-
Posts
-
Practice
Did manage to get my practice in this week with a visit to the range (albeit after the poor performance on Saturday). I was working on some drills from the Strike Plan, and in particular practicing hitting bad/not centred shots. So hit 10 out of the toe deliberately then similar number out of the heel and so on.
Made for some mild embarrasment at the range hitting shanks and so on. I did find that when I was trying to hit it out of the heel I was actually striking it pretty well, which is weird particularly as I had a couple of half shanks on Saturday in my forgettable round. I did enjoy having particular things to work on at the range as I tend to find hitting balls pretty boring.
Then I went to the putting green to finish off the last couple of items from my level one putting challenge. I had passed the first four sets of drills even though I still had some items left in the fourth set. So I finished those up, and then I just had two drills of lag putting, with the pass requirement to leave 70% of the putts from 35 and 45 feet within 3 feet of the hole. I got 8 out of 10 from 35 feet, and then totally tanked the 45 feet drill, leaving me two putts outside the standard.
It was an interesting exercise in putting under pressure, cause I had in my mind the whole time the response. But it was illustrative that my lag putting from long distance is pretty poor, when compared with my general putting. And that actually does show up in my game – mainly by leaving long putts short. So I have to repeat the level 1 drill, but my plan for this next week is to try and get through the level 1 chipping challenge and see how I measure up there.
The deliberate heel and toe drill is interesting.
Any info as to why / purpose?
I’m guessing it’s about club face control and awareness of swing path, however I would’ve thought the drill process of hitting draw, fade, high, low would achieve the same with a positive outcome focus.
Any information / background to this “deliberate miss hit” drill in the strike plan notes?
How are you finding having a focus / plan for your practice?
After the ‘putting’ challenges are completed, will you then have a putting practice plan based off the results?
Okay so the theory behind the variable face contact practice is indeed for managing face control. He approaches things from a biomechanical position and has found that students who undertake variable face contact practice become better at managing face contact than those that focus on hitting the sweet spot. I don’t know whether some other drill would accomplish this, but this is the one he uses.
As for the putting “tests” they are really practice in themselves, but with a pressure element built in. There are like 11 levels of the test so it won’t run out any time soon – and they require practising progressively more precise skills as you go through the ranks.
So, for example for the first level I have, say, 10 each of straight, downhill, uphill, left-breaking, right-breaking putts from 10 feet. Plus similar putts from longer distances with different targets. So having “failed” the test, I have to repeat that practice session until I am good enough at those skills to meet all the targets. And then head on to the next level with more difficult or more precise tasks. Doing the “test” takes about an hour, so that is an hour of practising putts of different lengths and breaks.
1 user liked this post.
So I had stableford yesterday at Rosebud and another somewhat scrappy day. Dwayne was behaving very well but had some inconsistent strike patterns on the irons which was leading to some mishits that got me into trouble a few times. Add in a couple of three putts and one par for the day (which was actually an awesome hole), and I was lucky to get away with 30 points.
Completed a full round of practice before golf so won’t be off to the range today, but will use the time to review some more of the strike plan videos to better understand that program. And I am booked in for a lesson next Saturday with coach to review full swing and talk about what I should be doing to improve things going forward.
1 user liked this post.
Are you feeling more ‘productive’ with your practise time having the strike plan and drills testing?
By the time you realise this part of my signature doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Meditation makes doing nothing quite respectable.
So I had stableford yesterday at Rosebud and another somewhat scrappy day. Dwayne was behaving very well but had some inconsistent strike patterns on the irons which was leading to some mishits that got me into trouble a few times. Add in a couple of three putts and one par for the day (which was actually an awesome hole), and I was lucky to get away with 30 points.
Completed a full round of practice before golf so won’t be off to the range today, but will use the time to review some more of the strike plan videos to better understand that program. And I am booked in for a lesson next Saturday with coach to review full swing and talk about what I should be doing to improve things going forward.
