"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge September 2017

[RandallT]

On 9/17/2017 at 1:31 PM, onthehunt526 said:

170 days in a row.

Nice. @woodzie264 - what was your streak before the injury? See y'all here in October. I've done two easy 50% effort range sessions the past couple weeks to make sure I don't backslide- so far, so good. 

[woodzie264]

14 minutes ago, RandallT said:

Nice. @woodzie264 - what was your streak before the injury? See y'all here in October. I've done two easy 50% effort range sessions the past couple weeks to make sure I don't backslide- so far, so good. 

I think 10 months - I will restart for October

[WUTiger]

Sept. 22

Did two five-minute sets with the SKLZ Golf Flex swing trainer.

1. Baseball swing - weight shift through hip kick
2. Come to top of back swing in balance
3. Swing with balanced hip kick to initiate downswing

[Lihu]

Finally back home.

Doing more tempo training. Will hit the range tomorrow early morning for a lesson, and extended practice session.

[onthehunt526]

9/23/17: 

I've been working so hard on my wedges, my driver was shit on Thursday. So I worked for ten minutes on the same sort of feels with the driver, easier backswing, light grip pressure, etc.

[Lihu]

20 hours ago, Lihu said:

Finally back home.

Doing more tempo training. Will hit the range tomorrow early morning for a lesson, and extended practice session.

Hit the range, and only got to hit like 15 balls, with about 4 times as many practice swings. Took like an hour to hit 15 balls?!? My driver would have been usable on the course, and I was drawing my irons a bit too much, but it was somewhat controllable with the face angle. Distances on driver were short while the shorter irons were carrying further than usual? My 6i carries exactly the same on goo shots as in warm weather. I was having fun with my irons this morning. It was about 45F early on in the Arroyo before the sun came out even though the official city temperature was around 58F. The lower temperatures might have been the cause for the funny ball behavior?

The tempo training seemed to help my swing a lot. Now, I need to remember everything before my swing and kind of ingrain this behavior a bit.

Edited September 24, 2017 by Lihu

[WUTiger]

Sept. 23

Played 18 holes on a Saturday afternoon. I want to do this more often, as with football season and fans there's more gaps in the tee times now.

A wild round - shot 96, +24. Has three triple bogies, and only two double bogies. Triples all related to severe mental errors, two of them Par 5s going with a FW out of the rough from hillside lie. Should have gone with hinge-and hold 6i just to get back to fairway, had an 8i into green.

Had two pars, and three three-putt bogies!

Final hole I pulled drive into L first cut - 185 yards out going uphill, hit a dead-solid-perfect 7W which hits at midgreen and rolls up pin-high. I run a 35-foot putt up and over the terrace and have a 1-foot tap-in for par.

Whole thing seems to center on my backswing. If it's too slow, I tend to lose power and direction. Too slow = picking up the club rather than rotating back, and variations on chicken wing infect the downswing.

If I stop at shoulder level rather than ear level, I have better balance and better power through the ball. That's why I practice the takeaway using my office door glass for a mirror. I'm not goofing off!

[WUTiger]

Sept. 24

Practiced putting for 15 minutes after church. Worked primarily on lag putts - I'm starting to hit more good iron shots, but I'm getting left with 30- to 40-foot birdie putts. Had five GIR yesterday, but three 3-putt bogies!

I'm getting solid benefit from the putting advice - don't accelerate on forward swing - but the alignment isn't fully automatic since I regripped my new putter last month (counter-balanced SuperStroke).

Edited September 24, 2017 by WUTiger

[onthehunt526]

9/24/17:

In between watching football games, I hit some 9-iron shots focusing on straight back takeaway, and easy backswing.

[Lihu]

23 hours ago, Lihu said:

Hit the range, and only got to hit like 15 balls, with about 4 times as many practice swings. Took like an hour to hit 15 balls?!? My driver would have been usable on the course, and I was drawing my irons a bit too much, but it was somewhat controllable with the face angle.

