From basketball to Disc Golf (yes, Disc Golf), Miles Seaborn IV has advice on taking your game to the next level.

Right now my main focus with sports if Disc Golf. I still play some B ball and other sports, but Disc Golf is the only one I currently play constantly. What is Disc Golf you ask? It is played just like ball golf except you throw a Disc into a basket instead of hitting a ball into a hole. What makes it so appealing is that most courses are free and only takes a couple hours to play! All you need is a Disc. Wide open fields are not the name of the game either. What really makes the sport unique is that we play through trees, over trees, up hills, down hills, in the open field, over water and combinations of all those and more! Its just to much fun! With close to 3000 courses in the US and around the world, chances are there is one close to you!

I started playing in early 2004 after a friend talked me into playing a round with him at Z Boaz park in Ft. Worth Texas. After that first round I was hooked! I went out and bought me some discs and started to play everyday! It wasn’t long before I started beating all of my friends, but I didn’t know where to find better competition. Finally in April of 06 a buddy talked me into playing a tournament. I will never forget it! Eighty people all getting together and playing Disc Golf! Each tournament has different divisions, so you don’t have the weekend golfer playing Tiger Woods. I played in an amateur division and soon discovered I should have moved up! I ended up winning by 12 strokes and haven’t looked back sense.

That’s all it takes is a little motivation and commitment. I am now a professional Disc Golfer and get to travel all across the country playing the sport I love! I am very blessed to have the two best companies in the sport helping me out with sponsorship! Discraft, the maker of the most consistent discs on the market, and Dynamic Discs! With their help I am able to play several tournaments a year that take me all over the place. The Professional Disc Golf Association sanctions around 20 tournaments every weekend around the world, so their are plenty to chose from. There is even a pro tour. Some events are larger then others so you see pros that make a living at the sport traveling to a different tournaments every weekend. Its not uncommon to see close to 200 people at events like these, and they are only getting bigger! With the PDGA and companies like Discraft and Dynamic Discs, the sport is growing like a wild fire! So get out there and chunk some plastic!

How did homeschooling prepare you for college and sports?
Being homeschooled really made me realize what a high standard my parents put on my education. I mean if they are willing to put up with teaching me they must really want whats best for me or their crazy! My parents never forced anything on me about what I was being taught. They gave me the freedom to look at something and decide for myself if its true or not. It is so important in college to not take everything as it is presented to you. Their are so many mixed up views and concepts in the world that people take as it is without thinking for themselves.

I also was never allowed to give up. There we so many times when i wanted to just say forget it. I am moving on, but my mother would not allow me too. I said earlier that it took me six tournaments to finally not get thrashed by the other golfers. But I never gave up. And now I have sponsors and am enjoying every minute of competition! I see a lot of golfers make to move to the pro field and move right back down because they get beat. Because of this they never move up again and as a result never get any better.

What is your favorite memory about your homeschooling days?
Defiantly the field trips! We would go to the coolest places. And because we were a small group we would get to experience more then we would with bus full of kids. I will never forget going to the Dr. Pepper museum in Dublin Texas. We were able go inside and see step for step how they produce the Dr. Pepper. And at the end of the tour everyone got a free bottle of it right off the production line!

What advice would you give other homeschoolers who would like to play sports after high school?
I see so many article telling kids how to prepare physically that it almost makes me sick. The biggest hurdle I have had to overcome is myself. We see this like crazy in the sports world today. Athletes cant control themselves both on and off the playing surface. I would be lying if I told you I have overcome myself, because I haven’t. I am only getting better at dealing with all the pressures my sport throws at me. I have been a bag thrower in the past ( in Disc Golf we carry bags with discs in them ). I moved up into the highest level and had not yet learned how to deal with a pressure situation, so I got angry and took it out on my bag. Its similar to slamming a basketball on the court. Its ok to be upset and angry, just don’t let you anger get the best of you. Do you best to prepare yourself beforehand for the hard times you will face, and you WILL face them. How you react to them develops you as a player and a person. So what kind of person or player do you want to be? HSI