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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 left. 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/4-monthly-awards/. You should be able to figure out how to do it. 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!
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See the poll and answer honestly.
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MySwing Golf Launches Major Software Update Scottsdale, AZ (November 16, 2016) — MySwing Golf, Inc., the world’s leading full-body 3D motion capture analysis system for the golf swing, has announced the launch of its newest and most sophisticated software package. The software is now available for download to all existing MySwing customers. The key upgrades with the new software include biofeedback, which uses both audio and visual cues, that allows coaches to share instant swing feedback with their students; and a report comparing a student’s swing to tour ranges, allowing instructors to quickly focus on one or two major swing issues and provide a quick evaluation to the student. Instructors can add comments to this report and share it with their students via PDF. In addition, there are a variety of 3D planes and a new 3D wrist view. “Students learn much faster if they can both see and feel what their instructor wants them to do rather than the instructor forcing the player into a certain position,” said MySwing Director of Product Development, Chase Cooper. “Our goal with MySwing is to be as visual and user friendly as possible. Forcing instructors and their students to look at and understand graphs really isn’t the right approach.” The MySwing Professional product is the only wireless 3D system that is portable and can be used indoors as well as outdoors for a real-time teaching experience. According to Cooper, the MySwing Pro state-of-the-art system takes golf instruction to a new level. “Golf instructors have two goals: improve their students and increase revenue. With this new software release, we will help them accomplish both.” For more information about MySwing Golf, visit www.myswing.com. Now then… I wanted to start a thread on the MySwing. The software and everything was a little rough the last time @david_wedzik and I checked it out at the PGA Show last year, but I'm curious about the improvements they've made. I'll talk with Chuck (Evans) about it, as he's been using it for awhile, and I know others who have a system as well. Generally speaking, I tend to like technology but not like it when it requires doing too much different than regular golf. For example, the K-Vest was cool and all… but it was an actual vest and took some strapping in and all that. Time that is sometimes better spent, plus, the golfer didn't "feel" like they were playing golf, they felt like they were in an experiment. The MySwing is fairly non-intrusive.
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I want to start this journal to show some amateurs and people who are curious about how others prepare for tournament golf and playing at a high level. Day 1 4/18/19 Worked with instructor on flattening out the back swing by getting more bow in the right wrist(lefty golfer) and looking to get more depth in the lead arm. Lesson went good with visible improvement in the swing. Looking to also incorporate the depth in forearm and flatter swing into the iron shots as well. Lesson was one hour followed by 2 hours on the range with slow swings and a lot of practice swings focusing on the small fine details of the wrist. Building up to a more full swing with full speed. Ball flight has gone from less consistent fade or straight shots to a consistent sight fade. that is the desired shot i am looking to get nailed down. total range time 3 hours Day 2 4/19/19 Got up early before work decided to hit the range for more full swing work. starting with wedges and working up to 8 iron with new swing. Ball flight and distance control is looking really good. Video taken was showing more progress with the new swing change that has me on the right path. Full swing lasted about 45 mins the switch to various wedge shots for the last 15 mins before leaving. total time 1 hour Day 3 4/20/19 Another great morning session before work. This time starting with PW and working to 8 iron to start with. Then i would go up to the longer irons(4,5) and into the hybrids and driving iron. Working slow and deliberate on the practice swing before each club. Worked on that for about an hour. Then back to the wedges going from 30 yards up to 110. Working on picking a spot to hit and a side of the pin that i would like to be on. total time 1 hours 30 mins
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From 2009: http://www.golfdigest.com/story/hotlistevolution-0902 From 2015: http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/Golfweek-Custom-Media/golfweek-5-18-15/2015051202/17.html#16 This post links to an article from 2017: Ignoring the fact that without a floor, you can't really calculate a percent improvement*… the fact remains: golfers are getting better. This seems to be true despite courses continuing to get more difficult, golfers playing longer tees than they often should, and anything else you can think of. Golfers continue to get better, IMO, because: Instruction is improving. Launch monitors are more readily available to average golfers. Some of the lousier golfers might have been squeezed out in the recent recession. Equipment continues to improve. So, there you have it. Regardless of the reasons - which I may or may not even have sniffed - golfers are getting better. * I read a review of the iPhone once where they said the temperature increased from 30° C to 40° C and how that was a 33% increase. This kind of math doesn't work because it's not based on a scale that ends at true zero. Perhaps if the scale was to use the Kelvin scale, which has absolute zero… but 303.15 to 313.15 is only a 3.3% increase, which isn't quite the headline of "iPhone 33% hotter!". Anyway… the handicap scale is like that. There's no hard limit at "zero." -
