Has Your Rating Stalled? Here’s A Fix!

If you feel that your rating has stalled, it’s time that you take a deeper look at where you can improve.

When you first start playing disc golf, you usually have a good sense of your strengths and weaknesses.

As you play and practice more, these areas tend to improve naturally.

Eventually though, many players reach a point where their progress slows or stops, and they may not know why.

It’s extrememly frustrating, especially when you have no clue as to how or why you’re not seeing the improvement that you desire.

This is the moment to get serious and analyze your game closely.

By tracking your performance with detailed stats, you can identify where you are leaving strokes on the course.

Once you know your weak spots, you can create a focused plan to practice or adjust your strategy to keep climbing in skill and score.

So let’s take a quick look at how to find these weaknesses or understand where you are now!

Tracking Your Drives

Your drives set the tone for each hole, so understanding your performance here is crucial.

Focus on three key things: max distance on longer holes, fairway hit percentages, and tee to green. Do so for both backhand and forehands.

1. Distance on longer holes

Not every shot requires maximum distance, but for those that do, you need to know how far you can reliably throw down the fairway.

This is different from max distance training in an open field because it involves accuracy and control on the course, as well as a specific shot.

In an open field, you have room for the disc to work a full flex flight, which isn’t always the case on the course.

For example, sometimes it’s more important to know how far you can throw a hyzer shot than a max distance shot.

2. Fairway percentage for accuracy

On a stat sheet, this may look like fairway %.

How often do you land your drive in the fairway?

Missing the fairway can add strokes quickly, so tracking your fairway hits helps you see if you need to focus on control over power.

On a stat sheet, this may look like fairway hit %.

Tracking and improving this stat will tell you whether or not your accuracy is a problem that needs to be addressed, or something that merely just needs to be improved even if not your biggest weakness.

3. Tee-to-green consistency on shorter holes

On shorter holes, distance is going to be less important and your focus will shift to being able to land in Circle 1 from the tee.

Landing here gives you a much better chance at a birdie or par.

Track how often you hit Circle 1 from the tee on the holes that are shorter than your max throwing distance.

By keeping these stats, you can see if your drives are helping or hurting your score.

For example, if you throw far but miss the fairway often, you might want to practice more controlled drives rather than just power.

Being 30 or 40 feet farther down the fairway is not going to be very benefitial if it comes at the expense of being in the rough for every second shot.

Measuring Your Approach Shots

Approach shots are where accuracy becomes even more important than distance.

As we take a look at these shorter, more precise throws, here’s what to track:

1. Distance from a standstill

Know how far you can throw accurately without running up.

When practicing max distance in practice, we almost always use a run up, but this isn’t helpful when the course gives you no room for such.

Knowing your standing distance helps you understand your comfortable range for such approach shots.

Again, do so for backhand and forehand, and for as many different foot positions as possible.

2. Accuracy to Circle 1 or better

Just like for shorter holes off the tee, for approach shots, the goal is to land your shot inside Circle 1 or at least in your intended landing zone.

Doing so consistently sets up easier putts and lowers your score.

Track how often you hit your target area on approach shots.

If you find you’re missing Circle 1 frequently, focus your practice on controlled, accurate throws rather than power.

Putting Performance and Percentages

Putting is where you can save or lose the most strokes, so if you don’t feel like tracking anything else, at the very least do so for your putting.

Track these putting percentages carefully:

1. Circle 1 and Circle 1X

Circle 1 is the area within 10 meters of the basket.

Circle 1X excludes the inner ring, roughly within 3 meters (10 feet), and tells you what your Circle 1 percentage is without tap ins.

These are your prime putting zones.

Track your make percentage from both areas if nothing else.

In practice sessions, you’ll also want to keep track of where your make percentage starts to dip.

I call this Circle 0.

If you are 90% accurate at 20 feet, but only 80% from 25 feet, then that is where your focus needs to be during practice.

You can learn more about this in our Complete Practice System.

2. Circle 2

This is the area between 10 and 20 meters (33-66 feet) from the basket.

Track your success rate here as well, since good putting from Circle 2 can save par or allow you to pick up bonus birdies over your competition.

3. Circle 3 or layup accuracy

If you want, also track your ability to get from Circle 3 (20 to 30 meters/66 to 99 feet) to Bullseye (within 3 meters) on your layup shots.

This shows how well you set yourself up for easy putts.

You can also track your make percentage from these distances for times your’re feeling confident enough to run them.

By monitoring these percentages, you can see where your putting is strong and where it needs work.

For example, if your Circle 1 percentage is high, but Circle 1X percentage is low, you might focus on more putts at Circle’s edge than the easy ones in the 15-20 foot range.

How to Record Stats

You’ll want to track your stats over both the long and short term, as well as for both practice sessions and rated and non rated rounds.

Short term stats tell you how you’re doing that day or week compared to your lifetime average.

Long term stats paint you a picture of your overall game.

You’re going to go on heaters and droughts, so keeping short and long term stats are the best way to know where your game is at.

If overall your fairway hits from the tee are 80%, but in the most recent week are sitting at 85%, then you can have some optimism that your skill set is improving. I

If you can maintain this percentage over several weeks, than you can be reassured that your game is improving rather than being on a short term heater.

On the flip side, if you know you’re a 90% putter from Circle 1 and recent stats are showing closer to 87%, it may be time to dedicate extra time to putting practice to get things back under control.

Keeping long term and short term stats are a great way to keep close tabs on your game and provide up to date data on what needs fixed on a regular basis.

You’ll want to keep these stats for both practice sessions and scored rounds, then compare.

You may find that in practice, you’re a 90% putter from Circle 1, but only 80% in scored rounds.

Or your fairway hits are 80% in practice, but 70% in rounds.

Discrepancies like this could indicate that your nerves are a factor and rather than trying to practice this away, you can instead implement a solid mental performance plan to close this gap.

If you change nothing else besides your mindset, and your stats improve, then you have fixed the problem.

If it doesn’t then you can take a look at other areas such as overall fitness level, endurance, fatigue, etc.

Either way, you’ll at leases be aware of these gaps and create a plan to close them.

Keeping stats in practice will also indicate if your practice sessions are effective.

If you’re practicing for hours but not seeing the improvement you’d like, then it may be time to change things up to get better feedback on how and where you can improve, or possibly even ramp up the amount of practice reps that you’re taking.

Using Your Stats to Create a Practice Plan

As you start to compile all these numbers, you can begin tracking improvement or regression over time.

This data-driven approach lets you:

• Identify your weakest areas

• Focus your practice sessions on those specific skills

• Adjust your course strategy to play to your strengths and cover your weaknesses

• Measure if your practice is working by comparing stats over weeks or months

  
  

For example, if your fairway percentage is low, dedicate practice time to controlled drives.

If your Circle 2 putting percentage is poor, add more mid-range putting drills.

Final Thoughts

If your rating has stalled, don’t guess where to improve.

Use stats to find the exact areas costing you strokes.

Track your drives, approach shots, and putting percentages carefully over both the long and short term, and for both practice sessions and scored rounds.

This clear picture lets you build a focused practice plan and adjust your course strategy.

With numbers guiding your efforts, you’ll hopefully see steady improvement and keep climbing in your disc golf game.

Start tracking today and unlock your true potential on the course.

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