"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge (April 2016)

[Lihu]

7 hours ago, Lihu said:

Half swings are working very well as a warmup and the bulk of my practice. Also, doing more slow motion swings.

Tried this out and it works very well and leaves me pretty much fresh for a round or two.

My new practice range procedure is to do:

1) 3 slow motion swings and about 20 half swings to get the muscles loosened up no balls

2) Do about another half swings with a ball until my contact is as good as I can get it.

3) Do another 2 slow motions swings

4) Full swing practice about 5 balls per iron and my hybrid, then 3-4 balls per wood depending upon how well I hit them. If worse I hit more.

5) Hit balls in a "simulated round". Do half swings as necessary to get the right "feel".

6) Wind down with half swings.

Before a round I plan to do step 1 if no practice time, and steps 1-4 if I have time to practice.

Waiting for the kids, got in a lot of short game work today. Hit a few drives that are going straighter. Maybe I'll be able to use it on this super narrow course after all?

Lots of work to do. . .

[Rainmaker]

Did 5 sessions today - about 20 minutes each.  I wasn't swinging as good as yesterday but I did get some good swings in.  I did 3/4 swings again - today with about 50% velocity. 

The first 4 sessions went the same way and were just with a 9 iron.  I started out by doing some slow-motion kind of drills.  Getting the feeling for my backswing position and shoulder plane.  Then started making some swings. Adding in the hip move I'm working on.  All good.  Then adding in the full extension move I"m working on . .not so much today. 

The last session was just me trying to hit good shots . .ie, as if I were playing.  I hit about 20-30 shots as roughly 50% speed . .maybe a little more.  Felt good.  Could feel the little casting move I still have but is now pretty small relative to what I started with.  Solid contact, though. 

[Avalanche]

Spent 35 minutes practicing 10 to 55 yard pitch shots.  10 minutes in sand trap.  10 minutes putting.  I also ordered a new (large) grip and 2" extension for my putter.   

[Lihu]

23 hours ago, Lihu said:

Half swings are working very well as a warmup and the bulk of my practice. Also, doing more slow motion swings.

Tried this out and it works very well and leaves me pretty much fresh for a round or two.

My new practice range procedure is to do:

1) 3 slow motion swings and about 20 half swings to get the muscles loosened up no balls

2) Do about another half swings with a ball until my contact is as good as I can get it.

3) Do another 2 slow motions swings

4) Full swing practice about 5 balls per iron and my hybrid, then 3-4 balls per wood depending upon how well I hit them. If worse I hit more.

5) Hit balls in a "simulated round". Do half swings as necessary to get the right "feel".

6) Wind down with half swings.

Before a round I plan to do step 1 if no practice time, and steps 1-4 if I have time to practice.

Found a way to get around not having enough stalls on the range. Hit off the hard pan to the side in the short game practice area. As long as I keep it under 6i, I'm good there. So, this golfer who strikes the ball really well (even though not long off the tee) was showing me how to get better at ball striking by hitting off hard pan. Sure enough, it kicked my butt. So, all the above will be done on hard pan from now on. It's way more humbling. Maybe too much. . .

[Rainmaker]

4 hours ago, Lihu said:

Found a way to get around not having enough stalls on the range. Hit off the hard pan to the side in the short game practice area. As long as I keep it under 6i, I'm good there. So, this golfer who strikes the ball really well (even though not long off the tee) was showing me how to get better at ball striking by hitting off hard pan. Sure enough, it kicked my butt. So, all the above will be done on hard pan from now on. It's way more humbling. Maybe too much. . .

 

I actually hit balls off my garage floor sometimes.  Just pull the mat away.  Not very often, though. 

 

edit - I intended this part to be a separate post but it got auto-merged . . .

Going to be a lazy day, I can tell . .but I already got my 5 minutes in, lol.  I hit about 5 balls in the garage. Hitting each one and then totally backing away - ie - set the club down, check my phone, sip some coffee, etc. 

Only thought's were playing thoughts.  I imagine landing my 9 iron on my neighbor's roof across the street.  5 on the roof and no imaginary broken window's today, lol. 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Rainmaker

[MiddleTees]

Did several session hitting into net of Hips pre set drill and Driver drill to stop slices, Keys 2 and 3. 

[Lihu]

Just did another 5 minutes of thin carpet work trying to impact after a tape marker. This is a 5 minute warmup before my 2 buckets working on the hard pan.

Spoiler

23 minutes ago, Rainmaker said:

I actually hit balls off my garage floor sometimes.  Just pull the mat away.  Not very often, though.

This could be hard on your club budget, and I can only imagine a conversation with your wife concerning purchasing new clubs.