You can get better at any age. Many here would trade their swing for this one…
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I've been thinking lately about the short game and putting, specifically proximity to the hole from around the green. I don't actually know how close I should be getting to the hole at my skill level. Game Golf tells me I'm 97% < 5 yards within 25 yards (I wish they would break this down more), but let's say I average 12' from the hole. A PGA Tour pro makes ~30% of those putts. A Tour-level putter I most certainly am not; I might make < 10% of my 12' putts. I'm not scrambling at the rate I should be and I don't know if the problem is with my short game or my putting. If I don't hit it within 5-6', I don't have a realistic expectation of making the putt. I'd bet that means I'm 50% from about that distance. I know I have room for improvement in putting. My short game has gotten better to the point where I feel like I'm hitting the ball consistently well but I'm misjudging what it's going to do when it hits the green, so I feel like I could get it closer more often. So where's the point of diminishing returns? Do I spend more time on the short game and try to get the ball closer, or do I work on my putting and try to increase that make %? Is it even reasonable (for me) to expect to be within 12' from nGIR, or to make 25% of 12' putts? Given limited resources (time), what priority is going to affect scores the most? -
Hi All, Been promising myself I would have a year of taking golf really seriously and see if I could get down to plus figures for a while now. Start of June this year will mark the start of a 12-month stretch in which I get my act together and finally do it (though I'll be doing bits and pieces as usual before then). Bit of info about me. I'm in my early 20s and currently playing to about a 5 or 6 handicap (I do not have an official one at present). I used to be as low as 2/3 when I played really regularly a couple of years ago, but have neglected to get out on the course much since then and would probably now struggle to break 75. A 5 or a 6 handicap with the potential to go lower is probably about a good approximation for the state of my game at the minute and as good a starting point as any from which to kick off on my quest to get to plus. Historically, my ball-striking has been the biggest weak point in my game and it is this which I am going to be focussing my attention upon most to try and shave off those pesky half a dozen shots from my handicap. My short game and putting is pretty much scratch level already so it'll more just be a case of keeping that area of my game ticking over rather than working towards significant improvements. I'll keep you guys posted with any rounds and/or practice I get down between now and the June 2018 starting point. Once the Summer kicks in I will be hitting range balls everyday and playing at the weekends. My aim is to document every round and practice session which I do in this 1 year stretch, keeping anyone whose interested updated with my progress and - for all the numbers geeks out there - the full lowdown of my stats. Wish me luck, Hosel4lunch
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More good golfer in their golfing life found a key move that change their game. Do you have any which has revolutionized your game for good? I haven't found mine yet, Have you?
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I think with a little work, just making sure I stay the course, with the previous part, I think the equipment change will help me become a more consistent driver. Now on to the single most important part of my improvement. My approach shots. I was going to break this part of the blog up into a few different pieces, but I decided that one long blog was better than three or four kind-of short blogs. So, about my approach shots. At times, I can hit 8 or 9 greens in a round, some rounds I hit 3 or 4. I know @iacas will preach GamePlanning, Shot Zones and Decision Maps to me. So were going to go through what I need to do to become a better iron player, so good in fact, I can maybe eventually get to scratch. I'm going to break down for you pretty much distance by distance and almost club by club, shot by shot at my home course of what I honestly need to do... to get more royalty in my life. A lot of the issues, I think I am having is, iI need to find that Smart Target, and just aim for the center of the green. The greens on my home course are relatively small at around 3,000 square feet. That still is a much bigger target than a 4¼ inch hole with a 6-foot stick with a piece of cloth attached to it… If I could just find that smart target in line with the center of the green that was even an intermediate target, I’d be halfway there. I still must execute. Golf is a game of imperfection, but if I’m 130 yards out for my second shot on the 13th Hole at Newman, if I aim at the center of the green my entire shot zone for my choked-down 9-iron, is on the green. Same for a stock pitching wedge. As far as I drive it, (which really isn’t that far, about 260 yards carry) and as short of irons as I have into most greens (on the front nine, if I don’t hit some hybrids, I’ll be hitting a bunch of shots with sand wedges all day.) I may have figured out part of this with just the introduction, aim at the center of the green, jack-ass. (I’m talking to myself, no offense to anyone). There is a part of Lowest Score Wins where