30-Day (Was COVID) Practice Plan Challenge - April 1-30 2020

[iacas]

@metaswinger, swinging way too fast - way too fast to focus on what’s needed - and your head pulled away in every swing I saw with the noodle:

[metaswinger]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

@metaswinger, swinging way too fast - way too fast to focus on what’s needed - and your head pulled away in every swing I saw with the noodle:

Day 27 Redux

 

Ok, ok.  I don’t really have a low gear but I did it again pretending I do….

 

 

Day 28

I feel like the last two days were written for me (obviously not).  The biggest revelation was the slight move at the top.  This helps preventing my lower bits from getting too far ahead.

 

On 4/25/2020 at 10:57 AM, iacas said:

Meh. Vastly overrated.

Hogan’s Modern Fundamentals 

I’m early in it but something that jumped out right away is the instruction at address to keep your arms together as close as possible with your elbows pointing at your hips and the inside seam of your elbows pointing up.  With me, the inside seam of my elbows point too each other and are loosy goosy.  Keeping the arms tight I see my left arm staying straighter and my right arm not bending to 90.  It also dovetails with his other idea early in the book that the greater the circle is complete the more power.  That the left arm leads drawing the circle on the backswing and the right arm on the follow through.

 

Also liked the idea that the direction of the toes act as regulators to the hips (preventing/allowing amounts of rotation).

Edited April 29, 2020 by metaswinger

[WillieT]

Will work on getting Day 28 posted tomorrow as I had opportunity to play a round with the Mrs today.  She is just starting the game and wanted to go play - the weather cooperated, the course was relatively slow in terms of folks, so we went for it. Spent the day putting into practice the skills this month's lessons have taught.  It was the most enjoyable round I've ever played.  Putting was off and that was the big issue of the day (a number of lip outs (course uses noodles cut to 1" below the lip) that foiled birdie and par attempts).  BUT on the positive side, I had 4 or 5 legit birdie opportunities (love that I was making good accurate shot choices), had 7 of 18 GIR's. I also challenged myself by limiting the bag to driver, 3w, 4h, 5, 7, 9 irons, PW, SW, LW and Putter.  The hilarity of the day was seeing head of the 5 iron going into the lake on the 9th tee which is a par3 over water.  A great strike that was followed by the whirring sound (like a Birdie ball makes) ending with a resounding slash.  That forced me to rethink shots and club selection - totally loved these added pressures. 

[Darkfrog]

Day 28

This one went terrible because I didn’t have a great setup and was too lazy to get creative.

I had my 6 year old daughter hold an alignment stick at my sternum while standing on a chair, with the second alignment stick tied to my back. Issue was she wasn’t patient enough to really hold her stick still, and my lashing job on the stick attached to me kept sliding off.

I ended up just imagining the physical constraints and trying to do rehearsals with the right feels.

I’ll try again tomorrow, and maybe use some tape to hold the paracord knots in place on the alignment stick strapped to my back, and ask my wife to hold the other one, or find a way to mount it on something. 

[Sammydreep]

I didn’t get a chance to do either of the last two days, we came out of lockdown Tuesday morning

Managed a few jobs and also got two rounds of golf in , weather was so nice it was hard not to, pleasant 72°, not bad for a month off winter. 
kKnd of odd with no flags ,everything closed ,holes turned upside down so you don’t have to touch the edge of the hole , the ball just goes across, and of course It teaches you to aim for the middle of the green because you have no idea where the hole is , funny thing is had hardly any long putts, must be a lesson in there somewhere

[Nail]

13 hours ago, iacas said:

Are you turning that stick past the grey thing? > 90°?

Yes is that too much? I could see the stick on my back well past the grey pipe away from the target. 

[iacas]

Day 29 - Advanced Stick Work

You've no doubt seen a stick put on the front side of your body, but the back side? Whose crazy idea is that? Stick around, though, because this drill will help you go "steep to shallow" like many people are working to do these days, all while making sure your backswing is well synchronized, with your arms and torso working in the proper dimensions. "Stick" around for this one!

