Slow is smooth, Smooth is far- Danny Lindahl Interview
When it comes to Disc Golf, the most important thing is form. Now, we all have different forms and ways to get the disc to go far. But, there are correct ways to do it. To help us out on the journey to form perfection is Danny Lindahl. Danny throws for Dynamic Discs and has a variety of videos out to help form and reviews for Discs as well. He may be young, but he has some great advice and a great story as well. Give it a read when you can and enjoy!
Danny has been playing Disc Golf for a few years now and got his start not too long ago. Danny told me that “it was the summer right towards the end of my senior year of high school and me and my brother were walking through academy and saw discs.” He did not go into too much detail on why the discs were there, but he goes on to say, “we picked them up and started playing, after that we bought basically every disc we could and played as much as we could.” He caught the bug hard, which, I think is something that happens to all of us at some point. After playing for a while, he became interested in learning about form. He explained to me that “I started doing research into form pretty quickly after I started, most of the time when I wasn’t in class or throwing I was doing research and Disc Golf form.” Which is something that you do not see often, most people do a little research and watch a video or two when they can. However, Danny took this idea of form and ran with it.
Just like all of us, Danny has his own reasons for continuing to play and being inspired by something within himself. His inspirations started off from his family, “it started off with me just wanting to beat my brother, we were very competitive at the beginning and then towards the end I just wanted to keep beating people.” Danny is a very competitive player and wants to be the best, as you can tell by his research obsession. However, he had to realize that there are people out there who are better than him. He explains that “I kept getting beat by people who I thought I was better than, turns out I wasn’t but I thought I was and I kept playing in order to beat them.” That is a hard pill to swallow sometimes, knowing that you may not be the best right now. But, Danny persevered and continued to grow his game and his presence online to be the best Disc Golfer he could be.
Sponsorship is something that is coveted amongst Disc Golfers. We always seem to be wanting to be a part of a team in some form or another. Danny’s story is different, he explains “I have a different sponsorship, I am sponsored mostly for my presence online and the views I get from that, not as much for my play.” Which is something that seems to not be prevalent as much within the sport. Regardless, Danny added “I am a part of something bigger than myself, it makes me think twice about what I post and talk about on the course and makes me put my best foot forward.” Which is always something people must think about when working for any company. When talking about Dynamic Discs, Danny had nothing but good things to say about the company. He first explained that, “there is a real family atmosphere, an example is that if someone loses their favorite disc or something, someone else will basically just send them one before a tournament or event.” Few people realize how close knit the players are within a team. The fact that someone would send a disc to another person just because they lost it shows how great a team that DD has. Another example that Danny explained was “people will send me form videos to review from Dynamic Discs and I get to use them for my own content.” So, it is a win-win, they get a form check and he gets content.
Favorites courses and Discs come in all shapes and sizes. Danny has some great words to say about the discs and courses of his choosing. So, when it comes to discs, Danny had a couple to say he liked. He said, “The EMac truth, it’s a great disc and used a lot in the woods for me. I also like the BioFuzion criminal and a Lucid Warden which are super rare.” Not a surprise that he could not choose just one disc, Dynamic Discs choices are far and wide. To follow a pattern, Danny did not have just one choice for the title of favorite course. Locally he told me “The Traxx in Bryant, AR, tightly wooded course that I love.” His choice for a travelling course is “Jones East in Emporia, KS.” Both courses are amazing, and Jones East is a very well known course and is well liked amongst touring pros. However, since Danny is a master of form, I had to ask him who had the best form. He told me, “Will Schusterick has the best backhand form for lanky guys, Paul and Nikko for bigger guys, Drew Gibson and Bradley Williams for general form, and Eric Oakley for flair.” All of those guys have some amazing form and I could not disagree with any of those comparisons whatsoever.
Advice is something that Danny can give out for hours upon hours at no end. So, asking him this question seemed like it was going to be a mistake. However, he gave me some advice that I was not expecting. His advice was, “Not nearly enough people play up a division, if you play poorly and get cash then you should move up.” A lot of people feel comfortable winning in a lower division because it makes you feel good. But, that may not necessarily help you in the long run. Danny thinks that playing at a level that may be better than your current one will help you grow as a player overall. His next piece of advice is “Learn your angles when it comes to your disc, especially throwing nose down. A lot of mistakes come from not knowing how the disc flies at certain angles.” General knowledge of your discs is so important. You could throw so much better if you knew how each disc in your bag flies at any given angle or speed.
As always, I want the people I interview to have one last thing to tell the readers before the article is finished. Danny’s last words were “People assume I am better than I am, I am not the farthest thrower out there but I can help you get there. Also, I am not that young, I am 22 years old.”
I would like to thank Danny for letting me interview him and for taking the time out of his day to answer my questions. If you would like to learn from or know more about him, you can find his YouTube channel here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1d7ueglz-o or his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Danny-Lindahl-PDGA-69372-314767452253430/ Look out for more coming soon!
Picture credit goes to Danny Lindahl