Good Practice Makes Great Play

Great news!  In most years, as soon as the pigskin starts to fly, my interest in golf wanes, but not this season. Maybe it’s because my college and pro football teams are supposed to suck, but I am super psyched for 2017 fall golf.  It probably has nothing to do with football and is mostly due to the success I’m experiencing during practice, and how it’s translating into better play.

Starting in April, I took four lessons with my instructor. We focused entirely on full swing for the first three and a playing lesson on the fourth. My goals were simple, average 10 greens per round for the year, try to lower my handicap which had crept up from a 5 to 6.3 over the last couple of seasons, and just have more fun.

Here are some keys; maybe you can grab a few.   The way I’ve been practicing has made a huge difference. I have re-dedicated myself to a mid-week session, and focus on ball striking and short game every Wednesday after work. Sure it’s inconvenient to get from downtown Washington to my home course in Rockville, MD, but I’ve found the following is true: You get out of this game what you put into it. I’ll do an additional practice on Saturday and play on Sunday. The three days per week provide enough reps that make the game more second nature than when I was only engaging on the weekends. Second, I’ve been able to focus on the same improvements over and over rather than searching for a swing key every time out. When you know your miss tendencies, and you understand why you miss, and you have the tools to make the fix, it’s so much easier to concentrate. Practice does not feel like a chore.  Pounding range balls and changing swing thoughts on every shot is exhausting and is like walking through the desert.

With any quest for improvement, to keep yourself honest, you should measure. The data look pretty good. After a very rough start to the year and many growing pains during the lessons, my GIR average has pulled up to 9. I’ve hit double digit GIR in my last four rounds and have been under par for a good portion of three of those. I’ve also noticed that I’ve picked up considerable distance with the driver and am more accurate with the wedges. In the past, I never put much stock in driving distance simply because I couldn’t hit it that long. But I’m finding the added distance makes a huge difference provided you are accurate with your wedges. For instance, last time out I only hit three fairways and two of them were with irons on layups, yet I still managed 13 GIR and a round of even-par because my drives were long enough to get a wedge in my hands.

Lastly, my index has dropped to 4.1 which is super encouraging, and of course, lots of fun because of the lower scores.  It’s cool to feel like you’re not trying as hard, but are playing closer to your ability.

Hope your game is coming around too.  Play well!

A Picture Is Truly Worth a Thousand Words

I headed out to the driving range this morning determined to fix the mechanical fault in my golf swing that had created so much angst last weekend.  If you’ll recall, I wrote that last Saturday’s range session had left me with a bad case of the pulls and I was able to slap a partial band-aid on for the following day’s round.  Needless to say but I had completely taken the right side of the golf course out of play.

Armed with the same band-aid, today I proceeded to have one of those range sessions where everything was pure garbage.  These things occasionally happen and I had the common sense to immediately whip out my iPhone and grab some DTL video with my gap wedge, Driver, and 6-iron.  What I captured with the 6-iron was revealing.  See if you can spot the root cause of Mickey Mantle:

The video coupled with a review of a couple DTL setup shots from previous blog posts solved it.  Here is a shot from me last November at Baywood Greens when I was beginning to suffer a case of the pulls:

18th tee at Baywood Greens

Now here’s a shot From Ross Bridge in October when I was hitting it good.  Spot the difference?

On the tee at the par-4 eighth hole.

In the good shot, I’m very balanced at address and in the Baywood Greens shot, my weight has started to slip back toward my heels.  In today’s video, my weight is very much on my heels creating the insight path on the back swing and over the top move on the downswing.  A good move in golf is an athletic move and I was in a poor athletic position.  I could feel something wasn’t right but couldn’t nail it with out the visual.

What’s fascinating and frustrating are how these things keep creeping into my swing, but I understand that golf more than any other sport is a game of never ending adjustments.  Part of the fun and challenge is trying to bank a group of recognizable adjustments that you can call on in short order when something goes a kilter.  So, if you aren’t periodically filming your setup and swing you should be, and the more you can, the more you will learn, and the steadier you’ll play.

Can’t wait to battle test this tomorrow afternoon at Northwest.  Happy Easter everyone!

 

Better Late Than Never?

Has this ever happened to you?  You are in the throws of a terrible range session leaving yourself physically and mentally spent and then you find something on the last ball?  What do you do?

