"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge October 2017

[Lihu]

On 10/12/2017 at 6:57 AM, Lihu said:

One thing I thought was odd was the aiming part in putting. There isn't any actual aiming. You only use the lines to line up the ball, and not to aim the line per se except that it happens to be the direction you want to putt. So, I'm now using lines on the ball to practice putting "well". That is, if the ball follows the line such that you can see a distinct line as the ball is rolling, then you hit a "good" putt whether it goes to the hole or not. Definitely an eye opener for me. I started getting within 3 feet of the hole from most of my lag putts after that.

More putting and chipping practice, I'm actually starting to like it too. . .

Did a chipping and full/partial swing clinic on Saturday.

My full swing is now a 3/4 swing, wrist is flat and short game is getting better and I shot 82 at 6700 yards only hitting 3 trees off the tee the other day. After the clinic, shot 83 at 6400 yards with quite a few badly placed tee shots but no trees. These were scored on a card by my partners, and not in GG. Going out this week to play a couple more rounds to sync up with my app.

Practicing more of the same. of course. . .

Edited October 16, 2017 by Lihu

[onthehunt526]

10/16/17:

Short putts mostly in the 3 to 6 foot range. Did some clock drills, focused on keeping my head steady. It helps to listen for the ball going in the hole instead of "looking".

[WUTiger]

Oct. 16

Hit short SWs in my back yard for 10 minutes. At end, got 3 of 4 within five feet off a shaggy, 30° downhill lie from 20 yards.

First time I could use the wedge range since the yard got aerated four weeks ago (had to water frequently for overseed).

[Lihu]

On 10/16/2017 at 6:47 AM, Lihu said:

Did a chipping and full/partial swing clinic on Saturday.

My full swing is now a 3/4 swing, wrist is flat and short game is getting better and I shot 82 at 6700 yards only hitting 3 trees off the tee the other day. After the clinic, shot 83 at 6400 yards with quite a few badly placed tee shots but no trees. These were scored on a card by my partners, and not in GG. Going out this week to play a couple more rounds to sync up with my app.

Practicing more of the same. of course. . .

Adding more lag to the wrist set. There's a point where too much lag in the wrists makes them hurt a bit, so I'm playing with different "levels" of wrist set that make trade off speed with comfort. I feel best when my swing is a comfortable motion without any "pinch" points. Did some of this on the range the other day, and was getting pretty decent distances without wrist set, then started progressively feeling like I was adding more and more. The snap was a bit too much at my full body turn rotation speed at the "maximum" wrist set. Played around a bit with the wrist angles and such, but the more snap, the more I could feel stress on the wrist. Working on this a bit more. Loved the results. My PW was just passing a the yellow flag in the instruction area with what felt like was a "mid-level" wrist set.

Using a 55" monitor as a "mirror with a webcam. Recording some of the motions just to capture some progress.

[onthehunt526]

10/17/17:

200 days in a row.

Continued my work with partial swings in the yard this morning. No golf balls just getting the feeling down.

[woodzie264]

10/16 - continued shoulder rehab with golf specific stretching and core strengthening this morning. Will get some lag putting in today as well working on speed. 

Apparently my aboveboard post from yesterday, didn't go through...again 

10/17 - today was more lag putting down to hallway at work with emphasis on speed

[WUTiger]

Oct. 17

Practiced set-up and backswing for 5 minutes after work in long mirror. Seem to have good set at top without "crossing the line."

[Lihu]

11 hours ago, Lihu said:

Adding more lag to the wrist set. There's a point where too much lag in the wrists makes them hurt a bit, so I'm playing with different "levels" of wrist set that make trade off speed with comfort. I feel best when my swing is a comfortable motion without any "pinch" points. Did some of this on the range the other day, and was getting pretty decent distances without wrist set, then started progressively feeling like I was adding more and more. The snap was a bit too much at my full body turn rotation speed at the "maximum" wrist set. Played around a bit with the wrist angles and such, but the more snap, the more I could feel stress on the wrist. Working on this a bit more. Loved the results. My PW was just passing a the yellow flag in the instruction area with what felt like was a "mid-level" wrist set.

Using a 55" monitor as a "mirror with a webcam. Recording some of the motions just to capture some progress.