they took 90s, 80s, and 70s shooters from 50 to 130 yards and had them shoot at the flag and shoot at a Smart Target. The higher handicappers did better shooting away from the hole, and took fewer strokes to hole out, than shooting at the hole. At the tale end of last summer, I started a thread which I should re-link, but I won’t. I said I wasn’t going to hit any full shots inside of 150 yards. I’m still not. Will there be a time and place when I do? Perhaps someday. Ok I said I was going to go shot-by-shot, of some approaches I would hit in a round at my home course, which is Newman Municipal Golf Course here in Ithaca, New York. Hole 1, Par 5, 490 Yards: Now I’ll be honest, I haven’t played with my new clubs yet or been out since October, but usually I have to lay-up short of the ditch because the tree or the right has a catcher’s mitt, the trees on the left you have to advance it toward the 3rd tee to have a chance to maybe make a 5, and the right side of the fairway though it leaves a longer third shot, is a better side to shoot from. So, I usually have about 120 yards, if I have this yardage, there are three trees behind the green, the one in the middle is almost dead in line with the center of the green. If I shoot the flag at 120 yards and it’s in the back, choked PW at the tree, in the front choked ¾ PW at the tree. Hole 2, Par 3, 145 Yards: I like Par 3s they are measured to the center of the green. Now we have a variable on the 2nd, some days we play from the right tee, some days we play from the left. Depending on the day, it changes the smart target. I forgot to mention, the prevailing wind is usually from the North. The 7th Hole you’ll see is straight into the teeth of this wind. We had a fence behind the green that was basically the out of bounds marking for the hole. It’s gone. Now we use trees and the practice fire station windows. From the left tee, a choked 8-iron at the far left window of the practice fire station. From the right tee, there is a lone pine tree across Fall Creek that is a little off center, but it’s pretty darn close. Hole 16 (also the 7th from a different angle), Par 3, 200 yards: This hole can play 220 yards if Mike decides to tip it out, but usually we don’t. There is a window on a boat house in the distance that is in the dead center of the green… if that doesn’t work the 8th tee marker (which is white, is usually a good line). You have Fall Creek on the right which is out-of-bounds. So I will take the penalty buffer into consideration and move your shot zone over to the left, there is also native grass to the left but it’s way left. There is a pine tree at the back-left corner of the green I will aim at because. It’s honestly the lightest shade. From the tee, if I get a nGIR most of the time and hit the green 1 out of 5… I’d be happy. 200-yard 4- or 5-iron shots are not easy for anyone. I think, what I’ll do my first time out in 2018, is get all my smart targets in order. Draw out my shot zones on some of that graph paper, they have you do constructions on in high school. Continue to work on my full swing drills, that I am working on with Craig, and who knows by summer @iacas maybe giving me, the breaking par, no sixes, and tournament winner badges. -
Gaining strokes on a 5 handicap- Part 1: Driving
onthehunt526 posted a blog entry in Journey to the Center of the Green
Remember my plan to get better at golf, that I wrote a few weeks back. Well I'm going to dissect it down to what I need to do in order to get my handicap down under 5... For wanting to be an sub 5 handicap, My driving well stinks. Probably 240, if I was lucky, and not-so-straight, It was absolute shit in comparison, but when I drove it well I was driving 280-290 with no problems. But it was Tiger inconsistent. You won't believe what led me to what happened with my new driver. But this is a blog, so I'll tell the story. I shot a 76, October and the only 6 I made was on a par-5 after a seemingly fine tee shot. But I was outside of 250, didn't have the lumber in the bag to go for it, so I laid up (bad Shane). I got home that night, and I pulled out my old Wilson 1200 GE Maple Laminate Drive that plays 43.5" long. (mind you actual "woods" can be difficult to hit, however after about ten shots that all went similar distances (not long maybe 220-230) I realized something. I don't need a 45.5" driver to hit it long. I probably should to my fitter and figure this out. I started a thread linked above. Which I actually did this experiment today. We actually did a version of this when I was settling on my length in my new EX10 driver. We actually started at 45.5" which is where I was at. Then we worked down to 45".... Which was a little better. Then I went too short... he actually has a couple shafts that make the driver play 42 and 43" respectively... and the strikes were there, but the distance was too short. (I joked if Tour Edge had a 15° or 16° driver head, I might use that for a 6 or 7 club set) So we went from there to 43.5" which was actually really good... but the launch was a little high. So we stuck made the Driver 44", The launch was around 15°, spin around 2500 (which is a hell of a lot lower than I had), and I was flying it 260... Consistently... So we tried 44.5" and the inconsistency creeped in. I'm 6'5" I have average length, limbs, a long torso... And I have a Driver an inch shorter than most of the guys at my course... wait till they play with me... they are in trouble. But as Dave and Erik say in LSW... 250 yards is plenty to be a scratch golfer (if you're playing from the proper tees, which I think I am, my course is 6,385 yards). I don't think I can get to scratch just by becoming an excellent driver of the golf ball, that is both long and reasonably straight. And I'm longer than 250 consistently... I'm probably going to be pushing a legit 270-280 yards once the season gets in full swing. If I can keep my shot zone in a nice 30 yard wide oval. I'll start gaining strokes. All I want to know from @iacas is trying to make your misses smaller, okay, if your only giving up say 5-10 yards of potential distance to do it? -
