S1 E5 - What's the Deal with Disc Golf?

David Gillingham is our guest this week, and he is here to tell us all about disc golf. Listen in to hear David talk about equipment, how to play, and where to play. We hope you enjoy our podcast, and never forget to embrace your inner weirdo. #WeirdoNation

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hello everyone, and welcome to thepodcast that has the nerve, the audacity,
the unmitigated gall to just come rightout and ask you, Hey,
what's your deal. I'm your host, Michael Bridges. I am the AP
and GT coordinator here at the ElmaSchool District, and I want to welcome

(00:27):
you in to our next podcast,which I would like to note just for
the record, is coming in onschedule right with the deadline. This has
to be some kind of a newrecord for us. We're hoping to keep
this going. We have a lotof students in the queue to you that
are getting ready to speak and talkand tell you about what their deal is.

(00:50):
So that's kind of what we've beendoing in our GT classroom. That's
been a big focus is getting thesepodcasts organized and our thoughts organized. We've
been attempting to really focus on whatwe are trying to say and how we
are trying to say it, becausewith GT students, a lot of the
times, I don't know how manyof you are familiar with a shotgun blast,

(01:11):
but when a shotgun fires, whatit does is it creates this big,
huge blast and it covers a big, huge area, and it's great
if that's what you're trying to do. But if you're trying to be specific
and focus on one area, youreally have to hone that down and bring
that in and that's what we're attemptingto do. So instead of focusing on

(01:32):
this big, huge area and thisbig, huge topic, they're really working
on bringing their topic down and makingit important to them what they are actually
trying to say. And as ateacher, I'm not trying to sound too
much like Opie Taylor here, butit's really kind of neat to watch what
they've been doing and how they've beenworking, and the thoughts and ideas they're

(01:56):
coming up with and the things thatthey've got to say. And I got
to be honest, you know,I'm not trying to toot the horn of
my students, but I'm so proudof the work that they're putting in and
how hard they are working at this. And as a teacher, it makes
me really happy to see these kidsbeing able to communicate because if you'll remember
at the beginning of the podcast here, as we were working on this,

(02:19):
I told you the one thing thatI was really focused on was bringing these
communication skills into it. And thereare students that I'm seeing that normally wouldn't
speak that are ready to come onhere and talk to you and have these
great conversations. So, speaking ofgreat conversations, we have one ready for
you now. So let's get toDavid, who's going to tell you all

(02:42):
about his deal, which is discgolf. All right, we are here

(03:05):
with fifth grade GT student David Gillingham. Mister Gillingham, How are you doing?
I'm doing good, doing good.How how is fifth grade treating you?
It's going good, going good.That's that's that is like the stock
answer I get from GT students.It's going good. So tell me what
exactly about fifth grade is going good? Um? Probably mostly every part?

(03:28):
Oh, smarty pants, huh soevery part? Okay, So what's your
favorite part? What do you likethe best? My favorite subject is math.
Math. I've had a lot ofpeople come through and say they're like,
do you like the new because wewere trying down a new curriculum kind
of we're in second year of it. Do you like this new math curriculum?
It's nice. Do you think itchallenges you? No? Not really,

(03:53):
So what you're saying is we needto make math harder for all fifth
graders, Ladies and gentlemen. Youheard it. David Gillingham wants harder math
curriculum for all fifth graders. Ithink you might have just made some enemies.
He did not actually say that.I said that for him. So
David, we're gonna get to yourdeal here in just a second. But,

(04:14):
um, you're kind of an athlete, right, You're you're involved in
a lot of stuff. Baseball,yes, okay, any any and I
know the other sport we're getting readytalk about what you play baseball? Is
there anything else that you're involved in? You do basketball? Or so are
you gone like every night of theweek practicing? Now it's going to be
Tuesdays and Wednesdays off for Tuesdays andWednesdays off, So what are you doing?

(04:39):
Like Mondays and Thursdays and Fridays?I got Mondays or Basketball's Thursdays baseball,
Friday basketball and then tournaments on theweak of course, you got it.
You got to make the tournaments andwin the rings right on the weekends.
Okay, very very cool. Andnow we talked about those sports,
but what people don't know is thatyou've got something else entirely different to talk

(05:00):
about. So tell me, misterGillingham, what is your deal? I
like playing disc golf. Oh,disco awesome? Disco is great, awesome.
Not what what did is that?If you don't like that song,
it's not disco, it's disc golf, disc golf oak like the sport thing.

