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How do you work on your game away from the course?


Wannabegolfer67

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Like most of you I don't have the time I would like to have to be able get to the range or even a practice green every day. Something I have found that I can do is practice pitching and chipping every day during lunch (as much as you can without a green). I always bring my lunch to work with me as it saves me money and keeps me out of the fast food places. It normally only takes about 10-15 minutes to eat so for the rest of an hour I go outside grab a wedge and a couple of balls out of my truck and proceed to work on a good consistent stroke and solid ball striking. I really believe this short practice every day has been a great benefit to me and was curious if any of you guys have things you do away from the course to work on improving your games. I am really looking for new ideas, anything that might help lower those scores. I am looking forward to some inventive ideas so let's hear em!

Today, I will do what others will not so that...

 

Tomorrow, I will do what others can not

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Nothing inventive here, but I end up practicing a lot of positions and movements in my living room in slow motion. I tend to think that if you can't do it slowly, you surely won't do it at full speed, so I just spend time explaining to my body what I want it to do. The driver has been better of late, so I think it's helping. The one caveat is that you need to be mentally engaged. Once you start zoning out, put the club down.

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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I have an indoor golf room. Which isn't the same as hitting off the turf, but it really does help my swing. Plus I have targets set up 100 yards apart in the yard and hit my sand wedge back and forth to them. It has propelled my ball striking far beyond where I would be if I only got to practice when I made it to a course, which isn't that much. My putting has been atrocious. Having been stuck at home lately, I started practicing my putting and have developed a stroke that puts a good roll on the ball and I'm not pulling or pushing it like I was. Hopefully it will help next time I'm out. Last time I had more three putts than two and a couple four putts even. Horrible. I should have worked on it sooner. I never liked it. But starting to get results makes me like practicing it better.

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I also have an indoor golf range setup at home and practice drills etc off the mat.

 

AJ

WITB

Driver: Ping G25

FW: TM RBZ

Irons: Miura 57 Series w/KBS C-Taper

Wedges: Vokey SM4 52-08,56-12,60-04

Putter: Watch This Space

Ball: SRixon Z Star

Other: Tourstriker 7i

 

"Go Hard or Go Home"

 

"Do or Do Not. There is NO "TRY"

 

"Be normal, and the crowd will accept you. Be deranged, and they will make you their leader"

 

"I don't fail. I succeed at finding what doesn't work"

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I don't, which is the problem. I'm hoping to get my indoor setup done just after Christmas as I'm giving my son a set of clubs and "he'll" need somewhere to hit during the winter.

In the bag:
Driver: :titelist-small: TSR2 Project X HZRDUS Black 5.5
Fairway: :callaway-small: Apex UW 19° & 21° Project X HZRDUS Smoke RDX Black 5.5

Irons: :mizuno-small: JPX 923 HMP 5-PW UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4
Wedges: :mizuno-small: T-22 Denim Copper 48°, 52° & 56° UST Mamiya Recoil 95 F4
Putter :Sub70: Sycamore 005 Wide Blade
Bag: 
:Ogio: Alpha Convoy 514
Balls: :callaway-small: Chrome Soft X

Cart: :CaddyTek: CaddyLite ONE Ver. 8


God Bless America🇺🇸, God save the King🇬🇧, God defend New Zealand🇳🇿 and thank Christ for Australia🇦🇺!

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THIS Gents THIS!!! The first two sentences should be gospel & the last sentence is fact.

 

When your comfortable, speed it up, and I'm talkin about speedin up to 1/2 speed, then 3/4. But do not rush it. I literally spend about 4-5 weeks doing what Matt says in slow motion.

 

Most won't do it and/or will get bored and lose focus(remember that last sentence!!) but then again, that's why 98% of all golfers don't break 100.

 

And ya think the fact that he is a teacher/instructor is tellin ya somethin?

 

Great post Matt!

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

I drive my wife nuts doing that in the living room all the time. Going through the movements. It does make a difference.

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I work on slow motion positions alot inside. I also work on tempo and creating "relaxed power" with a full swing as well. I also chip balls into the back of my couch off the carpet, this really helps with ball contact with the short game, if you can pick it off the carpet accurately, bad lies become much less troublesome! I also putt on my thick carpet, really helps with getting some pop with the short stroke I want, although it can create some distance issues on real greens, but really helpful getting the line and being an aggressive putter.

