Tips for Effective Video Lessons over the Winter

[RandallT]

In the past, I've mostly gone dormant with my golf swing instruction over the winter. This year, I want to keep up a little bit each week because I feel like I've made so much progress in the past couple months. Shame to lose that, and I'm genuinely excited to see if I can get through a major piece that I've been stuck on for too long.

For those who have stuck out video lessons for a winter season, I'm curious to know your experiences:

- worth it?

- did you notice any progress (or perhaps less degradation) when spring rolled around?

- since I won't have an indoor hitting area, doesn't it get boring just submitting indoor drills?

- whatever else about your experience that comes to mind.

Maybe I need to find an indoor facility. At any rate, I'll give it a shot (and talk with the instructors about it too), but just curious if anyone had strong feelings one way or the other about video lessons being useful for someone who isn't able to take advantage of a golf facility for the winter months.

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, RandallT said:

In the past, I've mostly gone dormant with my golf swing instruction over the winter. This year, I want to keep up a little bit each week because I feel like I've made so much progress in the past couple months. Shame to lose that, and I'm genuinely excited to see if I can get through a major piece that I've been stuck on for too long.

For those who have stuck out video lessons for a winter season, I'm curious to know your experiences:

- worth it?

- did you notice any progress (or perhaps less degradation) when spring rolled around?

- since I won't have an indoor hitting area, doesn't it get boring just submitting indoor drills?

- whatever else about your experience that comes to mind.

Maybe I need to find an indoor facility. At any rate, I'll give it a shot (and talk with the instructors about it too), but just curious if anyone had strong feelings one way or the other about video lessons being useful for someone who isn't able to take advantage of a golf facility for the winter months.

I keep it up. Filming is the hard part. There is an indoor range near me, but the lighting is terrible. I will submit drills to Evolvr but also will film hitting foam balls. I have a gym that I can do this at.

I have focused on slower swing during the winter and going back to basics of 5SK. This fall, I had a lot of fat shots, which usually means weight forward issues. So I will work on that in addition to what I was working on for my last drill.

If you have a home net, try and get out and film on a day that is above 40. Or send in some pitching videos to work on that. 

[dennyjones]

I didn't take winter video lessons but I did take indoor winter lessons two years ago.   The draw back, it's difficult to see progress indoors.   Ya, you'll see a difference on video but for me, I'm not sure it translated into significant improvement.   My lessons were every week which I believe were too quick but I do have lesson plans to review.    One thing it did do though is to maintain my enthusiasm and keep a club in my hand during the winter.   

[Slowcelica]

I keep up my practice in the winter time, maybe not as much. During the summer I practice about an hour everyday in my backyard net. During the winter months I do mainly slow motion mirror work and film my submissions on a Saturday or Sunday when the weather permits. This year I also met with a TPI instructor that is near me, and I am doing stretches and a exercises that he gave me too. I may not make as much progress not being able to actually swing a club like in the summer time, but I find it forces me to really focus on the movements instead of worrying about hitting a ball.

[Wanzo]

 I enjoy working on my game in the winter. I am fortunate to have a spot in my basement to hit real balls but I also spend a lot of time doing mirror drills and slow-mo swings like the previous replys mention. it's great for trying to make bigger technical improvements without worrying so much about taking it to the course right away. 

[Hardspoon]

This is going to be the first winter where I'm serious enough about golf to keep practicing through the winter.

I have easy access to an indoor facility (less than a mile from my house), but it's expensive and not conducive to filming.

Depending what my priorities are after a trip to Erie in a couple weeks, I'm hoping I can do drills at home but then use the indoor facility for additional work.

I will also plan on getting out to the range whenever weather permits, and I will spend more time than usual focusing on pitching/chipping technique and putting, which I can do at home.

[RandallT]

Thanks, guys. I'm definitely going to keep up lessons this year, so after reading what you've written and thinking a bit more about how it will shape up, I'll just do a few things differently than I have in the past:

1. Keep a couple clubs in the car with shoes, glove, and tripod
2. Just get to the range on a day where it breaks 40
3. Discuss with my instructor pitching & putting techniques (good idea, @boogielicious)

Years past, I've brought the clubs in from the car, and that mostly set up a mental barrier where I considered my golf season over, not to do much swinging until March or so. I think I just need to get out there in any moderately reasonable weather. No need to shut down golf, and if I keep up the lessons, that'll likely push me to sneak out there when the weather gets even the slightest bit bearable.

Doubt I'll look for an indoor solution- just do things indoors with drills and film outdoors at my normal range.

I like the idea of using the winter to do more than just the full swing too. I have never had a putting or a pitching/chipping lesson, and it sounds like Evolvr is willing to do that with me. Seems like a good use of time, and I could film that indoors pretty easily. That'll keep me plenty busy with new stuff.

@dennyjones - you mentioned the difficulty in seeing progress indoors. I can relate. As I've mentioned a couple times in different posts, this was not a year for me to play much on the course. I've done pretty well with the range, but even so, I really didn't do a ton of full swings. Certainly not enough to get a full sense of consistency or typical ball flight. It's all been to check if I'm changing the picture at full speed. 

When spring rolls around, I'll be curious to see where the past few months and winter has taken my swing. For now, I'm just trying to keep my focus on really doing what the instructor tells me so that it gets ingrained. Winter should be good for that, as I've found that it takes weeks/months of reps and slowly things take hold.