The tempo training seemed to help my swing a lot. Now, I need to remember everything before my swing and kind of ingrain this behavior a bit.

Hit the range again, because my partner had some work to do. . .

At least I can say my right-left problem seems to be "fixed" for the time being. Now, I just have to figure out how to hit the center of the face. . .

At first if I'd hit a hook, I'd purposely open up the face and the ball would turn into a draw. I did this through the bag and everything seemed okay. My tempo was a lot more consistent according to one of my range buddies, so it wasn't sooo bad. Still more work to do though.

I'm very happy that I can at least hit up to my 6i at this point. 6i is probably 50% consistent at this point so not so bad for my HC. They were scattering 170 to 185 with a few short 165-ish shots. Average carry was something in the 170s on the range when dialed in. I hit 25 balls with just that one iron. 5i and 4i were still pretty iffy.

Continuing work on my tempo and face angle at setup.

Still learning to pitch. Working on using the bounce better. I keep trying to dig the lead edge into the ground. Doing some "brushing drills" to try to stop that digging tendency.

[Lihu]

More tempo drills using a rolling chair.

I seem to be more in sync with the metronome at this point.

I'm also trying to figure out if I was too upright with driver and FW wood in yesterday's range session? 

[onthehunt526]

9/25/17:

Some putting today, focusing on read, bead, and speed on some longer putts.

[WUTiger]

Sept. 25

Got in 15 minutes of free-play practice with my 60° LW after work. It's getting dark earlier...

Practiced close-in hinge and hold, 3/4 and full swing. Ball will stop quickly out of deep, fluffy stuff as long as I hit it squarely.

[Lihu]

14 hours ago, Lihu said:

I'm also trying to figure out if I was too upright with driver and FW wood in yesterday's range session? 

Checked if my shoulders were too flat in a mirror. Apparently not as bad as I thought. I'd like to be more conscious of it before tomorrow's lesson. Going to do a bunch of slow movements through the evening and tomorrow morning then progressively speed up and see if everything still looks reasonable with a full speed swing. . .

Edited September 26, 2017 by Lihu

[Lihu]

On 9/25/2017 at 8:31 AM, Lihu said:

I'm also trying to figure out if I was too upright with driver and FW wood in yesterday's range session? 

 

18 hours ago, Lihu said:

Checked if my shoulders were too flat in a mirror. Apparently not as bad as I thought. I'd like to be more conscious of it before tomorrow's lesson. Going to do a bunch of slow movements through the evening and tomorrow morning then progressively speed up and see if everything still looks reasonable with a full speed swing. . .

Tried changing my setup and swing sequence with my driver. I hit a bunch of balls with my irons to warm up them too many balls with driver. I was getting kind of excited consistently carrying the hill on the far back right side of the driving range into the grassy area in the corner. I've never really carried balls that high and consistently into that corner before. Had a range buddy film me at first but the camera was somehow in selfie mode. So, I got a video of his forehead. Then he went to the short game area. . .On the negative note, I'm still iffy with 5i and 4i. I also managed to top two 3W swings, until I slowed down then I made decent contact.

In the meantime, I'm going to be practicing this basic swing feel with a PVC pipe at home with mirrors.

[RandallT]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

Had a range buddy film me at first but the camera was somehow in selfie mode. So, I got a video of his forehead.

Now that's funny!!!

[onthehunt526]

9/26/17:

 Chipping today... Focusing on how far the ball is going.

[WUTiger]

Sept. 26

Reviewed notes from GolfTEC expo assessment two years ago. Advice recommended waiter's tray position of R hand at top of backswing.

This corresponds with Members Swing advice to lay off the club more at the top. Also, the downward motion of R hand from waiter's tray position (shown in Hogan guru YouTube clips) corresponds to diagonal sweet spot downward motion from 5SK.

Checked my position at top in a mirror; as mentioned last week, best position seems to be w/hands shoulder high rather than ear high.