The conscious wrist set gave me more consistent results, I was hoping for more distance but got more consistent direction and distances. Once I got it integrated into the rest of the swing, I was consistently knocking balls over the trees near the back of my home town's range. Hitting far enough. Also, my 9i was hitting more the targets I wanted. Not quite 60% of the way there yet with my new swing, but I feel progress. I'm hoping to score better than before I stopped playing daily a year ago with no more than 2 range practice sessions and 2 rounds per week. The rest will be just 5 to 10 minute snippets throughout the week. I have to say that this is working very well. You really don't want to beat 200+ balls and/or play 9 to 27 holes a day to get good. I think this experiment is working out nicely.

Short game is another story: Bladed two chip, then did what my coach told me to do, and relaxed my entire chip shot and swung like a putter with a penny on it. Smooth swing. Chipped in one shot and bumped near the hole two times in a row thereafter both stopping within 3 feet. Putting needs improvement, but I didn't really practice it. If I only practice the movements first, before practicing, my results should be better with short game and putting as well with the same minimal practice and playing.

[Lihu]

11 hours ago, Lihu said:

The conscious wrist set gave me more consistent results, I was hoping for more distance but got more consistent direction and distances. Once I got it integrated into the rest of the swing, I was consistently knocking balls over the trees near the back of my home town's range. Hitting far enough. Also, my 9i was hitting more the targets I wanted. Not quite 60% of the way there yet with my new swing, but I feel progress. I'm hoping to score better than before I stopped playing daily a year ago with no more than 2 range practice sessions and 2 rounds per week. The rest will be just 5 to 10 minute snippets throughout the week. I have to say that this is working very well. You really don't want to beat 200+ balls and/or play 9 to 27 holes a day to get good. I think this experiment is working out nicely.

Short game is another story: Bladed two chip, then did what my coach told me to do, and relaxed my entire chip shot and swung like a putter with a penny on it. Smooth swing. Chipped in one shot and bumped near the hole two times in a row thereafter both stopping within 3 feet. Putting needs improvement, but I didn't really practice it. If I only practice the movements first, before practicing, my results should be better with short game and putting as well with the same minimal practice and playing.

Practicing my putting stroke with a penny on top of the putter. Trying to make the stroke without dropping the penny. Still pretty slow, and hoping to get my putting stroke quite a bit faster while still not losing the penny.

[woodzie264]

10/18 - more centerned turns with an 8i, with attempts to reduce head bobbing and coming off my bookends. 

[onthehunt526]

10/18/17:

Played 27 holes today. 3 6s and 1 7 in those 27 holes. Shot 41-42-38=121... Still no full shots inside of 150 yards. Shot of the day: 26th hole of the day, 128 yards from the flagstick. Hit a 70% ish backswing 9i to 6 inches. I only hit 9 out of 27 greens... I did have 3 in each nine. Now I need some work with the driver.

[Lihu]

Yesterday evening, forgot to post:

Short game clinic. Learned flop shots. Hit one with the club so wide open only the leading edge engaged the ball sideways. The ball popped up in the air so high and close to me I could have caught it if I were looking up. Still learning to make the chipping and pitching strokes. Learning the full capabilities of the putting stroke, and just starting to make better pitching strokes. Getting much more solid with short game, than I've ever been. Hoping to shave a couple strokes off my next round.

Had a horrible range session compared to the previous night, but I did practice the wrist set. The drives were mostly usable only because they lacked a lot of distance. My "driving muscles" were still sore from of the previous night's go-for-it driving training with half a large bucket.

This morning:

Doing more wrist set motions.

I'm breaking the practice 2 times a week limit I set for myself this week because I need to focus on the short game for a bit.

[onthehunt526]

10/19/17:

Some work with slow swings in the mirror this morning. Just mostly focusing on keeping my positions, and flat left wrist.

[woodzie264]

10/19 - pitching in Backyard x 10 mins 

[woodzie264]

10/20 - cont shoulder rehab with golf specific stretching and kettle bell swings with focus on centered turn/steady head. 

[Lihu]

Did some short game practice in the dark. Making nice and slow motions with an imaginary penny on the club and sweeping the balls. This is helping me reduce the arm swing tendency with chipping. It's helping my putting as well.

[onthehunt526]

10/20/17:

I played 18 holes this morning. Shot 86. Really made a mess of the par-5s today. Still a work-in-progress.

[Lihu]

13 hours ago, Lihu said:

Did some short game practice in the dark. Making nice and slow motions with an imaginary penny on the club and sweeping the balls. This is helping me reduce the arm swing tendency with chipping. It's helping my putting as well.

Slow round. Got one shot from 140 yards to less than 5 feet. Feeling a lot better. Still hit a few trees off the tee, but not as penal as previous rounds.