(05:26):
Yes, but I mean, comeon, disco golf would be that
would be awesome. I could seelike a thing of disco golf. So
not are you sure you know?Not disco? Okay, okay, not
disco all right, fine, fine, so disc golf, yes, something
like that, okay, kind kindof kind of okay, So tell me

(05:50):
how how did you start playing discgolf? Exactly? I don't think that's
I mean, I mean it's coolsport. I've seeing people playing it,
but I don't think it's that common. So how did you end up?
How did you get started with that? It's funny because I actually started because
I broke my left arm and abump on the driveway whenever I was riding
my bike, and so I justneeded something to keep me active and just

(06:15):
keep doing stuff, so right handedonly, I just started playing disc golf.
So you started playing disc golf?Well, that's that's pretty So you
broke your arm, you couldn't useyour left so you could do it one
handed. Yes, very cool,Very cool. So I mean once you
decided, what did you have todo to get started? I mean,
what was like the equipment? Like, what did you have to use?

(06:36):
So we had to go to adisc golf store and then buy some footbee
understable discs? Okay, like understable? What do you mean? We're like
they were flexible discs or so like, Um, whenever you throw the discs
they kind of drift off to theright before they crashed left it again,

(07:00):
huh, And so you can getyour max distance out of them. So
basically, I mean you could,but it's not ideal to just go out
there and play with a regular frisbee, right, you need like kind of
specialized frisbees to do this? Orexcuse me? Do they even call them
frisbees or is it disks? AmI am I being incorrect here? Call
them both? Okay, so I'mnot I'm not totally wrong here. I

(07:23):
will try. I will try betterand try to call them disks. So
do you have to go get likespecialized disks to throw? You just need
to have discs that throw on thediscs. It usually says understable driver or
fairway driver or overstable driver fairway driver. Okay. So like, okay,

(07:44):
so let's say we were going touse an understable. What would we use
an understable for? So the understableone would be the one that you get
your max distance out of because itturns right before crashing left. But overstable,
um, you wanted out on andit just goes right down to the
left, so can get you asfar of a distance. So an understable

(08:05):
goes straight correct, straighter, okay, straighter at while an overstable actually kind
of swerves a little bit but givesyou more distance overstable. If you have
a faster, better arm and you'reused to it, yes, it can
give you more distance. Okay.How hard is it to throw like a
disk? Do you have to getused to it? Is there like a

(08:26):
learning curve with it? Well?I don't really know how other people do
it, but I usually started outwith fourhands because I was playing disc I
mean baseball. Okay, So whenyou say fourhand, you mean you're almost
throwing it like you would a baseballright with an overhand. Like most people

(08:46):
see it and they think they bringtheir hand into them and out, but
you kind of throw it almost sidearm, like a baseball type thing.
Yeah, side arm, and thenthen it crashes right, Okay, and
so I just did that and nowit's one of my better throws. Nice.
So depending on this is way moretechnical than I thought it was going

(09:07):
to be. So depending on howyou throw it, it's gonna break differently.
Yes. Wow, So it's likekind of like bowling. Bowling is
a lot like that. Depending onhow you spin it's it's gonna break differently.
Okay, that's pretty cool. Soif I mean, there's gonna be
some people now that are, likeI like throwing frisbees. I want to
get out here and try this discOFLF. So if someone was gonna get
started, if somebody decided, hey, I'd like to try this, what

(09:30):
could they do? Where do theyneed to go to get started? David?
I mean they could probably do it. Either go to store by some
understable fairway drivers, mid range andputter, then go out to a course.
I would recommend an Alma. I'drecommend the middle School golf course.

