What/How Did You Practice Today?

[cksurfdude]

On 1/21/2023 at 4:56 PM, JerryB said:

My biggest struggle when working on anything is I always try to kill it.  Every practice swing is 150% effort. 

Hmmmmm. I wouldn't know anything about that, but a friend did tell me once ...

 

On 1/21/2023 at 5:02 PM, sirchunksalot said:

I know, especially when working on something specific, it's perfectly fine to take swings at way less than 100%.

..and ...

On 1/21/2023 at 5:45 PM, chisag said:

... One of my favorite drills is the one Davis Love Jr had DLIII do. He had his son hit balls no farther than 150 yds using a full swing, just slowed down. It exposes any flaws. 

^ Yes what those smart guys said!

Monte Scheinblum advocates taking your 150 yard club and hitting it to a 100 yard target.

Also something useful you can do at home .. and not hitting golf balls! .. is the "Slow Motion" drill from the famous "The Little Red Book" ...

 

[sirchunksalot]

44 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Monte Scheinblum advocates taking your 150 yard club and hitting it to a 100 yard target.

Also something useful you can do at home .. and not hitting golf balls! .. is the "Slow Motion" drill from the famous "The Little Red Book" ...

 

Those are some wise words and something I'm planning on doing the next time I get to the range. My 6 iron is my 150 club and I'm planning on using a swing similar to my wedges with it to work on strike before working up to a fuller swing. The slow motion swings I get in doing small increments in the evening working on transition. Your recommendation of Mr. Penick's book has been a great one. I bought it a while back on Kindle and it's been great. 

[Syks7]

Life has been busy enough to keep me from getting out as much as I would like to practice or play.  Instead I've been doing drills around the house and in the yard while religiously filming whilst generally driving my wife crazy with where she finds that shorty practice club I built.  It migrates around the house like an elf on the shelf and she does not care for it.    The good news is that I feel like I'm making some progress toward some bigger adjustments to avoid getting stuck, releasing early, and a host of other minor bits.  Old habits die hard but swing, check video, swing seems to be helping.  I've found a few drills I really like that I've added to the ones I do fairly often.  I've backed off on the speed training for a bit since I felt like it was bringing in some old bad habits in efforts of swinging quickly, but hope to jump back in soon.   Old habits still die hard though, and I'm constantly having to remind myself to keep my trail leg flexed on takeaway and to keep my head down through impact. 

I've also been putting a ton on the birdie ball mat in the garage (soon to be hitting bay/office).  Its been beneficial for building a repeatable stroke, but I was still struggling with holing putts.  I'm not a huge Rick Shiels fan, but he had a great video of his putting lesson with Brad Faxon that over the last few days of playing a par 3, playing 9, and practicing at the actual range today.  The video dovetailed really well with Rotella's putting out of your mind (for obvious reasons) and I found that in analyzing my own putting I was getting too technical over the ball rather than doing the start line thing and putting with confidence.  I shot 39 on the 9 hole round with 13 putts.  Including a pair from beyond 10 feet.  Time will tell but I certainly feel confident with a putter in hand again so that's not nothing.

First tourney of the year tomorrow.  It'd be nice to go low but I'd be plenty happy with being satisfied with my game afterward.  We'll see.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Spent about an hour on 10 foot putts on my putting mat in the garage. I used 4 balls for the practice. First round 2 of 4. I found that the garage floor had a 2” break over 10 feet. LOL Then I was getting all four for the duration of the putting. 
 
Im going to use a stimpmeter on my garage carpet. If the speed is within reason, I’ll dig out my old electric putt return. I need to practice some longer putts during these rainy days. 

[edingc]

Only had a few minutes after my Stack session last night so I pulled my mat forward a bit and didn't bother with a radar just to get some better video and work on a few things. Specifically, I've been working on my right elbow at setup (more supination, i.e. elbow pointing more to right hip than behind me) and also on posture/pressure at setup. Last night I focused on feeling my hips over my ankles. It keeps me from sitting back too much and getting in my heels during the swing. 

