Pete's Programme (Single Digit to Tour Player)

[Nosevi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shorty

I wouldn't even waste my time for one minute on a putting mat like that. You aren't reading the putt and you are hitting every on at the same speed and weight. Which makes you good at putting on that particular mat.  10 minutes practicing 6 footers from different spots on a real green would be better than a year on that thing for your stroke.

This is the only way I can practice putting, since I am on the course waiting for other people anyway. Even so, I suck at putting. . .

Hi Lihu. Yep, I do a lot of that too. When I'm out on my own without anyone behind me I sometime linger on a green for 20 or 30 minutes, throw a bunch of balls out and putt and chip from different spots. So much better than a putting green which tends to be flatter and less interesting than some of the greens on our course.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shorty

I wouldn't even waste my time for one minute on a putting mat like that. You aren't reading the putt and you are hitting every on at the same speed and weight. Which makes you good at putting on that particular mat.  10 minutes practicing 6 footers from different spots on a real green would be better than a year on that thing for your stroke.

This is the only way I can practice putting, since I am on the course waiting for other people anyway. Even so, I suck at putting. . .

Hi Lihu. Yep, I do a lot of that too. When I'm out on my own without anyone behind me I sometime linger on a green for 20 or 30 minutes, throw a bunch of balls out and putt and chip from different spots. So much better than a putting green which tends to be flatter and less interesting than some of the greens on our course.

Plus, your physical and mental state are different on the course. As long as no one is waiting for me (or us if in a group), it seems like practicing putting is okay.

I thought about practicing on a "perfect putting surface" while practicing on the course today. I think you need both but for different reasons as you outlined. I'm pretty sure my stroke is different each time I make one. It seems like sometimes I tense up and over hit my putts, other times I under hit them because I lost my nerve from over hitting them. It seems like practicing the stroke enough times on even a "perfect" surface or at least something repeatable can give your putting stroke some confidence and with it some consistency?

[Nosevi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosevi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shorty

I wouldn't even waste my time for one minute on a putting mat like that. You aren't reading the putt and you are hitting every on at the same speed and weight. Which makes you good at putting on that particular mat.  10 minutes practicing 6 footers from different spots on a real green would be better than a year on that thing for your stroke.

This is the only way I can practice putting, since I am on the course waiting for other people anyway. Even so, I suck at putting. . .

Hi Lihu. Yep, I do a lot of that too. When I'm out on my own without anyone behind me I sometime linger on a green for 20 or 30 minutes, throw a bunch of balls out and putt and chip from different spots. So much better than a putting green which tends to be flatter and less interesting than some of the greens on our course.

Plus, your physical and mental state are different on the course. As long as no one is waiting for me (or us if in a group), it seems like practicing putting is okay.

I thought about practicing on a "perfect putting surface" while practicing on the course today. I think you need both but for different reasons as you outlined. I'm pretty sure my stroke is different each time I make one. It seems like sometimes I tense up and over hit my putts, other times I under hit them because I lost my nerve from over hitting them. It seems like practicing the stroke enough times on even a "perfect" surface or at least something repeatable can give your putting stroke some confidence and with it some consistency?

That's the theory.

Like I say, at the moment I'm struggling (and by that I mean my putting is lagging behind the rest of my game in terms of improvement - it's not bad just not where I want it) but I know the stroke is reasonably repeatable but like iacas says it's a matter of picking the right line and actually starting the ball off on it. My guess is that without the edges that the mat has my alignment is off but that's something I can work on. Both the pros I practice with are very good around the greens (obviously) but the girl is a seriously great putter. She's away at a tournament right now, spoke to her via text yesterday and she's back next week and has said she'll show me some of the putting drills she uses. Hopefully they'll help.

[Nosevi]

Just thought I'd add a little bit to this thread.

Firstly I commented on the Dan Plan thread about potential driving distance in real yards rather than internet yards. Whenever you write something like that you'll have people who doubt you and while that may not matter a great deal I might as well post a drive hit on my launch monitor not so long ago to head off any doubt:

I didn't start playing hitting it long off the tee, in fact it was pretty obvious I needed to put in some real effort to get the ball out there. The programme I did was really very simple - lots of core work combined with lots of low weight/high rep work. I also did some heavier weight work and squats etc but really it was mainly about building overall strength starting with my core. If I want to go further, that's when the real explosive power work will be needed but there's no point in doing that before you have the basic strength to support it.

While I rarely need this sort of length on the courses I play now, I will do as I progress so thought I'd put in the 'hard yards' in the gym early on in my overall programme.

