What/How Did You Practice Today?

[ejgaudette]

Been checking out Matt Blois's new Youtube channel yesterday and had a realization when I found the video below. This over swinging really describes me, I always thought of it as making a 'big' turn but it make sense why I have always then struggled with the sequence and the only way I can build speed is through pulling on the club because my arms are out of sync so I can't start the downswing with my lower body, it will throw me way out of sequence. 

Since this is something I can work on in the house without a ball I started yesterday and will be committing right now to practicing 30 back swings a day were I work on this drill to get the depth while staying in a position to be in sequence. Working on one thing at a time. Will work on this until it feels more normal before then ensuring that the downswing sequence where I can start with the legs. This will likely be a long and painful change as I have over swung for my whole career. But, hey why not go toward better right?

 

 

[Kenny B]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:32 PM, sirchunksalot said:

I'm thinking it might have something to do with sequencing and committing to the shot. I was not hesitant to try and rip one now and again and the thought process was simple for me. I'm still working on keeping better form this time as opposed to the last, I developed quite the flying right elbow and don't want to go back to that. I'm hoping practice without consequences will get me back to a better place mentally than where my headspace is now. It's crazy in there. 

Jack had a flying right elbow...  

[cksurfdude]

On 12/2/2021 at 2:16 PM, Syks7 said:

I've been mining the little 3-pars near me lately for my short game and short iron practice. 

Nice! I love Par 3s for short game / short approach practice! Unfortunately the ones in my area *are* quite popular... There's one that's similar to what you described with narrow fairways, overhanging trees, small sloped greens.

But like you said it's also a really great way to practice and a big confidence booster!

[cnosil]

57 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Jack had a flying right elbow...  

it’s all about what you do with the right elbow in the downswing.   

[chisag]

2 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Jack had a flying right elbow...  

 

... Like all Pro's, Jack played everyday and that enabled him to have excellent timing. Along with being insanely talented. Nothing wrong with a flying elbow if you drop it back into the proper position, which takes precise timing. Freddie Couples comes to mind and when he is on he is scary accurate and long. But when he is off he can hit some crazy offline shots, usually a fade/slice but also blocks and double cross draw/hooks. Of course the big difference is the Pro's can recover from horrendous swings and the rest of us ... not so much. 

[cksurfdude]

On 12/2/2021 at 2:16 PM, Syks7 said:

 

.. oops double posted

[cksurfdude]

ok so I actually have been practicing over the winter .. some .. occasional chipping in the garage or a short session with an Orange Whip. Had really damaged some muscles in my right side and the right side of my back and sheesh at my age it's taking _forever_ to fully heal..!

Restarted GolfTec lessons and starting off slowly there, too, focusing on wedges and distance control for now. Also mixing in some practice time at their studio using the LM to set target greens at 100-75-50-25 and the vid monitor to check my setup.

Was feeling pretty good about what I was doing .. getting a bunch of virtual balls onto those virtual greens .. really starting to feel a better weight shift and shoulder rotation .. so got brave and took out an iron and a hybrid .. and a few ragged swipes later with each back in the bag they went!!

Despite how "good" I think I've been swinging the orange whip my full swing IRL actually hitting a ball is still very very much a work in progress.....

[Kenny B]

9 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

ok so I actually have been practicing over the winter .. some .. occasional chipping in the garage or a short session with an Orange Whip. Had really damaged some muscles in my right side and the right side of my back and sheesh at my age it's taking _forever_ to fully heal..!

Restarted GolfTec lessons and starting off slowly there, too, focusing on wedges and distance control for now. Also mixing in some practice time at their studio using the LM to set target greens at 100-75-50-25 and the vid monitor to check my setup.

Was feeling pretty good about what I was doing .. getting a bunch of virtual balls onto those virtual greens .. really starting to feel a better weight shift and shoulder rotation .. so got brave and took out an iron and a hybrid .. and a few ragged swipes later with each back in the bag they went!!

Despite how "good" I think I've been swinging the orange whip my full swing IRL actually hitting a ball is still very very much a work in progress.....

If I waited until my muscles heal to play golf, I wouldn't be playing.  It's probably why I have good days and bad days... with many more bad days.  I just play through it.  

