35YO Golfer's Plan: Buy a Trackman, Dedicate 7 Hours Daily, Get Good

[Jack Watson]

If my driver dispersion was like that it would be impossible to play the course.

[RangeGolfer]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Generally speaking… one of the problems with using a Trackman is that it's going to be easy to fall into the "well, my clubface is 2° closed right now, so let me fix that." It'll be easy to get stuck in a loop of fixing whatever Trackman identifies as the biggest issue, instead of maybe taking a step back to get worse for awhile in order to implement something that'll benefit you wholesale down the road.

For example, sometimes we will work on a change with a student where they may hit hooks or big pushes for awhile, but it's the right change. It wouldn't result in the best Trackman numbers at all (or Flightscope), but it's the right change because of where they're coming from and what direction they need to take next.

Without a good instructor you're going to spend a lot of time guessing, or just going on what the Trackman says. The Trackman, though, is just a dumb machine. It's a great tool, but it's just a tool.

 

I agree with you and actually also say that TrackMan can be a dangerous tool, because of the reasons you have mentioned. You cannot just look at the numbers by themselves and go down that path. I also don't think that I ever said that. What I am saying is that it is a great supporting tool in developing your golf game. But that is all it is. With a launch monitor, you have at least data feedback plus video, which helps during the process. Obviously, you don't need a launch monitor for the video portion. 

Don't forget that I am not just delusionally looking at the TrackMan numbers, pray to the golf gods, spin myself three times around a circle, spit on the ground and hope that my swing suddenly turns into to this fairy tale swing that hits every target like a sniper. 

[Pretzel]

40 minutes ago, RangeGolfer said:

Don't forget that I am not just delusionally looking at the TrackMan numbers, pray to the golf gods, spin myself three times around a circle, spit on the ground and hope that my swing suddenly turns into to this fairy tale swing that hits every target like a sniper. 

Why aren't you doing this though? I thought that was the most effective method of practice, I do it weekly!

I jest, I jest. Do you use your Trackman as just a launch monitor for numbers, or does it allow you to practice indoors when the weather might not be cooperating with simulation software?

[RangeGolfer]

7 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

Why aren't you doing this though? I thought that was the most effective method of practice, I do it weekly!

I jest, I jest. Do you use your Trackman as just a launch monitor for numbers, or does it allow you to practice indoors when the weather might not be cooperating with simulation software?

 

 

Ok OK, you caught me in a lie ;) . I do it too, just in case, it does work. But my rituals change weekly. I think it is important to change the amount of spins and the position you spit from. One time it immediately started raining afterward, so that was a bust. Although it helped the golf course. All the other golfers got mad at me because the rough got thicker again. I guess you live and learn.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough room at my current house to have a comfortable setup. Taking over the living room might be just one step too far for my wife. Depends on the house we will get in June. I might be able to have such a setup. We will see. My son would love that!!! 

Edited May 1, 2017 by RangeGolfer

[RangeGolfer]

So wanted to throw a little update out there. I was pretty quiet last three to four weeks. I started focusing on my plan and finished reading the books "Every shot counts" and of course "Lowest Score Wins". I read "Every Shot Counts" first, finished it two weeks ago. Started reading "Lowest Score Wins" last week and just finished it today. I didn't just want to skim them, but actually, take my time and think about every piece of information the books are presenting. I really enjoyed reading both books!

I am already starting to adjust my practice plan, based on the newly gained knowledge. It was easy for me to make my assumptions and build a plan based on that. At the end, you have to start somewhere, right?! I also always said that my plan will change and it is not a static plan. But I also have to admit though, that it might have been a good start for me. My putting got better, I didn't have to invest as many hours as I initially thought to start getting comfortable. Actually, it progressed pretty quickly and I found my putting (comfort zone) stroke. I guess that is exactly what one part of the book is talking about. The putter stroke is simpler and once you are comfortable with it, it is more about practicing green reading. And that it shouldn't take very long to get a little better at putting. Well, I got that out of my way and now I can focus on green reading and trust my putting. Standing on the green is now a difference of day and night! I felt so awkward and uncomfortable before and with just a few hours putting practice that feeling has completely changed. And that was really one of my first goals for putting. 

