Pete's Programme (Single Digit to Tour Player)

[Nosevi]

Just a quick post. In another thread @Lihu suggested I watch "Never say die" a short video about Jason Day. I'd encourage everyone to watch it. I've always been a fan of Day, even more so after watching that video. A link is here: [VIDEO]http://youtu.be/V_SugpKp-bQ[/VIDEO] Now I wouldn't in any way liken myself to Jason - there's no personal tragedy driving me, I'm not from an underprivileged background and I'm a bit older than he was as he was working on his game. We're also on different sides of the globe. In fact our situations couldn't be more different. The only place I would say there's the slightest similarity, an area where I think we'd see eye to eye, is the idea that in order to achieve something special you have to work hard. In the video it talks of Jason getting up at 5 AM to start practising. I can relate to that - here's s picture I happened to take over the summer: I'm actually out on an early morning practice round, something I did often over the summer and this is on the 5th tee at my home club. No idea if you can check the time stamp of the photo (I'm uploading from my phone) but if you can you'll see it was taken on my iphone at 5:06 AM. Teeing off at 4:30-4:45 having got up at 4 AM was pretty common over the summer to get the most practice time in. I get to lie in now it's darker in the mornings, there's little point in an early start but the alarm is set for 5AM tomorrow as usual so I can hit the gym early while it's still dark so I don't use time I could be practising doing phys. Like I say, very little similarity between Jason and me, most noticeably he's better at golf, but in this one area I think we agree - if you want to acieve something most people will fail to accomplish you have to work harder than they are willing to work.

[Gridiron]

Pete, I hope each day you take just one moment to enjoy the peace and beauty of those mornings. :)

[Nosevi]

Pete, I hope each day you take just one moment to enjoy the peace and beauty of those mornings. :)

I do, it's a great time of day to be out on the course. Mainly as sensible people are nowhere near it :-)

[ChrisWev]

Looks like awesome facilities, wish my course had that, can't chip onto the practice green (which is about 1/4 the size off that one) at my course.

What's the membership cost at that course?

[Nosevi]

Looks like awesome facilities, wish my course had that, can't chip onto the practice green (which is about 1/4 the size off that one) at my course. What's the membership cost at that course?

Morning Chris. The facilities are pretty good for practice and it's very much the club locally where better players tend to play (hence being able to hook up with the likes of Sam, Brian, Rob and Jess). As well as the practice green which you can see towards the top of the picture below there's a full length grass range to the south of it with several target areas with flags on now and range mats to the south of the practice green (didn't have either mats or target areas when this picture was taken) which you can hit their balls on if you want or can hit your own and pick them up if it's quiet (I do the latter), a 'pitching range' again with small target areas out to about 150 yards to the west of the green, and a fair sized practice bunker to the east in which you can practice greenside shots to a target green (not kept to putting standard) you can just about see in front but also long bunker shots out to 60 yards and fairway bunker shots down the range. You can also play out of that tongue of rough you can see south of the pracice bunker down the range if you want to practice for when you miss the fairway or from the rough east of the practice bunker to the green in front of it. The course itself is only 6700 yards from the back of the white tee boxes (where I practice from) but is SSS 73 (CR 73.0) so not a bad test. Membership isn't cheap compared to many up here in Lincolnshire but is cheaper if you're younger to encourage guys in their teens and 20s to join. I need the practice facilities though and I get my money's worth as I'm there almost every day. Here's the fees: It's quite a nice place to spend your time though - this is looking over the 2nd green you can see to the west of that picture during and evening practice session:

[ChrisWev]

That's a really good price and set-up. Cost is practically identical to my course and it sounds the same with the range and practice facilities other than we just don't have the big green (cut to same level of the course) that you can hit little chips/ pitches on to. They say they're going to do it (there's loads of room) but never do. There's another course a bit closer to my house that has the lot but it's £1,500 a year, £1,000 to join and quite snooty.

[Nosevi]

That's a really good price and set-up. Cost is practically identical to my course and it sounds the same with the range and practice facilities other than we just don't have the big green (cut to same level of the course) that you can hit little chips/ pitches on to. They say they're going to do it (there's loads of room) but never do. There's another course a bit closer to my house that has the lot but it's £1,500 a year, £1,000 to join and quite snooty.

Yep, it's not bad, there's not a lot you can't practice there.

[Nosevi]

This post comes a little under the title of 'there's good news and bad news'. Well not great news anyway.

