BMart519

I know that I have more fun when I am not waiting on people searching in the woods for lost balls (and after about the 2nd or 3rd time I am probably not helping you look unless you are near where I hit my ball as I am usually walking). Or hitting a 2nd ball off most tees. If the ball made someone play faster and enjoy the day more, that is a win for me in the group.

One of the drills is my driver practice swing on every hole now. It is similar to what Padraig Harrington and Bryson do by making max swings before hitting their tee shot to prime for higher speeds. Probably looks a bit strange, but I've been hitting it past everyone I have played with this year.

Is there any more reviews of X5 usage? I have the V2 and V3. The V3 was a step backwards in terms of shot detection. I am wondering if this has improved with the X5. With the V2 shots would often register even if you didnt take a practice swing as long as you had the club in your hand for a long enough period of time. I have not had a round with the V3 where it has captured all shots yet and it's getting frustrating.

1. This program has led to improvements in my sequencing, timing and utilization of my lower body to increase my overall swing speed by at least 5 MPH. I have not measured driver swings with and without a ball since finishing the program to confirm if those are closer. I definitely feel more comfortable swinging at or near max on wide open courses or on tighter courses if I am hitting it well. Part of this is due to the practice using different swing thoughts and techniques hitting at max speed into a net and finding the ones which still led to good contact in the center of face. 2. I feel the improved use of lower body has helped to minimize my lazy flip hook which only happened with irons and hybrids and improved accuracy with those clubs. I have a shorter driver with 3 wood shaft if I want to "gear down" but substituted it with my 3 hybrid for my last round at an open links style course. It's my 230 club off the tee depending on conditions and was very straight using the same swing thoughts I have implemented with driver from the speed training. I am also hitting irons longer and benefited by hitting less club or a softer swing with a longer club into greens because of the better sequence. My routine for putting and chipping is totally different than full swing as well as the swing thoughts/rhythm. I track data with Shot Scope on strokes gained for all my rounds. I began the season at nearly PGA tour level in putting which has quickly come back to earth after making multiple 20' and 40' putts. I attribute this to doing no putting practice all winter and playing on faster greens than usual. My major fault is leaving lag putts short which has not changed, I am not hammering putts past the hole after the training. Chipping is my weakest area and hasn't seen a noticeably difference. I just shot a 40 on my last 9 holes with 21 putts, 8/9 GIR while trying to hit driver as hard as possible. My "Average Drive" - all shots with driver was 237 yards in 2022, that has increased to 270 this year (course conditions reflect 10-20 yards of this increase). My mishits are now around 250 which was my average drive was last year. The low spin, high toe hook miss is improved with more speed. I hit at least 1 drive 300 yards each round this year after hitting 9 in 2022 in 20+ rounds. (Including 2 more 300+ last weekend along with 270/280 into a strong head wind.) The distance is also showing up in irons off the tee which helps on par 3s by using 1-2 less clubs. Higher club head speed allows me to get more benefit out of the Left Dash ProV1X. 3 of 4 rounds played in 2023 are counting towards my index (9.8) which is the lowest it's ever been, this combines some 9 hole rounds as I've actually played 6 times. Considering the top 1/3 of your scores are counted for your index, I am significantly above that proportion since the change. I have tested 5+ different types of balls in 2023 which has hurt my short game and approach play. I anticipate more improvement as these feelings become ingrained and require less thought, as well as settling on the best all around golf ball. For a program that could be completed in 3-4 weeks on a 1 month subscription for around $25, requiring no equipment other than your driver or use of a golf course (or even a range), I can confidently say it is the most meaningful (and probably easiest) thing I have done for my golf game. I am now at approximately +2.25 SG off the tee compared to last season which aligns with the 20+ yard gain showing up in the GPS data. It has been at least 1 month since I have done any resistance training in the gym, so this increase has happened while general strength levels have decreased and my arms have gotten visibly smaller.

Completed final training session (#9 - 3/week for 3 weeks) last night and found another potential swing thought for on course. Did not set any new records but am extremely satisfied with my gains and the course itself. Especially considering it could be had for a $25 one-month membership to Top Speed Golf. A few closing thoughts on the program itself: - If you have not done exploratory work with different swing thoughts focusing of various body parts, swing lengths and tempos, I would highly recommend this program to find queues that help you for both speed and face contact. - People with no speed training experience or only using speed sticks and not swinging driver all-out while hitting balls would likely see gains from better transference and using max intent on a ball - Increased comfort level swinging close to max effort on course and more certainty on optimal setup position - Developed a batch of swing thoughts that lead to best speeds and face contact (this has helped when not playing well on course to cycle through) - Future plans to use the best performing thoughts to gain more speed AND possibly the worst thoughts to see if improvements there lead to any gains. - 9 sessions over 3-4 weeks is very manageable and was a nice ramp up to the season coming out of winter. Some other programs can reach 24 sessions which would take me 2 months to complete. I will re-run the whole program in the near future to maintain or build more speed this season and provide more updates at that time. Overall, I feel this program has been a greater benefit than SuperSpeed or The Stack primarily due to translating the speed better on course. Final gains were a minimum of 10-15 yards on course and roughly 6 MPH club head speed. +1.5 SG off the tee since my speed breakthrough in late April vs 2022.