[Nosevi]

During my programme I assess every aspect of my game, both on course and specific skills off it. Every area has targets which are assessed to ensure everything is moving in the right direction. The programme itself is split into 'trimesters' and there's basically a mid-term check and end of trimester (or phase) assessment. If I'm not trending towards a given target at the mid-phase check I put more effort into that area in the second half of the phase.

Seems to be working as I hit every on course target over the last phase and moved forwards in the off course skills assessments as well. This is a flavour of the sort of thing I look at:

One area off course I look at is kind of like a mini 'combine' on my launch monitor. I have to hit certain dispersion targets with a Pitching Wedge, 8 iron, 6 iron and Driver while slowly moving that dispersion circle away from me. Not sure if this will make sense but if I'm hitting the ball a bit further each time but hitting inside the same dispersion circle, I'm in effect getting more accurate. Anyway, this is my 'mini-combine' from phase 1 compared to now at the end of phase 2, these are all carry (obviously):

I kind of messed up one of the 6 iron shots but the others were close enough that overall they're still inside the target dispersion circle so I can live with that. I've also got a couple of niggling injuries so didn't want to spend too long trying to get a good 'combine' score and was hitting a relaxed fade in for all the irons. I've been working on my fade recently as my coach prefers the shot into a green. bit undecided myself......

You can actually see from this a few areas that I've really worked on:

Driving distance is up on average and more of them are down the middle - 6 out of 8 down the centreline will do for now and is certainly better than the 2 I got before.

I felt I wasn't getting enough birdie putts after a wedge shot in so have focused a lot on that area, seriously improved my dispersion there. Birdies are starting to show up on the scorecard as a result.

Looking at LSW and the Separation values it was obvious that I needed to tighten up on my longer irons. Taking out that one bad contact the dispersion circle is less than half what it was. This has translated to much better par 3 performance.

That's just a flavour of what I look at and how I focus my practice. For me it's a combination of hours practising specific skills then taking those skills onto the course. If you can't hit good shots on the launch monitor then you've got very little chance of doing it out on the course.

[MacDutch]

Thanks for posting. Really interesting stuff!

[Nosevi]

Thanks for posting. Really interesting stuff!

Thanks.

Another thing I've been working on relates back to what Erik and I were discussing earlier in the thread - putting performance on a mat compared to on a real green. I still use the mat to practice my stroke but the percentage I was getting on the putting green was far less than on the mat. My call was that I was using the edge of the mat to line up my putts ie I was putting down the channel formed by the mat (as well as getting a little help from 'topography' :) )

Stage one was to go to the green and lay some canes out about the same width apart as the edge of my mat and putt from 9 feet out. I was getting about 8 out of 10 with these guides in place. I then took away the cane furthest from me and putted at the same hole. At first my percentage dropped a bit confirming I think that the channel I was using was helping my alignment. Gradually though my percentage came up and I was back to about 80% (bearing in mind we're talking putting at a known break). Once that had been achieved I took away the second cane. Again the percentage dropped but it crept back up again as I imagined putting down a channel rather than having to actually have the channel there. Lastly I spent quite a while going round the green putting a single ball at each hole from 9 feet. My percentage was far better than before I started (was up at about 70%, I know the green pretty well though) so I think the whole exercise worked pretty well. It also translated to a few more birdies on the course.

This was from 9 feet with the 2 canes in place. I often practice with a little break in the putt as it means you need both the line and pace to be right. The two I miss left aren't quite as bad as they look, just pulled a fraction, but the camera angle makes them look pretty awful. The break is obviously right to left across the hole.

[Nosevi]

When I'm practising I try to either be practising technique or performance. If I'm practising technique I'm not too concerned about the outcome (say I'm making a change to my swing) but when I'm assessing performance I'm not too concerned about my technique - I just trust that what I'm doing in my technical practice works its way into my game. Seems to work for me.

Looking at chipping practice I've taken on board two things told to me by a young tour pro I sometimes practice with. Firstly a chip is only as good as the putt that follows it. If you don't get up and down it wasn't a good chip no matter how close you got it, if you miss the putt the chip clearly wasn't good enough. Secondly if you're assessing performance (in this case how good you are at chipping) it's pointless to chip ball after ball at the same flag. In the putting example I gave above, when I wanted to know whether my putting was getting any better from about 9 feet I went round the green putting one ball at each flag.

