Disc Golf Strong- Seth Munsey Interview
As the sport of Disc Golf grows there is a demand for the players to have longevity within the sport itself. To keep players playing, you need people to help build those players abilities and keep them going. Spear heading this focus is Seth Munsey who is the owner of Disc Golf Strong. He is taking the Disc Golf professional personal trainer business by storm and has no sign of slowing down. Not only does he go and coach up professionals, he is developing a program to be used by players of all levels. This interview was so insightful, and it was a great learning experience that I think is useful to hear about and take into your own careers and play.
Before we dive deep into the thick of Disc Golf Strong I wanted to know a little bit about the Disc Golfing side of Seth Munsey. He began his start into Disc Golf by simply throwing a frisbee around when he was young. He told me “I used to spend hours throwing frisbee in front of the house.” The love of throwing a frisbee slowly grew to a love of the sport. He told me that “I moved to Monterey, CA 4 years ago and we have 2 kids now, so I found the local courses and wanted to give it a try.” From that point on he was hooked and began playing when he could. He also told me that “I loved the community aspect of it and how passionate people had inspired me.” The love of the game surrounds him so he began to take this love and appreciation with him into the next step of his career.
One of the biggest questions I had to ask Seth was, how did you make Disc Golf Strong? It is not a very common thing for someone to specifically help Disc Golf players. Well, to understand why he found himself in the sport we all know and love, you must look back at his past. Seth told me that “I had a major in kinesiology with an emphasis in strength and conditioning.” That gives him the credibility to train athletes at any level. After college he “worked for the Anaheim Ducks and had a background in rotational sports.” So, he took his knowledge from hockey rotation and transferred that to Disc Golfers. From the Ducks he began working on his own. He told me “I owned a and ran a gym for 4 years, but I wanted to work with the athletes again.” With his past he began to start out to hep better the Disc Golf community with Disc Golf Strong with the mindset of Its about being active and creating friendships and we do not want injuries to take away from that.” He has taken the reigns and ran with that mindset and has done a great job so far. Some facts he informed me of are “thee are about 8-12 million Disc Golfers worldwide and 83% of them suffer injuries.” That’s amazing to me, there are so many Disc Golfers but so many of them get injured. These injuries could last a lifetime and seriously be detrimental to someone’s Disc Golf game if not treated correctly or prevented in the first place and that is why Seth is here. In general, Disc Golf Strong is about “Joint stability, mobility, and core strength.” He wants to build your foundation first before anything else can be done.
Looking ahead into 2018 is exciting to see for him. As he told me, “2017 was the first season working with pros and 2018 will be a lot different because no one has had a coach for strength and conditioning.” He got to work with some players for a majority of the season last year, but, now he gets to see what he can do in the off season for these players. Not only will he be working in the off season he said, “I will spend more time with the players during the season, designing programs, rehab, etc.” There is something growing that we may not all see for these pros. Some of these pros like Ricky Wysocki who he works with, that will have a better chance at going farther into the next season. They are already good at what they do, but now they have someone helping them hone their strength? It is unimaginable how far they will go this season. It is truly ground-breaking work that Seth is bringing into the sport to help grow the professional scene but the amateur and below scene as well. He told me that “I will continue to release the Disc Golf Strong videos and there is a 3-month training program launching in 2018 as well as partnering with Dynamic Discs.” He wants to help the entire community of Disc Golf not just the side in the spotlight and that is the best part. His goal for 2018 is “to impact and grow the sport more.” I believe he can do that and I can’t wait to see what happens as the year progresses.
He may be a strength and conditioning coach, but, he still enjoys the game when he has time and can go play. Just like everyone else he has a favorite course and discs too. He told me to no surprise since his recent partnership with Dynamic Discs that his favorite discs are “the trespass, verdict, and justice for sure, but, I would say the verdict if I had to just choose one.” All those choices are great and are solid weapons in the Dynamic Discs arsenal. The course that he chose is one that I do not know about, but, he made me want to visit it if I ever got the chance. The course he told me was “Zephyr Cove in Lake Tahoe. It is challenging and up a hillside in Lake Tahoe and has the most amazing view.” I could go on and on about the course he described to me, however, I will let you research it and learn for yourself why he loves this course.
Advice for the game of Disc Golf come in all shapes and sizes. I take every piece as valuable and try to place it in my own game and I hope that you do as well. Seth’s advice was as good as I hoped it would. His advice was “Stop trying to play against the invisible competitor, start doing some mobility, core strength, and flexibility exercises.” It sounds like a lot of work to add those things to your daily routine, but they seem to be worth it. As he says, “These will make you feel strong and if you feel strong you feel like you can do anything.” With the mental game being as big as it is within Disc Golf, having a leg up on the competition always helps.
Having people tell me something that they want people to know about them can sometimes be different than you would ever expect. Sometimes people tell you about a hobby they have, or maybe a sport that the play on the weekends. But, they are all different and unique to each person. So, I ask you to read Seth’s and think about his words. He told me “I used to be a 911 responder and I was in the military. For a long time, I suffered from PTSD and there is not a lot of talk about mental health. There needs to be more people talking about what’s going on and there will be less stigma about it. It can lead to depression and anxiety and it is not talked enough about, please take care of your brain.”
I would like to thank Seth Munsey for taking the time out of his day to answer my questions and for letting me interview him in general. If you would like to know more about Seth you can find him on all forms of social media. If you would like to know more about Disc golf strong you can go to http://www.discgolfstrong.com/ or at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXC_YbchbZGwLSGDvegrrA/featured to watch his videos. Look out for more coming soon!
Picture credit goes to Seth Munsey