I was working on my dispersions (shot zones) and thinking about them before I read the book, but the book clarified some more on how to use them effectively or in a smart way. One thing that I also really enjoyed reading about is that you shouldn't play the course like the architect intended, but find your own game or way to play it. There are some things that I am intuitively already doing but wasn't 100% sure about them. The book kind of put an "approval" stamp on my already existing strategies and thoughts and now I feel like I can more comfortably follow them.

Other examples:

- I already started playing golf by dividing the course into three holes stretches. I never read about that anywhere, I just came up with it. But for some reason, I don't do it all the time! After reading that small passage in the book, I feel like it validated that strategy and I will use it constantly. 

- Going for the middle of the green or the "smart zone". Same thing I randomly started doing that and even though I saw that I have way more pars on par 3s, I don't do it consistently. I sometimes let something come over me and decide to go for the damn, which tucked into the left corner or so, instead of sticking to the strategy. Once again, I feel like I can trust that strategy now.    

There are more examples, but I won't keep boring you with sentences like:"HEY, I was already doing that, well, kind of! I am so S M A R T !!!". Whatever, you get my point. 

At the end, I am not saying, wow because it was in a book it must be 100% true. The great part for me is that I already started implementing some of those strategies to a certain degree, but never felt like I truly embraced them. Now I feel like I was on the right track and can take it a step further, I guess I needed some validation. And just to clarify, I am talking about strategy on the course and not about my practice plan. 

I am still putting some thoughts into my new practice plan and won't have it updated for a bit. But I am already focusing more on my full swing practice. It was so easy to just say hey the number of strokes you do with the putter out numbers the driver, so hey the putter is very important. A foolish thought process, but that is what my path is all about. Make an assumption and learn quickly from its mistake or success, adjust and so on and so on. The two books are also validating that to become a better golfer an analytical and stats-driven approach is the key (in my opinion).

Well, golf is still fun! And I am truly enjoying it. Of course, it is frustrating at some times. I am going through swing changes and most of you know that is one of the hardest parts. Sometimes you feel like reverting back to the less efficient swing, just to hit a few good ones at least or have a semi good round, but that is not how it works. And we all know that. Sometimes you have to do something uncomfortable for a while to enhance your chances for success. 

Well, that is it for now. 

[MacDutch]

On 26-4-2017 at 10:09 PM, RangeGolfer said:

Hello everyone,

Glad to see there was some interest in my project/experiment. I just randomly looked at this site and was wondering if I should join. Saw the title of the post and thought that sounds really familiar. I tried to read quickly all 37 posts and will try to answer some of them.

The website is not done yet. My swing data is not yet online. I am still trying to figure out the best way to present all the information without having to constantly copy and paste updates. Unfortunately, TrackMan and Arccos don't have very good sharing features implemented. TrackMan is a little bit better in that aspect, but I wanted to make sure I am efficient in the information transfer. Don't feel like spending every day an hour just for data updates.

I did post one of my driver swings on golfwxr.com and asked a question about it. So you can see some of my numbers and a video of my not yet satisfying driver swing. Here is the link: http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/1478188-left-elbow-is-tucked-in-at-the-end-of-the-swing-driver/

To make a quick point. I am not running to the course and immediately pound blindly balls, run to play 18 and quickly run to the range after checking the Arccos system. If I take 2 hours for putting one morning I probably spend 30 minutes on research, analyzing, talking to the pros about what I am doing and so on. Last time I was working on trying to see what effects the roll %. I love to analyze things myself, sometimes quietly for myself and make an assumption. After that, I test it or compare it with information that is out there. This is not something everybody should do. This is something I came up with for myself, knowing myself really well. They way I work and the way I function.