[cjeffs12]

Had a really good lesson today. Adjusted my grip and open the face, then worked on making my lower body more quiet. Man it really clicked today. I hit some really crisp pitching wedges. This really got me more shallow and lower my ball flight. My pro really suggested working on feeling hitting chip shots where I don’t use my hips, and only hit one club before I more on to another. This is the hard part for me, so hopefully I can be patient and let this sink in and not rush it like I have before. 

[Micah T]

Worked on the main points of my lesson this week tonight at the studio. This off-season has been an obsessive quest to hit nothing but draws: my theory being that if I play a cut/fade when I play, but practice drawing every club, my game swing will naturally become  more neutral.

set up: trying to keep my weight more centered: my tendency is to pre load my right side. My stance has gotten slightly narrow, so I worked on keeping my ankles under my shoulders.

swing: as i’ve worked on my takeaway and eliminating early wrist cock, shallowing my downswing had some unintended consequences: mainly a lateral hip sway away from my target. So I worked on the feeling of keeping my weight on the instep of my back foot, feeling like I’m screwing my leg into the ground. 
 

Saw a jump in ballspeed and carry: back to what I used to see when I was playing my AP3’s.

[Haro]

Watching some vintage footage of Seve Ballesteros and Isoa Aoki play golf.  Both players angle the toe up of the ground when putting and sometimes with chipping. 
Both players put a pure roll on the ball on the  green. 
Tried it and not my style. But for chip shots ball where the ball is severe above my feet and there is green to work with, this style seems to work well. 

[GolfSpy BOS]

Rain and maybe snow today… but yesterday was nice out so I went out for some more “knock the rust off” swings in the yard.  They are starting to feel pretty good.  Planemate work with the wedge has definitely helped me keep my rhythm and some of my form too.  Next week is going to be warm for March, so maybe I’ll get to sneak out and overpay to hit some crappy balls that have been sitting out all winter.

[edingc]

On 3/10/2022 at 9:01 AM, ejgaudette said:

Been checking out Matt Blois's new Youtube channel yesterday and had a realization when I found the video below. This over swinging really describes me, I always thought of it as making a 'big' turn but it make sense why I have always then struggled with the sequence and the only way I can build speed is through pulling on the club because my arms are out of sync so I can't start the downswing with my lower body, it will throw me way out of sequence. 

Since this is something I can work on in the house without a ball I started yesterday and will be committing right now to practicing 30 back swings a day were I work on this drill to get the depth while staying in a position to be in sequence. Working on one thing at a time. Will work on this until it feels more normal before then ensuring that the downswing sequence where I can start with the legs. This will likely be a long and painful change as I have over swung for my whole career. But, hey why not go toward better right?

 

 

Matt has been killing it with his new channel. I don't watch much YouTube these days but his stuff has been great. And the learning to swing right-handed series is awesome if you want to build something from the ground up.

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_BOS said:

Rain and maybe snow today… but yesterday was nice out so I went out for some more “knock the rust off” swings in the yard.  They are starting to feel pretty good.  Planemate work with the wedge has definitely helped me keep my rhythm and some of my form too.  Next week is going to be warm for March, so maybe I’ll get to sneak out and overpay to hit some crappy balls that have been sitting out all winter.

I had an epiphany the other day about the Planemate and how much it helped me without me even realizing it. While it turned my over-the-top move to a way-too-under move, the fact that it was able to do that without even hitting balls is amazing. Such a good swing reinforcer.

Cold/snow today, 40s tomorrow and maybe 60s this week. Seeing a few emails from courses that are hoping to open this week. The time is coming!

[bens197]

38 minutes ago, edingc said:

Matt has been killing it with his new channel. I don't watch much YouTube these days but his stuff has been great. And the learning to swing right-handed series is awesome if you want to build something from the ground up.

Agreed.  While I don't think TXG put him in a box he certainly has a lot of creative freedom and he's taking full advantage.  

[Hobert]

Hit the range again this weekend with my son. I recently realized that I was doing weird things with my wrists on my backswing that led to me leaving the face open and everything going right. Last week and today, I focused on "quieting" my wrists and on a slightly slower more deliberate tempo. Result is more consistency with my irons, typically with a light draw. Focusing on these aspects has also helped with my drives and fairway woods.  I am still heavily drawing my hybrid more often than not....need to figure that one out.

