Plan for the '09 season

[starchuk]

What is your plan?

I'm not referring to your goals, which are in another thread, but what is your full out, detailed plan?

As tour players, they think of their plan as a business, so its detailed down the most minute aspect.

How are you going to reach you goal? ie. 5 handicap. This is your objective and not your daily intention.

I like to think of it as setting 2 or 3 long term goals and focusing on the short term goals daily.

I like the goal setting section but I think its missing alot. A goal could be to get to a 5 handicap, but that's not enough. Goals are : performance, physicaly, mental, practice, and balance! What are you going to do to get away from Golf? That's just as important as '2 hours of putting twice per week'

Don't forget that with each detailed aspect of your plan, you should have already identified your SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

I will see if I can get permission to post the plan of a Cantour player I'm working with. It's about 3 pages long, just to give you a taste...

[ks8829]

My plan is to watch my 14 year old enjoy his golfing experience on his high school golf team.

[starchuk]

Not a bad idea. Its nice to watch someone really enjoy the game.

But what about YOUR plan?

I thought there were some serious golfers here? No one has a plan?
Or is the plan just to play better?

Its hard to achieve a goal with no idea on how to do it.

[denver_nuggs_15]

I've already written my plans in the Goals thread. I felt that to reach my goal of 10.0 hcp or better, I had to do certain things.

In short, I want to: get longer, putt better (I'm absolutely terrible at putting), take lessons again (will help with distance and accuracy), and make my high school golf team. Making the team will give me more practice time for putting. I have rarely practiced putting in the past, so this could be a really good opportunity. Obviously, playing a few times a week is part of the plan. Practice, too.

[starchuk]

I've already written my plans in the Goals thread. I felt that to reach my goal of 10.0 hcp or better, I had to do certain things.

These are great outcome goals - which I found where abundant in the goals thread. My question is how are you going to reach these goals?

#1. you want to get longer. how? what are you going to do? workout? get into better positions, and if so, what positions? What drills? #2. you want to improve your putting. how? what part of putting? alignment, distance control, green reading, preshot routine, attitude? (you say you're terrible.. maybe start with attitude) If you really want to get better, you will be specific and know exactly where you are and what you have to do to get to where you want. This type of plan might be something the average golfer doesn't really want to do, but if you're on the internet taking advice on your swing mechanics from people who don't teach and who have never seen your swing, then this could be the best golf improvement advice you could follow.

[iWALK18]

Well unfortunately I don't have enough of a grip on my future to be able to make a daily plan. However, I can give my methods and the ways I plan to improve myself to reach my goal.

My goal is to: Break 80, and get to single digits.

My plan is to:

1. I will take notes when I find something that works for me. I bought a small notebook which stays in my golf bag for this purpose.

2. I will eliminate chipping blunders (skulls, or stubs). These have just killed my rounds in the past. Besides really spending a large amount of my practice time practicing these shots, I will do this by practicing and playing smarter shots (7i chips, Putting from fringe, etc). I will also hit more greens.

3. I will put a larger premium on accuracy than distance with my irons. I have shortened my back-swing by a good margin with my irons, especially the scoring irons, and will continue to work on grooving this swing.

4. I will expect to make Putts. There is no reason I cannot be a good putter, and this year I expect to bring up that aspect of my game.

5. I will take a better attitude to the course whenever I play. Have confidence playing in front of people (a problem for me, I get nervous). I will give myself permission to make some mistakes, and play less than perfect or even poor shots.

[denver_nuggs_15]

These are great outcome goals - which I found where abundant in the goals thread. My question is how are you going to reach these goals?

Ok, now I get what you're asking.

1. To get longer, I'm planning on taking lessons. My swing obviously has flaws and by taking lessons, I can get rid of a few. I'm tall (6'4" with shoes) and have long arms (6'5"-6'6") so I have good leverage. I know I can hit the ball far, I just need to unlock it. I don't want to be the longest, just as long as I should be. I feel that I should be getting 270 (250 right now) yards with my driver and about 165-170 yards with my 7 iron. (I hit a 7 iron 155 right now.) I'm also going to be golfing just about everyday if I make the golf team. Six days of golf per week is pretty sweet. I'll be working out my golf muscles by just doing that. Hopefully, I'll be engraining some good swing habits too. For the golf team, the coach was talking about using weighted clubs and these balancing things. They seem cool and could be beneficial. I'm thinking about buying a training aid for my swing (Medicus driver, Momentus, etc. - any ideas?) I'm planning to do some workouts for golf as well. The golf coach will be giving out workout plans to those who make the team (knock on wood). I'll probably start working out on my own again, too. I've already started stretching and I plan to continue. Over the past few months, I've seen people talk about the fitting process for shafts. My iron shafts were fitted, but not my driver shaft. I'm hoping to get that done if money permits. I'd like to get on a lauch monitor to see my spin on my drives. 2. As for putting, I'm a terrible putter. It actually hurts my score about 3-5 shots per round (that's probably an underestimate). I'm just realistic about it. I need to get better at putting. My alignment and reading skills are there. I've been constantly working on alignment and I've finally found something that works. I'm a pretty good greens reader...not the best, but good for my level. Speed kills me. It's either blow by the hole or be 6 feet short whenever I have a putt over about 20 feet. That's not good. I need to be getting into that 3 foot range. I'm pretty confident with 3-4 footers, so if I get it there, I'm set for the 2 putt. Three putts usually occur when I hit a GIR and I'm relatively far away from the hole. Practice is the only thing I can think of to help with speed. I'll probably go to the practice green before a round for at least 20 minutes. Six days of golf should help with this too. Lessons will probably help too if we go over putting. The last time I golfed, I tried a new approach to speed. I figured that I shouldn't really think about it. It's a feel thing and there's no set formula. I.E. - If my backswing is this long, then it'll go that far. I thought of putting more like basketball - I'd never think of how much force I need to shoot a shot because I just know. Same thing for putting IMO. 3. I've kept track of stats for the final month of golf last year. I will do it again. That way I can figure what parts I need to work on. I already know putting is an issue (2.24 PPGIR!), but this year it might be something different like driving (hopefully not). In order to assess where my faults are, I need to keep stats.

