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

[billchao]

Day 30:

Figures I'm the one that did it too slowly. Always had to be different.

This was a lot of fun. Thanks @iacas and @NatalieB for putting out these great videos for everyone!

[klineka]

Day 30 complete. I believe that is 29/30 days for me. Really appreciate you doing this Erik, it was a lot of fun and learned some great drills and new feelings that will help my game.

Here are videos of iron and driver, my main focus was turning with my body and letting my arms follow along, I didnt realize how short the backswing was on the slow swings until I watched it back on video. Whenever I do super slow motion I always over exaggerate the hands forward/shaft lean at impact for some reason.

 

[boogielicious]

Day 30. Many thanks @iacas and @NatalieB for doing this. It took some of the sting of this pandemic off and gave me something to look forward to every day. I have definitely incorporated some of the drills into my practice. 

 

[Sammydreep]

27 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Day 30. Many thanks @iacas and @NatalieB for doing this. It took some of the sting of this pandemic off and gave me something to look forward to every day. I have definitely incorporated some of the drills into my practice. 

 

And from me too, many thanks. 

[GolfLug]

Y'all look like you used a Phantom 10K frames/sec slomo cam. Only thing missing was the face distortions..😁

I couldn't join the practice but really enjoyed the thread. I believe this is one of top 5 threads of all time on TST from an instructional content POV. 

Well done @iacas and @NatalieB. Kudos to participants as well. 

Edited April 30, 2020 by GolfLug

[metaswinger]

Eric,

Thanks a bunch for this.  The past 30 days have been a bit stressful with work and quarantine and I've really enjoyed this (short) portion of my day.  And...I have a tee time for May 9 at 6:36a! NorCal courses starting to open.

Day 30

 

 

[WillieT]

8 hours ago, WillieT said:

Started Day 30 and man is 30 seconds a long time.  I did the "one thousand ____" counting method and the longest time I achieved was about 28 seconds.  I am going to post video - but it will be later as I need to be outside to capture the driver swing (not enough room in the shop and its pouring rain here in eastern NC).  Major lesson - slowing way down really allows me to focus on each facet of the swing "AND" recognizing the habitual swing faults I need to unlearn (like staying on the trail foot, not shifting weight forward, collapsing the lead arm)....many thanks Erik (and Natalie) for great lessons/drills over the past 30 days.... 

Rain stopped - skies somewhat cleared so outside I went...Day 30 drill done.  Much easier outside when I could swing with out concern for hitting something in the cramped shop.  Greatly appreciated the challenges....

 

[bwdial]

Finished strong today with a 37 second - yes, I timed it - swing.  I do this a lot with my weighted clubs, and will continue to do so.

Thank you so much for this series.  I'm going to lobby the missus for LSW for Father's Day.

[SteveH]

Day 30.  Was a bit miserable out today and wouldn't stop raining. Managed to get it done before it became heavy again.  Will probably do this again tomorrow as I noticed I was coming up out of my spine angle and this has been an issue for me.

 

.

 

 

 

[Darkfrog]

Day 30

Bummed this is over. It was nice to have some structured golf practice activities during the shelter in place. For me it’s been almost 2 months since my last lesson and round of golf, and this daily practice plan really helped fill the void during April. Thanks for putting this together. Luckily, looks like California is easing some of the restrictions and I’ve heard some local courses are opening on May 4th.

Well, as predicted, what I thought was really slow was only about 10 seconds. It was odd to be in positions In the swing where stuff just “happens” at full speed, but going really slow I actually can see and feel exactly what various body parts and muscles are doing.

Swinging with a 7-iron I was able to slow down my swing to a maximum of 24 seconds. With driver I could only get to a maximum of 18 seconds.

I recall reading or hearing about someone who could do a 2 minute slow motion swing. I feel challenged to be able to achieve this now that I realize how hard it is. 

[WillieT]

Was able to complete all of my open drills today at the range, except for day 17 as I don't have noodles and there wasn't anything in my trunk to substitute with.

I didn't have a lot of time at the range once I got done with the drills, as well as working on getting my weight on my back foot at the start of the backswing and readjusting my grip a little, but the flow of my swing was definitely better and I could quickly feel the difference of my weight shifting forward to start the transition once the weight was on my back foot.  I have struggled with my transition for a long time.

Even though I didn't have a lot of time hitting balls, I felt like my contact was good and felt a lot more loose in my transition than I did before.  The one thing I did notice with focusing on the drills for the trail arm was that I was fading everything, which seemed to be caused by an open face not the swing path, at least from my perspective.  But I will keep working at it as much as I can inside until I can get back out to the range.