The not great news is my left elbow hasn't really improved. It's nothing serious, basically just a repetative strain injury through hitting thousands of golf balls over the last year and it will recover. As I said in another thread having played Rugby all my life I'm used to training and playing with the odd 'niggle' but having spoken to a physio I'm going to need to back it off for a few weeks. I'm also treating it with a gizmo called a Flexbar which is desinged to strengthen the musles and tendons that have been 'over worked'. It's no biggy, could play tomorrow if I wanted but I think the bright thing to do is listen to medical advice, take a break from long game for a few weeks and work on my my short game. Timing is pretty good tbh - I can work on my short game while the weather still allows and get back into long game in the swing studio when the winter closes in.

The slightly better news is the progress I've made with long game to this point whichis basically in the first year out of 5. One of the reasons for practising with players at the level I'm aiming at is to use them as benchmarks so I have targets to work towards in each area. All of them are very good golfers but they also each have their strengths - Jess it's definitely her short game, she just get's up and down from anywhere; Brian and Sam are both great around the green too but their game is much more 'long game dominant', they are huge off the tee and strike their irons really well; where Brian is an incredisbly aggressive player Rob appears to be more calculating and uses his experience, he also strikes the ball pretty well having played mostly Challenge Tour but on the European Tour a few times now. By looking at all of them I have targets to work towards in each area.

Part of the methodology of my approach is to divide off skills training from applying those skills on the course. I spend way more time (at the moment) working on building my skills off the course than I do applying them on it. We'll see if that approach works. My programme really started at the opposite end of the hole from Dan's (and I'm sure each approach has its benefits) with looking at getting the ball off the tee in a manner than would allow me to compete at the level I'm aiming at. I've worked on all aspects throughout but this was target number 1 because if I couldn't do that then frankly the plan was dead in the water before it even started. By base line was 275 yards carry minimum while hitting the fairway more than 66% of the time.

Having managed to drive the ball more of less how I need to area 2 is being able to strike my irons in an acceptable manner and here my swing studio has been really useful. Taking a mid iron here's some launch data:

The first is me last week so this is basically where I am now. The second is Sam (number 366 in the World Amateur rankings last time I checked and pipped for the England national team next year). He launches the ball on the same trajectory as me but hits a fade and gets a bit more spin. Carry is about the same. Third up is Brian (playing pretty successfully at the level I'm aiming at and made the cut in his first European Tour start recently). He's actually a few yards longer than this now but this was taken the week before he came 2nd in an event on the tour I'm aiming st so a great benchmark. He launches it lower than Sam and I and picks up a few yards by doing it. His spin is neigh on identical to mine and seems to get enough 'bite' where sam sometimes get's a bit too much he was saying. Last up it's Rob (mainly Challenge Tour player so 1 level up from my target but has played European Tour on several occasions). His launch is back up to the same as mine and Sam's although he gets a tad more spin than I get and a few extra yards. 

So where does this leave me? Well at the end of year one both my driving and my ball striking potential is up to where it needs to be to achieve my goal. I say 'potential' because this is shot on a launch monitor for all of us and not during a round in competition playing for money - big difference. It doesn't mean that I will make it because I can physically strike the ball more of less as well as 3 guys who have but it does at least mean it's not physically beyond my capabilities. Had I found that I could only ever carry the ball 250 and no way could I strike an iron like those guys then the project may as well have ended here. Luckily with a bit of hard graft I've proved to myself that's not the case. 

Moving forward then I've got a lot of short game ahead for the next month or so, probably mostly with Jess. That said had a great bunker 'lesson' with Sam yesterday and I'm sure I'll be seeing the others from time to time as well.

[Nosevi]

Btw, if you're wondering why our carry is all similar but total distance is different, I was hitting into a green, the other 3 were hitting onto a fairway.

[Nosevi]

Just made a quick vid as I was in the swing studio working on pitching yardages. sorry it ends abruptly, I started waffling (and more than usual!)

Couple of points. My wife said I was 'cheating' moving the pin to a set yardage. In this vid I'm trying to hit a set yardage each time, in this case 60 yards, but the pitch I'm doing using the 52 allows the ball to skip on about 2 yards, that's why I moved it

Secondly having seen this vid  @RandallT directed me to a vid made by @iacas here and there are some fairly obvious similarities to the technique I'm using and the one described there:

Firstly I control the distance very much by my core rotation. I find this is the most consistent way of doing it. I'm not sure if you can tell but I'm also using the bounce in the shot in order to stop any problems with hitting fat shots. I find this gives by far the best contact and with a decent golf ball you can skip and stop the ball from the shortest of pitches, especially using my 60 degree wedge..

