What/How Did You Practice Today?

[ryan.mzzz]

14 hours ago, Kenny B said:

I spent the last two days in the practice area.  Even though I played well this weekend, I know my swing is not "there" yet.  Today on the range I was working on a bigger, deeper backswing.  For anyone working on their swing while trying to play a round of golf... DON'T!!  Go play golf and forget about your swing drills.  Changing a swing habit leads to horrible shots, but it's necessary to get the movement correct.  Doing it on the golf course will only make you very unhappy!!  Just go have fun.

I have also spent a bunch of time on chipping and pitching which have been neglected while working on full swing.  Yesterday was pretty bad, but today I started to see improvement in distance control that I've been lacking the last few months.  I worked with my 9i for chipping; I've never used it before.  I think I'll be giving it a try on the course for chips where the ball is close to the green but the flagstick is 20 feet or more away.  I usually use my 60º and sometimes my 48º PW, but the 9i seems to use less effort with better results.  My only issue with it is that I tend to push the shot a little right.  Need to work on alignment.

i always chip with my loft wedge since I can clip it cleanly on most surfaces and I have a great feel for how much it spins and how much it checks to the right on landing, but I watched a video yesterday on the ‘rule of twelve,’ as in:

if you chip with a 

9 it will roll out 3x the distance it travels in the air, 9 + 3 = 12

8 it will roll out 4x the distance it travels in the air, 8 + 4 = 12

7 it will roll out 5x the distance it travels in the air, 7 + 5 = 12

and so on. I’m thinking about adding this to my game, but it’s going to be a process. 

[ryan.mzzz]

31 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

get the ball on the ground faster and this prevents me from blading my chips

i do this as well. most consistent setup i’ve been able to find. since I went to it chipping has gone from a question mark for me to about the most trusted part of my game.

Edited August 31, 2022 by ryan.mzzz

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

get the ball on the ground faster and this prevents me from blading my chips

I'm with @RickyBobby_PR on ball placement.  I cannot play the ball back near my right foot without jabbing the club in the ground.  Normal is a little forward of center.  I can hit very low shots with my 60º; that is a goto shot for me.  I do practice low medium and high shots with my 60º... never blade a chip.

I'm working on bump and run shots with PW and 9i when I want a lot of runout.  Placement is the same.

[MrBandit]

I continue to work on by chipping and putting at least 2 times a week. With 60/56 Wedges and then putting from 3-10ft . This routine has help my consistency with the wedges specially, builds alot of confidence when you head out to the course that if you missed the green is not a big deal you will get close and make those putts from 3-6ft.

But I do need work on doing some Iron practice sessions.. that is loosing the effectiveness.

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, ryan.mzzz said:

i always chip with my loft wedge since I can clip it cleanly on most surfaces and I have a great feel for how much it spins and how much it checks to the right on landing, but I watched a video yesterday on the ‘rule of twelve,’ as in:

if you chip with a 

9 it will roll out 3x the distance it travels in the air, 9 + 3 = 12

8 it will roll out 4x the distance it travels in the air, 8 + 4 = 12

7 it will roll out 5x the distance it travels in the air, 7 + 5 = 12

and so on. I’m thinking about adding this to my game, but it’s going to be a process. 

Even though I use my 60º quite a bit, I don't play the ball to check up much.  Greens are very firm and my 60º is... well... worn!  I have a new one sitting in the garage, but I actually like the predictability of the release that I get with my old one.  

I tried the "rule of 12" and it's not for me.  I understand the concept and I have certainly seen it work; however, I control the distance my 60º flies and rolls with my stroke.  When I'm very close to the green, I may use a bump and run, but nothing lower lofted than a 9i.  If I tried it with an 8i, I would be off the green on the other side on most holes!!  That could change depending on the course and greens.

[RickyBobby_PR]

5 hours ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

get the ball on the ground faster and this prevents me from blading my chips

This is a recipe for lots of chunked shots. 
 

If you want to get the ball on the ground quicker play it in forward in the stance. Setup with more weight on the lead foot and keep there and take less lofted club.  Also take your wrists out of chips

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

3 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

This is a recipe for lots of chunked shots. 
 

