"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[DrMJG]

Day 477

9i day

While I did not get the distance I was hoping for, I was off only by a few yards.  Dispersion was the best today and I was able to keep it very much o target. 50 solid whacks at a nice group of targets.

[Shindig]

Day 169.  I did a drill today!  4' from the cup, around-the-clock, get 'em eventually. Took 4 rounds, with 3 (sigh), 6, 2, 1 in that order for sinking. 

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 27

Today was a great day. I got with my coach and things happened. We looked at video of me when I am playing my best and took video of what I've been dealing with lately. It was eye-opening to say the least. Other than my grip, my stance, my backswing, my alignment, everything else was okay. 

Wow, I didn't realize just how far I drifted from where I was (or from where I want to be.) 

Today I felt like I started getting back on track. My coach gave me a lot to work on, so the next few days I should easily fill my 5 minute daily challenges. 

[Shindig]

Day 170.  I got home way too late, but remembered the challenge so I'm doing some of UGP's stretches.  Probably good given how little I moved today. 

(Incidentally, earlier today I saw my future golf room for the first time, better than the previous one!  Ten days until setup!)

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 28

What a GREAT day! 

This is why everyone should have a golf coach! So, about 5 weeks ago I was playing great. Then suddenly I completely lost it. Then I got hurt (non-golf related, but screwed up my game). When I came back from my injury I was pretty close to hopeless. 

I got with my golf coach and he and I worked through what all had changed in my swing. It turns out I had made a minor adjustment without realizing it. Then I made an adjustment to counter act that adjustment, then another and another and pretty soon my swing was nothing like what my swing used to be like. 

My coach brought up the video of my swing when it was good. We compared it to where I found myself after … I'll call it my melt down. Anyway, my coach was able to quickly get me back where I was before. Suddenly I was striping the ball down the middle again. Yay! 

Anyhow, back to today's practice. I hit trajectory drills with the driver. I'd hit a high fade, then hit an 8-iron shot. Next I'd hit a low draw, then hit a hybrid. After that I'd hit a high trajectory drive, then hit a 4-irion. Basically I'd work through the 9 shots with the driver: high, medium and low, Draw, straight and fade combinations. But after each driver shot, I'd hit a different club from my bag, picking the club pretty much at random. I didn't want to hit any club more than one time in a row. 

In the end I hit the ball so well on the range I had to run out and play 9 holes. My game has returned, I went 3 over for 9. I hit the ball so much better than I'd been hitting it recently. It felt great. 

That's the reason everyone should have a golf coach. 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by ChetlovesMer
I can't count

[DrMJG]

Day 478

It arrived today.

What arrived was my new driver: a Ping 410 Plus with Alta CB Red Soft Regular Shaft.

As I am still getting used to the new toy, I started with all the adjustable parts set to the most neutral settings.  Soon I adjusted to help with a slice. All after that change were straight where I was aiming.  I seemed to have picked up 10 MPH in terms of ball speed.  I need to work now on the results not being so high.

I intended to hit only 20-25 balls.  I ended up hitting 45 as this club made driving fun.  It was easy to hit towards  various target greens.  What I need to adjust after a few more practice section I the launch angle to lower the fact that wit my older drive I tend to hit high spin.

I rarely, if ever, fall in love with a club so quickly, but even with days of getting used to it ahead, as I said in my review on the Ping web site, it was love at first whack.

[Shindig]

Day 171, managed to sneak away for 10 minutes of putting.  6-9', breaking putts.  Real green, under the lights, at my dinner break.

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 29

My son was off of school today for parent/teacher conferences. So, he and I went to the range and hit balls. Not the most productive of all practices, but father/son time at the range is always a fun time for both. 

Edited October 24, 2019 by ChetlovesMer

[Shindig]

Day 172.  As is tradition this month, 5 minutes putting during dinner break.  Long game practice should return by this time next week!

[DrMJG]

Day 479

Today would be best called "Twist and Shout Day"!

Looking at recent videos indicated rather anemic movement of the hits and less than firm shifting of weight on the knees

Yes, I did hit about 15 round things, but one would have noticed the majority of time today was with the driver and Orange Whip®.  As a result I smacked some solid drives, even into the swirling wind. 