I can’t help but wonder if the inconsistent iron strikes were in some way, some how, linked with the drill work you mentioned earlier.
My coaches have all referenced postive skill development and drills like the process of hitting high, low, draw, fade type shots with each iron. Which BTW I struggle with, but do find beneficial, in building feeling of face control and even understanding of swing mechanics.
By the time you realise this part of my signature doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Meditation makes doing nothing quite respectable.
So I had stableford yesterday at Rosebud and another somewhat scrappy day. Dwayne was behaving very well but had some inconsistent strike patterns on the irons which was leading to some mishits that got me into trouble a few times. Add in a couple of three putts and one par for the day (which was actually an awesome hole), and I was lucky to get away with 30 points.
Completed a full round of practice before golf so won’t be off to the range today, but will use the time to review some more of the strike plan videos to better understand that program. And I am booked in for a lesson next Saturday with coach to review full swing and talk about what I should be doing to improve things going forward.
I can’t help but wonder if the inconsistent iron strikes were in some way, some how, linked with the drill work you mentioned earlier.
My coaches have all referenced postive skill development and drills like the process of hitting high, low, draw, fade type shots with each iron. Which BTW I struggle with, but do find beneficial, in building feeling of face control and even understanding of swing mechanics.
Inconsistent strike (particularly with irons) is something that I had been noticing a couple of times earlier, before I did the practice that you refer to. There is an association, but only to the extent that I had noticed some inconsistent strike patterns and therefore sourced a practice plan which aimed to address inconsistent strike patterns.
1 user liked this post.
Are you feeling more ‘productive’ with your practise time having the strike plan and drills testing?
Sure, but let’s be blunt. I have only done one full session of each in the last three weeks, so I think it is a bit early to expect that I will be seeing a lot of change. I do like having a plan for my practice sessions – I find hitting balls on the range boring and I struggle to keep at other forms of practice for any dedicated time. So having tasks to accomplish is certainly more productive.
1 user liked this post.
Are you feeling more ‘productive’ with your practise time having the strike plan and drills testing?
Sure, but let’s be blunt. I have only done one full session of each in the last three weeks, so I think it is a bit early to expect that I will be seeing a lot of change. I do like having a plan for my practice sessions – I find hitting balls on the range boring and I struggle to keep at other forms of practice for any dedicated time. So having tasks to accomplish is certainly more productive.
I’m interested to see, hear, your progress over time. Keep us updated.
By the time you realise this part of my signature doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Meditation makes doing nothing quite respectable.
Okay so a stableford round today and straight away from the first hole I was hitting the ball well. GIR on the first which is very unusual for me. Messed it up with a three putt, but good signs. Beauty of a drive on 2 but bunkered it. Sand save for my first par of the day. And everything was just humming. Ended up with 4 pars on the front nine including another great sand save on the 9th. 22 points.
Good drive on the 10th, but left myself in an awkward position. Needed to flush a 5 wood to make the green so should have laid up short of the hazard. Instead I flushed my 5 wood along the ground into said hazard. Saved double, but it was my first one pointer of the day. Very next hole hit a poor iron shot straight into the hazard. Messy wipe. So things continued on like that, leaking shots all over the place.
Salvaged a par on 16 with another sand save. Messed up the par 5 17th after being 80 metres out for two – walked off with another double. And finally utterly butchered the 18th after being 10 feet short of the green for two and ended with a wipe. 12 points on the back for a total of 34. What a waste.
But, bunkers were good. Putting was okay without being great, driver was awesome all day. It was really a few bad shots on the back – some mis-hit irons, a couple of skinnied approaches and that was the ball game. Nonetheless it will flag so I won’t be too disappointed, and that 5 over front nine really gave me some encouragement. Mental game was strong all day even when things started to fall apart.
