What/How Did You Practice Today?

[Josh Parker]

3 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Are they consistent?  meaning are the slow greens always slow and the fast greens always fast?  If so,  that comes down to the adjustment preround or over the first couple of holes.  No different than playing a different course day to day.  

Unfortunately no.  Now, they are consistent in the fact that the same handful of holes with stay same speeds. (Meaning if you see a couple at the beginning are running fast the other handful will run fast and then the rest will run slower.)  Hard to explain but there is a group that will run about the same and the rest will be opposite. I keep notes on the ones that match.

[cnosil]

1 minute ago, Josh Parker said:

Unfortunately no.  Now, they are consistent in the fact that the same handful of holes with stay same speeds. (Meaning if you see a couple at the beginning are running fast the other handful will run fast and then the rest will run slower.)  Hard to explain but there is a group that will run about the same and the rest will be opposite. I keep notes on the ones that match.

Have the course get a new greenskeeper      Definitely odd;  usually there is consistency because it is exposure to sun or wind that influence the speed.   wonder if it is the mowers or the person that mows specific holes.  

[Josh Parker]

5 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Have the course get a new greenskeeper      Definitely odd;  usually there is consistency because it is exposure to sun or wind that influence the speed.   wonder if it is the mowers or the person that mows specific holes.  

The greens are pushing 25-30 years without being rebuilt and a few are cratered so bad that you may have a 10yd x 10yd decent section.  I think they adjust mowing depths as well depending on the hole and what repairs they are working on. 

It goes to a vote with the city this year for rebuilding.  They have the funding for the irrigation already and just waiting on the greens vote. 

They use effluent water but the system is always leaking and clogged. Small town neglect problems. 

I can't complain though. I pay $2300 per year with a cart and range balls and play just about everyday.

[BallsLeon]

Got up early and hit the sim this morning. Played a virtual round at Franklin Hills CC, shot 100 (53/47) went OB 3x in a row off the tee on the front.

Followed that up by doing the Trackman combine, pretty challenging especially after 120yds for me. Don’t really know my clubs carry numbers outside my wedges. Ended up scoring a 48.3 overall, unsure how that stacks up but seems right.

Finished up on the PuttView green, first with the speed control game still chasing the high score I set on the first day. Finished with 30mins of random 4-6ft putts with start line and ideal line shown. Had a streak of 4 makes, a miss, another 4 makes, and then a miss again. Think it was messing with me cause the fifth putts were both very dramatic slopes.

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by BallsLeon

[TimT]

I’m 6 lessons into an 8 lesson deal. I’ve enjoyed the process… fixing one thing at a time from setup to turn to takeaway, etc. Currently my drills are focused on following through with my hands exiting lower and more left, which requires me to shallow the club more. Lesson 7 this week! I’m hopeful by the end I will have kicked my terrible early extension. 
(This isn’t a particularly good swing, but if you could see what it used to look like it is definitely progress!)

 

 

[Jim Shaw]

6 minutes ago, TimT said:

I’m 6 lessons into an 8 lesson deal. I’ve enjoyed the process… fixing one thing at a time from setup to turn to takeaway, etc. Currently my drills are focused on following through with my hands exiting lower and more left, which requires me to shallow the club more. Lesson 7 this week! I’m hopeful by the end I will have kicked my terrible early extension. 
(This isn’t a particularly good swing, but if you could see what it used to look like it is definitely progress!)

 

Great post, like your set up in your work area as well... I am interested in how you are feeling about the lessons, obviously you are seeing the benefits but it would be nice to hear your takeaway on the experience, I am thinking it may help others on this site decide whether or not to go this route.

as a point I 100% believe you are doing the correct thing, and doing it at the correct time, so when you come out of winter you will be ready to go when "golf season" cranks up. 

I will be interested to see if it helps your index get to your desired goal. thanks for this post

[TimT]

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by TimT
Forgot quote

[TimT]

4 hours ago, Jim Shaw said:

Great post, like your set up in your work area as well... I am interested in how you are feeling about the lessons, obviously you are seeing the benefits but it would be nice to hear your takeaway on the experience, I am thinking it may help others on this site decide whether or not to go this route.

as a point I 100% believe you are doing the correct thing, and doing it at the correct time, so when you come out of winter you will be ready to go when "golf season" cranks up. 