Drives over 300 yards: 2023 (6 rounds) - 9 Last 10 2022 rounds - 2 Shot Scope Performance Average/Overall Average: 2023 - 290/257 (297/270 - last 4 rounds) *** (301/280 with Accuracy Driver - only 3 shots) L10 2022 - 276/249 Really happy with the results of this program so far through 8 sessions. Have not completed a training session in over a week due to playing 2-3 times. The repetition of actually hitting balls vs only swinging a stick to build comfort using maximum intent while playing and also building awareness of face contact has been very beneficial bringing this minimum 10-15 yard gain to the course. The recent results with the "Accuracy Driver" will require dedicated rounds for a bigger sample size to evaluate performance on mishits. The current overall average of 280 yards with tighter dispersion could be too much to ignore in favour of the odd perfect driver going 10-20 yards farther.

It's mostly due to the longest balls having 1000 rpm less spin with irons. The ball data has a bunch of balls at 5300-5500 rpm as longest. The shortest? The pinnacle range at 7000 rpm which is the most in the test. The rest of the bottom o the chart is a lot of balls at 6300-6700 rpm. Ball speed is all around 107-108 for mid speed, so very similar amount of energy going into the golf ball.

At your speed it will be interesting to see the distance tradeoff from the soft, "super" low spin balls like Tour Response compared to the much firmer balls like left dash and CSX LS where the jump in ball speed will offset some of the increase in spin. Looking at GIR% will help paint some of the picture. I would put thought into proximity (which could show up in higher putts) or a short game measure as well as that is probably the area of largest difference for some of these. I would give fairways the least weighting, especially if playing at different courses. Dispersion still occurs with a robot hitting identical balls/shots. Until there is some research on how ball quality consistency affects scoring or offline data is published showing increased dispersion with a robot vs the "gold standard" Pro V1, I pay no mind to that testing and base performance solely by on-course performance.

I am working through the same comparison, mostly on course... Using the Tour Response, AVX and Left Dash currently while occasionally hitting a normal V1X to compare. The 2021 Ball test data shows the Srixon Z star as low spin off driver but pretty higher on wedges and irons which I am going to add in the mix as I liked previous versions of the ball and found it to be pretty straight which is the main consideration of my testing along with total distance. Have some CSX LS for later, but it is quite high spin in the 2021 ball testing, so it is a low priority for me to put in play. On course I am finding the rollout on the Tour Response to be a challenge for greenside, low punches, and partial shots where you will have less spin. I am now pivoting to Left Dash/Z Star to compare distance and direction while hopefully tightening up approach and short game. I have 1 Left Dot from member prototype testing last year lol, it only comes out on very special (wide open, windy) occasions and want to compare that along with the normal Pro V1 as a bit of "control group" versus the low spin balls. I was experimenting with launch angles and spin numbers online with the Flightscope Trajectory optimizer and the simulated numbers between 11-16 degrees launch and 2100-3000 rpm aren't massive. So I am prioritizing on course play and not too worried about sim numbers and guessing what turf settings are close to what I play.

Very windy evening round on a flat dry course. 2 more drives of 330, including one just in front of the green on a 350 yard par 4. Course was somewhat tight, but was hitting the ball so straight I was willing to hit driver on almost every hole. Average of 272 includes all drives and the last 3-4 were toe-y hooks which is a common miss when I get tired late in the round. I believe this program is also helping with my face strike and contact is more centred on club face. Impact location also held up switching between my normal driver and the accuracy driver on a 3 wood shaft during a practice round. Index down to 9.9 which ties my lowest and 3 of 4 rounds in 2023 are being counted which leads me to believe there is room to continue dropping as old scores come off from last year.

The course plays fast that I pulled the stats above from, but comparing with my numbers from September of last year they are all up by 10 yards. I can confidently say I've gained 10 yards from the program so far and potentially closer to 20.