This is our putting green which we can chip on as well. Looks a bit better than this right now, this was a couple of months ago:

My standard chipping drill is to take 3 balls and chip to 3 of the flags from a single spot, I then go and putt out on each of them. I go back to the same spot and chip to the next 3 flags, putting out afterwards and finally chip then putt to the last 3 from that same spot. I then move round the edge of the green to another spot to start from. Hours of fun. The putting green is 90 feet end to end so you get some fair length chips. Got to say that chipping has become a strength though so it's worth putting in the time on this aspect of the game. My iron play isn't too bad so if I miss the green on an approach I'm often looking at a chip to get up and down.

If you don't die of boredom from watching it, this is the drill. I only recorded the first 3 holes, if anyone wants I could record the whole 9 hole drill some time but based on the fact I get bored silly doing it I figured no one would want to watch it. Generally speaking I make about 7 out of the 9.

[Nosevi]

One thing that really struck me quite a bit is the similarities in my approach to another programme that was posted up on the Dan Plan thread......... but not Dan's. It was a challenge in the UK for a guy to get to be an expert at table tennis in a year. I hadn't heard of it before seeing it posted up on that thread but there are a lot of very similar approaches we've both taken.

Unlike some other plans but similar to mine the guy used a coach a lot to guide his progress but also aspects of the plan are almost a carbon copy of some aspects of mine. There are things like the necessity to have finances in place, the requirement for a certain amount of talent (I've taken to golf relatively quickly, whether I continue to improve is another matter....) playing with better players to push yourself, getting hold of tech to help you (GC2 in my case, table tennis machine in his), physical conditioning programme aimed specifically at the sport (I've actually had the same physical profiling as our international squad players and my physical programme is based around areas I need to improve physically ie all in my case :) )

I watched a video the other day which was a Q&A; from the coach and the guy doing the table tennis challenge, Sam, and even some of the lessons he's learned in matches mirror what I've found in my first trip out in a Matchplay event. Another interesting one was in what Sam and his coach felt was one of the biggest breakthroughs. Watch the vid from 9:45 and it describes a drill they almost stumbled across and the next question carries on from there:

Now compare and contrast with a drill I made up which I posted a while ago to help learn feel and control in the long game:

Mine isn't particularly useful on the course, his isn't going to help in a match but both basically do exactly the same thing - they help you learn how to control the ball, and both do it in basically the same way.

This, to me, is deliberate practice - drills and exercises to help you learn a skill that you can then use on the course.

[iacas]

Mine isn't particularly useful on the course, his isn't going to help in a match but both basically do exactly the same thing - they help you learn how to control the ball, and both do it in basically the same way.

I disagree that it's as good as you seem to think.

In table tennis, one of the tougher things to do is to read and react to the spin that comes at you. You can get in a groove where you're just smashing topspins back and forth, but then to chop one and then to go right back to a topspin is tough.

In golf, hitting fades and draws isn't terribly useful: players hit the same types of shots 95% of the time. Better to have a pattern than to keep switching it up.

The fade/draw drill is not entirely without use, or help, etc. but I wouldn't use it too often. More of a warmup game or something to do when things are fairly well cemented (little peaks among the climb in skill). If you can hit a three-yard draw every time with your stock swing, after all, a fade should simply be a matter of lining up farther left without moving the face as far left so you can fade the ball.

[Nosevi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nosevi

Mine isn't particularly useful on the course, his isn't going to help in a match but both basically do exactly the same thing - they help you learn how to control the ball, and both do it in basically the same way.

I disagree that it's as good as you seem to think.

In table tennis, one of the tougher things to do is to read and react to the spin that comes at you. You can get in a groove where you're just smashing topspins back and forth, but then to chop one and then to go right back to a topspin is tough.

In golf, hitting fades and draws isn't terribly useful: players hit the same types of shots 95% of the time. Better to have a pattern than to keep switching it up.

The fade/draw drill is not entirely without use, or help, etc. but I wouldn't use it too often. More of a warmup game or something to do when things are fairly well cemented (little peaks among the climb in skill). If you can hit a three-yard draw every time with your stock swing, after all, a fade should simply be a matter of lining up farther left without moving the face as far left so you can fade the ball.

I won't disagree that you want a stock shot (I have one, a small draw) and cementing that is what's most important. Like I said, although I'm not about to go on the course and start fading and drawing for no apparent reason, the drill or exercise did allow me to get a feel for how to shape the ball one way or the other and after doing it for a while I got a far better feeling for how to put the ball where I want it on the course.

There are holes on both my home courses that call for either a fade or a draw so being able to do either is handy as it is if the wind is blowing from one side or the other, but mostly it was about learning how to get the ball to do what I wanted it to do, basically getting a bit of feel. Obviously you're right, you need a stock shot, and I'd guess I do this drill about once a week if that, maybe hitting 30 balls each time but probably then hit 200 - 300 stock shots afterwards, maybe with the odd fade thrown in, as well as having most days where I'm just hitting a stock shot pretty much every time.