[starchuk]

That's what I'm talking about.

I think everybody wants to hit it farther. Working on your 'golf muscles' by playing is a great way to do it. Why not strenghten exactly what you use? A downfall is that you're strengthening one side which creates muscular imbalances. For most players, an overall general workout routine is the way to start but since we're getting into the season, search youtube for pilates workouts and do them from home. You can find a variety of videos in the 8-10 minute range and they should help with core, leg, and arm strength in a matter of weeks. I think that heavy clubs are only good to make backswings and slow downswings. If you are looking to increase your speed with a training club, find the PowerFan which actually forces you to accelerate through the ball, and not let a heavy club swing you through the shot. If you swing a driver the way a heavy club swings you, it will go nowhere.

I agree that lessons will help but please ensure that you're going to see a coach that really knows what he's talking about. They're are so few that can really identify the root cause to issues. If your focus is more distance, it may not be the mechanics of your golf swing but more the movements with your body. Hopefully you'll find an instructor who understands how to mesh both.

I love putting. It should be the easiest part of the game and I have found that the players who make it easy are the players who make the most putts. Before examining the stroke, alignment, and green reading process, give yourself a quick self-check and see how you really 'feel' about putting. I'm a firm believer that attitude is like having a 15th club in your bag. A few years ago I looked at putting from a bit of a different angle. I came to a conclusion that putting is all about reading the green, aiming your putter, and doing your best to hit the line you choose with the right speed. If we examine how many of these things are actually measurable, we see that putting comes down to YOUR best guess at the line the ball will take. If we think about this as YOUR best guess, then who can tell you that it was wrong? This started the idea that I need to create an attitude around thinking my green reading skills are the best because no one can really prove to me that someone else is better. Aiming your putting on this line can be tricky, especially if your eyes don't tell you the truth. You may like the way your putter looks when you look down at it, but once you get into your stance and look at the ground, you have changed the way you are used to looking at things. We rarely follow imaginary straight lines on the ground so we must learn this new skill. Its not as easy as you think, so some players may need to ensure the putter is aimed where you want it to be and then learn to accept this new view when you address a golf ball. The speed you hit your putt is also a 'feel' thing and some golfers try too hard to 'hit it with the right speed'. Geoff Mangum at the puttingzone.com talks about getting a good 'gaze' at the hole so that your subconscious can take over and judge the right amount of power needed to get the ball to the hole. A little self talk of what you're trying to do won't hurt either "uphill, a little left to right".

With knowing you gave yourself your Best Guess at the line, aiming your putter on the correct initial line and making your last thing a good 3 or 4 second stare at the hole, while telling yourself what you want to do, you'll have a better chance of stroking good putts time after time. Once your putter is aimed, its there and done with, so by putting the focus on the speed, you can free yourself from distractions.

An extension to the attitude starts before you play. Telling yourself that the greens you're playing today are your favorite, and knowing that you're green reading skills are awesome, and knowing that you can aim your putter down your best guess at the line, you've given yourself the best opportunity to make putts and you have done it all based on things that you can control.

Worrying about the speed (whether too fast or too slow) and talking about the imperfections on the green, or how the hole is in an unfair spot is only creating excuses as to why you should not putt well that day.

I hope this helps give you a different idea of how to get the job done.

[Jenks465]

My goal for the season: Stroke average below 72, (previous best 72.6).

Plan to achieve goal;

1) Ensure equipment fits my game.
I've already gone through a full fitting process for my irons and wedges and am going to visit Rene Cleaver, a former winner of clubmaker of the year, on Wednesday to get my woods and putter done.