If you want to get the ball on the ground quicker play it in forward in the stance. Setup with more weight on the lead foot and keep there and take less lofted club.  Also take your wrists out of chips

ok, ill see what my coach says. I sent him videos. just waiting on his analysis

 

[cnosil]

1 hour ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

This is a recipe for lots of chunked shots. 
 

If you want to get the ball on the ground quicker play it in forward in the stance. Setup with more weight on the lead foot and keep there and take less lofted club.  Also take your wrists out of chips

I didn't see any photos or videos of the setup,  how do you know where the back foot is to determine if the ball is too far back?   Narrow stance might have the ball just behind center.     You say forward,  forward of what?    Some of the short game instructors will have a 5 ball depth in which they move the ball to alter flight.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

15 minutes ago, cnosil said:

I didn't see any photos or videos of the setup,  how do you know where the back foot is to determine if the ball is too far back?   Narrow stance might have the ball just behind center.     You say forward,  forward of what?    Some of the short game instructors will have a 5 ball depth in which they move the ball to alter flight.  

Videos of ~25 yard chips

[cnosil]

27 minutes ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Videos of ~25 yard chip

That is about where my instructor has me playing the ball for those finesse shots.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

6 minutes ago, cnosil said:

That is about where my instructor has me playing the ball for those finesse shots.  

ya, i am curious what my coach has to say as well

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, cnosil said:

I didn't see any photos or videos of the setup,  how do you know where the back foot is to determine if the ball is too far back?   Narrow stance might have the ball just behind center.     You say forward,  forward of what?    Some of the short game instructors will have a 5 ball depth in which they move the ball to alter flight.  

It will be different for different people... where you make good contact with a shallow strike.  The further back the ball, the steeper the AoA.  More forward, the shallower the AoA which engages the bounce.  Bounce is your friend.  You don't have to be as precise with the strike.

My position is about where the logo on a shirt would be; just inside my left armpit.  That's a normal position for most all my shots except driver, which is more forward because of the wider stance.

[chisag]

2 hours ago, Vegan_Golfer_PNW said:

Videos of ~25 yard chips

 

 

... Personally I love the ball position. If you move your weight to more on your front foot at address and keep it there, your contact will be cleaner and more consistent. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

12 hours ago, cnosil said:

I didn't see any photos or videos of the setup,  how do you know where the back foot is to determine if the ball is too far back?   Narrow stance might have the ball just behind center.     You say forward,  forward of what?    Some of the short game instructors will have a 5 ball depth in which they move the ball to alter flight.  

When you  are familiar with a persons swing some things are easy to pick up on. As we see in his videos below there are lots of moving parts for a 25 yard pitch shot. With that many moving parts if he gets quick or changes height in the shot it’s going to cause chunks in the backswing. Most amateurs when they play it back have more shaft lean than is necessary and removes the bounce from the equation and that’s where the chunks come in.

 

[cnosil]

45 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

When you  are familiar with a persons swing some things are easy to pick up on. As we see in his videos below there are lots of moving parts for a 25 yard pitch shot. With that many moving parts if he gets quick or changes height in the shot it’s going to cause chunks in the backswing. Most amateurs when they play it back have more shaft lean than is necessary and removes the bounce from the equation and that’s where the chunks come in.

 

Don’t disagree,  using terms like forward and back relative to feet without a visual is really  meaningless since our feet can be in different positions depending on the shot.   My ball position has moved based on direction of my instructor and to me it seems really far back because if where I started.

 

[cnosil]

10 hours ago, Kenny B said:

It will be different for different people... where you make good contact with a shallow strike.  The further back the ball, the steeper the AoA.  More forward, the shallower the AoA which engages the bounce.  Bounce is your friend.  You don't have to be as precise with the strike.

Yep, bounce is your friend and you can engage bounce with the ball back in the stance.  You can also blade the ball with it forward in the stance.   Club path and shoulder alignment also influence path and AoA. Lots of factors to consider.  

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

When you  are familiar with a persons swing some things are easy to pick up on. As we see in his videos below there are lots of moving parts for a 25 yard pitch shot. With that many moving parts if he gets quick or changes height in the shot it’s going to cause chunks in the backswing. Most amateurs when they play it back have more shaft lean than is necessary and removes the bounce from the equation and that’s where the chunks come in.