Going to take time to get down to 4.x
onthehunt526 posted a blog entry in Journey to the Center of the Green
I looked at some of my Game Golf statistics and some of my other statistics I kept, My short game is not as bad as I thought it was, my approaches inside of 100 yards need some work though, I'm actually gaining strokes on a 5-handicap with my driving already, even as bad, as I'm driving it sometimes. I'm losing shots on the approaches, but not much -2 ish (the 2 GIRs I need), and my putting is almost dead-on with a 5 Handicap. I'm only losing like 0.162 or something per round (mostly 3 putts between 30-40 feet). So I'm going to continue to work on my full swing drills to get the handicap down to 4.x... So I need to hit 2 more GIR a round. So 50% GIR gains me some strokes... More next week -
After having been a single digit handicap for the last 7+ years, swing changes and frustration has me at a 9.7 with the next possible round getting me to a double digit handicap. In the grand scheme of things, Im still a better golfer than a large percentage of people who golf, but at the same time it’s very frustrating to me to shoot in the mid to high 80’s. I know I’m a better golfer than how I’m playing right now and it’s so aggravating. I joke when I tell my buddies I’m going to take two weeks off an quit, and I know changing my swing for the better is going to take a lot of work, but it’s just frustrating sometimes. Other than my beautiful wife and dogs, golf is up there with one of the most important things I do in life, so it sucks to suck, ya know. Take a few days off an keep my head down and working? What do you do when it just doesnt make sense?
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for December, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for November, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for October, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for August, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for July, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for June, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for May, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award.
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"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge April 2017
iacas posted a topic in Instruction and Playing Tips
Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for April, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award. -
"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge March 2017
iacas posted a topic in Instruction and Playing Tips
Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for March, 2017! The rules are the same as always: Make a detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. Try to limit the number of very short or "ditto" type posts. 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. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it in red text so I can notice it and give you the award. Enjoy and practice hard! Note: you can miss one day per monthly challenge if you have a good reason and still be eligible for the monthly award. -
Hi everybody, hope you are well. I had a question and wanted to get some viewpoints. I have been taking lessons for a couple months and I don't agree with some things that my instructor has me doing. I had a early wrist hinge and they are set on me not hinging until very late in my backswing. The problem is that when I keep in a one piece take away my body wants to sway back a bit which causes a few problems. Second, they want me to not move my lower body at all. I had a very long swing (past parallel) and they want me to like literally not turn my lower body back at all. I can do that and I still get the club to about parallel but I feel stuck, like I can't explode forward at all. The combination of these is causing me fits and I'm flipping the club at impact increasing my dynamic loft way to high. What should I do? How do I approach this, they are set on me doing things this way but it's just not working at all for my body. I really like my instructor, nice guy but the changes are just not working for me. Just some background, I swing my 7 iron between 97 and 100mph, my handicap sits between a 3 and 5. Thanks for any help/comments. Hope you have a great day.
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for November, 2016! The rules are the same as always: Make a somewhat detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. No back-dating or pre-dating posts or practice sessions. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it, preferably in red text or something so I can notice it and give you the award. Detail what you did for at least five minutes of practice (indoors or out, with or without golf balls, etc.). Enjoy and practice hard!
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Welcome to the "5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge for October, 2016! The rules are the same as always: Make a somewhat detailed post describing your practice every day during the month. No back-dating or pre-dating posts or practice sessions. On the last day of the month, if you completed the challenge, post about it, preferably in red text or something so I can notice it and give you the award. Detail what you did for at least five minutes of practice (indoors or out, with or without golf balls, etc.). Enjoy and practice hard!
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