I will be interested to see if it helps your index get to your desired goal. thanks for this post

Thank you! My garage setup works great for slow speed drills and even full swings with mid-irons, but the garage door opener is a problem for longer clubs. It’s solvable someday, it just costs money!

I would recommend a series of lessons to anyone. Here are my experiences:

First, a series of lessons costs about the same as a new driver (maybe a driver + a hybrid) but it’s much more valuable. A better overall swing will improve every club in your bag.

Second, a series of lessons is more valuable than a single lesson (and waaay more valuable than a YouTube video) because everything in the golf swing is connected. I’ve learned one fault is often a compensation for another fault. A single lesson doesn’t provide the instructor enough time to get to the underlying issues because most pros won’t want to overload you with too much to think about (and rightly so!)

Third, none of this matters if you don’t practice. You’re going to come out of each lesson with drills to do. You need to commit to those drills. It isn’t easy. It takes a LOT of reps… checking it on video. Start slow, when you see you’re nailing it you can speed up. If it breaks down, you have to slow back down. If you come back for the next lesson and you haven’t mastered the prior lesson, you’re wasting your time and money.

I started this series of lessons in July so I was able to play as I progressed. It took work on the range and in my garage after each lesson, but I can honestly say each lesson did result in improvement I could see on the course.

[Jim Shaw]

Thanks!! 

[cjeffs12]

Had a really good practice session/ 9 hole practice. It was cold and very windy, so I figured it was a good day to break out the Prosendr. I started with half swings with my PW. I shanked the first 5, but then I really focused on the feeling and started hitting some good ones. It really helped me shallow out my swing, I have never had so thin of a divot line. When I played 9 my irons were phenomenal, I hardly took a divot and my flight was really straight. Some highlight swings was a 4 iron into wind that carried 205 playing 220, and two 6 irons I flew over the green on par 3s. I was easy swinging, and I hit iron shots that are flying farther than what I play in normal conditions. I was consistently getting better compression. After 9 I went into the clubhouse to warm up, but then I went to the range and hit another bucket of half swings working on getting that feeling from the Prosendr. I was really impressed with how good it was at getting that feeling of holding the lag in the downswing, then all I had to do is rotate. 

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Fantastic range session today. Worked on torquing the club head behind me in transition starting from slo motion swings up to 100%. Was able to get one full speed even.

 

 

Driver did the same kinda work then did some simulated holes. On putting green did chipping and then some start line work with my teardrop. 

[BallsLeon]

Got snowed out on our round so had my buddy join me at the simulator. 

Got there early, and warmed up on the PuttView green. Brought the cobra blade this time for a change of pace, and the PuttView was set to show only start line for random 3-5 foot putts. I didn’t expect much or focus that hard, but I managed to beat my previous best streak of 4 by one improving to 5 makes in a row. 

Didn’t expect that, but love to see it. Next time I’m back I want to try the same PuttView settings with 9 attempts each from the Cobra and Sub 70.

[Josh Parker]

Worked on driver for a little while today.  Swing changes are slow but starting to see some positives. 

[sirchunksalot]

22 hours ago, Josh Parker said:

Worked on driver for a little while today.  Swing changes are slow but starting to see some positives. 

Having read some of the progress you've made with driver over in the "How'd You Play" thread is awesome! I recall reading a while back about your driver struggles and hearing that you're improving has been nice. Keep it up!

[Josh Parker]

38 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

Having read some of the progress you've made with driver over in the "How'd You Play" thread is awesome! I recall reading a while back about your driver struggles and hearing that you're improving has been nice. Keep it up!

Thanks!  It's still very much a work in progress but at least now it's getting some time out of the bag during a round instead of just being in time out. 

