Cutting handicap in half in 400 days

[RandallT]

Nice blog! Looks like you're going to be pretty dedicated to this endeavor.

If things don't work out on that blog site, you might consider porting it over to this site: https://thesandtrap.com/blogs/

My hunch is that you'd have a decent audience here, and you'd benefit from more regular comments, if you posted within this TST blog area, as we can all subscribe to your blog with our accounts here. And we are known to comment frequently! From a quick glance so far, there are not many people commenting on your current posts, which is a shame. I really doubt you'd have that problem here!  I figure the more interactive, the better it is for you- since that helps you stay motivated. (you may have to put up with some criticism occasionally which can be demotivational too, of course)

Good luck! From my experience, getting down under a 14 has been quite difficult. I was able to get there with a homegrown swing, but lessons are needed to undo my bad habits, and I can't even imagine getting to a single-digit handicap. I'll pop in from time to time to see how it's going, if I remember. (if you ported it all here, I'd definitely see it!)

Edit: I just noticed you said that you considered posting here, but are concerned about flooding with too much content. Got it. I can understand that.

[iacas]

7 hours ago, RandallT said:

Edit: I just noticed you said that you considered posting here, but are concerned about flooding with too much content. Got it. I can understand that.

I wouldn't worry about that.

Seriously. Nobody's gonna care about "flooding" with content. You'd have to post a LOT to get anyone to worry about that. Like an unsustainable amount…

[DaveP043]

On 8/12/2016 at 3:35 PM, lastings said:

I am certainly not opposed to getting some lessons along the way.  I just want to wait until I have come to a road block in my improvement.   If I go to an instructor when I feel I can still make improvements in my game on my own, I would just feel like I am wasting both his time and mine..  

In my humble opinion, you may be wasting your own time while you're working on your swing by yourself.  I think that a lot of us develop compensations when we act as our own swing technician, rather than addressing the root of a problem.  I'll refer you to a couple of blog posts:

The longer you work on your own swing, the more ingrained some bad habits will certainly become.  In essence, you'll be ingraining your own "roadblocks.".  Then your instructor will have to "waste his time and yours" in order to repair the habits you'll have ingrained on your own.  If you really want to improve dramatically, I recommend getting instruction now, not next spring.

 

[Grinde6]

19 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

In my humble opinion, you may be wasting your own time while you're working on your swing by yourself.  I think that a lot of us develop compensations when we act as our own swing technician, rather than addressing the root of a problem.  I'll refer you to a couple of blog posts:

The longer you work on your own swing, the more ingrained some bad habits will certainly become.  In essence, you'll be ingraining your own "roadblocks.".  Then your instructor will have to "waste his time and yours" in order to repair the habits you'll have ingrained on your own.  If you really want to improve dramatically, I recommend getting instruction now, not next spring.

 

I agree with this 100%.  If you are already thinking about seeing an instructor, now is the time instead of later.  I saw an instructor over a year ago and I am just within the last few months reaping the benefits of his instruction.  It takes time to get rid of your old swing habits and develop new muscle memory to the new swing.  I cant even tell you how many buckets of balls it took to develop the new muscle memory for me.  This was when I was at about a 4 handicap and hitting a fade.  I went from shooting 75-76 before to shooting 85-86 after for a bit while I developed these new habits.  Now I'm down to a 1.1, hitting a draw, and shooting 70-73 consistently. 

It takes time, don't wait until next year or the offseason to get instruction.  Do it now so you have the rest of this season and the offseason to develop the muscle memory and then hopefully by the time the courses open next year your ready to go.

[lastings]

The last two comments here are quite fair and I can see the logic in them.  I do have an issue though,  

If you stop by my journal and read the intro or the 2nd post "The GTC", you'll know that I have a tournament amongst friends happening the weekend after Labor day.   While I would love to breakdown my swing and re-build it, I just can't afford to be in the in-between broken swing stage while that tournament is taking place.  

That said, I have been using my Zepp golf sensor at the range and am slowly but surely making corrections on my swing plane, and seeing some very nice improvements.   So, it't not like I am just going to the range and bashing a million balls and ingraining bad swing habits.   

