"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge (March 2016)

[Lihu]

8 hours ago, Lihu said:

I only had to regress 4 times today between 60 and PW between steps 2 and 3. Starting to show some good results.

I was able to carry the 235 flag with range balls in wet 50F temperatures. Roughly 240 yard carries. At first, I put too much wrist too early and pulled a few shots. Once I regressed back to my wedge and practiced the timing better I was able to hit them straight. Then I worked my way back to my driver and got 5 shots with 240 straight carries with my Titleist 910 D2 9.5 Kaili R/mid shaft, nice high shots. I think there was even a light breeze against us because those 5 shots were well beyond the "ball line".

I pretty much put everything I had behind these shots, but feel like I can get a little more from the wrist "release" timing. All the shots were okay but still not as good as that one shot from my last round (3-4-2016, hole 13, 49F E. O. Nay). That shot is now my "goal". It was the most powerful shot I ever made, and I would really love to reproduce it.

Played a horrible round, but the driver performed exactly as expected. No roll. Not sure what I was doing wrong, and I just could not reproduce that "golden drive".

[WUTiger]

Practiced grip and set/up for 10 min. Was inconsistent on this in Monday's round.

[Big Lex]

March 9. More of the same. Pitches and chips off the carpet, into the bubble wrap-filled bag.

Putting....experimenting and working on routine.

For example...how do you train yourself to start a putt online ("bead")? You use a gate device. I have several of them, including the aimpoint thing, a Pelz ball-bearing one. I've been doing this for years and I'm good at it. Yet on real greens, without the device, I don't do it as well. I think the reason, at least with respect to the Aimpoint trainer, is that the trainer itself gives you optical cues that aren't present during a real stroke. So grooving the stroke with a drill or device is not enough. I need a way to make it carry over to real putting.

To do that, I'm experimenting with pre-stroke routine. I am using the Aimpoint gate in reverse, putting into it rather than from within it, so that the device itself doesn't give me an optical cue. What the experiment is is trying to find what sort of pre-stroke routine can get me to hit it online most often. Today, it is practice strokes directly over the ball (i.e., in mid-air, so to speak). This gives me a visual image of a putter path, and I stroke until I think I have the path which will start the ball on line. Then, I sole the putter and putt. So far, this is working quite well.

[Lihu]

Hit a few balls with 60 up to 8i. Very happy with my 8i flights. I think they are high as I'm going to get with the Xstiff shafted blades I am hitting.

Going to switch back to the Ping i20 once I get them lengthened back to the standard lengths. As an aside they were cut down for my son for when he was 6 inches shorter, and now they're mine. Might end up putting in new KBS Tour Stiff shafts or something with a lower kick point?

[MiddleTees]

Full yoga for golfers, medicine ball, dead lift and backswing drill at gym then out to range. Hit mostly irons/hybrid in backswing drill. Much better results.

[tosob]

I started a golf fitness workout today. Just hit some pitches and chips in the garage. worked on setup.

 

[Dave325]

Did about 3.5 hours of practice today, going through my various drills with different irons and hybrids, both backswing and downswing drills. I noticed I started sliding back a bit on my backswing and made that correction after taking some videos. Changed up practice with focusing on pitching, chipping and my driver swing (still issues here). Worked this evening in the garage with game situation changing four clubs - hybrid, 5-iron, A wedge and 60 degree pitch shot. Focused on my weight shift forward with hybrids and iron. Focus on hip turn and letting club fall with wedge. It's coming a bit better every day. Videoed my drills and made a submission to Evolvr. Rain all day tomorrow, so will resort to using the garage tomorrow for practice.

[Lihu]

7 hours ago, Lihu said:

Hit a few balls with 60 up to 8i. Very happy with my 8i flights. I think they are high as I'm going to get with the Xstiff shafted blades I am hitting.

Going to switch back to the Ping i20 once I get them lengthened back to the standard lengths. As an aside they were cut down for my son for when he was 6 inches shorter, and now they're mine. Might end up putting in new KBS Tour Stiff shafts or something with a lower kick point?

Went to the grass rough range this afternoon waiting for my son. Hit them a lot better now that my transition is slower and my swing is "tighter" in to my body. I was on the verge of getting loose and sloppy, and tightened things up a bit. Good results. Not phenomenal drives byt I am getting my draw back and able to hit more consistently with my Ping i25 PWR55 S driver.

[WUTiger]

Played Willbrook Plantation in Pawley's Is, SC

Tee shots better overall. Knocked two through landing area. Getting draw or slight push//

5 of 7 FW shots really solid. 34 putts total.

Iron shots inconsistent. (Beehive brain)

Six terrible full shots ruined round. Play again Thurs.

Full shots: L elbow looser > turn rather than slide. Need also 2 work on weight balance.

 

[srjorion]

I'm just getting back into playing after over a year out of the game thanks to a herniated disc in my lower back.  I've played a couple of rounds recently plus been hitting the range just making easy swings, but now starting to work on the details to get my swing back into shape.

I'm working through a sequence of drills from an instructor I worked with a few years back that I always went through starting each season.  My first focus is on the impact position, with emphasis on ensuring I have a flat left wrist.  I spent five minutes working on the last foot of the swing leading to impact, slowly bringing the club into the ball and then back out again to get the feel.  Actually did this morning and evening for five minutes each.