[CBJamin]

I’m a year into my golf journey and game a TSi2 9° w/ tensei blue. When i started, like most people, my miss was off the planet right. I got lessons at a local shop and clocked 113mph club head speed at the time. I’ve since cleaned up that slice, but lost ~6mph. My fitter set me up with a tensei 1k black and now I feel like the governor is back off. Definitely a whole new world as far as feel is concerned
 

I’ve started doing full practice swings in the yard with the driver to work on getting comfortable letting it rip carefree again. I have to say it feels great. 
 

We’ll see if I’ve been good enough for Santa to leave The stack & prgr under the tree this year

[edingc]

I've taken a somewhat purposeful break from touching a club. I played my last round of the year sometime in early October and really only have hit balls for a few minutes three times or so since then.

Got out in the garage last night to restart Stack and hit some 8 irons. Man, is my swing in rough shape! 

I'm down a good 6 MPH if not more from my best numbers last offseason. That's a bummer. I'm hoping getting back into Stack will net me a few of those back quickly, with the rest coming back by spring time. 

Did make some progress on the swing. Ball had crept too much forward in my stance which either led to me hitting off the toe, or sliding forward to get to it. Last 10 or so balls, I put the ball more middle stance and reeled off several out of the center. I went from 2-3 degrees left, 9+ down and 2-3 open face (weak fades) to 0-2 degrees right, 6ish down and basically zeroed out face. 

Lots to work on. It felt good to be out there again. My heart hadn't been in it for a while, and combined with being extremely busy with other things, I hadn't made an effort to prioritize getting swings in.

[Josh Parker]

Got out this afternoon and played a quick 9 and hit 2 balls.  Was really focusing on the driver and different shots around the course. Different trouble areas and working on shot shaping.  

Driver is improving but has some work to get there. 

[EnderinAZ]

Was out on the range working with my Lagshot trio. These are peculiar training tools to say the least. I watched all the videos and have some really good results because of the work with these things. But I have to say I have an 8 weight fly rod that has less flex than the shaft of the Lagshot driver! That is the point of these trainers though. I could not take my regular too quick semi over the top driver swing and make the ball do anything but flair out to the right. I absolutely had to get my turn going first and my hands and arms coming at the ball from the inside, then at the point of contact I must forcibly turn over my hands. All difficult maneuvers as I try to override injury/recovery habits. 

Today it clicked after about 5 days with these clubs on the range. Come to find out my over the top swing was in part because I did not turn my hands over at contact. Instead I turned my shoulders-upper body to square the clubhead into the ball.  Today that over the top simply stopped. I would hit 3 or 4 shots with the Lagshot driver then pick up my Sim2 and suddenly the swing was right. No more fighting to get it right, it simply came. I ran out of balls and took off for home. I can play holes 15, 16, and 17 on my way home from the driving range, so I did. The ball leaped of the clubheads with a perfect no bend ball flight. Yeah, that was fun. Now I really only have one issue remaining because I am using the Lagshot system. My short irons and wedges now fly the ball too far. My fine little 50 degree A wedge and it's 110 yard flight can now (more often than not) send the ball soaring 130 yards. I have been doing WAY too much fishing in the ponds behind the greens these last couple of weeks. 

[JLO14305]

They won't open the range or let me play with snow on the ground!

 

[tdroma98]

Decided to test a different driver shaft from my old Callaway driver in Paradym Driver.   Using TheStack System, I've realized my swing speed is not as fast as two years ago.  I'm hitting the fitted Paradym Driver shaft well, Hzrdus Black 60  gram stiff, 3.5 torque shaft.  I have a 50gram EvenFlow 6.0 shaft. It has a softer tip than the Hzrdus Black, so I was concerned about snap hooking or possibly slicing ball (which I don't do). 

Set the driver at 9 degree from 10 degree with Hzrdus Black. I was pleasantly surprised on Monday how well I hit the driver with the EvenFlow shaft, including the ball flight. The ball carry was really good.  It was only one round, but going to continue using the 50 gram shaft. 

I do think TheStack training has really helped. 

[cksurfdude]

On 11/18/2023 at 3:29 PM, BallsLeon said:

... interactive PuttView practice green

Wow!! I've seen a vid of that, it's a pretty awesome practice tool! Makes the membership totally worth it imho.

