What/How Did You Practice Today?

[TR1PTIK]

First time in a while that I made it out to the range for a real session. Seems like most of the times I've been to the range this year are immediately followed by a round so I haven't really had a ton of opportunities to just work on things. Didn't get too specific with anything, just trying to hit target and continue grooving my takeaway which has been the key to my improved ball striking this year. With just a couple of recent tweaks, I've managed to lower my ball flight with the irons and increase distance by nearly a full club. Contact is pure, and I really like the way the ball takes off. Hoping to keep hitting it this way for a while longer since my club championship is next month with the opportunity to qualify for a Ryder Cup-type event in October.  

[DrMJG]

Day 399

As with yesterday, 20 shots with the 6i.

When I try not to blast the shot, my results are really better.

I have had good ball speeds, for me, consistently in the upper 90's. Distances today were averaging 160 and direction was fairly good, with one not too bad hook.

By saying "not blasting", I mean not trying to add more raw force and sheer muscle to my actions.  I also accept that the numbers above as what will be my normal full shot for the club.  Yes, many get greater distances but for me, an older duffer, having a very consistent result allows me plan for when and how I am using the club.

Tomorrow will be the end of the "make the 6i usable" and this weekend, I will be having the club joined by one in each direction: my 5h and 7i.  And, if I can find a cooler morning, I will take it to the course.

To my readers, thanks for putting up with this project!

[PMookie]

Went to the range in 108* heat.... Took video to send to the coach. All I can say is the same things that were wrong when he looked at it last are STILL wrong today. My lower body/leg action sucks and is what causes me to be so inconsistent. I pray I get some drills back that will help.


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[DrMJG]

Now that I have moved forward with my 6i, it was time to expand beyond it.

In today's practice I moved up to 21 strokes to allow 7 each with my 5h, 6i, and 7i in order to begin to solidify the mid section of my bag.

First the 6i, and it felt very good, with a bit more loft than yesterday but no loss in range or direction.  

I next moved down to the 5h, which has been OK of late, but without the loft I would like.

Loft was acceptable at best but at least direction and distance, for the most part, were what I expected. The aspect I noticed on first review of the video was that I was closing down the angle of attack.  I will focus on that over the next few days.  

7i was good. I was only 8-10 yards off of what I am now getting with the 6i, but the loft was what I liked today.  It allows me to keep the ball from overly long rolls after the landing.  I want someroll, but need to work on controlling it as much as I can to avoid hitting too far beyond the target.

As this was the first day on this next phase of my playing my bag of weapons, I will mark the direction of my work after more study of the film.

[revkev]

First time at the range in several weeks. They put a new grass in about a month ago and had both sides closed for three weeks and then we had the week of rain. Opened the back part up today. Went this afternoon primarily to work on trap shots. Hit 100 of those. That left 25 balls, hit 5 drives and the rest full lob wedges. Im trying to go from 48, 52, 56, 60 to 48, 52, 58.

 

Promising results with the 58 - it was very good out of the trap and dead on between the number of 60 and 56 with full shots - solid 80 yards into a little breeze. I can masse the 52 to cover the gap pretty well.

 

 

The new grass looks great, doesn’t it?

 

 

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[ncwoz]

I luck out in that the company I work for lets us flex hours and work when we want as long as we get the hours in. I'd been itching to hit the range after work but rain was looking imminent, so I quick packed up and scooted over to the range.

Got in 25 balls, really working on rotation and striking ball-then-ground, which felt great. My ball striking with my irons has been my biggest room for improvement lately. Felt the raindrops coming down as soon as the last club went back into the bag!

[DrMJG]

Still on the 5h, 6i, 7i focus

Today I played a bit of a game: shot with 5h followed by a shot with either the 7i or 6i. Goal was to hit a total yard score and in the direction I was aimed at.

For example, I aimed at a green 275 yards out.  Depending on how well the 5h shot went, I would choose either of the irons to finish up. Intent was to be on the green OR leave myself a very playable chip.

Sometimes I was really happy and a few times invectives may have passed my lips.  Even the heat did not bother me.

