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Posted
On 12/31/2017 at 3:25 PM, iacas said:

5_minutes.svg.d4c131a17764cc67bea1183eb5Welcome 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!

Practicing my putting after work. I put five balls on the carpet and a mug on the other side. Once I make 3 out of 5 I can stop. If I leave any short or they go to far and fall off the rug, I restart. 

Focusing on speed and hitting my mark 3 inches in front of me. Trying to gain consistency and discipline in all aspects of my putting game. 


Posted

Day 29 (9 Dec 25) - PW dink and rolls as well as low flighted chips.  Dink and rolls - set up with club head toe down/heel up to promote low flight, plenty of roll out.  Low flighted pitches - club flat on the ground to get ball up a Rick more and check more.   No more than 10yds total distance - focus on getting the ball to finish near (within 10’ dia circle) the target “pin”…

Ping G400 SFT 10deg  R flex
Ping G410 3w R flex
Ping G400 3h and 4h R flex
Taylormade SLDR 5i thru PW graphite shaft R flex
Cleveland CBX wedges - 50, 54, 58 or 52, 58 (depending on my mood)
Odyssey Versa or White Steel #5
Srixon Q Star

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • Administrator
Posted

Day 435 - 2025-12-09

Got some work in between lessons with a beginner and some juniors.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Day 119 12-9

Flow practice tonight with some skill work for club awareness. Still have getting to lead side as a primary focus. Was hoping it would feel more natural, need to keep drilling it. 


Posted

Day 15: mirror work. Going slow, working on feels in the downswing. 

-- Daniel

In my bag: :callaway: Paradym :callaway: Epic Flash 3.5W (16 degrees)

:callaway: Rogue Pro 3-PW :edel: SMS Wedges - V-Grind (48, 54, 58):edel: Putter

 :aimpoint:

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Day 30 (10 Dec 25) - Played the midweek shootout (best weather day this week).  Decent day off the tee and approaches were solid, putting game was off (tbh - was using a spare putter (from grandson’s stash) that proved to be not quite the stick for me) as I had five 3putts (very uncharacteristic).  A good day of exercising patience on the green.

Ping G400 SFT 10deg  R flex
Ping G410 3w R flex
Ping G400 3h and 4h R flex
Taylormade SLDR 5i thru PW graphite shaft R flex
Cleveland CBX wedges - 50, 54, 58 or 52, 58 (depending on my mood)
Odyssey Versa or White Steel #5
Srixon Q Star

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Day 120 12-10

started with flow swing and getting to lead side work. Recorded face on and swing just looked worse and worse the longer I practiced. Something seems to be off lately. Need to adjust. 


  • Administrator
Posted

Day 436 - 2025-12-10

Light on the full swing work today, but I did a chipping competition against the girls. I won. 😉 

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Day 16: did my drill on my back deck. Trying to slow down the downswing a bit so I can really get the hands feel. 

-- Daniel

In my bag: :callaway: Paradym :callaway: Epic Flash 3.5W (16 degrees)

:callaway: Rogue Pro 3-PW :edel: SMS Wedges - V-Grind (48, 54, 58):edel: Putter

 :aimpoint:

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

Posted

Day 121 12-11

Practice session this morning. Slowing the swing down. 3/4 swings, Getting to lead side better, trying to feel more in sync with swing. Hit foam balls. Good session overall. 


Posted

Day 31 (11 Dec 25) - Regripped my #1 putter and spent some time rolling the rock.  Worked on lagging the ball to set distances (ladder drill) and overall tempo.  

Ping G400 SFT 10deg  R flex
Ping G410 3w R flex
Ping G400 3h and 4h R flex
Taylormade SLDR 5i thru PW graphite shaft R flex
Cleveland CBX wedges - 50, 54, 58 or 52, 58 (depending on my mood)
Odyssey Versa or White Steel #5
Srixon Q Star

Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

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  • Posts

    • Day 31 (11 Dec 25) - Regripped my #1 putter and spent some time rolling the rock.  Worked on lagging the ball to set distances (ladder drill) and overall tempo.  
    • If that's what defines block practice, then no, I haven't either. But the point is there is limited or no variable repetition required to learn steering/car turn relationship. I certainly have seen people repeat a bar '100 times' in learning a piano piece until they hit the notes in the right sequence and the right timing/tempo, before they move to the next bar and so on and forth.  I listened to Dr. R's podcast twice now, to make sure I'm not misunderstanding. It seems block practice is being equated to mindless hitting by some and deservedly gets a bad rap if so. I like what he said but think people can do 'random' just as mindlessly. I am preaching to the choir here but from my perspective this boils down to the being specific and mindful in your practice. Hitting 50 straight seven irons has it's value if it is done to specifically learn a hand position before delivery (random eg.), since the feel they are trying to internalize is universal regardless of the club. Eventually they need to vary the club to replicate the same feeling to add more variables.     
    • In driving a car you have all sorts of random or variable parts, though. Different speeds, corners, conditions, size of turns… even different cars and sizes, different traffic and laws (lights, signs, etc.). I don't think I've seen anyone doing "block practice" to practice the same exact turn 100 times, then trying it in the real world.
    • IMHO, block practice is good. Any new motor pattern or a 'move' has to be committed to muscle memory and be reproducable at command without conscious thought as the final goal. I don't see how this is that much different than learning how to drive a car, or let's say how to handle the steering for example. One must do it enough times and then also do it in different situations to commit to all layers of brain - judgment of demand, decision making, judgment of response and finally execution. Unless each layer is familiar of each of their role in the specific motor move, it is not truly learned and you will simply fall back to the original pattern. I think the random practice is simply committing the learned pattern to different scenarios or intervals of time to replicate in the real world (actual rounds). It breeds further familiarity learned from block practice. Steer the car a hundred times to learn the move (block) and then drive the car all over town to make it real world (random) to a level of maturity. I don't see how block and random have to be in conflict with each other.  
    • Yea, I think the first thing is to define block, variable, and random practice with regards to golf.  The easiest one might be in practicing distance control for putting. Block practice would be just hitting 50 putts from 5 feet, then 50 putts from 10 ft then 50 putts from 15 ft. While random practice would having a different distance putt for every putt.  In terms of learning a new motor pattern, like let's say you want to make sure the clubhead goes outside the hands in the backswing. I am not sure how to structure random practice. Maybe block practice is just making the same 100 movements over and over again. I don't get how a random practice is structured for something like learning a new motor pattern for the golf swing.  Like, if a NFL QB needs to work on their throw. They want to get the ball higher above the shoulder. How would random practice be structured? Would they just need someone there to say, yes or no for feedback? That way the QB can go through an assortment of passing drills and throws trying to get the wright throwing motion?  For me, how do you structure the feedback and be time effective. Let's say you want to work on the club path in the backswing. You go out to the course to get some random practice. Do you need to set up the camera at each spot, check after each shot to make it random?  I know that feedback is also a HUGE part of learning. I could say, I went to the golf course and worked on my swing. If I made 40 golf swings on the course, what if none of them were good reps because I couldn't get any feedback? What if I regressed? 
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