2) Improve iron play.
I've been a consistently good driver of the ball for a long time now (70-75% fairways hit for the last 5 seasons) but my iron play has always been a bit mediocre (59% GIR ave.). To improve this there are a few long standing swing issues that i've decided to address with the help of my local pro, I take the club outside at the beginning of the takeaway which causes me to flatten/ shallow my swing excessively coming into the ball, good for hitting from a tee, not good for pure iron striking! I've already started to make the change to my takeaway by using a block of wood placed outside the toe of the club, forcing me to take the club away on line.

3) Improve short game.
My short game has always been pretty good but to get to my scoring goal I need to improve my overall up and down percentage within 100 yds to 50% (prevously 35-40%).
I plan to practice all aspects of my short game 3 times a week and have identified wedges between 30 and 100 yds and bunker play as the two areas that can be improved most easily.

[denver_nuggs_15]

That's what I'm talking about.

I should work out anyway if I'm going to be playing a varsity sport. I'm thinking general workout with weights, stretching everything I can think of, and a few golf workouts that the coach gives us.

I'm not sure what training aid I'll opt for. The golf coach (knock on wood) wants the team to use weighted clubs and the Speed Stick for distance and tempo. For accuracy, he wants us to use training grips every-once-in-a-while and use this really small driver (ballstriking). The coolest things were these balancing bubbles I'll call them. I'm not sure what they are called, but they help with balance. I've never seen the PowerFan in person, but I'll give it a look.

I agree that lessons will help but please ensure that you're going to see a coach that really knows what he's talking about. They're are so few that can really identify the root cause to issues. If your focus is more distance, it may not be the mechanics of your golf swing but more the movements with your body. Hopefully you'll find an instructor who understands how to mesh both.

I will be going to a guy (Bill Britton) that's been recommended by more than a few people I know. He won instructor of the year in NJ one year and is a top 5 teacher in the state. He has also played on the PGA for 15 years.

My focus isn't really on distance. It's more about maximizing potential. I know I can hit it far. I just need help figuring it out. Accuracy and consistency should help out as well.

I love putting. It should be the easiest part of the game and I have found that the players who make it easy are the players who make the most putts. Before examining the stroke, alignment, and green reading process, give yourself a quick self-check and see how you really 'feel' about putting. I'm a firm believer that attitude is like having a 15th club in your bag. A few years ago I looked at putting from a bit of a different angle. I came to a conclusion that putting is all about reading the green, aiming your putter, and doing your best to hit the line you choose with the right speed. If we examine how many of these things are actually measurable, we see that putting comes down to YOUR best guess at the line the ball will take. If we think about this as YOUR best guess, then who can tell you that it was wrong? This started the idea that I need to create an attitude around thinking my green reading skills are the best because no one can really prove to me that someone else is better. Aiming your putting on this line can be tricky, especially if your eyes don't tell you the truth. You may like the way your putter looks when you look down at it, but once you get into your stance and look at the ground, you have changed the way you are used to looking at things. We rarely follow imaginary straight lines on the ground so we must learn this new skill. Its not as easy as you think, so some players may need to ensure the putter is aimed where you want it to be and then learn to accept this new view when you address a golf ball. The speed you hit your putt is also a 'feel' thing and some golfers try too hard to 'hit it with the right speed'. Geoff Mangum at the puttingzone.com talks about getting a good 'gaze' at the hole so that your subconscious can take over and judge the right amount of power needed to get the ball to the hole. A little self talk of what you're trying to do won't hurt either "uphill, a little left to right".

I'm good at alignment since I've been working on it a lot. Usually, I pick the right line, hit it on that line, but come up short or putt through the break. I'd easily be a 10 handicap if I were an average putter. I putt like an average 25 handicap does.

I hope this helps give you a different idea of how to get the job done.

Thanks for the response. I think this is a good thread and I'm surprised others haven't posted in it. If you'd like to post your plan, I'm sure someone would comment and help you with it.

In the goals thread, we were told not to comment on others goals in that thread. It seems like this thread accomplishes that. IMO, it's better to 'bounce' your ideas off others and see what they have to say.

[starchuk]

Good job. It sounds like you're getting a better idea of how you're going to improve. I find that competitive players need to know HOW they are going to get to that next level. Its easy to say "i'm going to work on my chipping" but that's like saying "i'm going to be a millionaire." HOW are you going to do this? what service or product is going to get you there? whats the marketing plan? I think I've beat this point to death already...

Glad to hear you searched our a reputable coach. Spending money on a guy who can make build golf ball displays and can dress a manikin with a matching belt and visor will most likely give you this month's golf digest tips... or what ever works for his game personally. I love seeing golf instructors tell their player to do something when they can't pull it off themselves, or even demonstrate how to do it properly.

With regards to a weighted club: its hard to control it. If you can swing the club so that it lags and Doesn't Swing You, then you don't need it! The powerfan makes you continue your power and effort through the shot. If I were to swing a sledge hammer.. the minute it starts down, its controlling me. Not the other way around. I use a weighted rod for backswing exercises but it never comes down with any speed.

Anyone have any tournament plans for '09?