Ping I20 8.5* - Aldila NV 65g S
Adams XTD Super Hybrid 15* - Stock Fubuki S
Adams DHY 21* - Stock Matrix Ozik White Tie S
Mizuno MP58 4-8 Irons - Fujikura MCI 100 S
SCOR 42,46,50,54,58* - SCOR/KBS Genius S
STX Robert Ingman Envision TR 35", Iomic grip

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Until recently all I could do is hit into a chipping net with practice balls and putt on carpet. I would work on my speeds with my putter by brooming the grain of the carpet in different directions.

 

Since we got our new home I have a dwquailgolf.com hitting mat and a hitting net which is really good for correcting your stance and ball position. It has started to really help. Yesterday I went out in after all the rain and cold weather and was able to shoot a 95.

 

Just a thought we need to start a thread about how much distance you are losing during the colder months, because even though I switched back to my 09 burners (hopeful for the extra distance) I still lost about a club to club 1/2 just due to the cold.

Whats in the bag:

 

Titleist 910D2 10.5 Graphite Design Y7-S

Adams 1600 proto 14.5 Graphite Design AD DJ

Titleist 910F 17 Ust Tour Black

Titleist 910H 22 Diamana Kali

Adams Idea Pro A12 4-9 KBS C Taper

Titleist Vokey SM4 46 degree w/ DG Spinner

Mizuno MP R12 50-54-58 DG spinner

Ping Redwood ZB

Ball Nike 20XI-X

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Thanks R.P., I am at some point going to update post with my experiences and impressions since then. I feel like my game progressed alot this year since that breakthrough although there is still much more work to be done!

Ping I20 8.5* - Aldila NV 65g S
Adams XTD Super Hybrid 15* - Stock Fubuki S
Adams DHY 21* - Stock Matrix Ozik White Tie S
Mizuno MP58 4-8 Irons - Fujikura MCI 100 S
SCOR 42,46,50,54,58* - SCOR/KBS Genius S
STX Robert Ingman Envision TR 35", Iomic grip

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Nothing inventive here, but I end up practicing a lot of positions and movements in my living room in slow motion. I tend to think that if you can't do it slowly, you surely won't do it at full speed, so I just spend time explaining to my body what I want it to do. The driver has been better of late, so I think it's helping. The one caveat is that you need to be mentally engaged. Once you start zoning out, put the club down.

 

In many ways this describes how I learned to play golf. I was a teenager and my high school library had a book by Sam Snead titled How to Play Golf. If you found a copy of it today, you wouldn't be impressed. It had swing sequence pictures of Sam Snead hitting a driver, 3-wood, long iron, mid iron, short iron, and wedge. Just pictures. I don't remember any of the text. I would take each club and try to copy the positions in those pictures. And make a slow swing that put me in each of those positions. I can't tell you how many times I checked out that book. But by the time I finished high school, I was shooting close to par and playing well enough to make my college team.

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A side benefit to working on things in slow motion: you might learn things that you never would at full speed. I did, just today. I found the root of a driver problem and it slammed 4-5 other pieces into place like the last piece of a puzzle. I NEVER would have felt it at full speed.

 

Best,

 

Matt

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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Care to share?

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

I'm curious what Matt discovered also. I made a change this summer that really helped my driver especially. I used to try to swing the club head back and through on the same path, keep the butt of the club pointed at the target line as I started down, all that stuff you hear people say. It may work for some people I guess. For me, it would make me cut across the ball as I turned through. The slow motion moves helped me figure out how to let the club lay off at the the top as I start down letting it come from the inside better. Now I feel it better and it works more automatically with my turn instead of trying to make something happen "by the book". I've gotten where I don't listen to many golf "tips". Most of them cause more problems than they solve.

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Care to share?

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

 

Happy to.

 

Ever since...probably late spring (?) I've been absolutely pounding the heel of my driver. The other clubs have been a little heel-y, but not like the big stick. The cause is easy to see (arms extending out towards the ball/high VSP), but hasn't been easy to feel and fix. What I felt the other day was that during transition, I wasn't keeping my shoulder turn long enough, so my arms went out before they went down. I'm sure it will take some time to get this "installed," but at least I have the feel now.