(09:50):
It's a shorter course, shorter holesthan that Alma disc golf course. Okay,
it's just a good place to goto get started in practice. Okay.
Um, So you say go toa store, like where can they
go to like uh Academy or DickSporting Goods or um Infinity has some discs

(10:11):
okay, and then they have somediscs there. And then if you just
search up on gugle yah, Googlemaps, just disc golf stores, there'll
be places in the area. Iknow, Northwest Arkansas, I'm sure would
have tons of them. But Arsashas a little course that's good for beginners.
Forgot what it's called, but justit's really good. The highest,

(10:37):
the longest hole is probably like threehundred foot Okay, what is it?
Yeah? Did you would you happento know, like off the top of
your head, like, what's anaverage hole? The length, the distance
that it goes? Um, anaverage part three to get there in three
shots would probably be close to threehundred and fifty feet three hundred Okay,
that's that's kind of an average.Okay. So speaking of shots, UM,

(11:00):
I would imagine you've had good timesout there on the course and bad
times out there on the course.So let's just let's start with the good
first. So can you tell meabout a time you had a really good
shot. Um, well, itwas probably whenever I played a tournament,
a many tournament, five dollars toget in and well there's this little,
tiny, well not forehand hole.My dad didn't call it that. He

(11:24):
was like, David, what areyou doing with the forehand on this hole?
But I almost made it in oneshot. I almost got a hole
in one. Wow. Wow,that's pretty good. How I mean,
are holding ones like in frisbee golf? Are they as rare as they are
in golf or is it maybe alittle bit easier to do it in disc
golf? Um? I think they'reprobably close to the same rarity in golf

(11:50):
as it is in disc golf.And I mean for a hole in one.
And for those people who've never seenwhat a hole looks like on disc
golf, it's a little bit different. Could you kind of explain. It's
kind of like a cage, isn'tit. Yeah. It's like, so
you have a tea pad, thisconcrete rectangles rectangle on the ground, and

(12:13):
there's a basket that it's a polethat goes straight up. It has a
cage around in the middle and chainscoming out from the top and a band
on top and they post that probablyabout three hundred feet away from the tea
box, and there's just a lotof trees, and so you're trying to
throw your discs around trees, notit them? So does it? It

(12:37):
is the goal to I mean,do you just have to hit that thing
or do you have to get yourfrisbee into the basket, into the cage
or whatever it is? How doyou have to do that? You have
to get your frisbee inside of thecage and like it has to stay there,
has to stay. Okay, allright, okay, So we gave
you some glory and you sat thereand said, you know, almost made
almost made a hole in one despitewhat my dad said, shout out to

(12:58):
your dad, good guy. Um. So we talked about the good.
We gave you the glory. Nowwe have to talk about the bad.
So can you tell us when youmade a really bad shot? Um?
It was probably one of the longerholes, probably like five hundred feet or
something, and I think I hitabout one tree on the tea box.

(13:22):
I went to my desk, pickedit up, and through another shot hit
the next tree. So it kindof sounds like a regular golf Yeah.
And that just kept going on andI probably I probably got like eight on
that. Okay, So let meask you something. Do you think you
got like frazzled? Do you thinkhitting that first tree kind of got in

(13:43):
your head and then you hit thesecond tree and then the third and then
it's just like, man, Ican't do anything right and you just you
mentally check down of that hole.Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah,
yeah, I've frustrated. I've donethat before. Yeah, that's easy to
do. So you already said thatyou go to tournaments, do you know?
Can you tell us a little bitabout the tournaments? Do they happen
like around here? Do you haveto go Northwest Arkansas? A little rock?

(14:03):
How does that work? So they'reclose to Ben garon the ones that
I go to, they're in theBen Garen Park by close to parad Island,
and it's on Sundays, probably outnoon or something, and usually they
post it on their little Facebook group. So you can get on like a

(14:26):
group on Facebook like Fort Smith discGolf or something like that, or Western
Arkansas Flying Discs Okay something, Googleit and I'll find it. Google finds
everything, so yeah, yeah,you could find it that way then,
so you just pull in practice putum, make sure your puts on,
and then you they talk about ita little bit, and you find a

(14:52):
group of four people that are goingto play and you, guys, just
go out on a whole plate eighteenholes, come back and see what everybody's
scores. If you're in one ofthe top three, they gave you some
money back. Nice. Nice,But it's kind of for fun more than
anything else. A little competition.Okay, that's cool. So um,
you mentioned a couple of places,like could you give me like your top