[cnosil]

For a while I have been feeling like I haven't been getting everything I should from my driver so I went by MGS headquarters to do a little testing on the GC quad.   Hit my stock shaft and an even flow black that they happened to have available.  Both shaft played to the stock g400 Max length.   With the evenflow I was able to get a little more ball speed and lower spin. Adam happened to be there and made the suggestion that I shorten the driver shaft to improve contact.  Got Sams G410 with a Ventus shaft that played 44.5" and got better ball contact and as a result higher ball speed.  Definitely a step in the right direction with the even flow and Ventus.  What I also saw was a decending to flat angle of attack and ball impact high on the face.    Changed up my swing a little to get an ascending AoA and was able to get it to about 2* which felt a bit odd.   Kept at it using Sams driver and was able to get my ball speed up to the mid to upper 150s with more center impact.    Swing speed was in the 109-114 range so I was really happy with that aspect of my swing.   Launch was in a good window when I fixed the angle of attack and spin was in the 2000-2200 range.

What did I learn?   Need to work on swinging up on the ball,  I need to shorten my driver to about 44", and I need to upgrade my shaft to something in the 60 gram range, and i need to figure out what shaft  will work best for me since I am not sure I want to spend $350 for a ventus shaft even though it felt really good and i got good results.  

[revkev]

@cnosil - sounds like SuoerSpeed is working out for you!

Just came from the range - it’s been a year since we started the SuperSpeed testing - I stopped doing protocols late last Spring and wanted to see if I was retaining my gains. You can’t tell on the course because it’s so wet that the ball doesn’t go as far right now there.

I hit it beautifully and bottom line is I’m retaining my SS gains. Driver is low to mid 90’s -


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[cnosil]

@cnosil - sounds like SuoerSpeed is working out for you!

It does seem to be, I was really happy seeing those swing speed numbers popping up on the screen. Still doing the protocols, last session for week 19 will be today.

[PMookie]

Ran to the range to hit a bucket doing my new drills using a swing station. I have a shaft in the ground, with an alignment rod coming out of it, in front of me on an angle to work on my swing exiting on the same plane as entry. Then I have another alignment rod in the ground, low, coming just in front of my right shin. This is to get me to stop having my right knee go toward the ball. Then I have one last alignment rod, low, in the ground, just outside the side of my left calf/side of leg, to work on not sliding, and posting on the left leg instead. It’s a lot.

My coach designed the station, and gave me an interesting way to practice. Get groups of five balls. The first three are hit inside the station. The fourth is hit outside the station, still working on the “feels”, then the fifth is to be a shot I play on-course. Then I go to the next five. I REALLY like this method!!!!

Anyway, just day two, so a long way to go!!!


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[cnosil]

3 hours ago, PMookie said:

Ran to the range to hit a bucket doing my new drills using a swing station. I have a shaft in the ground, with an alignment rod coming out of it, in front of me on an angle to work on my swing exiting on the same plane as entry. Then I have another alignment rod in the ground, low, coming just in front of my right shin. This is to get me to stop having my right knee go toward the ball. Then I have one last alignment rod, low, in the ground, just outside the side of my left calf/side of leg, to work on not sliding, and posting on the left leg instead. It’s a lot.
 

Need a picture

 

[PMookie]

Need a picture

 

Ok. It’ll be a couple days....

 

 

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[PMookie]

Need a picture

 

Looks something like this. Disregard those little lines by my head on the left.

 

Right hand pic is another student, but shows the rod inside the shaft for working on exiting my shaft below that.

The green line in the student pic was the coach’s attempt at drawing where the rod would be in front of my right shin.

 

On left is me, with the coach’s green line for the rod out front for shaft exit. Should be between top of bicep and shoulder, a couple feet away, in front.

Then I used “mark-up” to show how I have my two other rods. One just in front of my right shin, and one out front of the left leg, low.

 

My shaft needs to exit lower, “Same line as it enters through the body on the way down.” My right leg/knee has to stop going to the ball, and I need to post on the left leg, turn my hips, and stop sliding. These rods do all that.

