tweaking the bag

[Eric O]

For the first time in a long time, I need to find a spot for a new mold in the bag.

It's like this. I finally decided to pick up some star eagles and immediately took them to the field today to test out alongside my stack of SOLFs. I was impressed. They are controllable on a bunch of lines, and longer than I expected. The longest throws with the eagles were out there as far as my best pulls with the orions. I then took an eagle with me out to my local course and used it to park a couple holes and throw some perfect placement drives on a few of the longer ones. Bottom line, they are going to get thrown a lot and see ya later gazelles.

The question is, are they now overlapping too much with S/Q OLFs that currently reside in my distance driver slots? I suspect they might since both discs are somewhere in a similar ballpark when it comes to amount of turn/fade, and given enough height there isn't a huge difference in D.

If yes, would I be better served by moving to something sickeningly fast with a huge wing for throws where I just want to bomb it long, and throwing the star eagles off the tee for everything else?

To frame this in proper perspective, the discs discussed above along with some predators to spice it up would make up the full complement of my distance drivers set.

[Blink]

Star Destroyers are the flippiest speed 12ish driver compared with Xcal and Force. I had a 169 that was most comparable to a Starfire I would say. Champion and Pro are more like a Teerex though.

Diablo DT and Raging Inferno DT are less stable and still real fast, but the plastic is also less durable unless they came out with something new.

I thought the wing of the SOLF looked like an orc the few times I've looked at it.

[IowaDiscGolf]

The Diablo doesn't come in nice enough plastic to be viable, unless you buy 5 clones. It does have a big wing though and may be the longest-flying disc you can get.

Eagle off the tee is a very solid choice, a classic mold that you can't go wrong with.

[garublador]

Yeah, the Eagle is a faster fairway driver and the OLF is on the slower side for distance drivers. Personally I could justify carrying both because of how much better the OLF does on a lower line and because it penetrates a bit better into the wind, but I also don't have the technique or skills to comfortably throw anything much faster.

You could have more separation between molds if you found something faster than the OLF's, but if you're comfortable with your skills then it might not be detrimental to add molds to avoid underspecilization. If it were me, I'd swap out the OLF's for something faster for a while to force myself to use it. Then I'd add the OLF's back in to see if I gravitated twards one or the other. If I found that I didn't use one of them I'd drop it, othewise I'd keep both.

[Eric O]

Good idea Garu. I agree with you about the differences in the discs as far as penetration and height. I may just start by grabbing my brother's stack of Orcs to throw next to the OLFs the next time I hit the field and see what happens. I believe the Orcs are a couple ticks faster.

I could add a mold or two and it wouldn't have a negative effect, but I'm always trying to cram the full spectrum down to the 11 discs that fit in my small bag. 4-5 molds including the putters and mids seems about all I can find room for. I'm often swapping out a disc or two depending on the course.

[mark12b]

i'm on eagles (168-170) and OLFs (160-162) right now. the lower line and slightly better distance make the OLF worth carrying... i'll probably try something faster toward the end of the season but for now i'm happy with the combo despite the overlap.

[Eric O]

I know what you mean Mark. They do overlap in terms of having similar turn/fade characteristics, but on the other hand that's what makes both molds so versatile on many lines. I've been carrying OLFs from base plastic on up to Q and between the varying levels of stability I can pull off any distance shot I need. I'm mainly wondering if I'd be better served having something even faster, since on shots with no vertical ceiling I can put the Eagles out just as far.

Sometime next week I will give the Orcs a good run next to the OLFs and see what's what.

[garublador]

If you have free access to Orcs it's not a bad idea but I haven't found them to be all that much different distancewise as the OLF.

[mark12b]

i'll be curious to hear how it goes... i have lots of different distance drivers i can try, and it's been a while since i've thrown them. it would be interesting to see if they fly better than before. but, with 4 tourneys in the next 7 weeks, including BSF a week from now, i'm nervous to spend time experimenting when i could be cleaning up my form and hopefully picking up some consistency.

[Eric O]

I never really got around to messing with the Orcs. Lately I've really been liking the speed 7 drivers, so I just pared the bag down to a minimum number of faster discs, and the Orion LF mold is still doing what I want out of a fast disc. I concluded that overlap between OLFs and Eagles isn't really an issue given the substantial speed difference. Check the bag thread I posted today for more details.

[Eric O]

You could have more separation between molds if you found something faster than the OLF's, but if you're comfortable with your skills then it might not be detrimental to add molds to avoid underspecilization. If it were me, I'd swap out the OLF's for something faster for a while to force myself to use it. Then I'd add the OLF's back in to see if I gravitated twards one or the other. If I found that I didn't use one of them I'd drop it, othewise I'd keep both.

I did get a chance to mess around throwing a few Wraiths and Destroyers a couple days ago. Long and fast - for sure - but they didn't do enough for me to contemplate switching

[Aaron_D]

wow, I just posted about this in your other bag thread...damn. I would definitely say the orion is better on a lower line than the eagles, but they are similar in D for my too if I air them out. For more detail on my philosophy about this check the other thread.