Built my swing in a hitting cage

[tshapiro]

Thought I'd share my hitting cage (from Allsports-us.com) which I've had for the last 10 years. It became apparent to me very quickly upon begging golf that a trip to the range was not going to provide me with enough repetition to build a winning swing. If nothing else, I can get in about 100 swings before work.  I can easily hit 500 balls on a weekend day. The most important thing I've gotten out of this setup is solid and repeatable timing. And for me, timing centers around getting my lower body to do work and and getting onto my left in a smooth fashion. Contrary to what I've read other people say I can certainly tell the ball flight. I can open the club face and pop the ball up high. In fact I like to do that because the club make minimal contact with the mat. When taking that fade or pop up onto the course I have a lot of confidence because I've done it thousands of times. And, I can hit driver, fairway woods, etc. as well. I highly recommend a setup like this for anyone who is serious about their swing. And, as you can see, this this is still going working great after 10 years. In fact, I've rebuilt the fence twice since I've had this net. 

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by tshapiro

[Patch]

I built one similar to yours, and used it for about 10 years. At times I even used real grass sod to hit off of. I think the whole thing cost me like $50. 

When I wasn't using it, my daughters used it for softball batting/pitching  practice. 

Came in pretty handy. 

[Shindig]

As someone who is likely going to graduate from an apartment to a townhouse (maybe a free-standing house, depending) in the not-too-distant future, wow.  That's the sort of thing I want to hear more about.  One thing I'll be looking for in my future home is how I can set up a good golf practice area for times when I can't get to the range for whatever reason.  Nets, mirrors, indoor/outdoor, that sort of thing. 

Hmm... could a similar set up work if I had a two car garage, but only one car?

[Patch]

34 minutes ago, Shindig said:

As someone who is likely going to graduate from an apartment to a townhouse (maybe a free-standing house, depending) in the not-too-distant future, wow.  That's the sort of thing I want to hear more about.  One thing I'll be looking for in my future home is how I can set up a good golf practice area for times when I can't get to the range for whatever reason.  Nets, mirrors, indoor/outdoor, that sort of thing. 

Hmm... could a similar set up work if I had a two car garage, but only one car?

Your garage would work if the ceiling is high enough. 

A friend of mind up in Idaho put a net up in his garage for practice during the winter months. It was a 8' ceiling. He adjusted his swing so as not hit the ceiling with his clubs. When he finally got on a outdoor course, his swing was so screwed up, took most of the warmer months to fix. 

[Shindig]

7 minutes ago, Patch said:

Your garage would work if the ceiling is high enough. 

A friend of mind up in Idaho put a net up in his garage for practice during the winter months. It was a 8' ceiling. He adjusted his swing so as not hit the ceiling with his clubs. When he finally got on a outdoor course, his swing was so screwed up, took most of the warmer months to fix. 

Great, now I need to take a 6-iron with me when house shopping... or figure out just how tall I'd need it to be.

I'd probably want some of my taller friends to be able to use it too. 

[Rainmaker]

1 hour ago, Shindig said:

Hmm... could a similar set up work if I had a two car garage, but only one car?

I have mine that way.  I think my garage ceiling is 10 feet.  I can swing up to a 7iron. 

It's not just the ceiling but I didn't take out the garage door opener or the metal rails . .either of which I could hit if I don't stand in the right place.  For me, it's not a problem as I'm really used to it but others who have tried it said they felt too constrained to swing freely . .I can see that. 

[gregsandiego]

4 hours ago, tshapiro said:

Thought I'd share my hitting cage (from Allsports-us.com) which I've had for the last 10 years. It became apparent to me very quickly upon begging golf that a trip to the range was not going to provide me with enough repetition to build a winning swing. If nothing else, I can get in about 100 swings before work.  I can easily hit 500 balls on a weekend day. The most important thing I've gotten out of this setup is solid and repeatable timing. And for me, timing centers around getting my lower body to do work and and getting onto my left in a smooth fashion. Contrary to what I've read other people say I can certainly tell the ball flight. I can open the club face and pop the ball up high. In fact I like to do that because the club make minimal contact with the mat. When taking that fade or pop up onto the course I have a lot of confidence because I've done it thousands of times. And, I can hit driver, fairway woods, etc. as well. I highly recommend a setup like this for anyone who is serious about their swing. And, as you can see, this this is still going working great after 10 years. In fact, I've rebuilt the fence twice since I've had this net. 

 

That's cool.

What is the distance from tee to the back net?

And what is the height ?

[tshapiro]

The cage poles are all 10 feet and I have the mat just outside the cage. So, it's about 13 feet away. 

[gregsandiego]

Can you tell if it was basically a solid shot or not?

I like the ball flight aspect, but it almost seems like you can tell by the audio and the feel if it was 100% or 80%.

 

[tshapiro]

You can definitely tell if it was a solid shot. Typically, a solid shot gives you good ball compression vs. a slap.  More importantly, you can develop the lower body action/timing which gives you that compression. For irons, I prefer to practice with blades because of the feedback. You can also get a feel for you swing path through impact, club face angle, and divot location. 

[Hacker James]

I am pretty much satisfied with my similar cage set up (See Improved Practice Area posted December 8 2015 or thereabouts). I laid in artificial turf the length of the back yard, used alignment rods on the sides of the "fairway" in order to practice pitches and chips from across the yard and to some extent "shape" shots. Total distance for chips is about 45 feet. The turf does permit hitting off it, but no divots of course, I don't really like to for fear of wear and tear even though I have not noticed any to date. At the mouth of the cage, I have a 4 X 6 hitting mat made by "All Turf" which has held up very well.  I agree with your accounting of "feeling" solid shots e.t.c. but as a caveat, one should also go to the range once in awhile to observe actual ball flight.  Mindless swatting into the cage, probably does more harm than good, but if you are working on swing mechanics, body motion and using video, it is all good.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Hacker James

[Buckeyebowman]

This reminds me of the time my buddy set up a practice net in his basement. It was an old house, with quite a high ceiling in the basement. He practiced all Winter with this setup. Despite the nuances some people want to talk about, I think the most important thing is this. The next playing season he didn't EVER hit a shot that was not solidly struck! He could put the clubhead squarely on the ball! Which is a lot of the battle for us!

[Odogesq]

While I can see how this type of setup would help someone get a lot of reps and work on timing, I just think it would be impossible to build a really good swing using only this setup without at least some range time. Reason being that it will be impossible to tell what kind of ball flight the balls have, which basically translates to how much spin, i.e. how shut/open your club face is at impact. Without seeing the full ball flight, you have no idea how the ball flies, and can only see where it starts, if that. Point being, while there certainly are a lot of benefits to this type of practice, it' s important to know the limitations and build in some actual range time too.

[grantisadrummer]

1 hour ago, Odogesq said:

While I can see how this type of setup would help someone get a lot of reps and work on timing, I just think it would be impossible to build a really good swing using only this setup without at least some range time. Reason being that it will be impossible to tell what kind of ball flight the balls have, which basically translates to how much spin, i.e. how shut/open your club face is at impact. Without seeing the full ball flight, you have no idea how the ball flies, and can only see where it starts, if that. Point being, while there certainly are a lot of benefits to this type of practice, it' s important to know the limitations and build in some actual range time too.

I agree. But $50 on a setup like this + a trip to the range every few weeks to see how you're going, vs. a few trips to the range every week would not only save you money but end up with getting in a lot more practice time.