It happened to me last Saturday.  I was looking at dead yanks with everything from the short irons to the driver.  I had started out working the Nine-Shot drill but had to abandon as the controlled fades became straight yanks and the draws were pull hooks.  Finally at my wits end, I tried something that worked and nutted a driver dead straight on the last ball.  How many of you would chalk it up to a random cosmic accident and head for the parking lot and how many would go buy another bucket?  As it turned out, I was exhausted but with the prospect of teeing it up the following morning and having to sleep on such an awful session, my curiosity got the best of me.  I went up and down the line scarfing a couple balls here and there from my fellow range rats; just enough to validate.  Turns out the swing fix straightened out the driver but not the irons.  Better late than never?  Absolutely!  I feel it’s essential to leave the course after play or practice with some form of hope that tomorrow will be better than today and it worked.  My round the following day was a solid ball striking one propped up by a mix of drivers, 3WD, and 3-irons off the tee.  Definitely a more conservative approach than normal, but there’s a lot to be said for getting the ball in play when you’ve got swing foibles as serious as I had lurking just beneath the surface.

What’s your strategy for playing after a shaky range session?

Do You Plan Your Practice?

Are you one of those individuals who loves spontaneity and enjoys flying by the seat of your pants?  Or are you always calculating and feel compelled to plan out every activity for which you participate?  Count me in the latter group.  And for those ultra-organizers out there, you understand the trait is both a blessing and a curse because while you’re always organized, others start to expect you to organize them as well.

So for the organizers, a couple tips about practice.  First, you get much more benefit if you have an idea of what you are trying to accomplish and how to get there.  I’ve tried it the other way (just show up and bang balls or chip and putt) and it doesn’t work.  You don’t have to plan out minute by minute or ball for ball, like Tiger Woods (read Max Alder’s April Golf Digest Column), but structure your time according to your objective.  Last weekend after my disastrous opening round on Saturday, I headed out Sunday morning and videoed myself hitting the 58 degree wedge shots that I had struggled with the day before.  I planned what technique I was going to work on and stuck to it.  The film review and planning were great because I uncovered a couple flaws and didn’t have to stew all week on my mistakes.  Thanks to Vetforgolfing51, for suggesting that the best time to practice is as close to after your round as possible.

Second, introduce an element of game simulation into your practice.  On full swing, work your technique, and then play an imaginary nine holes at your home course.  Use different targets and shot shapes on the range.  Don’t get stuck raking balls after a bad swing; move on to the next shot and try to hit the recovery as if you were on the course.  For short game, play nine holes (or 18 if there’s time) of Up and Down.  Drop balls in various lies and use different clubs to go after holes requiring all the techniques you’ve been working on.  Count each hole as a par-2, with a chip or pitch in as the only way to make birdie.  Mark and clean your ball just like you were out on the course and even write your score on an old card.  See how close you can stay to even par.  I usually score about four or five over and it’s a wonderful challenging game to build nerve and technique.  I always wrap up my short game sessions with Up and Down.  Today I was even par through seven and the pressure was intense!  Great stuff for transitioning practice to the course.  I bogeyed #8 but my one-over score was the best I’ve had in years and left me filled with confidence and feeling like my practice time was well spent.

A final word about Tiger’s practice habits.  Yes, the guy is quite anal but he’s been the greatest player on the planet for the last 15 years and you’d be smart to emulate some of what he does.  I’ve been using the Two Tee drill, that he implemented while under the tutelage of Butch Harmon, to practice putting before rounds for the last couple of seasons and it really promotes a solid putting stroke on the short ones.  More advanced players should also copy his use of the Nine-Shot drill to build confidence and add different options to your repertoire.

Got any tips for good practice?  What’s your most effective technique?  Please share!

2014 Winter Golf Tune-Up Plan

Winter Golf
From pga.com

One of my favorite pastimes is reading golf books over the winter and trying to find a nugget to put into play the following season, and this year is no exception.  Two years ago, I made the mistake of reading both the Stan Utley short game book and putting book and putting mechanical changes in place without sufficient runway to practice before implementing in the spring.  Come March, my short game was in ruins.

This year, I am determined not to make mechanical changes but have landed on a practice tip I just love and think will be very beneficial.  Has anyone heard of the 9-shot?  I’m currently reading The Big Miss by Hank Haney, and 9-shot is the drill that he introduced to Tiger Woods to improve his confidence in ball striking.  The drill is to take nine shots with each club in the bag and vary the curve and height pattern on every ball.  Basically, you hit three fades, three draws, and three straight shots and try to hit them with a low, medium, and high trajectory.  My driving range sells buckets of about 50 balls and the thought is to try the drill by warming up with five balls, then hit the remaining 45 in five groups of nine using a PW, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-iron, and Driver.  I’ve noticed that on days when I warm up well, I’ll try to work the ball on the last few shots and it infuses me with tremendous confidence to be able to curve it on demand.  This drill seems like it will help with concentration and focus on every club in the bag.  Anyone tried the 9-shot?

