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

[Bonvivant]

Been slacking in my filming, but keeping up on practice. I just watched a very long live stream the TXG guys did with some coach on short game before you posted the short game stuff. Learning that on a good pitch shot you can actually hit 3-5 inches behind the ball and still get lovely eye contact was eye opening for me. So much to learn, so little time. Loved today's

[NM Golf]

Terrible angle, but my mat and net are arriving tomorrow and I will change up my whole setup. I just kept a couple swings because of the angle, but I was tired of not submitting video. 

 

 

[WillieT]

Day 7 done - no video at moment.  I need to work more on the "letting the club" drop along with resisting the urge to flip the club at impact.  Much work to be done....

[Sammydreep]

Day 7 done , unfortunately I  can’t hit balls here. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by iacas
removed video because you did

[DeadMan]

Will definitely need to film this in the future, but couldn't today. I like the drills, but when I added the ball, things got a little shaky at times. It feels like my hands have almost too much freedom, and that leads to them getting a little wild and the ball getting hosel adjacent. I was able to successfully hit 2 balls at a time though, so at least I'm using the bounce properly.

[Sean_D]

Day 7 done. I was able to practice at a short game area. Letting the club drop greatly improved my contact and distance control.

[Darkfrog]

Day 7

Worked on this pitching motion from the quickie video several months ago. Didn’t quite get it then, but because of the wide margin of error for the shot it was still pretty useful. I got a better understanding of the motion from this video.

I took quite a few reps (15+) to sync up the drop of the club head with hip turn to hit the ball solidly, but once it clicked I did pretty well. Sent the first two well struck balls over the net and backyard fence into the (empty) community pool next door with my 60 degree wedge. Switched to 55 degree and was hitting the top 6 inches of the net. Reminder to move closer to the net for this one next time.

Tried with 2 balls but only managed one successful strike where both balls launched high. The second ball was always a little thin.

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, Sammydreep said:

Day 7 done , unfortunately I  can’t hit balls here. 

You may have the video set to private. Change to Unlisted.

[iacas]

49 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

You may have the video set to private. Change to Unlisted.

No, for some reason @Sammydreep deleted all of his videos. 😞

[iacas]

Day 8 – Putting (Rhythm, Tempo, Alignment Sticks)

In our first putting session of the month, we combine two things: an understanding of the rhythm and tempo (and their definitions) with one of my favorite “build-it-yourself” training aids for putting: two alignment sticks and a hair tie.

To be honest I didn’t communicate very clearly in the video itself, so I’m going to write a bit more here for this one.

First, some definitions:

• Rhythm – This is the ratio of the backswing to the downswing. Most good putters achieve close to a 2:1 ratio, backswing to downswing, regardless of the length of the putt.
• Tempo – People often think this is the “time” of the putt, but it’s not: it’s the speed of the putt(er head). This is not consistent across putts of different lengths, of course.
• Time – This is the total duration of the putting stroke, and is also consistent across putts of different lengths in good putters.

In today’s drill, you’ll do two things:

• Find the ideal time for your putting stroke using an application like this (for iOS).
• Build a quick training aid with two alignment sticks and a hair tie to help control your wrists.

First, download an application like the one linked above that lets you play a tone in a beat. I like to set the application to 2/4 time and you’ll want to start at between 66 and 86 beats per minute or so. Make some strokes to the beat or tones and adjust the timing in the app until you feel you’ve got a beat that exactly matches your personal feel. Don’t try to let the beats influence you – adjust the beats to match your natural feel.

Then, once you’ve found your timing, build the training aid as shown in the video, and make backswings and downswings while playing the beat. Pause the beat for awhile and focus on swinging the putter head with the sticks, then turn the beat back on again to focus on the timing of your stroke. The beat should play at either:

• The endpoints of your backswing and follow-through.
• When the putter head passes the low point of the arc backward or forward.

In the customary format, today’s drills are:

• 2:00 – Find the beat that works for you.
• 4:00 – With the sticks under your arms, practice making strokes of different sizes to your chosen beat.

Video:

 

[woodzie264]

If the rhythm is consistent, I suppose it's the length of the backswing which determines distance ball will travel. Lag putting is the bane of my golf game. I will go through periods where I don't three-putt for 2-3 rounds, but then have 4-5/round for the next few rounds. The last time I played with my buddy, I gained 10 strokes on him tee-green, but lost 8 putting. Wretched. My lag puts can be terrible, and almost always a pace/speed problem vs the read or bead.

[iacas]

29 minutes ago, woodzie264 said:

If the rhythm is consistent, I suppose it's the length of the backswing which determines distance ball will travel. Lag putting is the bane of my golf game. I will go through periods where I don't three-putt for 2-3 rounds, but then have 4-5/round for the next few rounds. The last time I played with my buddy, I gained 10 strokes on him tee-green, but lost 8 putting. Wretched. My lag puts can be terrible, and almost always a pace/speed problem vs the read or bead.

Yep.

If your putter has to travel back one foot in 0.8 seconds, it's can travel more slowly than a putter that has to get back two feet in 0.8 seconds.

Day 11 will be the drill I talk about in…

 

But it helps to have the wrist stuff AND know your own tempo/beat.

[WillieT]

New day - new perspective....Day 7 "video" now in the books.  Learning to let the club fall is new but really helps me "feel" the glide/bounce of the wedge.  I was using my 58-10 (most lofted club in the bag).  Oh by the way, hitting double balls reminds me of my 4-yr old grandson who loves to double up the foam balls when hitting in the back yard...Usually those are preceded by the phrase, "Paw, paw  - watch this!".... 

 

 

[woodzie264]

4 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yep.

If your putter has to travel back one foot in 0.8 seconds, it's can travel more slowly than a putter that has to get back two feet in 0.8 seconds.

Day 11 will be the drill I talk about in…

 

I'll give these drills a whirl over the next couple of months, but if I still suck, I may have to come see you for in-person lesson...I feel like the art of lagging with regards to speed/distance control would be hard to teach, but given your dedication to science, numbers rather than "feel" maybe you can help

[iacas]

16 minutes ago, woodzie264 said:

I'll give these drills a whirl over the next couple of months, but if I still suck, I may have to come see you for in-person lesson...I feel like the art of lagging with regards to speed/distance control would be hard to teach, but given your dedication to science, numbers rather than "feel" maybe you can help

The science is a great way of knowing what players actually do, but the "feel" is how they process doing that thing. 🙂

I'd be delighted to have you come up when this COVID stuff is settling down.

[Nail]

Day 8. Never done anything like this before. So wasn’t sure what tempo was right for me but it’s somewhere between 82 and 86 bpm I think. 
 

 

[iacas]

Good stroke there.

We didn’t film down the line but it’s a great way to practice (with the sticks) for the path.

[SteveH]

Did this drill this morning and struggled getting comfortable with tempo. I also noticed my head moving and I am not relaxed.  I struggle with putting so will do it a few more times.  As far as the other drills go, they have really been helping, so thank you.  I find that although I am having trouble uploading/making videos, just watching back on my phone is showing a lot of errors and then I can re-do the segment and watch again.  I managed to play 9 holes the last 2 days and focusing on the past drills I shot two of the best rounds to date off the blue tees. 

First try at a video.