[edingc]

Took the time to actually setup the Mevo+/E6 sim yesterday with a small TV in the garage. Glad I did. It's a whole different experience having to hit balls "under pressure." In fairness, I didn't warm up at all and the first 9 holes I played was mostly just feeling out my swing yesterday.

Played Bay Hill first from the back tees, which at ~7,200 yards was quite the workout for my mid irons. Think I shot an 86 with auto putting turned out. Then played Aviara from the back at ~7,000 and, being fully warmed up, played much better with a 75. Helped that Aviara has some significant elevation changes that make it play shorter than listed.

Driver was great all day, but I really struggled with my tempo with my irons. A lot of rushed swings, presumably me not experiencing much of anything resembling actual golf since October. After I finished Aviara I switched back to the FlightScope range and found out I had started to overcorrect my lesson changes from Monday a bit and my face was too open (not necessarily a bad thing with my tendencies), so I finished my practice with about 10 7 irons trying to feel a little less cut during the swing with decent results.

[JerryB]

Son and I decided it was nice enough to hit up River Heights again.  There was still quite a bit of snow on the ground (though it mostly melted by the back nine) so we decided not to bother keeping score, assuming we might have to make up our own holes a few times.  Like last week, I played any balls I found in addition to my ball.  Early on was a bit of an adventure.  I was hitting driver well for me, but everything else was awful.  Just chunks and general mishits again and again. 

At about hole six, my swing finally started to come around and I feel I played really well for a stretch.  I faltered quite a bit on the last few holes.  We skipped 16 and 17 due to large numbers of geese (lol!).  We're not usually walkers, but it felt good to be out and about.  The downside...my shoes are not waterproof.  Should probably think about a second pair.

My wedge play was pretty abysmal all day.  I'm thinking I might need to upgrade (downgrade?) my wedges to something a little more forgiving.  Maybe even a chipper or something; haven't thought it all the way through yet but its something to entertain.

I decided to try putting with my left hand low.  It was surprisingly effective for me.  I'm left handed but I swing righty.  Think I'm going to stick with it for a little while and see how it develops.  My accuracy was really good although longer putts were generally short.

[russtopherb]

Well, this felt good. 
 

Mats only buy it was nice to hit balls for the first time since November. Started out terrible but I expected it. Body wasn’t used to hitting a ball again after practice swinging inside for 4 months. Once I found a groove things were OK. Wedges were blah but they’ll come around with some time. 

[tony@CIC]

At the range today with my 'love/hate 'driver.  Hope I can hit the ball as well as I did at league tomorrow. 

[Nolan220]

Had my first lesson today at GolfTec near my house. I was a little hesitant to get lessons so I did my research on this GolfTec location and ended up getting a really good coach. The lesson was great it was an hour long and we just looked at take away from my swing and just that one lesson really help. I was working on getting my hips to turn more and keeping the club parallel with my waist as I had the club going all the way behind me and also straighten my back leg a little bit more. The biggest thing was I have very little shoulder tilt so was just try to focus on that. After a couple of practice swings and focusing on those things my contact was so much better. I already signed up for a lesson next week and going to purchase one of their packages the only thing is they are set up to be done weekly which not sure if its a bad thing but seems like a lot.  

[bens197]

First outdoor range session of the year today...Really just wanted to find my feel and start working on rhythm....nothing technical, just get the body moving.  I ended the year feeling decent but realize that my bad habit is the upper body over-rotating on the downswing.  It's really the biggest flaw that I need to address for the days when I am swinging like a bag of rags.

A couple takeaways.  

• I am much happier with the Vokey 54 in replacement of the MG2 SW I previously had.  Better feel, better weight, works better for me.
• The Gankas G Snap is pretty dope...I like it as a means of keeping my left wrist stronger through the downswing and into impact. 
• I still love my 3 wood...like, a lot.  

