"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[iacas]

Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for 2018!

Please read as the rules have changed!

Yes, for all of 2018! I'm changing it up. Rather than do this monthly, we're going to have an ongoing challenge. Here is how you can earn the coveted award you see to the right.

• Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. "Going to the range later" doesn't cut it, nor does "worked on my chipping today."
• Describe what you did for at least five minutes of practice (indoors or out, with or without golf balls, etc.).
• No back-dating or pre-dating posts or practice sessions.
• When you've gone four weeks (28 calendar days) in a row, missing at most two days, make your post in bold, red text to let everyone know that you're on a streak.
• Every day after that, so long as you're still 26 of 28 or better, post in bold, red text.
• If you had a streak, but lose it, post again in regular old black, non-bold text. Be honest; this is golf we're talking about.

Once you've earned the award, give it to yourself here: https://thesandtrap.com/awards/category/2-site-awards/. You should be able to figure out how to do it. (Note: do it on a computer or tablet as the "Add New" button doesn't appear on mobile devices.)

What's different about this? Your "month" basically can begin any time. If you're stopping in and it's the 17th, you can start your streak right now, and a month later, have the award. Before, you had to wait for the month to change on the calendar.

Enjoy and practice hard!

[dbuck]

Worked about 15 minutes on 3-6 foot putts. It was 15* outside, so indoors on relatively flat carpet. I use a putting cup-can't remember the brand right now- but can be used on the putting green or indoors. It has a regulation size "hole", but the entrance is only 3". My goal on 3' putts is to have 3 balls inside the cup at once-takes near perfect stroke to do this. I try to get 8 of 9 in there, then move back to 5-6 feet for a few putts, finishing up by getting 3 of 3 inside the cup at once from 3' again.

Working on lining up the putter, then moving into position without moving putter, slight forward press and stroke. 

This is only SV2, but for me if I had been 95% from 3 feet last summer, it would have saved at least 1 stroke per round.( I didn't keep stats on three footers, but I would estimate about 75%) Since my goal for 2018 is to lower about 4 strokes, 1 stroke is a small success that makes a difference.

PS-actually got a pop up ad for this putting cup-SKLZ putting pocket

Edited January 1, 2018 by dbuck

[b101]

Good plan and something I'm really going to commit to this year as I fall off the wagon very easily when it isn't the holiday period, meaning I often have to play catch-up. Consequently, I'm not making the most of the evolvr subscription, so the slow motion work around the house is a must.

Today, I worked on my putting on my mat indoors for about 30 minutes. Lots of setup focuses with the Visio putting template. Main things are concentrating on getting the putter handle forward to match left arm angle from the FO view, whilst from DTL making sure that the handle is up slightly to match my right arm. The major breakthrough today was realising that I was opening the putter face too much on the backstroke compared to what the template suggested. Feeling like I'm keeping the face straight going back means that the arc in my stroke is massively reduced and I immediately saw much better rolls and started the ball online more often.

[JuanTheGolfer]

January 1 Day 1 Of Reaching my 2018 Goals!!

Used the Impact Ball to swing lots of backswings.   Looking to increase my Thoracic Rotation.   The did 25 reps with the Momentus Strength Trainer of improve strength on my left side so I can better able to have a straighter left arm on my backswing.

[iacas]

9 minutes ago, JuanTheGolfer said:

January 1 Day 1 Of Reaching my 2018 Goals!!

Since you have an active streak of more than one month going, please remember to post in bold red.

The instructions are in the first post.

[Patch]

Today I did some indoor putting. Actually, I practiced rolling the ball over a dime, placed 12" in front of the ball. The dime simulates my line, and hitting that line. 

It's 15*f outside, and is why I am putting indoors. 

[onthehunt526]

Well I'm at 276 consecutive days.

1/1/18:

I did my path drill indoors today. For those of you who don't know what this is, it involves 2 to 4 water or soda bottles a club and a foam ball. I use two that promote approaching the ball from an inside/out path. You can use anything soft however... I've used Alina's stuffed animals in a pinch those. Most of it, is getting used to the path that you are trying to accomplish without hitting the bottles... I actually lately have been doing this drill a lot lately. My coach (I finally got a couple lessons) wants me to only do waist high to waist high swings with this drill for now, so I did this for 10 minutes or so today.

[RickPro]

New Year, New Me.

 

Chipping in backyard for 30 minutes towards my tree with my 58 degree lob wedge. Next few days im going to be going through my clubs 54, 50, pw, 9, and 8.

 

Happy New Years everyone, hope everyone achieves there goals.

[Lihu]

January 1st (11:33pm PT)!

Worked on my back swing and downswing. Taking back the club to A2, then check the shaft and target line. Then take it up to A4 also insuring the shaft is in line or outside a little bit. Then I worked the club down from A4 to A6.

Then I'm taking a full swing and stopping at A6 to see if I'm in line at impact. The trick is to naturally get the swing to that position then see where it is without altering the impact position if I just did a full swing.

Looking at the LM results, I can see that I'm a few degrees too lofty. So, I'm trying to get a more penetrating flight by reducing the dynamic loft.