Had a lesson after the round with my coach. I basically spoke to him about my challenge. We went through some stats and strength and weaknesses, and spoke through where the errors had been and where there had been problems with bad shots. I said that while my ball striking is generally pretty good, now that there are no really glaring areas of my game which are draining shots, I feel like the mis-hits and occasional poor shots both with short and long clubs are causing me grief. I said that I had rounds where I feel like my face strike with the irons is a bit off and that I can’t afford those sort of errors when I am trying to get the handicap down. Today I felt like the mis-hits came from poor ground strike.
So he took me out on the actual range so we could hit some off the grass back toward the chipping green. Took a wedge and he encouraged me to take a practice shot to get the ground feel before carrying out the shot. Went through the routine a couple of times and certainly was hitting them well. I don’t normally take practice swings due to being superstitious, but looks like I am going to implement it now. Then went to try the same thing with chipping and promptly shanked 5 chips in a row.
So we went back into the lab and put it on the trackman. And we identified a move he wants me to focus on to get my path a bit better. Basically the same swing thought that I have been working on with the driver but to do it with the iron swing and the chipping as well.
He also walked me through a plan for my rounds for the next little while. The plan is to aim to par all of the par 5s which are easily in reach and then bogey everything else. If I manage that then I will get myself to a playing handicap of about 14, at which time we are going to talk about it again to form a new plan. So it’s not that I am not trying to get on in reg on the other holes, but I don’t need to, so don’t be disappointed if I don’t.
Then we talked about practice and I said I was having trouble finding a convenient way to get practice in. And he said, let me tell you about this indoor golf centre that my mate has just started up in Mordialloc. So that led to….
1 user liked this post.
The practice facility looked awesome, with a gym fob type access to the facility so it is open 24/7. I thought I would swing by on the way home to see if someone was there, figuring that it might be staffed on Saturday but probably wouldn’t be on Sunday. There was nobody there when I got there, so I looked in the window and took a photo of the number to call for an appointment. At that point a guy who was getting in his car came up and asked if I wanted a tour.
And the place is awesome. There are two full simulation booths where you can play different courses and do stuff like that. 18 holes of synthetic putting green with markers to help in practice – so there are markers for circles three, six and nine feet from the hole so you can do your round the worlds. And a technique putting area, which has marked spots at different lengths from the hole with the length of backswing and through swing marked and the putt lines marked. So you can use it like a string line and you can groove the putting stroke.
And then 9 driving range, 5 of which have full trackman installed. The trackman is linked to your membership so you can send the stats, video and performance to your coach or save it for future reference.
Plus an indoor bunker and short game chipping area, coaching suites and more stuff going in. Only just opened 4 months ago and is about 8 minutes from my house.
You can see the website here https://www.golfstudio.com.au/
So I of course signed up straight away. I signed up to silver membership which gives me access every day from 6am to 10pm. I have to pay extra to use the simulation suites but the range and trackman and other practice areas are all unlimited use. 3 month commitment only and after that you can cancel at any time. $30 per week, which is about $10 more than I pay for a bucket of balls at MGA. So if I use it once a week then it will be well worth it, and any more than that is just gravy.
Getting on trackman for every ‘range’ session would be great value… Knowing actual path to face etc while grooving swing changes would be awesome. At $20-25k per unit, the $30pw is awesome value!
That putting area setup is brilliant too.
Will be interesting to see if it gets too busy at times and what impacts that has on use of various areas etc.
What’s your “superstition” about taking a practice swing as part of your PSR?
By the time you realise this part of my signature doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.
Meditation makes doing nothing quite respectable.
Getting on trackman for every ‘range’ session would be great value… Knowing actual path to face etc while grooving swing changes would be awesome. At $20-25k per unit, the $30pw is awesome value!
That putting area setup is brilliant too.
Will be interesting to see if it gets too busy at times and what impacts that has on use of various areas etc.
What’s your “superstition” about taking a practice swing as part of your PSR?
They actually told me that they have a notional limit on number of members with the current set up – they have 140 at the moment and they reckon that they can handle about 250. There is an online booking system for the trackman bays and the simulation suites and there seem to be plenty of slots available.