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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I do a lot of putting in my living room. The carpet is quite a bit slower than a real green but it allows me to work on my stroke and my aiming, which to me is more important than speed.

I have one of those putting cups that you plug into the wall and shoots the ball back to you.

I also sometimes practice chipping whiffle golf balls into a clothes basket. Again, its not perfect or exactly ideal but its better than nothing and allows me to keep the chipping yips out of my game for the most part.

"I suppose its better to be a master of 7 than to be vaguely familiar with 14." - Chick Evans

Whats in my Sun Mountain 2.5+ stand bag?

Woods: Tommy Armour Atomic 10.5* 

Hybrid: Mizuno MP Fli-Hi 3H

Irons: Mizuno T-Zoid True 5, 7 and 9-irons

Wedge: Mizuno S18 54* and Top Flite chipper

Putter: Mizuno Bettinardi A-02

Ball: Maxfli Tour X

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That's great! HaHa. I don't mean that you were takin it off of your heel, however the fact that your slo mo pratice allowed you to identify the cause is great, cuz as you've said, what are the chances of identifying, much less correcting a flaw going at full speed?

 

thank you for answering :)

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

:mizuno-small:

 

Yup, slow motion is not sexy and it doesn't sell golf lessons, but boy oh boy it's important. I was two or three "swings" into a session and I kept feeling this stretch in my left shoulder and the light bulb went on like a spotlight right in my face. Feeling that little stretch at full speed/full effort? Nah, not this guy.

 

Best,

 

Matt

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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Yup, slow motion is not sexy and it doesn't sell golf lessons, but boy oh boy it's important. I was two or three "swings" into a session and I kept feeling this stretch in my left shoulder and the light bulb went on like a spotlight right in my face. Feeling that little stretch at full speed/full effort? Nah, not this guy.

 

Best,

 

Matt

 

I admit that this is fairly fascinating to me. Playing a number of other sports at an extremely high level, the theory is to never do something in slow motion, ever. Practicing a slow motion means doing it in slow motion as a reflex in a game situation if one needs to practice it a lot to get it.

 

My experience with slow motion for my swing never worked. Too much hockey swing in my golf game still. Slowing down kills my tempo and mechanics. I can certainly see the potential benefit for others though.

 

It always amazes me just how similair and how dissimilar golf is from other sports at times.

I laught at your claims to fight a zombie apocalypse when most of you can't stand up to a Spider

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That's great! HaHa. I don't mean that you were takin it off of your heel, however the fact that your slo mo pratice allowed you to identify the cause is great, cuz as you've said, what are the chances of identifying, much less correcting a flaw going at full speed?

 

thank you for answering :)

 

Fairways & Greens 4ever

:mizuno-small:

The theory too is that you do it at a slow speed to perfect the motion and if you can do it slow, you can do it fast. Ai Miyazato does this, actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXhJBs_JPys

"I suppose its better to be a master of 7 than to be vaguely familiar with 14." - Chick Evans

Whats in my Sun Mountain 2.5+ stand bag?

Woods: Tommy Armour Atomic 10.5* 

Hybrid: Mizuno MP Fli-Hi 3H

Irons: Mizuno T-Zoid True 5, 7 and 9-irons

Wedge: Mizuno S18 54* and Top Flite chipper

Putter: Mizuno Bettinardi A-02

Ball: Maxfli Tour X

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I admit that this is fairly fascinating to me. Playing a number of other sports at an extremely high level, the theory is to never do something in slow motion, ever. Practicing a slow motion means doing it in slow motion as a reflex in a game situation if one needs to practice it a lot to get it.

 

My experience with slow motion for my swing never worked. Too much hockey swing in my golf game still. Slowing down kills my tempo and mechanics. I can certainly see the potential benefit for others though.

 

It always amazes me just how similair and how dissimilar golf is from other sports at times.

 

The only other sport I ever played seriously or coached was basketball. The only thing that's like a golf swing there would be shot mechanics, which I would absolutely teach someone to work on in slow motion/isolation. Outside of that, "harder and faster than game-like" ruled the day.

 

Golf is weird.

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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