Anyway, as always comments welcome....... other than the fact that I still need to lose a lot of weight. 2 stone down and counting but yes, there's a way to go yet. There again, there have been some good chubby golfers. Maybe I could just..... Nope, I need every advantage I can give myself and fitness is one of them

Edited October 10, 2015 by Nosevi

[Nosevi]

Was having a chat on The Dan Plan thread about course ratings and the differences between tour setups and the courses you practice on which seemed relevant to trying to see where Dan is now and I found it interesting as I had taken a few photos and videos of my home course this morning to share. One of the reasons I chose it was that it has aspects that are at least similar to courses I will be expected to play in the future, it's certainly not a 'resort course', so thought I'd show a little of that.

One of the things that visitors notice about yhe course id thr greens. In the summer they sre pretty quick but they are also undulating with some great breaks to them - you better be able to read (or reid?) a green or you're made to look very silly. I took some photos of the greens but you don't reall get an idea of the undulations but a putt across one of the greens maybe gives a better idea:

There's also some pretty good run off areas off some of the greens - come in short and you're out of luck. This is on the front of a longish par 3:

They also tend to tuck the flags away a bit to make life interesting. I'm on the mobile app but what should be the second picture below gives an idea from today and no I didn't take that flag on to that extent, I pushed it a little and got lucky.

 

 

 

[Nosevi]

Will finish that post tomorrow, for some reason the mobile app keeps crashing

[rkim291968]

Just a quick post. In another thread

@Lihu

suggested I watch "Never say die" a short video about Jason Day. I'd encourage everyone to watch it. I've always been a fan of Day, even more so after watching that video. A link is here: [VIDEO]

http://youtu.be/V_SugpKp-bQ

Now I wouldn't in any way liken myself to Jason - there's no personal tragedy driving me, I'm not from an underprivileged background and I'm a bit older than he was as he was working on his game. We're also on different sides of the globe. In fact our situations couldn't be more different. The only place I would say there's the slightest similarity, an area where I think we'd see eye to eye, is the idea that

in order to achieve something special you have to work hard. 

Hard work (working hard) is oft used phrase.   You understand what hard work is.   Many don't or grossly understate or underestimate what hard work is.   There is "hard work" and then there is "hard work" that makes you want to quit thousand times before the work is actually done.  It takes incredibly strong mind to overcome urges to quit and keep pushing oneself.   I am glad Jason's hard work is paying off big time these days.  I hope yours will as well.   Keep it up,

[Nosevi]

Hard work (working hard) is oft used phrase.   You understand what hard work is.   Many don't or grossly understate or underestimate what hard work is.   There is "hard work" and then there is "hard work" that makes you want to quit thousand times before the work is actually done.  It takes incredibly strong mind to overcome urges to quit and keep pushing oneself.   I am glad Jason's hard work is paying off big time these days.  I hope yours will as well.   Keep it up,

Thanks. Like I said, in no way would I liken myself to Jason but in this particular area I think we definitely see eye to eye.

I'll try to upload the last 2 images of my course that I was trying to upload yesterday, no idea why they wouldn't upload.

One on the biggest defences on many holes on my home course is the rough - it's massively penal and if you drive it off line you're not getting anywhere close to the green with your e=second shot, I don't care who you are. Quite a claim. This gives an idea of the rough along side quite a few of our fairways with my bag in shot to give some perspective. You've got to be properly off line to hit this stuff but if you are you're pitching out sideways if you happen to be lucky enough to find your ball.

So that gives an idea of my course - greens with some interesting routes across them that you really need to think about and fairways you really don't want to miss by too much. About the only thing it doesn't have is the length of the sort of set ups I'll hopefully one day be playing, it's about 10 yards per hole short from the back of the tee boxes where I practice from. I've come up with one solution to this and it's fairly simple - just walk the ball back 10 yards after every drive to play it as if it were a tad longer. I've done that a few times but for now it's a pretty good test.

 

[MacDutch]

Thats no rough, thats out of bounds without white stakes. 

[Nosevi]

Thats no rough, thats out of bounds without white stakes. 

Yep, but as you can see it runs down the side of that and several of the other fairways, you can see it in the vid showing the run off area in front of that par 3 green. Heard a visitor complaining to the pro about it once after a round, his responce was - "I advise you keep out of it then. Lessons can be booked through the pro shop."