Have to say, this is one of the best looking swings I've made in a long, long time. Feeling really good about it.

 

[cjeffs12]

So with the cold and wet weather we’ve been having, I’ve taken this opportunity to play more golf. I’ve really been focusing on more rotation, and not swaying. Over the last two weeks it is really starting to click, I am making so many more pars/birdies, and my blow ups are nearly as bad/ as often. Now being a coastal Texan, I do not do well in 30/40* weather, so I am very optimistic about my game this year. I am really getting into a groove with my driver, and my ball striking really hasn’t been this good ever. My putting is starting to improve, but hard to trust with the dormant greens. Deep down I’m hoping I can keep this up lol

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

All week I have been working on getting my hand to work down in transition. AMG had a video about this and my coach approved the drills. So far so good. Going to keep doing slow rehearsals for a few weeks. I know then I’ll likely have to work on weight shift but that will be a benefit of shallowing. Just focusing on arms down and rotation. I did some low point checks after this video as well 

[cksurfdude]

Had a (dare I say it?) pretty good practice sesh this afternoon!

Ball striking, for the most part, def improving .. although (there's always gotta be something) would like to see my dispersion patterns start to tighten up. Clearly still too many of too large variances in path/plane and clubface angle at impact ... hey Work In Progress amiright??!!

Worked mostly on wedges and 7i; also hit a few 4Hs and .. yep .. driver, which I'm starting to get more comfortable with ().

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Got out to the course today. Took the df out to the putting green. This thing rolls amazing. It highlighted my aim needs to be recalibrated. Once I get some more work in I can see this really helping my putting. 
 

On the range, worked more on arms coming down. When I tried to go full swing my timing got way off, so did 30-50% speed, which lead to good contact and direction. 

[GaryF]

On 1/26/2023 at 7:29 AM, edingc said:

Only had a few minutes after my Stack session last night so I pulled my mat forward a bit and didn't bother with a radar just to get some better video and work on a few things. Specifically, I've been working on my right elbow at setup (more supination, i.e. elbow pointing more to right hip than behind me) and also on posture/pressure at setup. Last night I focused on feeling my hips over my ankles. It keeps me from sitting back too much and getting in my heels during the swing. 

Have to say, this is one of the best looking swings I've made in a long, long time. Feeling really good about it.

 

Very nice tempo to your swing.  Looks very smooth and relaxed. 

[YourKillingMeSmalls]

Went to Xgolf and hit shots in the simulator, I recently changed from the Rogue MAXST LS to the Rogue TD and I am seeing some nice increases in ball speed and distance, ball speed was 141-151 and total distance was 254-281 about 10 yards more than my Rogue LS.

[Jim Shaw]

3 weeks post hernia surgery, got the ok to putt and light chipping so did both today, looking for speed control on the greens and a good rhythm and solid "click" contact on the short chips, both seemed pretty good for not being out for 2 months... hopefully be able to keep it up until I can make full swings

[Syks7]

After two straight mornings of being yelled at by clients for things that I do not control I decided to take some me time.  Today was lucky because I had a meeting that put me in the general area (within 15 miles) of the range I take lessons at.  Its off matts, but its large, has good targets, and has a really heavily sloped practice green.  It was a good session (4 hours) and I bled off a lot of steam and got some really good work in.  An hour putting an hour chipping and two hours working pretty methodically through 110 balls.  I've kind of found a practice method I like where I pick a couple things to work on and film every shot, even the drills, and stop between each swing to review the video.  Its been great for feedback so that I'm not mindlessly plugging away at drills without actually accomplishing anything.   When I get home I download it all and look through to see if I spot myself doing anything weird.  As luck would have it I was at the same range exactly a year ago fresh off my first lesson.  Long way to go, but I was surprised with how far I've come.

 

 

 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Finally going to the range to get some practice in. 

Just going to try and get some reps in and flow of the swing. 

[cnosil]

Had a most wanted putting session yesterday and since they are in between full swing clubs, the bays were open.   Got to HQ a little early and worked on the swing changes from my last lesson.   Hit the ball pretty well, but don’t like that my path has shifted to about 8* in to out.   I did start the ball right and it was a nice little draw back to the centerline or a little left; so that was nice.  The thing I liked was that I didn’t start my practice with big pull hooks.  
 