(15:13):
three places to play around here?Like you said for beginners, a great
place to start to the Alma MiddleSchool. Yes, okay, I still
like that place a little bit.And then I probably like Alma disc golf
course. And then one more,do you think like Ben Garin's a good
one? Ben Garen? Yeah?I like Ben Garon. It's pretty spread

(15:35):
out, isn't it. I meanbecause that Ben Garan's a large park and
it I've remember driving through there andseeing those disc golf holes and they're kind
of spread out in a lot ofplaces. It's been Garen whenever you go
there, because you can play onthe white baskets, yellow colored baskets,
orange colored baskets are the hardest,like a thousand feet right, so that

(15:56):
that takes a little bit of planningand skill. I would have imagine that's
like for the ones that are prettyfar throwing. Yeah. Well, and
the good thing about this is eventhough it's athletic, you know, when
you're getting out and you're doing thisexercise, it sounds like people that aren't
super duper athletic, this is somethingthat they could get into. You know.
It doesn't involve a lot of runningor I mean there's coordination, but

(16:17):
not as much coordinates as like hittinga fastball or something like that. So
you just have to have your feetwhenever you're throwing a disc and then yeah,
just pick up a disk and justkeep doing it. Awesome, awesome.
Okay, so before we finish uphere, you know how this works,
we have to give somebody a shoutout. And this can be somebody

(16:38):
that's like helped you, inspired you, just somebody you think it's great,
somebody you care about. So doyou have somebody you would like to give
a shout out to? And whydo you want to give that person a
shout out? Um, shout outto mister Savage for putting all the Alma
disc golf courses in. Yeah,because when you first said disc golf,
that was the guy I thought of, because I know he's a big disc

(16:59):
golfer, Like he's got like abackpack, right and stores all his all
his discs, discs, I guess, yeah, he stores all his discs
in there. So and he's he'sbeen setting up courses around the area.
Yes, I think he put inthe Alma Middle School Golf disc golf course
and the original Alma disc golf course, and I think he's building on that

(17:21):
one right now, putting a fewmore holes in. Awesome, So not
as he only is he somebody whoplays, but he's actually given back to
people in the community for it.Okay, well, great, well,
mister Savage, because of mister Gillingham, this shout out is for you.
Of course it had to be golfrelated, all right, mister Gillingham,
Is there anything else that you wouldlike to say to anybody about playing disc

(17:41):
golf? No? Not really?Are you sure you don't want to,
you know, change your mind andmaybe disc go golf? Okay, Okay,
well I tried. You know,you can't say I didn't try and
open you up to new things herebecause that's what I'm supposed to do as
your GT teacher. So David,hey, you were great. I think

(18:02):
you've given them a lot of greatinformation about disc golf and I learned a
lot of stuff that I didn't expector didn't know. So Hey, I
thank you very much for coming onthe show. David, Thank you.
I told you you were going tobe impressed. That was informative and fun,

(18:26):
which is great for a podcast.So again I want to thank David
Gillingham for coming on. I wantto thank Zeke for coming on last week
doing a great job with Bigfoot.If you haven't heard that episode, you
need to go back and check thatthing out. Because we have the Supernatural
and the Athletic. Next week,we're got Pets coming up, so we're
going to talk to you a littlebit about pets, and then the week

(18:47):
after that, we have a studentcoming on that's going to tell you a
little bit about acting and theater.So we're trying to even though my kids
are trying to hone in what theydo, I'm still trying to go for
that shotgun blast as far as whatwe are covering here on the podcast.
And I honestly could not be moreproud of my students and what they're doing
and the things that they're offering,and how hard they are working at everything

(19:11):
that we're doing. So I hopethat you continue to tune in. They've
got a lot more things to tellyou. Again, my name is Michael
Bridges. If you'd like to getin touch with me talk some more about
GT, have questions, anything likethat, I am more than happy to
sit down and talk with you.Have a phone conversation, email conversation,
whatever works for you. My emailif you need to get in touch with
me is m as in Man Bridgesat Alma SD dot net and you can

(19:37):
reach me here at the Alma IntermediateSchool if you need to get in touch
with me. I hope you allhave a great week and we look forward
to seeing you next Monday. Thankseveryone, and remember never ever be afraid
to embrace your INNERWARDO have a goodone. The reader, be beloved,

(20:03):
to be be reader, Begin