One of the most valuable skills for an advancing player to develop is the ability to move beyond playing from the standard tee box to recognizing what disc and shots are needed for playing "out of the box"

Where this skill comes into play for most par 3ers is when you go to a new course, or have your course use a different set of tees for competition than you usually use. It's also the skill that higher end players draw on when they miraculously salvage par from a disasterous tee shot.

In other words, learning to playing out of the box is an important skill to develop when advancing your skills to the next level.

There are several ways to develop "out of the box" skills.

* Play (true) par 4 courses if possible.

* Safari rounds -- play from tee A to hole B so that you're playing a par 4 (or par 5) hole. Be careful of safety issues as players and other park users aren't likely to be expecting discs to come in from different directions.

* If your local course doesn't have any true par 4 holes, keep track of the favorite holes of your safari rounds. If you can string together 9 such holes than end up back where you've started, you can then play a second set of tees to that nine and have a full 18 that can perhaps be used in competition.

* Play a round of HORSE (http://www.dolf.com/games/horse.htm).

*Play from different tee locations. While not as good as playing par 4s or 5s, you at least are forced to think out of the box for your tee shot.

As an example of what this can do for you consider the following. When I'm at the local course at an off time, I usually play either the par 4 route or make up a few safari holes. It's not like I need to score another 8 under to keep my skills on the regular course up.

Where this practice comes home is how at club events (played at either the white or blue tees), when there is a tie, there is a sudden death play off. Last week, my pair was tied for second. Someone not part of the play makes up the playoff route. They chose tee #1 to hole 18, then 15 to 16. I won the playoff for my partner largely because playing out of the box is nothing new, but rather a practiced skill.

Happened the week before that too, ditto a couple weeks ago at a tournament. The result has always the same...

Naah.

It's better to play the exact same holes in the exact same way a million times so you can beat anybody else on those holes. When they ask you for a grudge match on a different course, say you are busy, can't make it.

Good post Fred. I think this falls into the category of learning certain throws/shots over learning to play certain holes.

Granted, there are a lot of good holes that require an understanding of their design to play well. But I'll bet someone who understands how to make certain throws will have a shorter learning curve over someone who learns play holes.

Once I got past the idea that I didn't need to shot underpar for a round to know I was improving my game, I became a big convert to safari rounds.

Good post Fred. I think this falls into the category of learning certain throws/shots over learning to play certain holes.

Granted, there are a lot of good holes that require an understanding of their design to play well. But I'll bet someone who understands how to make certain throws will have a shorter learning curve over someone who learns play holes.

Once I got past the idea that I didn't need to shoot underpar for a round to know I was improving my game, I became a big convert to safari rounds.

Good post. I found out the value of playing out of the box last weekend. My home course is the only course in town and I found I had become complacent. My hometown course is fairly long and basicaly open with lots of large, mature trees. There's lots of room to actually fly a disc with little in the way of rough, but you still have to navigate around the trees successfuly in order to score well.

Then this past weekend I played a course in my friend's hometown. It was about half the distance of my home course but was like playing in a jungle. I really had to fight the mindset that this course wasn't a "real disc golf" course. There weren't ANY holes that couldn't be reached with a putter, but because of all the brush and trees and such it was very difficult for me to make the right disc selection. The hardest part was the realization that I didn't know how my discs would react when thrown with only 3/4 or 1/2 speed.

Even though I didn't like the course, I realize now that courses like that have value and it's caused me to rethink my game. Another thing I learned is that I absolutely HATE courses with restrictive tee boxes. If you're going to have 6' by 4' concrete pads, you at least have to have them flush with ground so you can approach them from the back. That or I need to learn a two-step approach.