Disc Golf
Maintaining MOTIVATION through movement!
Continuing to chase the dream, finding motivation in your health and fitness plan. Making Healthier choices alone is not enough we all must exercise, by focusing these efforts to support a passion goals can be achieved faster, as you are exercising with a purpose.
I hope that through this web site I am encouraging you to continue to make better choices - "Your Next Meal is Your Next Opportunity to Make Healthy Choices" Feeding my addictive personality with healthy items continues to contribute to my success. Shifting risks from unhealthy carbohydrate focused diet to one consisting of Half Vegetables took time and lots of consistency of execution. One major factor that contributed to my success was pairing my healthy choices with a fitness goal.
I am an ocean creature and love to be in the ocean. I do claim Surfing as my primary hobby. I used my love for surfing to help positively motivate me. I first examined how my weight and fitness was negatively effecting my surfing - I believe that getting back to basics and being honest with your self to access what needs to be changed. My two main problem areas were my fitness and my strength to get up and catch waves and these both greatly effected my timing.
I started with attacking my fitness: Stairs, stairs, stairs and more stairs - if you had spoken to me between 2012 and 2018 - you might have thought I was doing a "rain man imitation" - as all my conversations would start and end with me raving about stairs. At one point is go so bad that, immediately after receiving a compliment on my surfing one day - my response was "stairs" (in which the couple slowly stepped away from me). First thing each morning I would climb the stair well in my apartment building - there are 7 stories (14 steps per) and I would climb from the 2nd to the 7th anywhere from 6 to 10 times per session. Stairs are great because you control the intensity, single steps, double steps, jog, run walk - I would get to the top winded and by the time I walked back down I was ready for more. Initially this was a way for me to get exercise close to home; however after a couple of months of climbing - I got the opportunity for a surf session. My recovery time after exercise was cut down dramatically, I was able to catch more waves without long resting periods. As the months continued - i was soon catching 2 x 3x as many waves then before stairs. My wave count went from 20 in a 2-3 hour session up to close to 50 waves - relentlessly attacking the wave face.
No one likes to do stairs, but it is so effective on improving your cardiovascular system and breathing that I continue to utilize them as the more stairs I climb the better I surf. Stairs are unique in that it took about 7 months before I felt after missing two days that I was not starting over from scratch, my core was getting slimmer and when not done my surfing can be effected negatively.
Next was my strength - I was not strong enough to get up on the surf board - my pop up move started turning into a multiple step move that is not conducive with the short take off window, I was not making waves or by the time I stood up the wave was already gone. Something had to give - I need to improve my strength in combination with losing more weight. Planking, push-ups, core focused workouts and swimming were all tools I used. I am not always in the mood to exercise - however under the guise of - "Chris doing this will improve your surfing" rather than exercising for exercise sake; really kept me motivated.
Maintaining a high level of motivation is not always easy, without a regular surfing session in which I see the direct impact on my surfing -- diversification was needed for me to keep up the high intensity.
Disc Golf Dreams -
Surfing for the most part, when the ocean cooperates takes place between first light and 9 am -- this is before the traffic, lifeguards and crowds. I was getting home on non work days around 10:30 am and was looking for sporty other than the typical hour walk I would take in the afternoons. Stumbling through You-tube - I came across a disc golf media company - JOMEZ-PRO - in which witty commentary over the 4 some on the lead card - showing shot by shot. I was quickly intrigued as this is not something I had experienced before. I had seen baskets in high school 1989 - in Bay-side park in Miami - never anyone playing. My video fandom quickly turn into me wanting to buy some disc and give this sport a try, i perceive to have good aim.
Disc golf is just like golf except there are no clubs to blame for poor performance. Disc golf is super fun and its grass roots growth presents something unique and not present in other sports, which is generally the opportunity to play with players much more advanced than your playing level. "Disc Golf in a lot of ways is similar to surfing mindset; it does not matter if your last wave was your best wave ever or worst wave ever - it is all about the next opportunity for greatness." Easier said than done, but with time and patience you can quickly move on from the last shot and focus on the current task at hand. In surfing the motivation to be in the moment, especially when the waves are shoulder higher or larger can come down to a life or death situation. Disc golf does not have that same underlying factor but the focus that arose from my prior surfing situations enables me to be in the proper mindset without the threat of death (although you should always be aware of the wild animals on the course, as one day they might strike back) to be successful.
Disc golf is similar to surfing in that the best way to become better is to actually execute. Core fitness exercising and swimming help surfing but the only way to get better is time on the board. The challenges that surfing present causes a very slow growth rate in that not only from day to day but often times (especially with beach breaks) it is different from wave to wave; this inconsistency does not allow you to pick a similar line each time, so every wave is unique. This is where disc golf starts being quite different, if I am playing the same course and landing in a similar spot each time - I will develop a shot for that situation; I am also able to practice the motion of the throw to create muscle memory so improving in disc golf is on a much faster track. It is not easy - you gotta put the time in and painstakingly practice, practice practice…
One of the more attractive things about disc golf is that is free -- well free in a sense that the baskets are set up in public parks and there is no charge to play. I recently watched an interview with FPO Disc Gold Professional Sara Holkem where she said - "disc golf is not free, yes most parks you can play for free, but it is important to support the local club or organization maintaining the course; and through actions or financially or both". Taking this statement to heart I fortunately found - WeDGE - Westchester Disc Golf Enthusiast - is an Not for profit organization that promotes disc golf and helps maintain the local courses - FDR State Park in Yorktown and Leonard Park in Mount Kisco. This organization hosts weekly events that include league play and best disc doubles for fun on Fridays; they also hold a couple of tournaments a year that attract disc golfers from around the country. Getting involved with your community is a great way to connect with others.
