My Swing (FooFader)

[FooFader]

I'm now back home and on my 3 week summer holiday. My plan for the coming 3 weeks are as follows:

Play a full 18 holes every weekday morning

half an hour of putting or short game practice at the course before i come home each day.

Full swing work in the net in my garden in the evenings working with my camera.

I have high hopes for shooting some good scores over the next 3 weeks due to the every day playing. Hopefully when i get my swing on video this afternoon i won't have regressed in the 7 weeks since i last swung a club and that the changes i made a while back with Brian from evolvr are still on track.

Unfortunately i am no longer with evolvr due to the limited weeks of golf in the year from now on and also got no funds until my student loan comes in for next year. However, i know what i need to keep an eye on and what my pieces were from last time so i get move forwards by myself for a while. I shall post some video tonight or tomorrow with my thoughts.

I'm now back at uni and so no golf for at least 6 weeks now. And after that probably only weekly range sessions until Christmas with 1 or 2 rounds at most i suspect.

Anyway, i thought i would review my short term goals I set for this summer last month:

1 - i did played as many times as possible. I got in around about 15 rounds over 3 weeks which was a lot of fun! I probably would have played even more if it was not for the rain. I played all these rounds at my new home course which i am now very familiar with and have mapped all tee shots and greens with decision maps as per LSW. Also broke 88 (+18) for all but 1 of the rounds i played (i did have 3 times where i stopped scoring/stopped after 9 holes due to poor playing and rain though).

My new course record is 85 which i shot 4 times and i had A LOT of rounds at 87. Handicap index dropped from 18 to 16. Halfway to my goal of 14 by 2015. I only have probably 4-5 rounds left in the year so probably won't get there but i only need to shoot one round of 80 or two rounds of 82 to get me there so it's still possible but unlikely. But still happy with my progress considering i have only really played 20 rounds since i set my goal back in April.

2- The short game practice didn't really happen. I'll make the excuse that i was playing in all my spare time whilst it wasn't raining and also didn't have my putter for a week as it was getting re-gripped and counterweighted (finally!). Also got a lot of practice in playing.

I did however practice putting for at least 30mins per week and i putted at an average of 1.8 per hole or 32 per round for the 3 weeks at home. Good enough at this point in time i would say.

Short game was practiced on the course because i got a few slow rounds every week where i had time to drop 5+ balls around every single green and practice chipping and some pitches. I'm getting some good results which the chipping with a putting stroke as per @mvmac and his thread. My bunker play has been awesome (50% greenside sand saves from 10 attempts this month). However, overall i would like to improve my scrambling percentage (currently between 20-30% when nGIR) in the future but not going to worry about this until i can get playing regularly again.

3 - i did a huge amount of full swing practice this month. I was doing slow motion mirror work every day without exception and proper practice in the net every other day or so. I haven't changed the picture much due to all the playing, but have got better at key #2 and maintained progress from my work my Brian earlier in the year so pretty pleased.

Current piece is weight forward but i shall also get the backswing a touch shorter again. I let the arms start to run a bit far again by the end of last week but i know it's getting there. I get better at this piece the less frequently i play and the more slow work i do.  Encouraged by the results from last week though, i know i have a swing which when i get the weight forward and don't overswing, i can make solid contact (no tops, chunks or 10ft high thins) 95%+ of the time. I also see a nice high push draw when i strike the ball solidly which i'm loving!

Short term goals for now until Christmas:

1. Indoor practice without a ball every day.
2. Stretching and lifting at the gym 4-5x per week. Follow on goal from that to gain some strength and flexibility
3. When i can get to hit balls whilst at uni.
4. Once i get home on Dec 22, play lots and hope for a miracle round of 80 to get cut to 14