It's a means to an end. I think the coach in the table tennis clip said you'd never want to play a chop against a top spin coming at you (no idea, don't play the game) but practising doing it gave Sam a bit more feel for how to control the ball. The drill I do is similar - no, I'm not going to start hitting left and right for no reason but practising doing it gave me more feel for how to control my ball flight. I just found the similarity interesting.

[Huddo]

Hi Pete, loving reading your thread!  Is the course above Blankney Golf course as I live in Lincoln and it looks very similar?! Regards, Matt

[Crim]

While I'm saying where I am now I may as well show the setup I have. I combined building a garage with making it big enough to fit a golf sim in. I went for a Net Return Simulator Series as I needed to be able to dismantle the setup if I want to use the space for something else. You can see the car is protected by what is called a 'carcoon' on the left - an inflatable bubble just in case! The garage pics show my pitching practice area at home, guessing it'll develop over time....

I've told my wife not to be surprised if one day she comes home and finds an artificial putting green in her small wildflower meadow - not sure if she thought I was joking ....... It's not a bad place up here to think about today's round and plan tomorrow though, although think I'm going to have to lose the glass of wine more times than not :)

Lastly a tad off topic but upstairs was supposed to be my wife's office:

But I pointed out that her desk really didn't take up that much room and, well.......... bit of persuading but in the corner of that shot it gives away that I won :)

O....m.....g.

Your place is absolutely gorgeous.

[Nosevi]

Hi Pete, loving reading your thread!  Is the course above Blankney Golf course as I live in Lincoln and it looks very similar?! Regards, Matt

Hi Matt. Yep, I'm a member of both Blankney and Pottergate. Give me a shout if you want a game any time, I'm at one or the other most days :)

O....m.....g.

Your place is absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks mate. To be honest it wasn't anything special when we got it but a little vision helped to transform it a tad. We bought some land next to it and set to work transforming the place a bit.

From:

To:

Gate in the far right hand corner goes into a den for my 2 boys under the trees, keeps the rest of the garden respectable - one of my better ideas

[Crim]

Wow, well done! Very serene.

[Nosevi]

Wow, well done! Very serene.

Thanks. I'm pretty pleased with it if I'm honest

[Huddo]

Quote:

Hi Matt. Yep, I'm a member of both Blankney and Pottergate. Give me a shout if you want a game any time, I'm at one or the other most days :)

Wow, it sure can seem a small world sometimes!  It's a lovely set-up at Blankney, I had a few lessons with Graham towards the end of last year............probably should have persevered but I'm now enrolled online with evolvr which has really helped, plus all the great guys on here!  Really appreciate the game invite and hopefully I will be able to join you one day but my game is nowhere near good enough for Blankney yet, I have only managed under 100 once at Welton since I started last September so it's certainly work in progress!

I will keep an eye on your progress and may have to pop down to have a chipping practice session with you! Regards, Matt

[Nosevi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huddo

Quote:

Hi Matt. Yep, I'm a member of both Blankney and Pottergate. Give me a shout if you want a game any time, I'm at one or the other most days :)

Wow, it sure can seem a small world sometimes!  It's a lovely set-up at Blankney, I had a few lessons with Graham towards the end of last year............probably should have persevered but I'm now enrolled online with evolvr which has really helped, plus all the great guys on here!  Really appreciate the game invite and hopefully I will be able to join you one day but my game is nowhere near good enough for Blankney yet, I have only managed under 100 once at Welton since I started last September so it's certainly work in progress!

I will keep an eye on your progress and may have to pop down to have a chipping practice session with you! Regards, Matt

It is indeed, I know Graham well. If you'd prefer a game at your place or Pottergate it'd be fine, Blankney can be a little daunting when you first set out. If not, no issues. I'm playing for Pottergate this year and we have a match at your place against your 1st team on 4th July, I need to get a practice round in there sometime soon as I've never been round your course. If it's not 'consorting with the enemy' too much we could hit the course together if only to show me what it's like, no pressure to score well :)

Think it'd go down ok with your team. We had a friendly against Welton at ours not long ago, just got pipped by one hole in my first ever match by the guy who I think is going to be your captain this year (Irish lad, either Chris or Simon, awful at remembering names) and a lad called Arron who played for Woodhall 1st team last year I believe so I currently have a zero percent success rate :) Anyway, we all got on pretty well and they'll be coming over to use my 'swing studio' and launch monitor some time so I don't think they could complain if I got a tour of your course :)