Pete's Programme (Single Digit to Tour Player)

[NeedAJoker]

3 hours ago, Nosevi said:

Eyad, truth is I don't know. What I'm trying to do is supposed to be fun. Yes, I'm throwing myself into it in a big way but it's still supposed to be enjoyable. When I feel I have to start defending how I'm going about it etc it stops being and posting on here becomes a distraction from what I'm trying to do. I'm not really talking about the mini 'spat' with Erik either.

I think I need a break from TST and it probably needs a break from me. No hard feelings I've just got a lot going on right now.

I'll get my head down over the winter and practice hard and see how things look and feel come the spring. It'll all be dull indoor stuff anyway, you won't miss much. 

This is unfortunate, as you have inspired me to follow a similar path in my first real year, getting a garage simulator, etc.  Where our paths differ is I am just trying to improve to maybe have the confidence/skill to play in a Men's League, and hope to break 80 some day. 

From Day 1 you have said that this journey is about you achieving your goals, and in the nicest way possible you know your path, and you didn't want this to turn into a distraction, which is seemingly has.  If that is the case, I think distancing yourself from distraction is great, but selfishly I would love to keep up with your progress.  Maybe start a Blog without comments to allow you to keep accountable without outside input? If not, totally understandable and I will be looking forward to your updates in 4 years :-)

[Nosevi]

10 hours ago, RFKFREAK said:

Well, if you leave, I'll miss your posts, @Nosevi.  I've found a lot of what you write and share to be very interesting and informative.

 

10 hours ago, NeedAJoker said:

This is unfortunate, as you have inspired me to follow a similar path in my first real year, getting a garage simulator, etc.  Where our paths differ is I am just trying to improve to maybe have the confidence/skill to play in a Men's League, and hope to break 80 some day. 

From Day 1 you have said that this journey is about you achieving your goals, and in the nicest way possible you know your path, and you didn't want this to turn into a distraction, which is seemingly has.  If that is the case, I think distancing yourself from distraction is great, but selfishly I would love to keep up with your progress.  Maybe start a Blog without comments to allow you to keep accountable without outside input? If not, totally understandable and I will be looking forward to your updates in 4 years :-)

Ok guys, thanks. I've never been one to bite my tongue or toe the line and that tends to get me in hot water on here. Ironic with a background in the military   I'm not good at being told what I should or shouldn't say, it brings out the worst in me.

British forums (including the one I help to run) tend to be much more 'free-flow' for want of a better word. In no way am I saying that's 'better' (in fact often it's far from it) but it's more what I'm used to. I'm actually a pretty chilled guy (ask Randy) but it just doesn't come over that way in type. 

Anyway, enough excuses. Yes, in this place I over-stepped the mark which is unfortunate but I don't want to spend my hours arguing with people, as you say it's a distraction. Give me the winter and I'll see how the ground lies come spring. Maybe I'll have learnt to bite my tongue by then  

Sorry to have hacked you off @iacas and @Phil McGleno (can't get the @ thing to work for phil?). 

[pganapathy]

@Nosevi, Pete, it is a shame you need to spend a couple of months away from the site.  I actually follow your site and check it daily for updates.  Guess we all want to be pro golfers but have to live vicariously through you.  Though, the thoughts and ideas are being filed away mentally somewhere for possible application when I have enough money and can make enough time to try it, even if the target may not be to reach the same level.

Anyway, enjoy your break and practice hard.  Look forward to your improvement when you start posting come spring or so

[MacDutch]

Hi Pete,

 

Sorry to read this. Big fan of your thread&posts.

As I said before, stop explaining to everyone. Next time I go over the channel, will reach out to you.

Keep up the good work and enjoy!

[Phil McGleno]

Let us all stop pretending that @Nosevi has been hurt by anyone here. The guy is more like Dan than he thinks-He wants people to say how good a job he is doing and all that without being critical at all.

First time someone says Hey Buddy you need to work harder-He tucks his tail between his legs and runs away.

[Senseicads]

I'm gutted too. I've loved following your progress! Please come back soon and let us know how you are getting on! I've loved seeing all your stats! Thanks for the efforts so far! Sick of armchair critics, just let the man get on with it, it's not like he's asked for any advice!

[Phil McGleno]

2 hours ago, Senseicads said:

I'm gutted too. I've loved following your progress! Please come back soon and let us know how you are getting on! I've loved seeing all your stats! Thanks for the efforts so far! Sick of armchair critics, just let the man get on with it, it's not like he's asked for any advice!

Except he has-And that does not count the countless time @RandallT has put in with him.

Oh that is cool.-I like how that embedded.

[Gridiron]

Sorry to hear of your decision but it is completely understandable as well.  I too will miss the updates on your progress.  Hopefully at some point in the future you will come back and post some updates with a few points on how you got there.  Keep your eye on the prize and do what makes you happy. 