 

 

 

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[russtopherb]

Had a fun few hours at the range with this guy, unfortunately the greens had just been punched so more chipping and full shots than putting.

On the down side, this was my first time swinging since tennis elbow flared up a few weeks ago, and I’ve got some soreness still. Didn’t feel bad at all hitting my son’s D200s with Elements Chrome shafts, but I could feel it with my irons. Looks like I’m going to have to sell the D300s and move back to graphite.


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[deejaid]

Went to the range this morning to test out the newly refinished Ping ISI’s. I had a bit of rust as I haven’t swung a club for the last two weeks and although the short irons were absolutely beautiful and easy to hit, my long irons were again problematic.

Confirmed that I’ll be playing a vintage round tomorrow with another persimmon and vintage blade aficionado so I went back to the range with my 1958 Wilson Dynapowered irons and circa late 1950’s Stan Thompson woods. Also took the Ping ISI 4,6,& 8 irons to have some more work with them and was hitting the 4 iron much better this time. I think this morning I was getting too flat of a swing plane on my long irons, not hitting down on them enough. This afternoon I got more “on top” of my long irons, keeping my plane more upright and it was a night and day difference from this morning, no more 20 yard fade on the long irons.

Hit the vintage clubs really well so I’m ready for an all vintage round tomorrow.


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[Rickp]

Went to the range this morning to test out the newly refinished Ping ISI’s. I had a bit of rust as I haven’t swung a club for the last two weeks and although the short irons were absolutely beautiful and easy to hit, my long irons were again problematic.

Confirmed that I’ll be playing a vintage round tomorrow with another persimmon and vintage blade aficionado so I went back to the range with my 1958 Wilson Dynapowered irons and circa late 1950’s Stan Thompson woods. Also took the Ping ISI 4,6,& 8 irons to have some more work with them and was hitting the 4 iron much better this time. I think this morning I was getting too flat of a swing plane on my long irons, not hitting down on them enough. This afternoon I got more “on top” of my long irons, keeping my plane more upright and it was a night and day difference from this morning, no more 20 yard fade on the long irons.

Hit the vintage clubs really well so I’m ready for an all vintage round tomorrow.


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Have you had a chance to post pics of the refinished ISI’s?


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[DrMJG]

Early morning rise to simply go through the bag, 6 shots each club.  It is now time to put it all together.

With the exception of the 3h and 50º, I was quite happy.  Most were fairly on line, with more than acceptable loft and acceptable distance.

The 3h was the major exception in that 2 of the 6 were hit thin. I did have really nice shots for the last 3, so I finished on a happy note.

The 50º was great in distance and loft, but I still tend to hit it too much to the left.  Even allowing for this was not really what I wanted.  Perhaps I need to spend 5 days isolating this club as I did with the 6i.

Lined up a round for tomorrow, will see how much I am ready to go at my 6:20 AM tee time!.

[tommc23]

Practiced putting today

[Jmikecpa]

Figured I should hit my new irons before putting them in play for a four day tournament. I think they fit me really well.




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[DrMJG]

Based on yesterday's finding every sand trap I could, today I spent a quick 40 minutes at the sand trap works with both my 54º and 60º wedges.  I played from soft shallow sand to up tight with deep sand near a lip that guards the tree.  Took about 25 sand shots. I mainly wanted to see which wedge when.  Got a lot of good data.  Tomorrow will be more of the same to improve my knowledge for traps.  

I think I could have readily saved quite a few shots yesterday.  I will be playing that course again soon.  I have to be honest, I have not spent enough tie on this aspect of my game!.

Edited August 28, 2019 by DrMJG

[Kenny B]

On 8/25/2019 at 6:08 PM, tommc23 said:

Practiced putting today

Well... did it make a difference?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[Kenny B]

My wife and I played a 9-hole practice round yesterday afternoon.  I never play well after a trip, and we spent the last few days in Oregon visiting my dad.  Since it's getting dark earlier, my wife decided to play at 3:30 instead of 5:15.  She can do that now that she sold her business and is semi-retired!!