Going to have to experiment a little more.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

33 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Had a most wanted putting session yesterday and since they are in between full swing clubs, the bays were open.   Got to HQ a little early and worked on the swing changes from my last lesson.   Hit the ball pretty well, but don’t like that my path has shifted to about 8* in to out.   I did start the ball right and it was a nice little draw back to the centerline or a little left; so that was nice.  The thing I liked was that I didn’t start my practice with big pull hooks.  
 

Going to have to experiment a little more.  

You are either dumping the right shoulder early to shallow or you are steep coming down and then shallow late by standing up and getting the club stuck behind you.

The push draw is an expected flight however if timing gets off it easily turns into starting to block the ball and then once you see that you work hard to close the face and your pulls come back.

it’s going to take a lot of slow swing work and exaggerated movements to start getting the new movement pattern in. Closed loop motor control. Its how our mind and bodies learn to make changes and it takes 8-12 weeks of slow movement patterns to create a change 

[Papa Tango]

It's 20 degrees outside, so I practiced my 6-foot putts on my living room carpet. About four 10 minute sessions during the day. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

10 hours ago, Syks7 said:

After two straight mornings of being yelled at by clients for things that I do not control I decided to take some me time.  Today was lucky because I had a meeting that put me in the general area (within 15 miles) of the range I take lessons at.  Its off matts, but its large, has good targets, and has a really heavily sloped practice green.  It was a good session (4 hours) and I bled off a lot of steam and got some really good work in.  An hour putting an hour chipping and two hours working pretty methodically through 110 balls.  I've kind of found a practice method I like where I pick a couple things to work on and film every shot, even the drills, and stop between each swing to review the video.  Its been great for feedback so that I'm not mindlessly plugging away at drills without actually accomplishing anything.   When I get home I download it all and look through to see if I spot myself doing anything weird.  As luck would have it I was at the same range exactly a year ago fresh off my first lesson.  Long way to go, but I was surprised with how far I've come.

 

 

 

Great work. Big differences in how the body and the club work. The one suggestion would be to look at getting the face to be facing a little more closed at shaft parallel in the downswing.

Watch the video in the thread I posted from amg on shallowing 

[Ben_Davis]

Weight transfer. I typically have an inside out swing path resulting from a backswing sway. I’ve been concentrating on moving torso first, then hips. Surprisingly, it’s not as easy concept as one would think. It is helping me stay over the ball. 

[cnosil]

18 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

You are either dumping the right shoulder early to shallow or you are steep coming down and then shallow late by standing up and getting the club stuck behind you.

The push draw is an expected flight however if timing gets off it easily turns into starting to block the ball and then once you see that you work hard to close the face and your pulls come back.

it’s going to take a lot of slow swing work and exaggerated movements to start getting the new movement pattern in. Closed loop motor control. Its how our mind and bodies learn to make changes and it takes 8-12 weeks of slow movement patterns to create a change 

Trying to do the slow work indoors; but personally I start to question or “fix” some of the movements.  My mind is trying to correct the over the line at the top and it makes me swing flatter on the backswing….which I know is the wrong thing to do.   In my mind this is one of the limitations of lessons (unless you have an unlimited plan for a period of time)   I have a 2 minute question and want to validate something but I have to consume another lesson.  Yes, there should be time to make sure things are done right but as you know we stray a little over time or without reinforcement.  
 

then we get into terminology, “dumping the right shoulder” doesn’t mean anything to me .  Traditionally, I have been the step down, shallow late type of player.   Remembering  my numbers, I was probably a little too step of an AoA (6-7*) and when I got down to the 4* range I was getting better numbers across the board.

i don’t work hard to close the face; if anything, my face is too closed.  Prior to implementing the wrist hinge, I was about 3* in to out or less and the face would vary between a couple of degrees closed to a couple of degrees open.  Yesterday, I was 2-6* closed.