"Honey, I need new clubs, and coincidentally we need to have the garage floor re-cemented."- You

"Didn't you just buy a set last month?"- Wife

"They wore down, I guess. See the bottom is almost worn completely off."- You

"Okay, honey, but don't buy the best clubs again, they only seem to last a month anyway."-Wife

[Rainmaker]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Just did another 5 minutes of thin carpet work trying to impact after a tape marker. This is a 5 minute warmup before my 2 buckets working on the hard pan.

 

  Hide contents

This could be hard on your club budget, and I can only imagine a conversation with your wife concerning purchasing new clubs.

"Honey, I need new clubs, and coincidentally we need to have the garage floor re-cemented."- You

"Didn't you just buy a set last month?"- Wife

"They wore down, I guess. See the bottom is almost worn completely off."- You

"Okay, honey, but don't buy the best clubs again, they only seem to last a month anyway."-Wife

 

That's not too far off, lol.  I have tons of old irons laying around my garage.   Just yesterday, though . .my ball rolled off the back of the mat and without thinking about it I just nipped it off the concrete . then I realized . .these are my new (to me) forged mizuno's . .what on Earth am I thinking, lol?  Luckily it was a clean nip. 

 

 

 

 

[WUTiger]

Played 18 for the first time since mid-March. Got off at 7:18 AM with a couples' twosome.

Range closed = no warm-up, so first two holes shaky. Theme: Had several bogies and a couple of pars, but back-to-back triple triple bogies on both side spoiled the day.

Tried the 12.5* Driveway Blaster off the tee. Some good hits, but several left missed. Had five iron shots from 120 to 160 yards out hold the green, but three came after dumping either a driver or a first approach, so not too many birdie putts.

Putting was erratic. Greens soft, and I just needed to stroke the ball harder.

Hit a small bucket of 6i shots post-round, and found I was letting my right shoulder creep forward at set up. This contributed to left misses, especially with longer clubs. Also, I need to set wrist cock more quickly on backswing (a pro I worked with a couple of years back had me doing this.) This idea about "let wrists cock naturally" leads to inconsistent position at top for me. Most of my wilder shots followed a little "wrist twitch" at top to try for a little extra whatever.

And, I'm emphasizing flat left wrist at set-up, and try to maintain it at top.

 

[Avalanche]

Tweaked my back doing a little yard work yesterday.  So I won't be taking full swings for a while.  

I swung by the practice green this AM for 35 minutes.  Played nine balls to the nine holes on the green, putting out each time.  Did this several times from different spots around the green. 

[Lihu]

More hard pan work. Hitting off a Matt or even grass is so much easier, that I feel like I'm cheating.

More back swing transition drills while getting an oil change. Using my iPhone 6S plus as a mirror.

[Ernest Jones]

15 minutes in the backyard working on the setup changes that Erik suggested. Contact is coming back. 

[MiddleTees]

Hips pre set drill and driver drill to stop slices, slow mo swings hitting into net in barn.

[WUTiger]

Demo Day at Stonewolf GC, my home course. Talked to reps and tested out clubs for more than 3 hours (took half hour for rest and lunch at middle).

Callaway, Mizuno and Ping sent reps to the day. I had gotten to sample all their wares in Orlando, so this was follow-up.

I ended up getting the Calla XR-16 Pro driver. Details in Clubs, Grips forum, if you're interested.

[Avalanche]

12 hours ago, Avalanche said:

Tweaked my back doing a little yard work yesterday.  So I won't be taking full swings for a while.  

I swung by the practice green this AM for 35 minutes.  Played nine balls to the nine holes on the green, putting out each time.  Did this several times from different spots around the green. 

My back was feeling better this afternoon, so I thought I'd try a couple of practice holes and see how it felt to take a full swing.  Played four holes.  Birdie, birdie, bogey, par.  Then the wheels fell off the wagon.  Ended with a triple bogey.  lol   

[Rainmaker]

Just finished up a little late night/early morning session.  I've been hitting with a chair up against my left leg.  I've been having a problem keeping track, mentally, of all the things I'm working on so the chair just takes the "forward lunge" issue out of the equation.  Like. . I don't have to keep it in my brain because the chair is there . .so my brain can focus on other things ..like allowing my arms to fully extend through impact - which is currently taking up ~75% of the processing power. 

I hit about 50 balls.  Pretty good session.  I really need to focus on allowing my arms to extend instead of "steering" . .that's the hardest thing for me to do right now. 

Edited April 24, 2016 by Rainmaker

[MiddleTees]

Several sessions of pre set hip drill throughout the day hitting slow mo shots into net in barn. Based on most advice seen on TST, golf is hard and making changes takes time. I am getting into to a nice routine with the drills.

[Lihu]

Spent most of my day moving stuff. I will say that my overall fitness and strength levels have gone up since last year.

Hit some half swings into my net. Practiced my slow steady swing and backswings.