[RandallT]

Spoke with Pete via FaceTime. My style is not to add fuel to fires of these types of discussion on TST, so I'll try to tone it down a notch, as I think I have good relations with everyone involved. 

From my standpoint, Pete's been a good friend to me, and we will stay in touch. We've chatted via video several times, and he's actually pretty "chill", as I think he put it above somewhere. We keep it to things like golf stats, goals and measurements tracking, plus family life things- nothing that we really need to debate, as we just talk through what we know and bounce ideas off each other.  It's all pretty collaborative and has been pretty cool. 

Anyway, we can each make our own assessment of what happened here and why, but I'll just say that things went a direction I would've preferred it didn't, obviously. On a mostly unrelated not, I got rear-ended recently while stopped at a traffic light and I've been dealing with a resulting health scare with my daughter, so that mostly puts this whole thread into perspective (no worries- all appears to be ok here!). 

Pete won't mind if I drop a note here from time to time about how he's doing. I've certainly enjoyed the intellectual challenge of how to best apply what I knew (and have since learned and likely will continue to learn) about golf to someone who has a specific golf goal.

There's really not much effort that Pete will need from me at this point, but I look forward to seeing how well the tools we've developed together will help him make progress with getting to the Europro Tour. So I'll likely drop a note here from time to time if there are any significant developments. 

[mailman]

This place can be funny at times. Say the wrong thing and this place makes the Wild West look tame.

Certainly Ive enjoyed reading your thread over the last few months and to be honest this place will be less without you but I guess thats just life isn't it.

Hopefully you will capture that spark back and be back here posting again soon.

Regards

Mailman

[Nosevi]

On 18 November 2015 at 20:35:27, Phil McGleno said:

Let us all stop pretending that @Nosevi has been hurt by anyone here. The guy is more like Dan than he thinks-He wants people to say how good a job he is doing and all that without being critical at all.

First time someone says Hey Buddy you need to work harder-He tucks his tail between his legs and runs away.

Told myself I wouldn't respond, but came back on to answer a couple of PMs and frankly my curiosity got the better of me so I checked this thread.

Phil's right, no one has hurt me. Erik and I have chatted via pm and there's certainly no hard feelings on my part. Am I like Dan in that I like supportive comments more than critical ones? Yep, guess so, it's just in my nature (and possibly in everyones?). Am I running away? You really don't know me all that well, Phil  (hope the smiley emphesises how I mean that).

I've come to blows on here before simply because I don't back down. I'll go on arguing and getting annoyed well past the point when I really should just walk away. It got me banned before and did cause bad feeling. I do appreciate Erik's advice (as I have said quite a few times) and the last thing I wanted to do is have a repeat performance. So I said sorry and walked away. If you see that as putting my tail between my legs and running that's fine I guess ....... but it's not really why I walked (not ran ) away. 

After our little 'debate' on the swing thread I went to see one of the coaches at our National Academy. We had a good talk as well as a lesson and we've got a way forward for the winter. Will it totally agree with how everyone (experts and others) on here would have me look at things and try to move forward? I'm guessing not as everyone and every instructor has a different take on it. So I've got a choice - post up what I'm working on with my coach (who's coached guys who've played Walker Cup, National Level Amateur (ie England players) and on tour) and spend my time on here arguing about whether it's the right approach and be accused of not taking advice when I go with my coach? Or get my head down, put my trust in my coach, try what he's telling me to do and see where we are in the spring. I'm choosing the second of those options. There really will be nothing else going on over the winter other than fitness work and swing work anyway.

So no hard feelings Phil but no, I'm not running away with my tail between my legs because I can't take criticism. Look at Erik's analysis of my swing a few months back and decide whether I could take criticism. It was all true, didn't mind in the slightest  I'm looking at what I think will benefit me most over the winter which is to listen to one instructor and take one route (hopefully!) forwards. I've chosen the one that can stand next to me here in the UK but that's no slight on my opinion of Erik, Mike or anyone else on here. I just don't think at this point trying to do what several instructors are saying will work, I'll end up tying myself in knots!

So cheers all, either Randy or I will keep you posted if you're genuinely interested, he knows what I get up to on a weekly basis anyway. As a 'snippet' I spent yesterday afternoon in the swing studio with a Tour Pro called Rob Harris. Amongst other things he wants me to try a thing called a DST club and he's lending me his next week. It's been used successfully by quite a few guys on tour and should help with a few things both Erik and Mike (and my coach) have said I need to work on.

Like I said Phil, no hard feelings just feel I need to get my head down over the winter. Gotta run  (kidding, clearly......)

[Gridiron]

I would love to hear your thoughts on the DST after you have used it for a while.  Good luck this winter and I think you are making the right choice with the "one voice" approach.  Sometimes too many chefs...

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, Gridiron said:

I would love to hear your thoughts on the DST after you have used it for a while.  Good luck this winter and I think you are making the right choice with the "one voice" approach.  Sometimes too many chefs...

