What/How Did You Practice Today?

[Kenny B]

Still working on making bigger turns backswing and through swing.  Today I could hit some beautiful driver shots, but yesterday on the course the timing just wasn't there yet... had to go back to my shorter swing to hit decent drives.  It's going to take more time to engrain the longer swing... sure wish my hitting bay was complete!!  

[GaryF]

2 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Still working on making bigger turns backswing and through swing.  Today I could hit some beautiful driver shots, but yesterday on the course the timing just wasn't there yet... had to go back to my shorter swing to hit decent drives.  It's going to take more time to engrain the longer swing... sure wish my hitting bay was complete!!  

About a year ago I was watching a tournament and noticing how far back and high their hands traveled with the back swing, so then I mimicked my swing in front of a mirror.  I was only getting my hands slightly above shoulder height.  After thinking about it, I realized the hand height was actually a function of how far one rotates because the path of the hands are ascending. But the key is to stay connected.

So I went to the range, and just tried forcing more rotation, thinking my shots would become more erratic.  But they didn’t, and they did go farther.  The problem was that it was forced.  So I worked on increasing flexibility and do various yoga positions.  I’ve always have done other stretches because of some significant lower back issues.  But now before I go to the range or play, I do 15-20 min of these other stretches before leaving the house and it helps tremendously.  

[GolfSpy_APH]

Got the puttout today while at work. We have an event all weekend so i can't really leave, but means i work for a hour have 2 hours off and repeat from 6am-21:00... Long day but lots of practice!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Hit clubs for first time in 20 days. Irons ok. Driver surprisingly good. Low strikes were trying to do foot stomps.
7i

8i

6i

Was looking at face contact for 6,7,8 in prep for my moi matching at end of the month. 

[sirchunksalot]

I went to the range today to see how my at home practice was coming along. It's slowly getting there, I only hit a couple of the shanks that have been plaguing me lately. I was actually out of the toe more today, but I was working on an avoidance drill where I place a tee outside my ball and hit. So I think it worked fairly well. 

I was experiencing a bit of a push today, lots of balls going straight right and also noticed a tendency to still hit a little behind the ball. 

My driver was still biased toward the heel. Most were playable, even the pop up I hit off the crown. 

After leaving the range I spent some time on the chipping and putting greens. It wasn't perfect but I'm seeing improvement after about a week and a half swinging in the yard and net. 

 

[JerryB]

Walked Buena Vista alone today and quickly ran into three foursomes that were all together as a big family outing.  So rather than just playing, I threw down multiple balls and tried things as I waited.  He are some things I learned/observations:

Forget about crosswinds.  Club up or down accordingly if it's at my back or in my face but don't aim any differently on a crosswind.  Breezy today but if I expected any ball movement help from the wind, it wasn't there.  Aiming left or right just meant I missed that much more.  Iron strikes were good today.

Along those lines, I need more work on my aim and alignment.  I can dial in at the range, but for some reason I can't transfer that to the course very well.  It's an especially big issue with my wood and hybrid.

I get a lot of rollout on my shots and rarely get any bite no matter how much I try.  Knowing this, I have more success if I target the front of the green rather than the back.  I also need to try avoid short-siding myself as much as possible.

Overall a pretty productive day.  Was different but felt good to be on the course and not worried about score.

[Kenny B]

28 minutes ago, JerryB said:

Forget about crosswinds.  Club up or down accordingly if it's at my back or in my face but don't aim any differently on a crosswind.  Breezy today but if I expected any ball movement help from the wind, it wasn't there.  Aiming left or right just meant I missed that much more.  Iron strikes were good today.

Someone once said that a well-struck ball is not affected by the wind.  

[chisag]

2 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Someone once said that a well-struck ball is not affected by the wind.  

 

... Rory said growing up in the Irish winds he concentrated on perfect contact and not flighting the ball. He said a well struck shot aren't effected by the wind very much and he just used more club. Although he did say he either rode or held up the ball in a side wind. I find myself playing wind and the ball just doesn't move as much as I think when swinging well. But when hitting it not so solidly the wind seems to have a much bigger effect on the flight. 

[sirchunksalot]

17 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Someone once said that a well-struck ball is not affected by the wind.  

I think the same person said trees are 90% air. 

[Kenny B]

14 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Someone once said that a well-struck ball is not affected by the wind.  

 

6 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Rory said growing up in the Irish winds he concentrated on perfect contact and not flighting the ball. He said a well struck shot aren't effected by the wind very much and he just used more club. Although he did say he either rode or held up the ball in a side wind. I find myself playing wind and the ball just doesn't move as much as I think when swinging well. But when hitting it not so solidly the wind seems to have a much bigger effect on the flight. 

Yep!  Sounds about right.

That someone was me  on a 9-hole course when I was a 20+ 'cap and playing with a bunch of hacks that played worse than I did back when Rory was about 5 years old!!

[Kenny B]

1 minute ago, sirchunksalot said:

I think the same person said trees are 90% air. 

Not at the bottom half of the tree!!!  

[chisag]

7 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I think the same person said trees are 90% air. 

 

... Countered by Gary McCord that replied "So is a screen door". 

[revkev]

 

 

4 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Countered by Gary McCord that replied "So is a screen door". 

Perfect!

weird workday today.  We had a big community outreach event at church this morning that I had to make an appearance at.  I had a haircut at 1:30 and needed to be on campus by 330 to get ready for the evening service.  That gave me some time to hit the practice green at the club.  It's been warm and dry, unseasonably and mercifully dry since Ian.  Oh my was the practice green frisky.  The green actually crunched under your feet.  Golf should be fun tomorrow!  

 

[Syks7]

Good couple days of practice.  I posted my swing the other day and @RickyBobby_PRpointed out a couple things to work on. 

