7 Ways Drinking Water Can Improve Your Disc Golf Game

Water. H²O. Agua. It’s called many things but it does one thing for you: it helps improve your disc golf game. Water nourishes your body so that you can feel better, heal better, and play better on the disc golf course. And that’s what we want…improvement on the disc golf course.

Today, we’re going to be over water in all of it’s fame and glory. How it can benefit you and how much you need in order to stay hydrated. Disc golf is already tough as it is, so don’t make things harder for yourself. Hydrate properly with water every day and before, during, and after your rounds.

So what are the 7 ways water can help you improve your disc golf game?

1. Keeps away dehydration

2. Boosts your energy

3. Protects joints

4. Keeps your mind sharp

5. Helps with stress

6. Performance

7. Helps your body recover

As you can see, water does a lot. So let’s look into all of these benefits a little bit further.

The 7 ways water can help you improve your disc golf game

1. Keeps away dehydration

One of the key benefits of water is that it helps to keep dehydration away. This is important because our rounds of disc golf can be long and require us to stay in the game while we sweat. And while being a little bit dehydrated may not hurt you very much in casual rounds, it can really screw up your competitive play. You’ll see all of the benefits that water can bring in the following 8 sections, but a lack of water can be really harmful to your body.

If you’re chronically dehydrated, you’ll have low energy, your joints may hurt, you may have a little bit of brain fog, you might get stressed out easier, your body might not recover as easily, and your overall performance will suffer. Too much dehydration can lead to dizziness and fainting, so you don’t want to mess around. Just make sure to keep up your water intake and you’ll be fine.

2. Boosts your energy

According to this study on water and energy expenditure, drinking water can help govern you more energy in as little as 10 minutes after drinking it. You need energy on the disc golf course, especially after about 7-8 holes in 100 degree heat. Your body gets physically exhausted, and if you don’t have water, your energy will be gone quickly.

If you’re a little bit tired, don’t automatically reach for the caffeine. While that can help you some, a tall glass of water chugged down can really help to improve your energy. It sounds kind of weird, but it works!

3. Protects joints

Full rounds can really do a number on your body, so keep your body filled with water so your joints are protected. Water helps to lubricate your joints and keep them from not hurting. It also helps to repair any damage. Water is important because playing disc golf on uneven terrain can wreck your joints. Drink up so that you can keep yourself running strong for round after round.

4. Keeps your mind sharp

If you’re not properly hydrated, you won’t be as mentally sharp. This article on psychologytoday.com explains a little more, but it basically says that your brain needs water or it doesn’t function properly. We need to be smart on the disc golf course, and we need more water on the course to help us stay in the game.

5. Helps with stress

If you didn’t know already, water is actually quite a good stress reliever. If you’re not getting enough water, you’re body releases cortisol (which is actually called the stress hormone). Your body is stressed because of lack of water. And the easiest way to fix it is to get a couple of glasses of water into you. Less stress is always a good thing. Less stress mixed with some disc golf is a great thing!

6. Performance

You overall performance on the course is somewhat determined by your water intake. Basically, if you get enough water, you’ll feel better and play better. This one is fairly simple and straight to the point.

7. Helps your body recover

Recovery is a really important part of physical activity. Water, in part, helps to regulate a lot of different systems in the body that aid in the recovery process. Depriving the body of that critical H²O is only doing harm as your body can’t heal as well. Lack of healing can mean injury, so try to drink as much water as we recommend below.

So, water…but how much water?

There isn’t a universal amount for how much water you should drink so we’ll give you some good standards to follow.

At least a half gallon per day

If you aren’t playing disc golf, working out, or doing anything physical, you should be drinking atleast a half gallon of water per day. That’s my bare minimum. That equates to about 4 regular sized water bottles.

Total for the day: 4 bottles or 1/2 gallon of water.

Half gallon per round

While I play, depending on how long that is, I try to drink at least a half gallon of water. That’s another 4 water bottles. You can kind of tweak this to drink more if you play more. A good rule of thumb is: the more disc golf you play, the more water you need to drink. Just listen to your body. If you feel dehydrated, you probably are. If you’re getting enough water, you’ll notice the difference.

Total for the day: 8 bottles or 1 gallon of water.

Other good ways to hydrate

Electrolyte pills

Now I love electrolyte pills because they can really help you out a bit with restoring critical electrolytes in the body. Electrolytes are salts that help to regulate water in the cells of the body and they spark nerve impulses that keep the organs of our body functioning properly (like your heart and your lungs). So they’re pretty awesome.

When you workout. Your body loses electrolytes in the form of sweat. And if you don’t replace the electrolytes, your body can become dehydrated and can shut down on you. So it’s important that you not just hydrate, but also replenish critical vitamins and nutrients. You can read more about this here on health.com.

Now, If you can afford to buy some electrolyte pills, this may be a good route to go so that you can replace all of your electrolytes on the fly as you’re playing your round. You can find a good selection of electrolyte pills, like Rapid Rehydr8 tablets, here on Amazon. If you don’t want to dish out the cash, you’ve got another option.

Gatorade

It’s cheaper and it has a lot of electrolytes. The sugar can also help to bring your blood sugar up, which usually drops during the physical exercise of disc golf. Lastly, cold Gatorade is just d*mn good when you’re trying to hydrate your body. But remember that water is always your best option on the course.

Overall

I’d say that water is pretty awesome for you as a disc golfer. With all of the benefits, why not try to drink as much as possible? That’s what I try to do. I mean, if you truly want to become an elite player, one part of the process is nourishing your body with water. And the best part is, water is really cheap (free most of the time). So do your part and take care of your body with just a little bit of high quality H²O. Your disc golf game will thank you.

Awesome job!

If you’ve gotten this far, you must really want to learn more about disc golf! Got questions? Check out our FAQ page here. We’ve got tons of answers for you.

If you’re interested in more of what we have to say about the sport, check out some of our best exercise and recovery posts below.

The 17 Best Disc Golf Stretches to Improve Your Game

The Only Disc Golf Core Workout You’ll Ever Need

The 12 Best Disc Golf Exercises to Keep You Fit

The 11 Step Plan to Recover After a Disc Golf Workout

All of these posts are our absolute best resources for players looking to get ahead in their physical game. All of those posts will help you

Don’t forget about our book!

If you’re looking for an absolutely awesome guide to help you as you start learning the game of disc golf, look no further. Check out, “The Disc Golf Player’s Manual,” here on the site! It’s packed with over 180 pages of information and resources for beginners. So don’t miss out!