"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge (April 2016)

[No Mulligans]

Did two things.

1) Overspeed training... This has been exciting as I've experienced an immediate and dramatic improvement in my driver distance.

2) My last round my most common miss was hitting the ball too close to the toe.  So my priority for this part of my lesson was maintaining my spine angle so I wouldn't lift my head and move my hips towards the ball on the downswing.  It is hard to feel toe hits when hitting foam balls into a net.  What I did was to make a two ball gate to hit through with the ball I was hitting in the middle of this gate, this way if I wasn't catching the ball in the middle of the club face I would hit one of the balls of the gate.  Did this with a 7 iron, 1/4, 1/2 and full swings.

[MiddleTees]

Another short practice day doing first hole routine with focus on PSR which is a slow mo modified Stead head and weight forward drills.

[Mop Bucket]

Worked again on grip and takeaway with mid irons in between homework sessions.

[Rainmaker]

Lighter day today - did 3, 20 minute sessions of just light swings and no video.  I felt "off" today so I didn't even try to make any hard swings.  I was getting great strikes with my PW.  Misses creeped up to around 50% down towards the 6 iron, the longest club I hit today.

The strikes I am getting, while there's not much behind them, are super crisp.

[WUTiger]

Worked on takeaway, A4 position in glass door reflection at my office for 5 minutes.

[Lihu]

Doing the slow motion swings to get the right body positions and proper "pressures". Using the mirror to see if there are any obvious differences, not really.

The feel is completely different. It's like I have that "full power stroke" on the good shots but anemic shots on all the bad ones. I get that good feeling and result a lot more often now than a year ago, but I want to get that feel and result on every single swing. I feel somewhat closer to achieving that, but need to be disciplined in my approach at every practice session. From now on I plan to do 80% half swings and 5-10 slow motion swings to get the right pressure feels before that. 20% full swings. Getting closer, but still have a long way to go.

[Avalanche]

15 minutes at the practice range.  Working on touch with my 52 and 56 wedges.  Hit several groups of eight balls towards a target from various lies and distances between 10 and 40 yds.

[Rainmaker]

Good morning session - about 20 quick, easy shots into the net with my 9 iron.  Working slow, feeling all the parts.  Left shoulder to right instep, feel the slight tension on the outside of the left knee at the top. 

Straighten onto left leg (not really planting at this point), drive right shoulder down and feel the turn around your left leg.  Finish high. 

It's a lot to think about so I'm going slow.  In my mind, the minimum force needed to make the actual swing.  I'm positively wearing out the center of my short irons.  Feels like dead center on almost every strike. 

Irons down to 5 are getting better.  The longer the club, the more the misses.  I'm rarely missing with my PW-8iron.  Misses are pretty all over the place.  If I have do everything good except the clubface, it's a spray to the right.  If I have the clubface good but get loose with my lower body, it's a huge pull.  If I lunge out at it in the downswing, it's a top or a shank or fat . .that's the worst one, lol. 

I ended the session with 3, full speed 9 iron swings . . eh . . still a lot of work to do.  I hit 2 of them ok - they would've been acceptable on the course but not real well hit.  I dead topped the third.

[No Mulligans]

Worked on swing path this morning.

[MiddleTees]

More of first hole routine hitting into next and PSR practice. Multiple sessions throughout the day in between chores.

[Lihu]

8 hours ago, Lihu said:

Doing the slow motion swings to get the right body positions and proper "pressures". Using the mirror to see if there are any obvious differences, not really.

The feel is completely different. It's like I have that "full power stroke" on the good shots but anemic shots on all the bad ones. I get that good feeling and result a lot more often now than a year ago, but I want to get that feel and result on every single swing. I feel somewhat closer to achieving that, but need to be disciplined in my approach at every practice session. From now on I plan to do 80% half swings and 5-10 slow motion swings to get the right pressure feels before that. 20% full swings. Getting closer, but still have a long way to go.

First session doing this. It worked, the only problem is I only hit about 30 balls with a full swing. Took an hour to do that. The half swings were pretty quick hitting 60 balls in a little less than an hour or so. The 5 slow motion swings took about another 15-20 minutes. Will take video of the slow motion swings next week once I get my filming gizmo completed.

[WUTiger]

It rained all day. I practiced short putts for 10 minutes on my indoor putting strip.

[Ernest Jones]

Hit a dozen wiffle balls in the backyard. Closest I've come to actually hitting a real golf ball in ages!!! Videoed a couple for my swing thread. Hoping to get to the range this weekend.

[Rainmaker]

My am sessions have been so much better than my afternoon ones and today was the same.  Yesterday morning, I hit the ball for the first time EVER with a flat left wrist.  Like really flat, arms extended, no faking.  I did it a few times in the morning but I couldn't do it again the rest of the day.

This am I was able to do it again, right off the bat.  I got it on video.  Yes . .my left wrist is flat (yeah!) . . BUT I'm still giving away lag . .lots of it. 

Oh well . baby steps.  Getting better every day.  I'm getting a little faster with my swings, too.  I'm probably at a point where I'm going some more help so I booked a lesson for next week. 

[Lihu]

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.

[WUTiger]

Early-morning quick session on the way to work:

Dynamic stretches, followed by a small-bucket worth of drills aided by my alignment rods:

• 7i: Half swing, then full swing
• Driver: Half swing, then full swing
• Remainder full 5 irons

Sprayed the full shots: Lots of pushes and hooks. Only a couple of the gentle draws I seek.

[Avalanche]

30 minutes at the range working on alignment and setup with mid irons.  5 minutes putting with a Putting Stick. 

[MiddleTees]

Same first hole routine and played 9. Two one putt pars on par 3s, one from sand and other green side chip with great 15 footer putt. Driver still high push slice. More Steady head and weight forward drill. Did manage to perform PSR .