Equipment Check: The other thing is the Smash factor. I plan to take the Mevo on the course with premium balls to see how much the smash factor is being affected by the range balls. This is a "good to know fact" and won't really affect the way I use or setup my Mevo in the future. Probably will go on the course and hit a few balls then double check all the distances with my rangefinder which I already confirmed with a differential GPS unit which is supposedly accurate to a few mm at 100m.

Edited January 2, 2018 by iacas
bolded and redded text

[dbuck]

Spent a few minutes working on alignment using the grout lines in my kitchen, learning how position looks. From reading LSW and from watching recent video of my driver swing, I realize the ball needs to be further forward in my stance. It was not as far forward as I thought it was, and as well needed to further forward than even where I thought it was. The purpose of this practice was to see and reinforce what proper setup looks like, and to ultimately increase launch for more distance.

Spent a few minutes on my 3 foot putt drill, working until I got 3 consecutive sets of 3 balls inside my putting cup. In conjunction, working on setup and routine. For most of my life, I have taken my stance, then aligned the putter. Working on aligning putter, carefully taking stance, slight forward press, and go. Goal is to make 95% of 3 footers on course; practice regimen is 9 balls at 100%,

Total practice time about 20 minutes.

Edited January 2, 2018 by dbuck

[iacas]

7 hours ago, Lihu said:

January 1st (11:33pm PT)!

You didn't read the directions, @Lihu.

[onthehunt526]

277 consecutive days.

1/2/18:

Short 9-iron swings indoors with my path apparatus focusing on missing the bottles today. Just trying to get used to the feeling of coming from the inside and seeing the inside-out path working. It's a good feedback drill.

 

[b101]

2/1/17 - Went to the course and annoyingly, by the time it got too my tee time, it was way too windy to play enjoyable golf (40mph solid winds). Instead, I just did more practice . Over the morning I worked on hand path again and recorded some video to upload to evolvr. I also spent a good 30 minutes on the putting green with the string line and the visio putting template to work on my path, setup and start line. It's definitely getting there, but I think I'm cutting across the ball a bit. Again, I've recorded the putting stroke to upload for Preston. Finally, I spent a good amount of time around the pitching green, just trying to get confidence back with my wedges - I know I need to get less wristy with my takeaway and then really commit to turning through to avoid hitting it fat. Just very different to what I have been doing, so is taking a fair bit of trust! 

[JuanTheGolfer]

Day 2 January 2   Worked on turning into the right hip to eliminate my tendency to sway, using both an Impact Ball and a weighted Momentus Strength Trainer.   I find that using the MST which is 11 pounds really helps me to notice when my weight gets on the outside of my right foot and my hip moves outside of it also.  Also the MST helps with building strength so I can keep a straighter left arm on my backswing.

[RickPro]

Day 2

2/1/18

Chipping in backyard with 54 degree sand wedge while waiting for my load of laundry to be done. did a variety of shots: open face with ball up front to lob it to the spot, back in the stance to run it in low, etc...  will be working on the 50 gap wedge tomorrow. feeling more confident with my new vokey wedges i got for christmas. takes some adjusting since i have been using nothing but cleveland all my life. vokey isn't bad, but i have to get use to the balance and weight of the clubs until i feel like one with it.

[Patch]

Day 2......It warmed up where we are at. All the way to 28*F. Did some more indoor putting, rolling the ball over the dime again. Practicing hitting my line. 

Thought about some chipping practice, but the ground is frozen. A tight lie for sure.

Tried something different. I fiddled with my hydraulic stabilizers. This allowed me to practice various breaking putts too. What ever works. 

Edited January 2, 2018 by Patch

[Lihu]

On 1/1/2018 at 11:32 PM, Lihu said:

January 1st (11:33pm PT)!

Worked on my back swing and downswing. Taking back the club to A2, then check the shaft and target line. Then take it up to A4 also insuring the shaft is in line or outside a little bit. Then I worked the club down from A4 to A6.

Then I'm taking a full swing and stopping at A6 to see if I'm in line at impact. The trick is to naturally get the swing to that position then see where it is without altering the impact position if I just did a full swing.

Looking at the LM results, I can see that I'm a few degrees too lofty. So, I'm trying to get a more penetrating flight by reducing the dynamic loft.

Using the club simulator to work on in line A6 position.

Slow takeaway to a slow transition, then only acccelerating below A2 during my practice swings to ingrain a slower transition.

 

On 1/1/2018 at 11:32 PM, Lihu said:

Equipment Check: The other thing is the Smash factor. I plan to take the Mevo on the course with premium balls to see how much the smash factor is being affected by the range balls. This is a "good to know fact" and won't really affect the way I use or setup my Mevo in the future. Probably will go on the course and hit a few balls then double check all the distances with my rangefinder which I already confirmed with a differential GPS unit which is supposedly accurate to a few mm at 100m.

Have not had a chance to test this yet.

[onthehunt526]

1/3/18:

278 and counting.

This drill is really starting to annoy me. I did more of my path drill with my water bottle apparatus with a waist high to waist high 9-iron.... It's slow it's specific and it works.