"Take Dead Aim"

[Hacker James]

Quoting Harvey Pennick in his "Little Red Book".

Often quoted, and just as often misunderstood and misinterpreted.  Most understand he meant concentration and focus in aiming at a target. But how do you do this in practice sessions? (Rhetorical).

To be honest, I have not even read the book, but what I do at home in a cage net, is to hit into a suspended vinyl target which I have divided into four quadrants with masking tape.  The target is not that big, but I try to hit into each "square" from about 12 feet (or further depending on club in hand). I expand the practice to hitting into the squares with chip pitches from about 45 feet. These are a little more difficult in that you have not only direction, but judging apex of flight to be concerned about or you will simply land on the ground in front of the target.  I start out with slow motion swings, working my way up to full swings, otherwise you might as well be on the range mindlessly banging balls into the nether land.

[boogielicious]

12 hours ago, Hacker James said:

Quoting Harvey Pennick in his "Little Red Book".

Often quoted, and just as often misunderstood and misinterpreted.  Most understand he meant concentration and focus in aiming at a target. But how do you do this in practice sessions? (Rhetorical).

To be honest, I have not even read the book, but what I do at home in a cage net, is to hit into a suspended vinyl target which I have divided into four quadrants with masking tape.  The target is not that big, but I try to hit into each "square" from about 12 feet (or further depending on club in hand). I expand the practice to hitting into the squares with chip pitches from about 45 feet. These are a little more difficult in that you have not only direction, but judging apex of flight to be concerned about or you will simply land on the ground in front of the target.  I start out with slow motion swings, working my way up to full swings, otherwise you might as well be on the range mindlessly banging balls into the nether land.

That is a good approach and similar to the 'gate drill' at the range and works for full swings too. There, you use two alignment sticks place out 20 feet or so from where you set up. You try to get your start line through the gate.

[uitar9]

Read another similar quote this winter "target, target, target". Both have made me rethink practice (along with better course management)

Seems so simple now, after I've spent 5 years drilling driver at the range.

 

1 minute ago, uitar9 said:

Read another similar quote this winter "target, target, target". Both have made me rethink practice (along with better course management)

Seems so simple now, after I've spent 5 years drilling driver at the range.

 

Never even dawned on me that I probably hit driver only 10-12% of the time and that I need to practice short game more, until I started to listen and read. Even instruction concentrated on full swing.

"Hit the ball off the tee, find it, then hit it again" then my  game starts LOL

[Blackjack Don]

3 hours ago, uitar9 said:

Never even dawned on me that I probably hit driver only 10-12% of the time

As someone who knows, I can categorically state that sex is only 10% of a relationship. But it's the most important part.

Driving is the overwhelming 10% of golf. Off the tee is where the trouble begins for most golfers. For low handicappers, I can see that maybe their approach shot might be where the trouble is, but I don't think the stats show that. It's about the tee shot.

I do own the Kindle version of The Little Red Book. I think it's good, but dated, like Five Lessons. This doesn't mean "take dead aim" isn't really, really good advice. For someone who has ten swing thoughts in their head, concentrating on the target, it's the best.

My two cents

[Hacker James]

5 hours ago, boogielicious said:

That is a good approach and similar to the 'gate drill' at the range and works for full swings too. There, you use two alignment sticks place out 20 feet or so from where you set up. You try to get your start line through the gate.

I did that as well before I laid in artificial turf. I had two short alignment rods with a horizontal cross piece at the top. I would hit through the gate and under the  top depending on what my practice goal was. Also around the outside left or right. I can not do that now unless I were to build a board platform for the rods to stick in as I am reluctant to poke holes into the turf.  I can hit  directly off the turf without harm, but I don't usually as it feels like a "thin" hit.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Hacker James

[Hacker James]

1 hour ago, Blackjack Don said:

As someone who knows, I can categorically state that sex is only 10% of a relationship. But it's the most important part.

Driving is the overwhelming 10% of golf. Off the tee is where the trouble begins for most golfers. For low handicappers, I can see that maybe their approach shot might be where the trouble is, but I don't think the stats show that. It's about the tee shot.

I do own the Kindle version of The Little Red Book. I think it's good, but dated, like Five Lessons. This doesn't mean "take dead aim" isn't really, really good advice. For someone who has ten swing thoughts in their head, concentrating on the target, it's the best.

My two cents

Debatable. Depends on which partner you ask.

[Blackjack Don]

4 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

Debatable. Depends on which partner you ask.

Squirrel!

[Kalnoky]

Please excuse my ignorance if I've completely missed the point.. but, are we referring specifically to home practice?

At the range, I usually just laser the flags and aim at those. I can't imagine not aiming at anything... what's the point?

Edited February 14, 2017 by Kalnoky

[Pretzel]

When I practice the full swing I aim to hit my shots as close to the target I've chosen as possible, while choosing a very specific target. For example, I'll make every effort to hole out all my iron shots on the practice range if I'm aiming for a flag out on the range. For the short game I aim to try and chip, pitch, or blast every shot into the hole.

The biggest thing about taking "dead aim" from the book is that you're narrowing yourself down to a very specific target. You aren't trying to chip the ball within 3 feet of the hole (though it may be your goal to get your shots within that distance), you're trying to put the ball in the hole itself. Same as how you wouldn't aim for the "right side" of the fairway if you're taking dead aim, as described in the book, but you would aim for a specific stripe or tree.