Here is the deal. I just don't hire a coach to stand behind me all day saying good, yes or no that wasn't it. I know there are many awesome coaches around, unfortunately, due to my constant moving, I never feel like it makes sense for me to go down that route. As I mentioned before, I also really enjoy figuring things out by myself. It makes me feel accomplished and for some reason, it helps build almost like a library in my head that I have easy access to, to be able to fix myself on the course. Hey, that might not be the way your head and body works, but I can assure you this works best for me. 

One part of this experiment is to see if I can train myself using all the available data points I have access to. Don't think that I just bought a TrackMan, took it to the range and wondered what all those numbers mean. As soon as I got it, I signed up for their TrackMan university and studied their material every evening. Not saying that now I am the non-plus-ultra guru and now EVERYTHING about every number constellation and swing. But doing this every day and learning something new about a topic I have so much passion for is, to be honest, just purely beautiful.

I just want to make sure that you all understand that I am spending a lot of time now studying golf. And again I am not saying that I know it all and I hope I will learn every day something new and I hope you all help me along the path. Honestly, I already am learning new things and that makes me even more excited about it. 

The 7 hours are not as crazy as some want to think it is. It is just a full block I dedicate towards my goals. That is the time where I try to completely only focus on that and nothing else. No emails, no side things, nothing like that. Just my goals. After those 7 hours, I am focusing on my family life, a little bit of the business side and as I always say clean the house!

I do understand that some of you disagree with my approach and I am here to openly discuss that with you. As long as it is on a professional and respectful level I am open to it. If you just bluntly say that what I do sucks or is stupid, well, I won't really be able to go down that road. The lack of information behind such statements does not allow me to answer very efficiently. First I would have to respond and ask for you to elaborate why you think that way, after hat I would have to wait for your response, read it, think about it, answer it and who has time for that, right?  ;)

So again thx for everyone who showed interest in my project/experiment and I hope that most of you will follow me on my path.

@RangeGolfer care to give us an update?

[Alx]

2 hours ago, MacDutch said:

@RangeGolfer care to give us an update?

His website is pretty dead. Last update as far as I can tell was back in april.

Guess there was more enthusiasm than thought put into this. Too bad.

[RangeGolfer]

Sry guys for the lack of updates. I think I mentioned it a couple of months ago. We are currently in transition moving from one location to another. We are moving to Georgia and we spend the last three weeks in Florida hanging out with family. Our house won't be move in ready till the end of July. And I pretty much was busy packing the house beginning of June. 

The project is still on. After reading some recommended books I did change my practice plan. My putting improved really quickly and there was no need to spend that much time on it. So I switched to more full swing practice time. I sarted to get more and more comfortable and just before we had to move I ended up winning the intramural league at my course. It was a two person teams event competing against each other in a sudden death event over several weeks. Got my first golf trophy! Yay!

The practice is working and my biggest identified weak spots are driver accuracy of the tee and long irons accuracy. This is what I will be mainly focusing on.

My next home course won't have a membership for the range, but only for the green fees. So I am planning on building an indoor practice setup inside my garage at our new house.

I didn't take the time to update the site while moving around. I will get back into that when our house is ready and all the furniture is in the right place ;) 

Currently sitting in a hotel till the end of July and typing this on my phone.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, RangeGolfer said:

My next home course won't have a membership for the range, but only for the green fees. So I am planning on building an indoor practice setup inside my garage at our new house.

I'm reviewing the CrocBox soon. It may be a great fit for your home.

[todgot]

This post got me thinking about the Dan Plan and I went to his web site.  No posts since 2015 and I'm guessing it's known what happened.  Did he end up needing back surgery?  I was impressed he got down to a 3 handicap and by the end he actually looked like a golfer. 

I can only day dream about being able to spend that amount of time on my golf game.  My wife is chirping at me at the amount of time I spend on golf already.  3 jobs and a 7 year old with Autism and if I hit balls more than 2 days a week I'm an A-hole.  4 years ago I was a 7 handicap and wanted to drop to below a 5 to get into the championship flight of the tournament's I was entering... that was right around the time my son was diagnosed with Autism and now I'm an 11. 

