How Long Did It Take You to Start Seeing Real Improvement?

[Zaiyev]

So I just started playing golf again a few months ago after 10 years off due to injury and trying other stuff. I was taking lessons and playing ok (around 85 but had a horrid short game) before gettin hurt. I’ve been getting lessons but I’m only able to really practice around 4 hours a week and have a routine that I’m using, but my question for the forum is: how long did it take before you started to see your game take a change for the better?

 

I’m spending much more time on my short game this time around and only hit balls around once or twice a week, outside using the foam callaway balls in my back yard from time to time. I’m just wondering if maybe my expectations of getting better are too high right now and should just understand the grind to getting better.

 

thanks all

[klineka]

Welcome to TheSandTrap!

How quickly your practice will pay off depends on what you are practicing and how effective your practice is. 

Do you keep track of your stats at all? Things like your handicap, driving distance, GIR, scrambling, putts per round, etc , which would be really helpful in determining if your short game is actually a glaring weakness or if it just appears that way. 

Check out these topics for more information about practice

 

 

[Zaiyev]

5 minutes ago, klineka said:

Welcome to TheSandTrap!

How quickly your practice will pay off depends on what you are practicing and how effective your practice is. 

Do you keep track of your stats at all? Things like your handicap, driving distance, GIR, scrambling, putts per round, etc , which would be really helpful in determining if your short game is actually a glaring weakness or if it just appears that way. 

Check out these topics for more information about practice

 

 

Thanks for the reply. I do have a practice schedule that I try to follow in my 4 hours a week. It’s mostly short game work and 100 yards and in. And I play putting and chipping games to track progress, and I can tell that my short game is better now than it even was 10 years ago (I’m 32 years old) but I’m wondering how long it will take getting a lesson a month to really start getting a more consistent swing. I practice my swing quite a bit when I have some free time but today when I hit balls I felt like I took 2 steps back.

[klineka]

Just now, Zaiyev said:

Thanks for the reply. I do have a practice schedule that I try to follow in my 4 hours a week. It’s mostly short game work and 100 yards and in. 

Practicing 100 yds and in will likely drop a couple strokes quickly, but to really get better your full swing needs to improve.

You probably need to switch the ratio around to where you are practicing mostly full swing shots and then a little bit on short game (Like is explained in the 65/20/15 topic I linked above)

Nobody here is going to be able to give you a timeframe for how long it will take you to improve. There are too many variables. The quality of the coach, the quality of your swing, how often you practice, how efficient your practice is, do you use video, etc etc. 

Your full swing isnt going to get better quickly if you spend 75%+ of your time on shots that are 100 yds and in.

6 minutes ago, Zaiyev said:

 but I’m wondering how long it will take getting a lesson a month to really start getting a more consistent swing. 

 You likely already have a consistent swing, but that swing might not give you the results you are looking for.

 

[Zaiyev]

21 minutes ago, klineka said:

Practicing 100 yds and in will likely drop a couple strokes quickly, but to really get better your full swing needs to improve.

You probably need to switch the ratio around to where you are practicing mostly full swing shots and then a little bit on short game (Like is explained in the 65/20/15 topic I linked above)

Nobody here is going to be able to give you a timeframe for how long it will take you to improve. There are too many variables. The quality of the coach, the quality of your swing, how often you practice, how efficient your practice is, do you use video, etc etc. 

Your full swing isnt going to get better quickly if you spend 75%+ of your time on shots that are 100 yds and in.

 You likely already have a consistent swing, but that swing might not give you the results you are looking for.

 

Thank you very much for this reply. I will spend some extra time on my full swing even if that means beating on practice balls in the yard or in front of a mirror!

[HJJ003]

24 minutes ago, Zaiyev said:

I will spend some extra time on my full swing even if that means beating on practice balls in the yard or in front of a mirror!

Don't just beat balls. Practice effectively. I struggle with this off and on...its easy to get sucked into hitting range balls over and over. Pick something specific that needs to be worked on within your swing and then practice that aspect of your swing as necessary.

[Patch]

Improvement started almost immeadiately, maybe 3-6 month. I was hooked on the game from the the first par 3 course I played. 

Alot of the quick improvement was probably due to my hand/eye coordination due to all the other sports I played, which I was already pretty good at. Baseball, basketball, football, and some tennis. 

[Zaiyev]

13 minutes ago, Patch said:

Improvement started almost immeadiately, maybe 3-6 month. I was hooked on the game from the the first par 3 course I played. 

Alot of the quick improvement was probably due to my hand/eye coordination due to all the other sports I played, which I was already pretty good at. Baseball, basketball, football, and some tennis. 

Same here, but I was just ok at other sports but my hand eye is pretty good. My ball striking shit through the roof when I found out that the swing bottoms out under the left armpit and I started looking at that spot instead of the ball. It works better for me

[gbogey]

When I first started playing I was practicing 2-3 times a week, playing once a week, with a lesson every 6-8 weeks.  I improved rapidly / steadily for 3 years, then plateaued.  After two more years of working to improve, I suddenly got better by another couple of strokes and then plateaued again at a level I can't seem to improve upon. 

