Bad habits learned

[LeftyHawk]

Well, the weather here in my part of Michigan finally got to a point where the courses finally opened, so off I went, happier than a kid in a candy shop. 

This past winter I spent much more time on a simulator as there was one only 10 minutes away.  

I learned rather quickly that I had developed some BAD habits hitting balls on that simulator.  It seemed thst my tee height was off a bit, took 2 holes to adjust that one, my irons needed some tweaking hitting off "real" turf instead of simulator turf. The biggest problem was fairway woods. On all par 5's my fairway woods (3 & 7) royally suckered.

So when next the weather cooperates it off yo the range to unlearn the bad habits from too much simulator.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Chris

[revkev]

I had the opposite experience with a simulator when I lived up north. In fact I’m found it a huge help with my short game - I learned how hard I had to certain clubs on chips or pitches - I lowered my handicap significant cantata after the first year. 

[LeftyHawk]

48 minutes ago, revkev said:

I had the opposite experience with a simulator when I lived up north. In fact I’m found it a huge help with my short game - I learned how hard I had to certain clubs on chips or pitches - I lowered my handicap significant cantata after the first year. 

I tried that approach, but I find that I'm more of a feel player when it comes to chipping and pitching. The sim just seemed to "dry" for me to get comfortable with the close stuff.

[revkev]

12 hours ago, LeftyHawk said:

I tried that approach, but I find that I'm more of a feel player when it comes to chipping and pitching. The sim just seemed to "dry" for me to get comfortable with the close stuff.

Honestly that seems to be what most people experience so I'm not surprised.  I found that I needed to be very focused when playing in a Sim league.  I was able to carry that over to the course and at the time dropped my handicap from a 5 to a 3 - that's significant obviously.  I was able to get from a 3 to a 1 once I moved from Wisconsin to Florida so obviously playing year round was better for my game than the simulator.

 

Then health and work got in the way

[cnosil]

I think the potential is there for the use of launch monitors/simulators to mess up you game just as there is potential to improve your game.   I also don’t think simulator golf is any different than using mats on a range.   The key component being the mat.   Mats can be more forgiving and give us the impression that we are hitting the ball well when we in fact aren’t.   By paying close attention to strike you can get the necessary feedback. 
 

as a most wanted tester I spend lots of time using a GCQuad and hitting off a mat and the results are comparable to what I see on the course.  I even brought my own tees for driver testing to ensure I was teeing the ball at the correct height as I like it a little lower than I was able to get with the tees at MGS HQ.  

[pakman92]

I do 95% of my practice on a launch monitor / mat.   It has been invaluable for me in improving my game last 3 years.   It has particularly helped me dial in my partial wedge shots.   The negative is that it has done a number of my elbow.  I believe a better choice of mat would have elevated some of that.  I've switched my irons shaft to Steel Fiber and it has helped a lot with elbow issues.

I do hear what that poster is saying about bad habits.  The particular issue as others have pointed out is that the mats can hide imperfect strikes.  In particular, fat shots are not punished and you can end up with decent results where on the course, they would have flown much shorter with chunks of turf possibly flying further.   You have to train to recognize the fat shots.  Most of the time, you know deep inside as soon as you make contact, but probably choose to ignore the telltale signs - low spin, high launch.    Learn to be disgusted when you see those type numbers instead of filing it away as decent misses.

Another possible factor is that some may try to pick the ball off the mat instinctively instead of hitting down like they would on grass.  Probably afraid to hurt their elbows!   If you launch monitor has angle of attack metric, you can recognize that as the case.   Softer mat and plenty of padding underneath should help.

[LeftyHawk]

11 hours ago, pakman92 said:

I do 95% of my practice on a launch monitor / mat.   It has been invaluable for me in improving my game last 3 years.   It has particularly helped me dial in my partial wedge shots.   The negative is that it has done a number of my elbow.  I believe a better choice of mat would have elevated some of that.  I've switched my irons shaft to Steel Fiber and it has helped a lot with elbow issues.

I do hear what that poster is saying about bad habits.  The particular issue as others have pointed out is that the mats can hide imperfect strikes.  In particular, fat shots are not punished and you can end up with decent results where on the course, they would have flown much shorter with chunks of turf possibly flying further.   You have to train to recognize the fat shots.  Most of the time, you know deep inside as soon as you make contact, but probably choose to ignore the telltale signs - low spin, high launch.    Learn to be disgusted when you see those type numbers instead of filing it away as decent misses.

Another possible factor is that some may try to pick the ball off the mat instinctively instead of hitting down like they would on grass.  Probably afraid to hurt their elbows!   If you launch monitor has angle of attack metric, you can recognize that as the case.   Softer mat and plenty of padding underneath should help.

Over the course of the winter here and chatting with the pro I know I'm hitting down with my irons, my angle of attach is generally around -4 degrees. I worked with him for a few lessons as my driver was also -4 degrees, after the lessons the best I could do on the sim was +2 degrees, but out on the course I do just fine, hitting +11 degrees according to my portable launch monitor.  What I have discovered in mostly my fairway woods is that they seem to be hitting a tad behind the ball, which with the mat the club is allowed to bounce off the mat and still make contact with the ball, something that rarely, if ever happens on the course. So when I was playing the sim league I never used my fairway woods.

The one thing that, for me is an issue, I really want to see a real ball in flight and not rely on what a computer says the ball flight is. I know a lot of folks get caught up in spin numbers and such, for me I can gain much more information from watching the ball fly, I guess I'm just too "old school" for the fancy launch computers...