I think a very good option for me, would be a find an pro that works indoors and have him break down and rebuild my swing over the winter.  That way I won't be spending the precious summer months hacking around with a swing that I am uncomfortable with.  

 

 

[DaveP043]

24 minutes ago, lastings said:

If you stop by my journal and read the intro or the 2nd post "The GTC", you'll know that I have a tournament amongst friends happening the weekend after Labor day.   While I would love to breakdown my swing and re-build it, I just can't afford to be in the in-between broken swing stage while that tournament is taking place.  

Sorry I didn't look at your blog, I just barely keep up with the posts here.  I can understand not wanting to be "in-between" for the big event.

25 minutes ago, lastings said:

I think a very good option for me, would be a find an pro that works indoors and have him break down and rebuild my swing over the winter.  That way I won't be spending the precious summer months hacking around with a swing that I am uncomfortable with.  

Understanding that the 2017 tournament is your prime focus, the time to start instruction is as soon as possible after this year's tournament.  You've set a really aggressive goal for yourself, the longer you wait to get properly started, the tougher it'll be to get to where you want to be.

Good luck!

[lastings]

9 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

 

Good luck!

Thanks!

[CarlSpackler]

Something you might consider is getting and reading the book Lowest Score Wins. You will notice that a lot of us have have the LSW badge on awards section. This may sound like an ad, but I get no benefit at all from this. The book does an excellent job explaining the things that tie most directly to shooting lower scores. 

Spoiler

Putting is not it.

Just a suggestion. You can read through and digest the book until after the big tournament, and then get to work. There are some little things in there that might help to shave a few in the short term too.

[lastings]

Just now, CarlSpackler said:

Something you might consider is getting and reading the book Lowest Score Wins. You will notice that a lot of us have have the LSW badge on awards section. This may sound like an ad, but I get no benefit at all from this. The book does an excellent job explaining the things that tie most directly to shooting lower scores. 

  Hide contents

Putting is not it.

Just a suggestion. You can read through and digest the book until after the big tournament, and then get to work. There are some little things in there that might help to shave a few in the short term too.

If you benefits all of you avid golfers, I'm sure to gain something from it as well.   I'll be sure to check it out. 

[CarlSpackler]

Just now, lastings said:

If you benefits all of you avid golfers, I'm sure to gain something from it as well.   I'll be sure to check it out. 

You won't regret it. It is true masterpiece of golf literary genius. 

OK, maybe I dramatized that a bit, but I definitely consider it a must read for anyone wanting to improve.

[onkey]

44 minutes ago, lastings said:

The last two comments here are quite fair and I can see the logic in them.  I do have an issue though,  

If you stop by my journal and read the intro or the 2nd post "The GTC", you'll know that I have a tournament amongst friends happening the weekend after Labor day.   While I would love to breakdown my swing and re-build it, I just can't afford to be in the in-between broken swing stage while that tournament is taking place.  

That said, I have been using my Zepp golf sensor at the range and am slowly but surely making corrections on my swing plane, and seeing some very nice improvements.   So, it't not like I am just going to the range and bashing a million balls and ingraining bad swing habits.   

I think a very good option for me, would be a find an pro that works indoors and have him break down and rebuild my swing over the winter.  That way I won't be spending the precious summer months hacking around with a swing that I am uncomfortable with.  

 

 

I don't know much about your game, but you could even consider getting a single lesson on the short game.  While short game improvement may not yield as many strokes gained as improving your long game, it is usually the easiest facet of your game to upgrade (one lesson could make an immediate impact).

[Kalnoky]

On 8/12/2016 at 0:53 PM, onkey said:

I feel I am ready for more, but I haven't found an instructor who I feel I can work with yet.

^^^ this

Very underappreciated and underrated aspect of getting lessons. Everyone will tell you to go get lessons (and they are right) but you really have to interview instructors and maybe even get a little bit lucky..

I learned a good amount from my first instructor but I was never very comfortable with him. Nice man, amazing golfer, just not the best teacher.

Anyway even if you're waiting for the end of the season to start lessons, good idea to start looking around at instructors. It takes a while and the good ones are always booked out.