I set to work on those which lead me to my biggest facepalm moment of the day.   I've recognized that I was not opening my chest to the target at impact and set about finding some drills that could help me.  I found a few and that looked like they might help and started running through them.  They were okay, but just didn't help me find a feel.  I tried the last one, did it once, and stood up to shake my head.  The feel it showed me was exactly the same feel my instructor had been trying to show me, just in isolation.   literally day 1 he was trying to show me this.  It just happened to be part of a drill that encouraged encompassed shallowing and impact so I missed it.  I immediately texted him to laugh that I finally understood the first drill he taught me.  Still work to do, but I have direction again.

 

 

 

[Syks7]

Well another good session highlighted by my new purchase.  Still working on rotating my chest open.  It's going to take some doing.  I think retraining my timing and release is going to be the toughest part.  I'm in the right position with most of my body, but I'm too early with some of it and a little late with other parts.  Considering that this is all taking place in literal milliseconds I think this is going to take some time to get right.... probably most of 2023 considering adding the little shallowing hitch took me most of 2022.  The one thing that was suggested before that has been immediately beneficial was getting a real hip turn by sliding my trail hip back.  It's had immediate results, so in the mean time while I'm working on the next adjustment I'm in a good place to play reasonable golf.

 

The highlight of the day though was the impulse purchase I made last Monday.  PXG 0211 w/ Tensei Raw Blue 75.  I'm very happy with the choice I made and I think it's going to have very positive results on my game.  I only hit about 20 balls with it today, but from the start I found the head to be forgiving, with good feedback, and a decent if not super hot face.  The shaft was borderline perfect, stable, easy to load, and very consistent in delivering the near center of face to the ball.  (My mediocre driver swing not withstanding.)  It's obviously early, and I did find that the Tensei didn't respond well to overly aggressive transitions and breakdowns in tempo, but I didn't have any crazy spinny misses.  Never sliced one off to space or pull hooked one off the map.  Time will tell but I feel like this is certainly going to help save maybe 1 or two strokes a round for me.  (whether or not I give them away in other parts of my game is another matter).  

Second ever swing with it.

Swings 5-10 after forgetting to press play for 3&4.

 

[RickyBobby_PR]

54 minutes ago, Syks7 said:

I'm in the right position with most of my body

I’m going to disagree. You get out of position very early in the swing. You are doing a better job of getting the right hip back but you are getting too much right leg extension. You don’t shift any pressure into right side to shaft the swing and none into the left side to shaft transition. You hands and arm get disconnected early in the swing(first pic)

Your right arm moves back instead of getting some external rotation (second and third pics). This happens because the upper body doesn’t really turn much. As mentioned in earlier posts this is somewhat common with bigger guys.

All of this leads to a steep transition and your right side bending to shallow, when what should happen is your right leg gaining flexion and getting some bend at the waist. Pics 4 and 5. It also leads to you getting stuck and the face open instead of being more pointed towards the ground.

As a result your body stalls to let arms catch up and have to early extend and throw the arms at the ball and roll the hands to avoid the ball going right. Pics 6 and 7

Some things to work on. Put the butt of the club in your sternum. And rotate the chest away from the target and keep the club connected. This trains the triangle that needs to be maintained. Then do it with the club in a normal swing. This will work your pivot. 
 

another good drill is club across the chest turn the chest while standing up then add left side bend. From there feel the left side gets lower and you add some hip bend and right knee bend. From here there is some right send been and turn so the right shoulder the down and towards the ball

 

[cjeffs12]

Milestone moment!!! I have been working on getting to this position at the top for so long. I started with very little chest turn and low and inside takeaway. Now I have it more on plane with higher hands and my back to target. I still have a lot more work to be able to do it on repeat. I still am working on the timing and the downswing, but if I can keep doing this the downswing will come. Irons and wedges were great today, but this is what I am so proud to share. 

[Syks7]

 

53 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

I’m going to disagree. You get out of position very early in the swing. You are doing a better job of getting the right hip back but you are getting too much right leg extension. You don’t shift any pressure into right side to shaft the swing and none into the left side to shaft transition. You hands and arm get disconnected early in the swing(first pic)

Your right arm moves back instead of getting some external rotation (second and third pics). This happens because the upper body doesn’t really turn much. As mentioned in earlier posts this is somewhat common with bigger guys.

All of this leads to a steep transition and your right side bending to shallow, when what should happen is your right leg gaining flexion and getting some bend at the waist. Pics 4 and 5. It also leads to you getting stuck and the face open instead of being more pointed towards the ground.

As a result your body stalls to let arms catch up and have to early extend and throw the arms at the ball and roll the hands to avoid the ball going right. Pics 6 and 7

Some things to work on. Put the butt of the club in your sternum. And rotate the chest away from the target and keep the club connected. This trains the triangle that needs to be maintained. Then do it with the club in a normal swing. This will work your pivot. 
 

another good drill is club across the chest turn the chest while standing up then add left side bend. From there feel the left side gets lower and you add some hip bend and right knee bend. From here there is some right send been and turn so the right shoulder the down and towards the ball

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to break this down.  Very much appreciated.   Always work to do.

[GaryF]

2 hours ago, cjeffs12 said:

Milestone moment!!! I have been working on getting to this position at the top for so long. I started with very little chest turn and low and inside takeaway. Now I have it more on plane with higher hands and my back to target. I still have a lot more work to be able to do it on repeat. I still am working on the timing and the downswing, but if I can keep doing this the downswing will come. Irons and wedges were great today, but this is what I am so proud to share. 

Getting that much turn and the hands in that high position looks really impressive!

[cjeffs12]

7 hours ago, GaryF said:

Getting that much turn and the hands in that high position looks really impressive!

Thank you, it’s been a lot of work. My back is feeling it today lol