 

[MiddleTees]

Short yoga routine to stretch, medicine ball routine, dead lift and backswing drill with weighted club in gym. Rainy day so back home to barn hitting old 5w and 9i in slow mo backswing drill and pivot drill. Today's focus on left arm coming across body instead of out , inside out path and square club at impact.

More local courses opening. As of latest news, Sunset Ridge due to open 4/1. Hoping to play opening day.

[Lihu]

17 hours ago, Lihu said:

Went to the grass rough range this afternoon waiting for my son. Hit them a lot better now that my transition is slower and my swing is "tighter" in to my body. I was on the verge of getting loose and sloppy, and tightened things up a bit. Good results. Not phenomenal drives but I am getting my draw back and able to hit more consistently with my Ping i25 PWR55 S driver.

Working on the same thing getting ready for a round at lunch.

[tosob]

Worked on pitches and chips in the garage . hitting into a net

\

 

[Lihu]

6 hours ago, Lihu said:

On 3/10/2016 at 6:40 PM, Lihu said:

Went to the grass rough range this afternoon waiting for my son. Hit them a lot better now that my transition is slower and my swing is "tighter" in to my body. I was on the verge of getting loose and sloppy, and tightened things up a bit. Good results. Not phenomenal drives byt I am getting my draw back and able to hit more consistently with my Ping i25 PWR55 S driver.

Working on the same thing getting ready for a round at lunch.

Played 13 holes, and shot one under bogey

Then played 5 more on the longer course with my partners.

My driver is spraying all over the place, and I'm not really sure why. I was using a R flex Kaili mid kick 910D2, Ping G15 10.5 X100 and just switched to Ping i25 PWR55 S flex for today's round.

My last hole that I bogeyed on the longer course played from 418 yards went like this: driver trims a large tree branch off and  bounces through more trees, hit 7i out of trees too far into other fairway, then 3i punch shot to the front fringe of the green, Texas wedge to 2 feet, putt.

It was an awful driving day and it was clear that I was putting a lot of speed on the ball, but I couldn't keep it straight. The few straight drives I made ballooned so high from the spin I put on it?

The X100 driver did not spin nearly as much, but I felt like I couldn't get that snap through impact that generates a large chunk of my swing speed with graphite shafts. Maybe that snap is what's causing all this crap to happen? Maybe I should try to prevent that snap from happening? Not sure, really.

All I know is that I seem to be having trouble where there was none before winter. It's entirely possible that the extra muscles I developed swinging the Cobra 46.75" X300 driver around caused this issue?

More practicing and tuning, I guess? Luckily, my 3W/hybrid are still okay.

[Dave325]

Rainy day today, so spent about 3 hours or so working on drills in the garage. Focused on head position and continuing the weight forward through to final position. Added a new feel for this by making the weight on the outside of the left foot. Worked through this with various irons and hybrids. Spent some time working on pitches in the basement and garage. I am happy with how thee pitch is going. Will plan on checking my swing with some real balls (not practice balls). Followed up with a little putting practice working on a quicker stroke. Feel good with the putting now.

[WUTiger]

Played at Tidewater GC in North Myrtle Beach.

Got in dynamic stretches, some half swing form shots, short game and 20 full shots pre-round.

Round was inconsistent. Had several solid drives, along with some low pulls and (!) slap  slices. Plinked the pin with 8i chip and later a LW for tap-in putts, but chunked some short wedges on other holes

Need some focused drills post-spring break to get this swing tamed

 

[Big Lex]

Geez had the window open for my response yesterday, but work issues got in the way. Anyway....today (like yesterday)--

1. Chip and pitch into the bag. I practice with a group of 6 balls, and I want 6 out of 6 with solid contact. All I am really working on here is the weight forward key. If I can't do it 99 times out of 100 on little shots, how can I expect to on full shots?  At the moment, I'd say I am between 80 and 90% OVERALL on this drill. Most of the errors occur in the first set of 6 for the day. Once I've hit a few, I typically will go on a run and get 17 of 18, say.

2. Putting. Again, alternating....6 foot putts on a carpet, and stroke practice where I try to get the ball to roll between a tee-gate, without the benefit of any alignment device or tool. Just roll through the gate. This is hard!!

The photos show my makeshift beanbag for quietly accepting chip shots , my putting cup, and the Aimpoint putter gate. It's designed for you to putt _out_ of it, but I putt _into_ it. This allows you to test yourself over a longer distance, and also to see if you can start it online without the benefit of the parallel lines which are written on the training aid. I use it the normal way, also, of course, but I find using it the other way can help you develop your eye/aiming ability, as well as honing your ability to stroke the ball online.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Big Lex

[Lihu]

Working on slowing down my transition even more. I think the club head is meandering around, and I need to be smoother during the downswing. The shaft is a great fit for me (swing speed and distance numbers match up pretty well), but I think I'm torquing the shaft because I am coming down too sharply somewhere and mishit the face. I reviewed my better drives from yesterday on GG, and they went pretty much full distance. So, I know it is possible to get decent drives, but it will take some work and a few more bad rounds with my Ping i25 to straighten things out (so to speak).