My superstition regarding practice shots is about what if you make the good swing with the practice swing. But my coach was suggesting that the clubs are all different lengths and you might not have swung a 6 iron yet today, so you just want to check your ground interaction is at the right spot and if you have just done exactly the right move, it increases your confidence and muscle memory to do it again.
1 user liked this post.
So headed out to Golf Studio this afternoon for 30 mins or so of putting practice. The technical putting mats are really cool. The one I was using was set up for puts from 3 feet, 9 feet, three metres and four metres from memory. Using the swing guide generally meant that distance control was good, but I noticed that my natural stroke had too much of a backswing and follow through on short putts and not enough on longer putts. So doing some repetitions on the mat should help me to groove a better feel for that.
Also gave very good feedback as to whether you are getting the ball on line because the line is marked on the mat. From my observation I was pretty good at getting the ball on line initially, but my fault is that the ball curls away left once it slows, suggesting that the putter face is just a fraction closed. Then practiced some distance control on the big putting mats. They have target areas marked, so I was practising lag putts from 30-40 feet just trying to get a better score on the target. Turns out I am crap at lag putts from that distance – improving that feel might have a big impact on my 3putt count.
So all in all a good session, super convenient to pop in – only two other people there on a Sunday afternoon.
1 user liked this post.
So headed out to Golf Studio this afternoon for 30 mins or so of putting practice. The technical putting mats are really cool. The one I was using was set up for puts from 3 feet, 9 feet, three metres and four metres from memory. Using the swing guide generally meant that distance control was good, but I noticed that my natural stroke had too much of a backswing and follow through on short putts and not enough on longer putts. So doing some repetitions on the mat should help me to groove a better feel for that.
Also gave very good feedback as to whether you are getting the ball on line because the line is marked on the mat. From my observation I was pretty good at getting the ball on line initially, but my fault is that the ball curls away left once it slows, suggesting that the putter face is just a fraction closed. Then practiced some distance control on the big putting mats. They have target areas marked, so I was practising lag putts from 30-40 feet just trying to get a better score on the target. Turns out I am crap at lag putts from that distance – improving that feel might have a big impact on my 3putt count.
So all in all a good session, super convenient to pop in – only two other people there on a Sunday afternoon.
How quick are the putting “greens”. Some I’ve found at Drummonds etc…are just too quick for my liking and you just have to get the ball started..
•Inaugural Victorian OOM Putting Champion - Long Island 2011
•Inaugural ... National champ
•Hole In One - 7th Hole Portsea GC - 9/10/2012
Best ever score off the stick - 74 (Gardiners Run 10/12/2020)
Masters Champion 11/4/20221 user liked this post.
So headed out to Golf Studio this afternoon for 30 mins or so of putting practice. The technical putting mats are really cool. The one I was using was set up for puts from 3 feet, 9 feet, three metres and four metres from memory. Using the swing guide generally meant that distance control was good, but I noticed that my natural stroke had too much of a backswing and follow through on short putts and not enough on longer putts. So doing some repetitions on the mat should help me to groove a better feel for that.
Also gave very good feedback as to whether you are getting the ball on line because the line is marked on the mat. From my observation I was pretty good at getting the ball on line initially, but my fault is that the ball curls away left once it slows, suggesting that the putter face is just a fraction closed. Then practiced some distance control on the big putting mats. They have target areas marked, so I was practising lag putts from 30-40 feet just trying to get a better score on the target. Turns out I am crap at lag putts from that distance – improving that feel might have a big impact on my 3putt count.
So all in all a good session, super convenient to pop in – only two other people there on a Sunday afternoon.
How quick are the putting “greens”. Some I’ve found at Drummonds etc…are just too quick for my liking and you just have to get the ball started..
They did mention to me something about the stimp when I signed up, but I forget. They are not like the drummonds ones though which feel like putting on floorboards. To me they felt pretty comparable to our Rosebud greens (which are on the quickish side).
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