 

Yep!  I'm one of the "most amateurs"!  

[Kenny B]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

Yep, bounce is your friend and you can engage bounce with the ball back in the stance.  You can also blade the ball with it forward in the stance.   Club path and shoulder alignment also influence path and AoA. Lots of factors to consider.  

The way I look at it, when the ball position is essentially the same for all shots, I don't have to make adjustments and run the risk of moving my low point.  Even though my feet adjust for each length of shot, the ball position is the same relative to my core.  

Yes, there is a chance to blade the ball, but that is a function of incorrect weight distribution and followthrough, which can be corrected.  I can hit low, medium and high pitch shots from the same ball location, which I can't do with ball back by right foot.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

Don’t disagree,  using terms like forward and back relative to feet without a visual is really  meaningless since our feet can be in different positions depending on the shot.   My ball position has moved based on direction of my instructor and to me it seems really far back because if where I started.

 

It’s always relative to center. 

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

Yep, bounce is your friend and you can engage bounce with the ball back in the stance.  You can also blade the ball with it forward in the stance.   Club path and shoulder alignment also influence path and AoA. Lots of factors to consider.  

The path change comes from incorrect pressure and incorrect movement patterns and the mind realizing the club is in a bad spot and has to force to body to move in order hit the ball. 
 

It’s less likely to blade a ball back in the stance as it is froward in the stance because that bladed shot comes from the body getting taller and causing the club to come in higher on the ball.

 

[tony@CIC]

16 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

The way I look at it, when the ball position is essentially the same for all shots, I don't have to make adjustments and run the risk of moving my low point.  Even though my feet adjust for each length of shot, the ball position is the same relative to my core.  

And here I thought I was the only one. Thanks for validating my 'technique'. 

[cnosil]

22 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

It’s always relative to center. 

The path change comes from incorrect pressure and incorrect movement patterns and the mind realizing the club is in a bad spot and has to force to body to move in order hit the ball. 
 

 

yes, alway relative to body.  Using feet as a reference for front and back is meaningless; that was my original point.  
 

I was referring to AoA varying because of an open or closed stance which will change path.  There are multiple things that can correctly change that will steepen or shallow a swing. 

[revkev]

Reading these last two pages of chatter make me glad that I have a teacher.

 

It's really all relative - I feel as if I play the ball back when chipping but I really don't, its that I have a narrow slightly open stance, the ball is actually centered, but because my back foot is closer to the center of my body it looks back to my eye.  I'm sensing a lot of talking past one another in this thread because far too often there is no real reference point and weight distribution matters as well.  But what's 70 percent on the front side?  I don't know exactly how to measure that.  I do know that if I keep more weight on my left side when chipping than I do with my full shots or my pitches, I will hit the ball more solidly, it will come out lower and run out farther.  I know too that if I take more loft, widen the stance a bit, keep the weight forward and swing steeper that I will get more spin assuming I'm using the proper ball but I've worked all of that out through time and practice.  The nice thing about the short game is that it is very inexpensive to practice - keep a shaft bag, wedge and putter in the trunk is all.

[chisag]

48 minutes ago, revkev said:

Reading these last two pages of chatter make me glad that I have a teacher.

 

It's really all relative - I feel as if I play the ball back when chipping but I really don't, its that I have a narrow slightly open stance, the ball is actually centered, but because my back foot is closer to the center of my body it looks back to my eye.  I'm sensing a lot of talking past one another in this thread because far too often there is no real reference point and weight distribution matters as well.  But what's 70 percent on the front side?  I don't know exactly how to measure that.  I do know that if I keep more weight on my left side when chipping than I do with my full shots or my pitches, I will hit the ball more solidly, it will come out lower and run out farther.  I know too that if I take more loft, widen the stance a bit, keep the weight forward and swing steeper that I will get more spin assuming I'm using the proper ball but I've worked all of that out through time and practice.  The nice thing about the short game is that it is very inexpensive to practice - keep a shaft bag, wedge and putter in the trunk is all.