Translating these gains to the course is off to a good start. Below are shot scope number for performance average (good drives), average of all drives, and longest drive. Looking back on the past 3 winters of work, this program has been the most impactful especially the aspect of hitting balls while you train. First from last night round: Entire 2022 season: played some wet courses at lower elevation. But already surpassed longest drive Entire 2021 season: (gained 10 yards from the stack)

Audible leads to touchdown… The warmup protocol for each session is to hit 15-20 balls. I usually do a few squats, lunges and other moves from the stack warmup followed by some swings with the orange whip to get a good stretch before proceeding to the 15-20 balls. During the warm up I used the feeling that led to my ball speed record from the previous session and experimented with some tweaks to my grip. Ball 12 - 162MPH, new record. At this point I abandoned the plan to work through the next session and focus on refining this current feel. Ball 14 - 163MPH, new record. Ball 16 - 164MPH, new record. Ball 18 - TOUCHDOWN 165 MPH! This was the goal I set for myself this winter for a peak speed in the hopes of achieving a playing speed of 160 MPH. It represents a ball speed gain of 8-10 mph over the 9 training sessions since starting the program. Now the mission is to translate this to the course. And see if there is more gas in the tank as temperatures continue to rise.

Status Update: Week 3, session 2 of 3 complete. (8 total sessions in program). Ball Speed gain = minimum 4 MPH (use same Pro V1X balls for all shots) Club Head Speed gain = minimum 4 MPH - Accuracy issues with SC200 monitor lead this to be a conservative estimate. Some swings could be 6-8MPH higher than starting benchmark speed. Hoping to play a course this weekend that is wide open off the tee and it is supposed to be 70F/20C outside. Would like to see how this travels to the course in the warmest weather of the year so far.

This podcast was what persuaded me to try Clay's program as I have completed 3 programs in the Stack and dabbled in SuperSpeed after building my own speed sticks. I have not followed Clay's program exactly: some sessions you do not hit balls but I hit every time as I find it eliminates aggravating a wrist issue I have and one of the keys for me is to add speed at the bottom of swing as opposed to start of downswing. Anecdotally, I feel it has improved my face contact both on course and in speed training. The other benefit has been building a library of swing thoughts that work well in training (and discovering ones that are a bad fit), I used this in my last round to help straighten out the pulls I was suffering from.

Speed kills (nets) After a lacklustre warmup, a few of the concepts from this lesson really clicked and led to an all time high ball speed of 161 mph. Had club head readings of 111-113, but I will estimate it conservatively at 109. Rising ambient temperature in the garage is likely helping this as well. On course, driver has been hot and cold. But having a few of these swing thoughts to cycle through did help straighten things out towards the end of last round. Putting at a PGA tour level also helps (based on Shot Scope data).

The starting speed in the Stack is a bit deceiving in my opinion and not a good comparison. The baseline session and usually first 4 sessions of a new program have you swing at "Full" intent which is gamer swing and everything asks for "Max" intent as hard as possible. This is the only aspect of the Stack System I don't like as it overstates the gains. Based on my season long Shot Scope data, I gained roughly 10 yards on course using the Stack in previous seasons. But nowhere near the number quoted on the system, which was 20+. Last winter I did not put the effort into speed training and regressed in SG: OTT. I am hoping the volume of hitting ~40 balls with driver per session in this program will help: boost or maintain speed, improve contact while at the top end of my playing speed, and provide opportunities to tweak ball position and setup before getting on the course regularly.

Completed session 1 of week 3 last night and found one of the drills/swing thoughts to produce good contact and ball speed consistently in the high 150s. It has been added to the list of 2 or 3 of the best performing thoughts in the program that I will try on the range/course. Was able to play my first 9 holes of the year and decided to test the TM Tour Response due to the lower compression (it was 40 - 50 degrees outside) and low spin from the MGS 2021 Ball Test. I cannot remember the last time I hit the ball so straight! I plan on using this ball a few more times at least until the temps get closer to 70-80 degrees when I plan on testing the Left Dash this season. It resulted in tying my personal best on a course I have played 40+ times with a +2 (37). Which I am thrilled with after about 5 minutes of outdoor putting practice and maybe 10 minutes of chipping after a 30 ball range session the previous day. Only hit driver 4 times as there are 4x par 3's: 282, 270 according to shot scope. Another was knocked down by a tree at 220 and I ended the day with a pull draw that fortunately hit a tree dead centre and kicked back toward the fairway or would have been lost.