[Nosevi]

Just a quick post about driving. I actually shot a quick vid for Randy (in case people haven't gathered and sure he won't mind me saying but he's an integral part of what I'm trying to achieve now - bounce ideas off him, he handles stats gathering, a certain take on assessment, we chat via video link most weeks...) but may as well post up as others may find it interesting.

Essentially it's a demo on how I've used the tech I have available to increase my driver distance. The distance the ball flies is a result of 3 things: ball speed (which is itself the result of clubhead speed, centreness of strike and dynamic loft), launch angle and spin. You need to maximise the first, optimise the second and limit the third in order to maximise your distance. You also need to be able to do that while remaining in balance, which hopefully you can see I'm doing by the slightly posey finish I tend to hold. 

Vid 1

Vid 2

I wondered whether to post up - carrying it 290 hitting 315 yards plus could be seen by some as bragging. If people choose to see it that way that's fine but it's an aspect of the game that becomes more important the higher level you play at. I want to eventually play at a higher level and being able to do this matters.

Anyway, if anyone wants me to try to describe how you hit a ball that hard with very little spin I'll try but it is a bit difficult to describe in words, be far easier if you popped over here for a session in the swing studio and I'll show you

Edited October 16, 2015 by iacas
embedded videos

[Nosevi]

Just thought I'd update where I am going into the autumn and maybe share a little data that we've been looking at. 

I think I've mentioned before that Randy wrote a strokes gained spreadsheet for me during the last year (ie before September - my years mirror our academic year in the UK). I tested it and he changed a few things and now we're happy it does what it needs to do it forms the basis of my on course performance tracking and focusing of my practice. Essentially what the spreadsheet does is compare each and every shot you hit to data from the PGA Tour to assess how good that shot was and says where you gained or lost a fraction of a shot compared to how the guys on the PGA Tour hit similar shots from similar lies. So for example if they hole 50% of putts from 8 feet (forget the exact range but it's close to 8 feet), if you hole a putt from 8 feet you gain 0.5 shots, miss an 8 footer and you lose 0.5 shots. That's an easy example and generally it'll be things like 0.03 shots lost because your drive hit the fairway but was fractionally shorter than their average on a hole that length making the next shot that much further from the pin. It looks at every shot from drive to putt and every lie from fairway, rough, sand or on the green. My course happens to have similar width fairways to that specified by the PGA Tour and although it's shorter that doesn't matter as it's comparing separate shots.

We've got a high degree of faith that it works - looking at the course ratings of the courses I play vs a score that would give zero strokes gained or lost it has average PGA performance in the plus 5 handicap range. Game golf assesses my current performance as 0.3 handicap and the spreadsheet gives it at 0.35 and I played with a guy off plus 4.6 on Monday and tracked his performance and other than his putting (he had a great day on the greens!) it put him 0.6 strokes lost to the PGA Tour average. We've tested it a lot and it does seem to work no matter what the course, it's all about your ability to advance the ball towards the hole. 

Why I really like it is that it breaks down your performance on the course and shows how you're doing in every area. These are my current averages:

Total strokes lost ave - 5.35
Strokes lost driving ave - 1.8
Strokes lost approach shots ave - 0.9
Strokes lost short game ave - 0.35
Strokes lost putting ave - 2.3

And this is how the spreadsheet displays a round (or 9 holes in this case):



So looking at the data I'm starting to get back I need to focus on putting (in a big way!!) and driving but I've made good progress in approach play and short game. This actually makes perfect sense as it's where I've put in the most effort recently. I hit far more iron shots on the sim than drives and around the practice green I've spent more time chipping and pitching than I have putting. I'd actually expect my driving strokes lost to go down in the spring anyway as your ability to advance the ball is a little restricted when the ball plugs in a soggy UK autumn fairway  Anyway, we'll be tracking my performance like this going forwards and focusing my practice based on how I'm performing strokes lost wise on the course. 

Just a couple of other points. We track the rounds through Game Golf and this gives an idea of how I'm doing traditional stats wise:  



And this gives an idea of sort of things I go into with the programme. If anyone's even remotely interested feel free to ask about any of them and I'll try to tell you why I look at that area:

 

Simply can't get the software to insert the pics of the spreadsheet and gamegolf in the right place so here they are (hopefully!)

Edited October 28, 2015 by Nosevi