Eh. It doesn't work as you'd think.

I'll make a video…

[Nosevi]

Had every intention of not posting for a bit but thought I'd just make one quick post as it's about something guys could work on over the winter if they choose to. Actually it's kind of prompted by failing to post the info on another thread for reasons that escape me but hey ho, no issues, I'll write it here instead

It's basically all about driving the ball further, something that becomes increasingly important the higher the level you play at or aspire to. A while ago I saw this vid posted on TST:

I

At about 2:20 the vid talks about 3 tests that TPI can do to predict the potential ball speed you will be able to generate given a solid technique (centre strike etc). The tests are a seated chest pass of a med ball, a situp overhead throw of a med ball and a vertical jump.

This got me thinking so I chatted to Randy (as my 'sanity check') about it to see if he thought I was way wide of the mark. My question was, if TPI can do 3 tests that will predict your potential ball speed ie the club head speed you will be able to generate, then surely if you specifically train for these tests it stands to reason that you will increase your potential club head speed and so gain distance off the tee. At the end of the day if you score higher in these tests then TPI would predict you could hit it further and they know a darn sight more about it than I do.

With this in mind my phys programme has looked at all areas but for a while now has 'majored' in areas that would at least in theory increase my score in the TPI tests for potential ball speed. Lots of bench pressing, situps, working on the core strength in my lats and lots of squats. I also spent a lot of time on an exercise bike building strength in my quads and calves.

The result? This is my latest gap test from a couple of days ago. I wanted to share the results as it was triggered by something posted by another member on here and even if I crash and burn in my personal challenge (still the most likely outcome) it'd be good if I can pass on the odd thing that actually works to guys on here along the way. It also shows that if you put in the work you can get the results - that was the point I was trying to make on the other thread although I guess it was misunderstood - no snags as I said  

Edited December 26, 2015 by Nosevi

[Alx]

I would argue that general strength exercises(squat, deadlift, bench and the ohp) are the most useful for your average golfer so what you're doing sounds very good. Golf specific exercises have their place for the pros but unless basic strength levels are considerably above your average Joe don't bother.

Vertical leap alone would probably be a very good way of estimating swing speeds and especially potential swing speed. 

 

[mvmac]

8 hours ago, Alx said:

I would argue that general strength exercises(squat, deadlift, bench and the ohp) are the most useful for your average golfer 

And those are also popular with the pros/college players.

[Nosevi]

9 hours ago, Alx said:

I would argue that general strength exercises(squat, deadlift, bench and the ohp) are the most useful for your average golfer so what you're doing sounds very good. Golf specific exercises have their place for the pros but unless basic strength levels are considerably above your average Joe don't bother.

Vertical leap alone would probably be a very good way of estimating swing speeds and especially potential swing speed. 

 

Hi @Alx . I totally agree that you need to work on general strength but I do think throwing in some golf specific stuff can be useful depending what your personal goals are. The bottom line is it's easier to score in golf if your second shot into a par 4 is a wedge not a 6 iron and the par 5s are in range in 2 - golf is largely (or perhaps all) about reducing your distance to the hole with each shot. If you want to compete with the 'young guns' out there in the mini/developmental tours (which I do) you've got to be able to stand toe to toe with them. Added to which increased distance off the tee is never going to hurt your game no matter what your goals.

What I found interesting was what 'golf specific' can be. The Titleist Performance Institute are pretty much the world leaders in this field and they say they need the scores of all 3 tests to estimate potential swing speed. You could have a great vertical jump but if you lack power in the triceps you would perform worse in the seated med ball chest pass. TPI would say your potential distance off the tee was limited compared to someone who performed the same in the vertical jump but better in the chest pass. If you had no strength in your core you wouldn't fair well in the sit-up overhead throw so again TPI would score your potential distance off the tee as being lower. By working on overall strength but targeting those areas I've increased my distance off the tee considerably.

You said in the Dan Plan thread that you were surprised that Dan didn't appear to have put in a great deal of work on the phys side. I don't know how much he does tbh but I do think that if you want to have a shot at this kind of thing (and my personal goals are a significantly less 'lofty' than Dan's - what we call a Developmental Tour, basically equivalent to the Alps Tour, vs PGA Tour) you need to work hard but you need to work smart as well. Pro golf is full of smaller guys (than me) who hit the ball a mile because they train hard and use what they have effectively.

1 hour ago, mvmac said:

And those are also popular with the pros/college players.

Interesting. I think there's a lot of information out there about how to train to increase distance off the tee. If you're willing to work at it a bit, and as I said above, work 'smart' I'd say pretty much anyone can make gains in this area.

[mvmac]

7 hours ago, Nosevi said:

You could have a great vertical jump but if you lack power in the triceps you would perform worse in the seated med ball chest pass.

 Yeah so deadlifts, squats and bench press