 

... Advanced plays can do just about anything concerning ball position, weigh distribution and using the bounce or not if they put in the practice and develop their own style. As I have stated before different conditions can call for different techniques. Bent grass with even and thick but predictable rough calls for something different than wiry Bermuda that can grab the club as well as grain into or down grain for both the strike and how far the ball roll. 

... But it is the average player that subconsciously or even consciously attempts to "lift" their chips and pitches that will really benefit from having their weight forward because you can't lean back and lift unless you shift your weight to your back foot. That is probably the #1 fault I see with chips/pitches. 

[revkev]

1 hour ago, chisag said:

 

... Advanced plays can do just about anything concerning ball position, weigh distribution and using the bounce or not if they put in the practice and develop their own style. As I have stated before different conditions can call for different techniques. Bent grass with even and thick but predictable rough calls for something different than wiry Bermuda that can grab the club as well as grain into or down grain for both the strike and how far the ball roll. 

... But it is the average player that subconsciously or even consciously attempts to "lift" their chips and pitches that will really benefit from having their weight forward because you can't lean back and lift unless you shift your weight to your back foot. That is probably the #1 fault I see with chips/pitches. 

True - I know that I developed an open stance because I like facing the target a bit, like shooting free throws - I've back towards a bit of an open stance and feet closer together when putting for that reason - I had become too mechanical - I'm much more focused on rolling the ball to the hole lately and it's really helping.  

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Speed work and range time after. Mostly working on longer clubs. Stopped hooking my 5i. Was awesome 

Worked on SG. My chipping lesson came back. Now having me work on being more upright  boy what a difference that makes let’s just say I am no longer considering a chipper. Some pitching work to about 40 yards. Did some variable distances on the range as well

Finally some putting work  I am becoming way more comfortable with my new stroke. One three ball sequence from 35 ft, L to R break. Lip out, sunk, high miss but within a foot. Happy learned how to putt and chip now  watch out everyone!

 

 

[russtopherb]

Been having problems getting too handsy in my swing again that caused some problems in my last round so I've been working on just thinking "shoulder turn" and letting my hands and wrists set naturally. I hit a small bucket at lunch and things started out just dreadful. Couldn't hit my GW even. Sure enough, I took a step back and thought "turn the shoulders, that's it" made some practice swings, and things came right back to normal. Hit some half swings just to work on the shoulder turn back and through, then worked back up to full swings. I hope to get out for a round this weekend, we'll see how things go.

[GolfSpy_APH]

Had a really good session at the range yesterday. Went through a quickish warm up and then did 4 programs on Top Tracer. I know it isn't a perfect system, but it at least allows me to go through and feel like I'm working towards something. 

I am struggling a bit with the new irons. There are sessions where I'm making really good contact and others where well its everything off the toe and more toe and more toe strikes. I'm kinda caught in between to main swing feels and I need to either get a lesson or take some video and figure out which one I want to go to and stick with. 

The programs I ran were one 30 shot strokes gained challenge. It has X amount of drives, longer approach shots, short approach shots and more. I really like this as it is more similar to playing a real round.  The second program was a driving challenge. Put simply my distance gains me strokes my accuracy sucks the big one. Finally I ran 2 approach shot sessions which are closest to. Overall was pretty happy and I feel like I'm getting a really good idea for my distances. 

[GolfSpy TCB]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Went through a quickish warm up and then did 4 programs on Top Tracer.

My range has Top Tracer as well.  Like you mentioned, it isn't perfect, but I do find some value in it during focused practice sessions. I haven't done that strokes gained challenge yet... I'll have to check that out.

[GolfSpy TCB]

Getting ready to head out to the course for our Men's Club Event... it is a scramble today so a good chance to do some course practice in a fun environment.  Next weekend is our Club Championship, so I will be trying to find my opportunities to groove my current swing between all the rain in the forecast over the next week in preparation for the tourney.

 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

worked on chipping for 40 mins with my 54 from various rough types and fringe. Changed up ball position and chip distance with some ladder work. I feel way more comfortable now. 15-20 yards still gave me issues but 10 and in and 30+ was great. Holed about 3 chips and had a dozen within tap in range and 80% of the rest within 3-5 ft.