It's more of a technique for focusing than a philosophy on how to play, I think. By narrowing down to a very specific target you end up focusing in better on what needs to be done.

[tlazzol]

1 hour ago, Pretzel said:

For the short game I aim to try and chip, pitch, or blast every shot into the hole.

This is something I need to remember when I practice these shots.  I stated doing it towards the end of last season and "lo and behold" closer to the hole and more chips and putts made.  Doh!

[uitar9]

Despite the driver's public persona,  I'm gonna give the other 90% more attention this year to see how it effects my score. I only hit it 12 to 14 times a round and it only counts for 12 to 14 shots. Based on my age and ability, I believe I'll save more strokes by reducing doubles and triples from 100 yards in.

Gonna stick with target practice with the irons and wedges.

Can barely target practice with driver. Dispersion is much to great. 7 iron and in, "hole" different story

[Hacker James]

4 minutes ago, uitar9 said:

Despite the driver's public persona,  I'm gonna give the other 90% more attention this year to see how it effects my score. I only hit it 12 to 14 times a round and it only counts for 12 to 14 shots. Based on my age and ability, I believe I'll save more strokes by reducing doubles and triples from 100 yards in.

Gonna stick with target practice with the irons and wedges.

Can barely target practice with driver. Dispersion is much to great. 7 iron and in, "hole" different story

that's sort of the point. Narrow that dispersion. When I purposely seek out a target down the fairway, even a distant mountaintop, more often than not, I am not far off line. If I get too caught up in swing speed, distance, the landing area can vary quite a bit.  When I remember to do this, I seldom slice unless I rush the swing or something.

[uitar9]

This winter , I'm not spending more than 10 % of the time, working on that dispersion, for a club I use only on par 4's and 5's. I'm gonna give this short game idea, taking dead aim, a concerted try this season and see what effect that has on my handicap

Thats not saying I don't take dead aim with driver when I am on the course. I'm just gonna hang my hat on reducing doubles and triples rather than getting one birdie per round.

[iacas]

The driver is the single most important club in the bag, @uitar9. It's surpassed only by "the irons" if you lump all the irons into "one club."

[DaveP043]

 

12 hours ago, uitar9 said:

Despite the driver's public persona,  I'm gonna give the other 90% more attention this year to see how it effects my score. I only hit it 12 to 14 times a round and it only counts for 12 to 14 shots. Based on my age and ability, I believe I'll save more strokes by reducing doubles and triples from 100 yards in.

Gonna stick with target practice with the irons and wedges.

Can barely target practice with driver. Dispersion is much to great. 7 iron and in, "hole" different story

Even though you hit driver only 12 or 14 times, it can count for a lot more shots if your dispersion is large.  A drive OB counts as 2 extra strokes, with a 3rd stroke being required to get to the fairway.  A drive into a hazard counts as an extra stroke.  A drive into trouble can count as an extra half-stroke or more, depending on how much you can advance your second.  Those 14 drives can turn into 18 or 20 strokes pretty quickly.  Its worth spending some time to work to decrease the dispersion of your drives.  Sure, work on the whole package, learning a "better" swing will help everything improve, but the tee shot is pretty dang important.  Hitting more drives in play, and a little longer, will do a lot to help reduce doubles and triples.

[Blackjack Don]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

The driver is the single most important club in the bag, @uitar9. It's surpassed only by "the irons" if you lump all the irons into "one club."

This. While most golfers probably know this, at least instinctively, most don't understand the true nature of the game. I said it's the most important ten percent, because if the tee shot isn't good, then everything else after is scrambling. It, I believe, is the biggest reason golf is Hell.

I spend an enormous amount of time working on the driver. I can hit reasonable 3 woods off the ground, but the driver is totally unreliable. Someday, maybe, but not now. Missing a three-foot putt is painful, but slicing a drive into the next county is likely to make me quit if I can never figure it out. The problem is, this is the only club in my bag I can't hit.

Sorry to take this off topic, but taking dead aim is easy. Getting the ball to go there is hard.

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

This. While most golfers probably know this, at least instinctively, most don't understand the true nature of the game. I said it's the most important ten percent, because if the tee shot isn't good, then everything else after is scrambling. It, I believe, is the biggest reason golf is Hell.

I don't understand the 10% bit. It's closer to 20% of the shots. For a scratch golfer, 14/72 = 19.4%, and for a higher handicapper, the tee shot is responsible for more than 14 shots (penalties, chip-outs, etc.). So it stays well above 10%, because 10% is 14/140… and not many golfers shoot 140 while only taking 14 tee shots.

10 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

I said it's the most important ten percent, because if the tee shot isn't good, then everything else after is scrambling. It, I believe, is the biggest reason golf is Hell.

If the drive is terrible, sure. But if the drive is just in a position where you're just scrambling a bit, that's where golf can be some of the most fun.

[DaveP043]

7 minutes ago, Blackjack Don said:

Sorry to take this off topic, but taking dead aim is easy. Getting the ball to go there is hard.

I'm going to differ just a little here.  I can't claim that its easy to hit the ball where you aim it, but taking "dead aim" isn't automatic for many golfers.  Simply aiming for "the fairway" isn't good enough, at least not for me.  I hit many more shots where I want to if I'm very specific with my focus.  I'll aim at a single tree, or a particular side of a window in a house 600 yards away, but something very specific.  Narrowing the focus, taking "dead aim", has definitely helped me to hit more good shots.