Quick range session last night as it was a balmy 46F or 8C outside. Used the last 5 or 6 balls to hit driver(s) after working on irons and 5W/hybrids. 1st ball with "accuracy" driver - smother pull, dead left but dead center of the club face. Worst miss was by far the shorter driver. Used the LTDx LS for remaining balls - hit 1 ball over the net at 250 yards at end of range (wind assisted) for the first time using a Callaway Supersoft, which is basically limited flight with 40 compression. Then bounced 2 more into the net.

Since scratch players average around 3 shots to get down from 90 yards in the fairway, you will always struggle with the "No bogeys from 150" in the tiger 5 and should adjust accordingly or treat it as least important of the 5 if you are leaving it at 150/9 iron.

My left wrist has been bad this winter, I believe it was due to my office setup and not using a proper keyboard. I began a program on the Stack System and one swing I really flipped at the bottom and aggravated the wrist. I knew I was going to have problems speed training until it is fully healed based on that. Having a ball in the way to absorb some of the impact has made a big difference. I've had some tightness in my back on the right side, which I'm not sure if it is from doing less dynamic warm up and hitting more balls OR I have also spent 30 hours painting a house over the last 10 days on top of travelling and speed work. I played 3-4 rounds of simulator golf this winter and did fairway wood testing where I was striking the ball well, but none since starting the program and have only been hitting driver in my garage since then. My irons could be a problem, but that is a future problem. My priority to start the season is trying to make driver as long as possible through training, new equipment, and ball testing. I am also experimenting with a 2 driver setup - 1 @ standard length and low spin (LTDX LS) and 1 @ 43" on a 3 wood shaft with high MOI (Radspeed XB) which I will try on tighter holes. Trackman shows about 20 yards difference between the 2 setups.

Coincidentally, today's drills were very similar to Jon Rahm's swing with a short backswing and emphasizing a body driven swing. Had a few strange club head speed readings of 106 and 112 back to back with 157 MPH ball speed. Then hit a ball speed record of 159 MPH with 106 CHS, so I will take that as a gain. Considering this would be 1.50 smash, I feel it either tied my 107 max or was slightly above with a smash around 1.47-1.48/ Really enjoying experimenting with all the various swing queues and then mixing in different stance widths and ball positions.

3 sessions of week 1 complete. Using SC200 radar which I feel is more accurate for ball speed than club speed. I have started tracking both club and ball speed because of this to measure progress. I have not been able to improve my club speed from my first session but was not tracking ball speed and feel positioning of the radar is influencing club speed readings. A few sessions have repeated some swing queues and it is nice to see some of them consistently lead to more center face contact over multiple sessions. I intend on using a couple of these on course to start the season. Looking forward to week 2 to see if there are more new ideas and whether the ones that have helped so far continue to work.

There are monthly options as well. I think it is $25-$28 for the month, which would be enough time to do the program if you wanted to try it on the cheap.

After an unsuccessful off season forum speed challenge, I decided I wanted to try something different for speed training compared to the Stack System. After seeing some positive reviews (including a podcast mention by Lou Stagner) and brief descriptions of the program, I decided to purchase a 1 year membership to the Top Speed golf site which provides access to this program and many others. Most of the Stack programs run close to 2 months when doing them every third day which was going to run too far into golf season. I avoided the hitting bay in my garage most of the winter due to the cold temps we've been having up in Canada. One of the main reasons I chose this program is that you are hitting balls with your actual driver through all of the drills and I wanted to get reps in putting the actual club on the ball after regressing in SG:OTT last year vs 2021. 20 Minute Distance Fix (20MDF) sounds like click bait but I am seeing benefits after the first 2 sessions (up 4 MPH in newbie gains). Each session has you work through 4-5 different swing thoughts or queues while swinging with max intent and tracking your swing speed to see what increases your max speed. These swing thoughts are something I plan to use for tee shots on the course as some are similar to thoughts I have cycled through in the past. Especially since I've seen good contact patterns on the driver face with 1-2 thoughts out of the 5 each session. The program runs 3 or 4 weeks and there are 3 sessions per week. I've been dealing with some wrist issues during the offseason and even the small amount of resistance that hitting a ball provides in slowing the club down allows me to complete this training without discomfort. I had 1 or 2 swings with the Stack where I released the stick a bit funny in the follow through and immediately felt it in my wrist which is another reason I am using 20 MDF while also focusing on transferring speed to the golf ball because ball speed is the only thing that matters on the course. After doing 3 programs with the Stack I am also bored with the recommended warmup and prefer the lazy man's warmup of hitting 15-20 balls with driver on 20MDF. I do add a few mobility/activation moved from Fit For Golf and use my orange whip prior to the warmup swings as well. Golf season is around the corner, so the pressure is on to actually complete this program to be ready. I'll post some updates as I progress with thoughts and some numbers.