As we headed to the 1st tee, one of the guys who works at the course carted up and joined us.  He's young, 6'6" and about 250lbs.  He plays all TaylorMade clubs; blades and M4 woods.  He hit some mighty high shots with both.  He had good control of the irons, but the driver was "juuuusssttt a bit outside".  

I hit crappy shots on the par 4 #1... all 6 of them!!  But I birdied #2 and #3; #3 is the #1 handicap hole, and I don't birdie it very often.  The rest of the holes were pars except for the double bogey on #9... splashed approach into the pond.

My birdies were not from great approach shots.  I probably made over 70 feet of putts in 9 holes; those two birdies and several 10 footers for par.  I seemed to see the line really well, and I had perfect speed of 1 foot past hole.  The guy asked me is I putted that well all the time or just because he was playing with us.  Of course I said, "Yes, all the time."  That's just a little white lie, isn't it?

[revkev]

Hit balls for an hour today - it’s so hot out that the only one there was a mini tour guy who has 1st stage Korn Ferry trials next week. It’s a 4 stage process.

I also hit a dozen trap shots and some pitches around the practice green - not a lot - just enough to try and stay sharp.

As I wrote - it’s hot! Heat index around 110


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[Rickp]

Hit balls for an hour today - it’s so hot out that the only one there was a mini tour guy who has 1st stage Korn Ferry trials next week. It’s a 4 stage process.

I also hit a dozen trap shots and some pitches around the practice green - not a lot - just enough to try and stay sharp.

As I wrote - it’s hot! Heat index around 110


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Don’t know how you do it. It’s brutal in FL last few months.


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[cksurfdude]

Went to the range yesterday, which has been an infrequent occurrence this season (have been swinging clubs at home a lot), to work primarily on the driver .. which I have not been using this season. Teeing off with either the 4W or 4H. So I need to get it going!

Started out with half speed, half swings just trying to make decent contact and get the ball to fly reasonably straight; and gradually ramped it up. Then experimented with a second driver, then with ball position and tee height .. Thx @Kenny B! .. (I seem to like it all the way forward and not too high); then experimented with loft and lie settings (I seem to like it +1/D).

And then, of course, on the way home I had a "Whoops!" moment - this second driver has not been played, but on all my drivers I have the shaft shortened .. which lightens the swing weight .. and the old lead tape was long gone, so.....

Today I checked it and, yeah, it was 2 swingweights light; fixed that so now I have to go back and re-test everything...!

[cksurfdude]

Today I spent a little time in the garage on the SkyTrak .. bought based largely on reading about @GolfSpy MPR's very positive experiences with one .. and found a neat feature -- in Practice mode you can select a target green (vs just the basic range) with options for difficulty and size, and set either a specific distance or (the neat feature) choose "Randomizer" and set a Min/Max distance range to the green .. then after each shot the program gives you a new random distance (within your min/max) for the next shot. 

For today I chose to use just a 54° from 26 to 78 yds. Obviously you can set up all different kinds of practice sessions. Nice! 

[tommc23]

4 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Well... did it make a difference?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Gotta check the putt out thread for that answer

[Rickp]

Gotta check the putt out thread for that answer

There’s a putt out thread


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[cnosil]

Did a gap testing session on the MGS launch monitor.  Wasn't the best ball striking day but it was nice to finally get some distances written down.   Also worked with a driver shaft I picked up relatively inexpensively....proforce V2.    Was able to be aggressive with the shaft,  but had the tendency to spin it a bit too much; guess I will keep looking.  Today's carry numbers

Driver: 250
3 wood: 227
2 hybrid: 216
3 hybrid: 206
4 hybrid: 196
6 iron: 183
7 iron: 168
8 iron: 153
9 iron: 138
PW: 122
GW: 107
54: 90
58: 83
54 half swing normal foot width: 71
58 half swing normal foot width: 51
54 half swing narrow width: 50
58 half swing narrow width: 40
54 finesse: 28
58 finesse: 20