Drills for today:

• 3:00 - Backswing only
• 3:00 - Backswing + transition
• 3:00 - Backswing, transition, downswing

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4fWqrz97QQ

 

[JGus]

Day 28 complete, but was limited to mirror work and very slow turns indoors.  One day I can get to the range and practice...

[nevets88]

That's clever, sticking half of an alignment stick into the grip hole. Glad I thought of that! 😁

[Nail]

Hey @iacas before I film this drill is this how wide you would want to take your hands on the backswing before you hinge your wrists or is it an exaggerated feel because of the stick?

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, Nail said:

Hey @iacas before I film this drill is this how wide you would want to take your hands on the backswing before you hinge your wrists or is it an exaggerated feel because of the stick?

What drill are you talking about?

If you're talking about the most recent… it depends on when you hinge your wrists and thus the stick is "free" of the side of your body. It also depends on the length of the stick outside the end of the grip.

[Nail]

6 minutes ago, iacas said:

What drill are you talking about?

If you're talking about the most recent… it depends on when you hinge your wrists and thus the stick is "free" of the side of your body. It also depends on the length of the stick outside the end of the grip.

Ya the most recent drill. It feels strange but possibly because I address the ball with a bit of hinge already and this has my left hand feeling cupped for a lot longer, anyway here it is
 

 

[iacas]

Go about 1/10th that speed.

To everyone: if there's one universal thing I'd say, it's that you tend to do these drills WAY WAY TOO FAST. You can't "feel" things when you're doing them at fast speeds, nor can you really know that you're doing them properly.

[klineka]

Got caught back up with day 28 and 29 today.

Did 28 in my garage and started day 29 outside then it started downpouring and blew my tripod over so no video.

in the day 28 drill I wasn't staying low enough and didnt have enough tilt on the downswing, that is something I will need to work on for sure.

These past couple days have made me realize I wasn't getting nearly as much turn with my upper body as I thought, it feels much more natural to have the feeling of turning with the upper body and letting the arms be along for the ride instead of previously having the feeling of my arms initiating the swing and my body following along. 

[JGus]

Day 29 drill was a tough one for me due to a couple issues I have been fighting in my backswing.  When I try to keep the toe more closed at P2, once I get to the top, my right hand/wrist is pressing more forward compared to flattening out allowing the club to lay down more.  The main cause that I have been working on is trying to prevent my trail elbow from flaring out and pushing behind my body, this forces my right hand/wrist to bend forward instead of flattening.

Working on keeping my elbow feeling like it is pushing to the inside has helped flatten the club at the top, but to support this I have only been able to do it consistently by rolling my right wrist some on the take away leaving my club face open or straight up at P2. 

But, will add this drill to the list with the others to focus on once I can get to a range 3-4 times a week.

[WillieT]

Today is catch up day - Day 28 done - posting video from DTL as well as face on.  This one revealed my continued swing flaws - bad rotation, too much weight on the trail foot, lazy lead arm that wants to collapse and chicken wing on me on the downswing....Yup, this exercise forced me to look at what I was doing.  The setup was again the guitar paint stand, with a piece of pool noodle at the end.  Uses friction to hold it at the height but also will swing out of the way if I hit it, which I did several times.  For the rod on my back - long bungee (doubled around the shaft) with an old driver shaft, worked amazingly well....

DTL...

 

Day 29 - really liked this one.  Had a little white rod that worked well.  The visual of this really brought home what the club is doing....

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by WillieT

[boogielicious]

Day 29 Drill. Did it first without filming then repeated. This one includes a shank at the end in honor of @Vinsk! I think I hit my Weber kettle in the garage with this one

 

[billchao]

Day 29:

I kind of hated the setup. Had to get my hands really deep to clear the stick in the backswing. I made it too long or something.