute what you intend. Whereas someone who has first played can throw a beat stingray into a headwind and roll it to the pole.

You just never know in disc golf, which is why I love it so much. I can beat about anyone on any given day, and can be beaten on any given day. (odd i know, but true..)

Great player once said (think I recall it form this post as well) "It's better to be lucky than good" I'm not sure I agree with that, but when it comes my way (probably after some hard work) ..I'll take it.

"Let the pieces fall were they may, after all tomorrow is another day"

[dischick]

the only person that i have ever seen who has some kind of carmatic luck is AL SCHACK. true, its not too often he throws a bad shot, but if he is unfortunate 1 percent of the time and hits a tree, it almost always give him that perfect kick to where he wants to be or right under the pin. its sick sometimes. must be the sugar on it.