The poor rotations, I feel, were the result of a week with back pain.  Now that the back feel much stronger, I need to get back on track, especially with the hybrids.

 

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 30

• Putting today. 
• I was travelling for work and came across a decent little course. I rolled in on lunch break to ask if they had a driving range. No such luck. They do have a putting green. I asked the young lady at the counter how much to just use the putting green and she said "Just go use it." So I did.
• Spent 10 minutes on the 3 foot circle drill. Made my first 14 in a row. (that's good for me.)
• Spent 10 minutes on the 6 foot circle drill. Made 6 in a row at one point. 
• I rolled a few longer ones for fun. Thanked the young lady and got back to work. 

[DrMJG]

Day 480

Would that practice today would have been only 5 minutes.  I am exhausted.  I did once through the bag with Top Tracer. I have not really sat down to look at the numbers, but a few things hit me.

Compared to my first use of Top Tracer 18 months ago, vast improvement is shown.  Even in the areas I felt were not solid today ( I am talking to you, irons), the results were significantly better.  Distance, dispersion, and angles all were much better.  Some problems were quite different,  My favoring a fade has now moved into a draw.  And iron mishits often were what I call an unsigned left turn. 

Wedges were ok, though not perfect.  Best of my three was the 60º.  50º also tended to go left.

Hybrids were ok, though the spheres only rose to 12' in average.

Irons were at best ok.  Greater distance and more predictable distance. But, on this day, dispersion was very poor.  Usually left but one really bad slice zinger on both the 6i and 7i.

Onto the Driver.  First time attacking the Top Tracer with the G410.

Good Distance (195-205) with an Angle loft of 22º.  Not sure if that is too much as the club was only added last Monday. The dispersion was about 3-8 feet to the right (I had adjusted for the draw). Of all of the numbers TT gave, these were the ones I watched the most.  Height was almost set in stone at 30' and the same for my ball speed at 109.  This is WAY up from when I started when I muddled along at 89. Practice, technique and new toy all helped. Now I need to make some adjustments in technique to translate the ball speed into a few more yards.

100 shots over just under 2 hours.

That is a LOT for this old body.

However, came home and the dog wanted a walk, a LONG walk.  I still love him!

 

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by DrMJG

[DrMJG]

Day 481

Easy day as it is football Saturday.

I took out my ancient blade putter, more for something to change up, to see if it were possible to do a better job with speed on putts over 15'.

I was fairly pleased with the results.  I still tended to miss on the longer putts, but got it down to the point where I basically had a somewhat short tip in.  That I can take.

From within 6' I was a sharpshooter. Either drained it or missed by no more than a full roll. No clinkers off the back of the hole.

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 31

I got with my coach for a short (30 minute) lesson today. We worked the entire time on my grip. Yeah, you read that right, a half hour grip lesson. Good stuff. 

[Shindig]

(I practiced yesterday but didn't report it here, so it goes in the books as a miss)

Day 173.  Ten minutes of short putts, different course than my usual.   Would have done a drill but I forgot my markers in the car and didn't go back.

[DrMJG]

Day 482

Ok, I was a bit lazy today.  Last week was a lot of golf swings.  Many were simply trying out the new toy and not keeping track of just how many swings I had taken.

So, while not achingly sore, I best can describe by shoulders as tired; I can say the same about my legs and hip muscles as well.

So, I simply took about 15 minutes this AM to go through the swing at various speeds.  I set the timer so I would not go wildly beyond the time I wanted to do.

This was primarily being done to keep the muscles active and not create physical problems in the long run.

I also concentrated a lot on the plane of the swing as I have been going too far in to out and creating a hook on many of this weeks non-driver shots.  This will be the concentration of the week starting with a range session tomorrow and a round on Tuesday.

[ChetlovesMer]

Day 32

Set up and take away drills. I'm so happy to be back with my swing coach. My swing feels so much better after the last couple of lessons. 

I didn't meet with him today, but I did the drills he recommended. I'm feeling really comfortable in my set up and take away now. A couple of weeks ago I was lost. I'm back an it's great. 
Now if I could just get a little more of this weather.... Please....

[Shindig]

Nearing the end of the hotel stay, better practice coming as soon as Thursday.

Day 174.  Mirror work for full swing, slowly looking at weight shift pieces.