[BallsLeon]

@cksurfdude I have really been enjoying it! The ball tracking is awesome, and I really like all the different modes/configurations. I am liking the random putts mode with ball tracking enabled and start line shown. My buddy joined me the other day and we played putt-pong which was pretty fun.

Bonus is it’s almost always open haha everyone is more concerned with hitting driver (I’m guilty of this as well).

Edited November 30, 2023 by BallsLeon

[Bang60]

Practice yesterday first time for 6 months

Have to say I was impressed with the session but to be fair I was hitting easy to hit hybrids, Mizuno 4hybrid 22° and Mizuno 923 29° iron hybrid that I hit nice but loss of distance but all shots on fairway..

Driver was lousy but that was expected ... Body sore today but doing yoga stretches helps, need to get my hitting net sorted soon as I don't want to wait that long again but body issues slows me down...

[revkev]

Well first time for me post cataract surgery. Putted beautifully, big advantage being able to see when putting.   Also trying out that Sacks Parente putter. You guys should check out the test thread for that one if you haven’t yet.

 

Chipping/pitching were a bit weird but I really warmed to those, too - again it’s a big advantage being able to see for those short shots. 
 

I tried a few full wedges - that was tougher but I did just have surgery yesterday, my right eye is still a bit dilated and I was not wearing my golf sunglasses - plus I was hitting a wedge and wedge and I had not been getting along well pre-surgery 

 

I will give full shots a go again Sunday and booked a tee time for next Friday and Saturday - those will be my first rounds in 6 weeks. Can’t wait 

[BallsLeon]

Working on undoing my exaggerated in to out path/shallowing, and better weight transfer to my lead foot.

Have a drill where I put a tee or a marker a couple inches in front of the ball and slightly left. My feel/focus is trying to hit both the ball and the tee/marker. This really seems to help me get a feel for it, and coincidentally helps my angle of  attack.

One thing I’m fighting against now is that I am closing the face hard, and not leaving it open/square. Starting to get a feel for the release but it’s a work in progress.

Edited December 2, 2023 by BallsLeon

[BallsLeon]

On 11/26/2023 at 4:10 PM, BallsLeon said:

Got snowed out on our round so had my buddy join me at the simulator. 

Got there early, and warmed up on the PuttView green. Brought the cobra blade this time for a change of pace, and the PuttView was set to show only start line for random 3-5 foot putts. I didn’t expect much or focus that hard, but I managed to beat my previous best streak of 4 by one improving to 5 makes in a row. 

Didn’t expect that, but love to see it. Next time I’m back I want to try the same PuttView settings with 9 attempts each from the Cobra and Sub 70.

Had a chance to compare the two over three  9-putt rounds (27 putts each). Posted about those results here!

Also spent some time yesterday hitting the demo T200 6-iron from my fitting, and decided to swap back to the Tensei White Stiff on my driver after the results of my fitting (and head adjusted to Neutral/-1°) . The T200 continues to impress, but now that I can hit a 6-iron decently the top end of my bag is starting to make less sense. However, moving up to the stiff shaft in my driver has really straightened things out and starting to give me some more distance. Forgot to save those results, but did get a screenshot of the Tracy AI insights/what to improve.  Haven't tried the Focused Practice yet, but that's something I need to checkout for sure.

Edited December 3, 2023 by BallsLeon

[Blaine Dye]

last night really went through and started trying the heads up putting at the putting green and i must say the speed control is clearly better I'm still terrible at reading a green can struggle to hit my spots  but i really cant wait to bring this to the course and hopefully see my 3 putt percentage go down 

[BobBC78]

Putting practice indoors today (its in the 30s): Started with setup with a PuttOUT mirror, followed by start line practice - Kenyon gate drill (20 in a row through a 5 cm gate set 11" in front of the ball) and the yard stick drill (5/11 off the end of a 36" yard stick). 

[Josh Parker]

I will be heading to the range this afternoon to work on the driver.  I feel like my swing is starting to improve and I have actually seen a few draws which is a nice change of pace.