Bouncing Back From a Bad Round: 3 Ways to Keep Things In Check

If you play any sport long enough, you’re going to have a bad round, a bad day, or a bad tournament.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Gannon Buhr or just started playing this summer, it’s going to happen.

The difference between good players and great players however, lies in how quickly they recover.

They might shoot +2 one round, then come back and crush with a -8 and be sitting on the lead card for round 3.

Tournaments often span multiple rounds, so the sooner you can bounce back, the better your chances of success.

So how do you do this?

Here are three practical ways to keep your game steady and your mindset strong when things don’t go your way.

Cut Your Losses Mid-Round

One of the hardest things to do during a bad round is to stop the downward spiral.

When you face a bad shot, a tree kick, or a spit out, it’s easy to let frustration take over.

But these things happen to everyone, whether you made a mistake or not.

You could have hit your line well but have an unlucky tree kick, or a nasty rollaway once your disc gets down the fairway just like you can have lucky kicks and skips.

The key is to train your mental game to accept what’s happening without letting it affect your performance even more.

Imagine you’re playing disc golf and your disc hits a tree branch and bounces far off your intended line.

Instead of dwelling on the mistake and making a bad rounds even worse, acknowledge it quickly and focus on the next shot.

This mental reset can prevent your score from getting worse.

Shooting below your rating is frustrating, but if you let it spiral, you risk tanking your entire round and even tournament.

By practicing mental toughness, you can learn to stay calm and keep your focus on what you can control before it’s too late.

Reflect, Flush, and Prepare for the Next Round

After the round ends, take time to reflect on what happened.

Look at your performance honestly and identify areas where you can improve, if at all.

Sometimes, some unlucky things happened and no adjustment is needed, and other times, adjustments will be a must.

Maybe your putting was off, or your approach shots didn’t land where you wanted. Use this reflection to adjust your strategy for the next round.

Once you’ve learned from the round, it’s important to flush it out of your mind.

Holding onto mistakes or bad feelings will only weigh you down.

Think of it like flushing a bad hole during a round, you don’t carry that frustration forward.

Instead, remind yourself who you are as a player.

You possess the skills, routines, and strategies that define your game, not one bad round.

This short memory helps you stay resilient and ready to compete again.

Stick to Your Routines and Trust Your Strategy

When things go wrong, the temptation is to panic or change everything.

Don’t do that.

I repeat, do, not, do that.

Your warm-up, pre-shot routine, post-round debrief, and overall strategy are the foundation of your game.

Trust them.

They got you this far, so need to change everything because of one or a few bad rounds.

Even if a few shots didn’t go your way, it doesn’t mean your approach is wrong.

For example, if you usually warm up with a certain set of drills or have a specific way of preparing for each shot, keep doing it.

These routines help you stay grounded and focused.

Remember, a bad round can happen even when you do everything right. It’s not the time to get in your head or doubt yourself, especially if it’s the first round of a tournament.

There’s still time to come back stronger.

When to Make a Change

It’s important to always be tracking your performance and results.

One round or even a few rounds are nothing to worry about.

But if you notice that an “unlucky” streak starts to last weeks to a month, then it might be time to re-evaluate what’s going on.

Have any of your stats dipped? Are you getting enough rest? Are you injured or putting off some nagging soreness? Are you pushing yourself enough in practice? What has been going right and what has been going wrong?

These are all the types of questions that you should have the answer to when these slumps start to linger.

Sometimes nothing major needs to change, but sometimes you will need to make some small tweaks.

This is especially true if you realize that you have been making the same mistakes over and over again or you have deviated from a routine or strategy that had propelled your game to the top.

Having regular reflection is a must however to understand your game and what may need changed. If you don’t reflect, your changes will be guesses, and that’s possibly the worse thing you can do.

Final Thoughts

Bad rounds are part of any sport, but they don’t have to define you.

By cutting your losses during the round, reflecting and letting go afterward, and sticking to your trusted routines, you build resilience.

This resilience helps you bounce back quickly and keeps your game on track.

The next time you face a tough round, remember these strategies and focus on what you can control. Your best rounds are still ahead.

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