"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge May 2016

[iacas]

Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for May, 2016! The rules are the same as always:

• Make a somewhat detailed post describing your practice every day during the month.
• No back-dating or pre-dating posts or practice sessions.
• On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it, preferably in red text or something so I can notice it and give you the award.

Detail what you did for at least five minutes of practice (indoors or out, with or without golf balls, etc.).

Enjoy and practice hard!

[Rainmaker]

Been working on casting - or more specifically what is causing me to want to cast so bad.  Anyway - my wife is a former college softball player and, in general, much more athletic than me.  When I was working with the shaft in the end of my grip (ie - don't whack yourself) she was able to do it right away. 

She doesn't like hitting balls in the garage or making swing videos - but I got her to do it tonight - just a few minutes ago.

So she is big-time casting it, too.  She just has a flat left wrist at the bottom of her swing which is at the ball.  She starts dumping lag immediately in the downswing and when our hands reach our trail legs, we are identical (bad) position - with the clubhead and shaft in-line with our arms. 

When I *try* to have a flat left wrist at impact - we are basically identical all the way through.  It's just I let that go for right now since I realized I was making a better "circle" but the bottom was still at the ball.  Instead I'm really trying to drop my hands, let the club fall, make a good pivot, go wide/narrow/wide, etc . .so who knows what my left wrist is doing at impact, lol . .can't keep track of it right now.

It makes me wonder how many people think they are not casting it but actually are.  I bet quite a few . because you can totally hit good shots and make some decent impact even though you are dumping lag and correcting with your hands/lower body/or however you do it.

I also took a few dozen swings - just showing her the things I was working on.  She was like "oh yeah - that makes sense - let me try another video" . . .the next video was identical to the first, lol.  Welcome to my world. 

[Lihu]

5 hours ago, Lihu said:

Hit a bunch of buckets preparing for my Monday round. Was determined to get rid of the pull I developed again recently. Turned out that I was early extending and pulling the club away. Kept my spine angle, and the shots started coming out straight again. Magic! Picked random clubs for about 3 hours in the only shaded range stall. Went to the short area to practice my flop shots out of deep rough. 2 minutes of putting.

Muscles sore, so stretching them out. I hit way too many balls today. . .working on half swings today.

[Lihu]

More stretching and half swings. I fashioned a PVC pipe "half swing limiter", and setup my 240fps camera for filming slow motion swings, finally. Testing it out at my net.

[iacas]

I'm going to do this challenge this month.

Today I started by playing a few holes and, before that, mapping my transition move for about ten minutes.

[MiddleTees]

Didn't manage April practice well and missed a few days. Start fresh in May. 

I played 18 yesterday and overall poor outing golf skills wise but fun time otherwise .A success in that I had few slices but instead I was hooking or pushing it straight left , into the tree line!! Golfing buddy gave me some good feedback in that he noticed my backswing was fine but I then turned hips/shoulders left in the downswing. 

Today I am continuing driver drill to stop the slices and also watching to start downswing with a lateral bump then hips and shoulders opening to impact.

I did have some nice iron shots into greens that would have been GIR had I not been coming out of the woods or dropping.

[krupa]

I am going to make a concerted effort to do this...

Spent 30 minutes practicing chipping in the backyard:  I set up 3 driveway markers at different distances.  I hit 5-6 balls to each marker then the remainder of my little bucket (about another 15) alternating between different markers.  

[boogielicious]

Range work today. Spent 15-20 on full swing with PW, 7 iron and driver. Focus was on my hip turn from A4 to impact. Then spent the rest of the time on pitch shots and sand. 

[Dinoma]

Putting for me, used the floor mirror to work on getting my eyes over the ball and shoulders square. 

[onthehunt526]

5/1/16:

I did something to my back, between Friday night and Saturday morning (I ordered a new bed it's coming tomorrow)...

It even hurts to putt but I putted for 10 minutes, working on my alignment, read, bead and speed. The weather is going to be shit on my next three days off so probably no golf course for a week, I'll have to work on stuff at home and work, and at the chiropractor.

[RFKFREAK]

I haven't done this in a while so will be doing it this month.

I working on getting my shoulders rather level at A6 with the clubhead inside my hands from the DTL view rather than having the front shoulder being somewhat higher than the trail shoulder.  Today my 5 minutes consisted of doing slow swings indoor in front of a mirror.

[alczervik4]

it's my first month trying this challenge.

cold rainy day here...  

caught up on youtube videos and practiced some simple non swinging drills inside.

[WUTiger]

1 May 16 >>>>

Late morning: Practice range at club closed due to heavy rains, so I did a half hour of short game (close in): 54*, 8i chips, and short putts.

Late afternoon: Went to nearby driving range and tuned up my new XR16 Pro driver. Really easier to control than my old one (still in my sig line). Getting mainly smooth draw or slight push - as long as I keep left wrist flat. Finished with some 7i, partial wedges and 4H shots (4H really flying nicely).

Tomorrow is Round #1 of summer Amateur circuit. Host course is WingHaven GC, home of  @Club Rat. I just want to keep a flat left wrist at address, focus on the back of the ball, and make sure the trailing right arm/elbow floats smoothly.

[RandallT]

Indoor, no ball, mirror.  Back to basics and reviewed posture and grip threads, and Evolvr lesson comments on my posture/grip. Spent several minutes getting in and out of address position. 

Five minutes on backswing. Focused on hand position at A3 (previous comment from instructor), ensuring right elbow stayed in front of shirt seam, full shoulder turn, no right leg lockout, maintain steady head, no cupping of wrist.

[Rainmaker]

Still shifting through various thoughts and ideas vs really swinging the club a whole lot.  I think I decided that swinging wide/narrow/wide is something I'll keep working on. 

Today I worked on changing the feel of my backswing so that the top feels like it's earlier than it was and the last bit of the backswing is completed by me dropping my arms, increasing the angle of the shaft before I start down.  I like what this does when I get it to work.  I haven't totally committed to the idea but it's a front-runner. 

At the end of my practice session, I hit 5 shots not trying to think of anything except making a good swing, hitting a good shot.  Kind of like I would on the course.  When I don't try to control anything at all, I'm still whipping my legs, I'm still swaying, still casting . but there's a noticeable, overall improvement in strike quality. 

[Lihu]

12 hours ago, Lihu said:

More stretching and half swings. I fashioned a PVC pipe "half swing limiter", and setup my 240fps camera for filming slow motion swings, finally. Testing it out at my net.

Hit more balls off hard pan. It's hard. I hit a few shots off grass right afterwards and it really felt easy. Balls launched higher and everything.

[sirhacksalot]

Hit balls into the net, trying to get out of so many swing thoughts , moved ball position a little back , lots of forward shaft lean, 3/4 swings as hard as I could.  

Edited May 2, 2016 by sirhacksalot

[Lihu]

Half swings and transition drills preparing myself for the potentially butt kicking short course I am about to play. Just thinking to myself take nice easy half swings and I should be okay. . .