The trust will come with more play, I tore my left quad tendon a few years ago and it took a while to trust my left side, but I realized after that my knee was strong enough a lot sooner than it was in my brain.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by iacas
Was only trying to comment on thread as whole - not quote comment

[WillieT]

Ordered LSW book today - looking forward to the read.  Also planning to make these drills a regular part of each day - May 1 is Day 1 all over again, May 2 is Day 2....kinda like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day 😁

[DeadMan]

Day 30: Took me 3 tries to get the right speed. I may have cheated by slowing down a bit too much after impact in the end. But it was really interesting to feel how slow this was. Anyways, some videos:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by DeadMan

[JGus]

Went through my notes and the drills for the past 30 days and came up with the below list of the ones I think have the most impact on what I'm trying to correct in my swing.  The Section Titles may not be 100% accurate, but based on what I'm working on is where I thought the drills fell into.

Once I can start getting to the range more consistently when our courses open i'm sure the number of drills will start to decrease as there are a lot of them and I know my back won't hold up doing all of them each range session, but for now this is my starting point.

Main two areas i'm working on:

Backswing:  Trying to get my backswing more consistent with my arms, wrists, and club in the right positions.

Transition:  Have been fighting this for a long time and am working on my weight shift and rotation.  I played yesterday and felt the weight shift being a lot better, but had a lot of swings where the weight shifted properly but don't think I rotated properly or quick enough which resulted in some bladed shots.

1.     Pre/Post Swing

a.     Proper Setup (day 22)

b.     Pre and Post Shot Routine (day 23) – need to establish a pre-shot routine

 

2.     Backswing

a.     Early Backswing (day 1)

b.     Shoulder Pitch (day 2)

c.     Trail Elbow at A4 (day 3)

d.     Sequencing Drills (day 25)

e.     Advanced Shoulder Tilts (day 28)

3.     Transition / Impact

a.     Arm Speed – Snapping Sticks (day 5)

b.     Delivering the Clubhead (day 5)

c.     Trail Arm Throwing (day 12)

d.     Lead Arm Throwing (day 20)

e.     Lead Wrist Cupping and Palmar Flexion (day 4) – more focus on Palmar Flexion

f.      Double Stork Drill (day 16)

g.     Double Noodle Drill (day 17)

h.     Early Extension (day 27)

4.     Full Swing

a.     Full Swing Flow (day 10)

b.     Advanced Stick Work (day 29)

c.     Swing Path Gate Drill (day 18)

d.     Turn, Tilt, and Extend (day 26)

e.     Swing Mapping (day 30)

[iacas]

That's a good list, @JGus, and I like that you wrote it out for yourself.

Here's a question I'd like everyone to answer, and post in the topic after voting to bump the thread so others can see it, too, please.

 

[JGus]

Thanks, spent probably 3-hours going through each of the drills again to take notes and screenshots of the proper positions so I can quickly access them via my phone when I'm at the range.

and will do on the other topic.

[jamo]

On 4/13/2020 at 8:38 AM, iacas said:

Day 13 – High Pitches and Flops

Building on Day 7‘s pitching technique, “setting up to the handle” allows you to use the same technique and most of the same setup to hit high, soft shots for those times when you need to elevate the ball quickly and stop without much roll.

In today’s drill it’s important to:

• Put the club down with the loft you desire.
• Set up to the handle, keeping as much of the setup from the original (day 7) the same.
• Not to move the handle during setup, but to keep the club in the same position and make your body fit the club, not the other way around.

The drills for today are simple:

• 5:00 – On-course level high pitches and flop shots.
• 2:00 – Extreme flop shots – try to hit one high enough you can catch it.

Video:

 

Just wanted to give this video in specific a shoutout. I used to be pretty good at flop shots but I've felt very lost over them (and other high pitches) for a few years now. Took the thoughts from this video out to the range this week (and the course this weekend) and I was hitting them expertly. It wasn't a flip, but I actually chipped in on my first pitch in a men's league match on Thursday. 

Also gotten a lot out of days 5 and 19, and have a few of the putting videos bookmarked to get more into. There's a moment in the day 5 video where you demonstrate not adequately bending on the backswing, which I've been struggling to do right since, I dunno, 2012 or so? I don't have the videos uploaded but I caught a few swings on tape this week where I made some of the best backswings (in this aspect) that I ever have. 19 has also been helpful - not only the "pump" drill, but the thought of pulling the handle through impact with my left hip. 

[iacas]

Thanks, Jamieson.