 

[Syks7]

Played a practice 9 at a little exec near by.  I focused on the mental side and making good on course decisions.  It went pretty well.  4 over with only two of those strokes being self inflicted.  The other two were just slightly bad breaks.  I also had two birdie putts hang up on the edge.  It turns out that if you play with the strategy of understanding your dispersion pattern and adjusting your aim to give you the best chance to hit the fairway or green it makes a huge difference.  This is my fourth exec/par 3 round this week(I've found some windows where the courses are deserted) that I've been playing with the same strategy about decision making and I think it's going to make a bigger difference than any of the swing work I've been putting in, though I will say the swing work is very complimentary to the strategy.  So far I've been +3 on a par 3, +10 on a par 3 18 hole, +11 on the same par 3 18, & +4 today on the exec.   Usually, I do much worse on Par 3's since I'm typically way to aggressive.  I'm excited to see how it shakes out on a full size course next week.  

I also went to the range after today's session to work out some kinks.  I felt steep today and pulled a few.  Worked on shallowing across the hole bag before finishing off with the 9 box drill for some face control work.  I'm planning to play my stock baby draw all the time, but it was nice to know that I have the ability to control the face and path enough to shape the ball.  At least with short irons.  7 & above I'm good.  4,5,6 Iron.... not so much. 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Syks7

[geralndionio]

Not long ago I ran into this problem. That my back was hurting very badly. That's why I went to the doctor. He said there was nothing wrong with it. And the point is that I started practicing new sleeping positions. Because it's horrible when my lower back hurts. I can't really play golf. Now I'm picking out a new mattress in this site . Maybe this will help. Spring is about to begin. I bought myself a new hockey stick. But I don't think I'll be playing anytime soon.

Edited March 21, 2022 by geralndionio

[Haro]

Weather warmer and will be playing more. Looking back past year my best driving range sessions were after I played. I seem to sort things at the driving range after 

However putting doesn’t seem to sort itself out after a bad playing day.   I do notice that if I practice my 3-4-5 footers Prior to a round it does help my confidence.  

[sirchunksalot]

It's been either windy or rainy on my days off the last couple of weeks ago I haven't been able to play, put up the net, or go to the range that's closed until the end of the month. I decided to get out today and work a little bit on my chipping. I set up a bucket in my yard as a target and hit some balls at it. 

It went fairly decent, I had way too many bladed shot for my liking. When I remembered to stay on my left side and rotate through the shot it was wonderful, when I didn't...not so much. Our was nice to be able to hit some balls, with the weather and being busy at the house the opportunity has been scarce. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:04 PM, bens197 said:

First outdoor range session of the year today...Really just wanted to find my feel and start working on rhythm....nothing technical, just get the body moving.  I ended the year feeling decent but realize that my bad habit is the upper body over-rotating on the downswing.  It's really the biggest flaw that I need to address for the days when I am swinging like a bag of rags.

A couple takeaways.  

• I am much happier with the Vokey 54 in replacement of the MG2 SW I previously had.  Better feel, better weight, works better for me.
• The Gankas G Snap is pretty dope...I like it as a means of keeping my left wrist stronger through the downswing and into impact. 
• I still love my 3 wood...like, a lot.  

 

Swing looks solid!

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Until joining the site I never really understood fully the golf swing. Over the past 2 years have really focused on not “humping” staying down and opening my hips. We’ll we are there I think, still a little more to do but I’m pretty ecstatic where I am at!
Don’t mind the boots

[bens197]

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

Swing looks solid!

Thanks bro

 

[fixyurdivot]

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

Until joining the site I never really understood fully the golf swing. Over the past 2 years have really focused on not “humping” staying down and opening my hips. We’ll we are there I think, still a little more to do but I’m pretty ecstatic where I am at!
Don’t mind the boots

Trend-setter you are .  Definitely getting the belt buckle through and aiming towards the target.  Believe it or not, that was something ingrained in me by the guy who gave group lessons to us yutes back in the mid 60's.  I can still remember him to this day.  If Popeye had a twin, he'd be him...even had the forearm anchor tattoo .

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

13 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Trend-setter you are .  Definitely getting the belt buckle through and aiming towards the target.  Believe it or not, that was something ingrained in me by the guy who gave group lessons to us yutes back in the mid 60's.  I can still remember him to this day.  If Popeye had a twin, he'd be him...even had the forearm anchor tattoo .

Was so focused on other sports as a “yute” golf came last and obviously set some bad habits. I’m a visual leaner thank God for the internet