That said, my improvements have tended to be step changes - when I finally broke 100 I moved to low 90's quickly, and when I finally broke 90 I moved to the mid-80's almost immediately. So I don't think it's unusual to feel like you aren't getting better and then to improve by several strokes at a time.

If you are practicing 4 hours a week, you are putting in enough practice time IMO.  Are you playing regularly? So much of golf is mental / course management that I believe you have to play to get better, if only to recognize what to do in certain lies / situations.  I had the time last year to play A LOT of golf and although I don't think I got better in my ability to play, I did get better in course management and in knowing what to do with all sorts of unusual lies.

[iacas]

6 hours ago, HJJ003 said:

Don't just beat balls. Practice effectively. I struggle with this off and on...its easy to get sucked into hitting range balls over and over. Pick something specific that needs to be worked on within your swing and then practice that aspect of your swing as necessary.

Good post.

OP, five minutes of GOOD mirror work is better than an hour of just beating balls.

[Zaiyev]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Good post.

OP, five minutes of GOOD mirror work is better than an hour of just beating balls.

Thank for the reply. I spent a little extra time today hitting balls after class. I really just focused on getting the club coming from the inside and trying to make good contact. It went better than this morning. I’m really trying to focus on getting better with the driver and 3 wood off tee and shots from about 175 and in, so soft 6 down to my wedges. I feel with my driver length (108 mph driver swing speed) I won’t use my 5, 4 irons and 5 wood too much.

[Aj_ ninja]

Even through my scores haven’t changed I’ve noticed a big change in my game. I started keeping a google doc on course notes and game notes. My game notes have Things to work on & how to work on them in my next range session. It also has how to approach hard shots. My course notes are pretty self explanatory. I just started playing again after a 8 year break also 32 y/o and since I started a month ago I can actually hit my driver comfortably, with a reliable draw, and I can comfortably hit my 4iron straight and hit irons off the tee which I couldn’t do when I was playing at 21y/o. Filming myself and keeping a journal has really helped. I’ve never had a lesson, since I am still working on things I know I need to fix, but plan on getting one soon after I practice releasing the club face and working on my alignment more.

[DrMJG]

Every practice I do, at home or at the range, comes with a plan to follow. (How well I fully execute the plan may be up for debate!) Sometimes, I have to get back to the plan as I can allow my mind to wander.  I only take the clubs I want to focus on out of the bag; this keeps me from letting myself to change the plan mid practice.

Like you, I am returning to golf after a LONG period of time. You are doing many of the things I did and progress will steadily comet you.  Plan the practices well so that the brain and body work well on the course, where yo don't want to over thin.

[Lihu]

On 11/1/2018 at 5:31 PM, iacas said:

Good post.

OP, five minutes of GOOD mirror work is better than an hour of just beating balls.

 

3 hours ago, DrMJG said:

Every practice I do, at home or at the range, comes with a plan to follow. (How well I fully execute the plan may be up for debate!) Sometimes, I have to get back to the plan as I can allow my mind to wander.  I only take the clubs I want to focus on out of the bag; this keeps me from letting myself to change the plan mid practice.

Like you, I am returning to golf after a LONG period of time. You are doing many of the things I did and progress will steadily comet you.  Plan the practices well so that the brain and body work well on the course, where yo don't want to over thin.

The most effective practice I’ve done is mirror work for full swing then when I do hit balls on the range it’s similar to what I do on the course. Every shot is accounted for just like on a course.

[saevel25]

20 hours ago, Aj_ ninja said:

My game notes have Things to work on & how to work on them in my next range session.

Be careful not to go down a dark rabbit hole on this one. Some things you need to work on might be things you will always have to work on. Bouncing around, working on new stuff after every round is a good way to see little improvements. It might take half a season to see trends in areas you need improvement on.

 

[Aj_ ninja]

On 11/26/2018 at 5:49 AM, saevel25 said:

Be careful not to go down a dark rabbit hole on this one. Some things you need to work on might be things you will always have to work on. Bouncing around, working on new stuff after every round is a good way to see little improvements. It might take half a season to see trends in areas you need improvement on.

 

Very true, I have another doc for course strategies, and another blank one I have for when I’m playing, I’ll write things down in that issues I have, try to think of why those bad shots didn’t work try to find the issue(s) and hit a few range balls thinking of that shot to see if it was a fluke or new issue to see if it naturally works itself out. If it doesn’t the it goes in the other notebook. The main things I’ll probably have to work on forever I usually go over in my head as part of a pre shot routine: “release club face, drive with the body not the hands, etc.”

The google doc notes are a new thing I picked up since I started playing again a few months ago and have really liked it, and have definitely seen improvement in my play.

[The Recreational Golfer]

It took one summer, after I played with a guy who was much better than I was, and said to myself, "I should be doing that." I told my pro I was stuck and  I needed a series of lessons to get to the next step. He gave me the lessons to do that, I practiced often, and I got the improvement I wanted.