Personally, I don't think Trackman is the answer to getting a lot better... it's playing, finding the holes in your game and then filling those holes.  You can use Trackman to check certain things but the lowest score wins... not Trackman stats. 

[No Mulligans]

@RangeGolfer thanks for posting here, I'm enjoying following your progress.

Are you using video?

What has helped me is working on understanding 5SK, evolvr lessons and self evaluation with video.  I see that lessons are not part of your plan but you could study 5SK and self evaluate video and stay within your self-taught lane.

Video analysis along with working on one specific priority piece at a time helped me get from the first two photos to those next two photos.  In my case, I don't think studying trackman numbers would have helped me much.  I'm guessing Trackman would be more useful once you get the fundamentals taken care of.

Edited July 7, 2017 by No Mulligans

[iacas]

26 minutes ago, todgot said:

This post got me thinking about the Dan Plan and I went to his web site.  No posts since 2015 and I'm guessing it's known what happened.

https://thesandtrap.com/b/thrash_talk/post_mortem_on_the_dan_plan

26 minutes ago, todgot said:

Personally, I don't think Trackman is the answer to getting a lot better... it's playing, finding the holes in your game and then filling those holes.  You can use Trackman to check certain things but the lowest score wins... not Trackman stats. 

It's just a tool that players can use to get better. I don't think anyone is suggesting it is THE ONLY tool.

[Valleygolfer]

1 hour ago, todgot said:

I can only day dream about being able to spend that amount of time on my golf game.  My wife is chirping at me at the amount of time I spend on golf already.  3 jobs and a 7 year old with Autism and if I hit balls more than 2 days a week I'm an A-hole.  4 years ago I was a 7 handicap and wanted to drop to below a 5 to get into the championship flight of the tournament's I was entering... that was right around the time my son was diagnosed with Autism and now I'm an 11.

96 hours in a week and you can't have more than 4 hours for yourself.... living the dream....  F that.

[todgot]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/thrash_talk/post_mortem_on_the_dan_plan

It's just a tool that players can use to get better. I don't think anyone is suggesting it is THE ONLY tool.

Thanks for the link on the Dan Plan...  so I guess he just gave up and went on to something else. 

I totally agree with Trackman being a tool... Like most tools it should be used by someone who knows how to use it to get the most benefit. 

[RangeGolfer]

Just a quick update. No, my project is not dead. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. if you read most of the posts in this thread you will see that I had a move planned and so on. So here it is for the ones that are interested (https://rangegolfer.com/already-august-time-flies/), mentioning some of the same stuff I posted in July and some other things.

[iacas]

47 minutes ago, RangeGolfer said:

Just a quick update. No, my project is not dead. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. if you read most of the posts in this thread you will see that I had a move planned and so on. So here it is for the ones that are interested (https://rangegolfer.com/already-august-time-flies/), mentioning some of the same stuff I posted in July and some other things.

Thanks for writing up LSW but I feel the need to mention that our book was nearly 100% complete well in advance of ESC's publication, and only because we went to print a month after it was published were we even able to make a few changes to add in stats from ESC that backed our own statements, studies, etc.

You implied or stated that LSW was derivative work or that we kind of "relied" on ESC far more than we did. We used it to bolster a few things, but 99% of what's in LSW is our own and was written before ESC was even published.

ESC, IMO, is also largely about PGA Tour pros, while Broadie has very little information or stats and has studied the amateur golfer comparatively little. LSW focuses primarily on the 99% of golfers who aren't making a living on the PGA Tour.

[RangeGolfer]

 @iacas I will update my blog post.

[RangeGolfer]

 @iacas I took the sentences out talking about your book using ESC stats. 

IMO ESC does not purely talk about PGA stats. Yes he does have more data available from the PGA, but also mentions amateur golfer stats a lot throughout the book. Whenever he has them available. Referring to them as 80s, 90s, 100s golfer and so on.

Edited August 22, 2017 by RangeGolfer