It’s going to be in the high 50s on Friday and I’ll give it a go and report back.  Gotta love the opportunity to bang some balls outside in the winter.  By the way, a full book review is coming on The Big Miss so don’t miss it!

Found the perfect warm-up routine!

I’ve been experimenting with several warm-up techniques this season and have finally hit on one that fully prepares me to play.    Several routines have left me fidgety and uncomfortable for the first few holes until my natural rhythm takes over, and usually with some bad scores on the card.  My goal is to feel as comfortable and confident on the first tee as I am after playing five holes.  Here we go:

Start by getting to the course early.  Normally, I’ll arrive 50-60 minutes before my tee time but have recently found that an additional 15 minutes is required to eliminate any feeling of being rushed.  I’ll start the warm up on the driving range by slowly swinging my 4-iron with a weighted doughnut around the hosel.  I’ll deliberately hold the finish position on each swing to ensure I’m fully rotated, weight is distributed correctly on my forward foot, and my rotational muscles have been fully stretched.  I’ll take about 15 of these.  Next I’ll hit about 15 balls off a tee with my pitching wedge.  I use the tee to promote good contact and to build confidence.  Next I’ll hit about half a dozen 7-irons, again off a tee to build more confidence.  Next, I’ll move to driver and hit half a dozen.  If I feel really good, I’ll try to shape a few because drawing or fading the ball on command is a tremendous confidence boost, but only try this if you understand how to shape your shots.  The warm up is for getting loose and building confidence, NOT for experimenting with new moves or getting overly mechanical.  Finally I’ll wrap up with about 10 shots off the turf with my 56 degree wedge.  On every shot, I’ll alter the target because I don’t want to get robotic and do want to get my mind in game mode.  I find it helps to pause between shots and maybe chat up a friend or fellow competitor, just to remove any focus on yourself and set your mind in a relaxed state.

Next I’ll move to the short game area (hopefully you’ll have one), and hit some easy chips off good lies to a flag that has ample room to run out.  Very important to hit easy shots because you want to see the ball getting close (or in) to build confidence.  Chip for about 5-10 minutes.  Then take a few pitch shots from good lies to easily accessible holes, again to build confidence.  See a pattern developing here?  Finally wrap up with some lag putts of 10-20 feet.  You want to see the ball get close or go in and not end up in three putt range.  Finish up by making half a dozen very short putts of two feet or less, just to make sure you make them all.  It’s VERY important to see the ball go in the hole.

Want to be prepared for success on the first tee?  Try this routine.  Let me know how it goes and good luck!

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of golf alignment stick drills?

I bought my “alignment sticks” about a year ago and love them.  They are a critical element for totally effective practice.

• Do go to your local Home Depot and purchase as many 48″ fiberglass driveway markers as you like.  They are only $2.29 each and work great.
• Do use the Straight Back and Straight Through drill for putting, which I’ve found is the absolute best drill with the sticks.
• Do go to the Tour Sticks website and review the drills page for a comprehensive look at what you can work on.
• Do focus on drills that sharpen your aim.  Grip-Aim-Setup (GAS) are the three pre-shot checkpoints for a sound swing.  Use the sticks to ensure you are properly aligned on every shot and you can focus your attention on other mechanical improvements.  The Alignment drill is excellent.
• Do use the Landing Point drill to sharpen your chipping and pitching.  This works great to help you dial in on a spot where you’d like your short shot to land and then run out.
• Do keep two sticks in your bag the day you play.  To start your putting warm-up, frame a hole and hit just 10 4-footers and enjoy the confidence boost.
• Don’t focus on drills where the stick can touch your body (Spin Out).  I’m a feel player and I prefer to focus on feeling the correct movement and not on a foreign object touching me during my swing.  Definitely a distraction to be avoided.
• Don’t focus on drills where you may hit the stick with a club (Bunker Entry).  Focus on a spot to hit, not to avoid hitting.  Can also be dangerous if you hit the stick and it pops up.
• Don’t rely heavily on the Alignment drill while warming up for a round.  Use this only to work on mechanical changes during practice.  Before play, it’s a good idea to change targets on every shot to get your mind into game mode.
• And finally, no need to purchase the actual Tour Sticks for $14.95 + shipping.  You’re just paying extra money for more color choices.

The backyard range is open!

I’m finally set up with my new Callaway driving net and Dura Pro range mat. Construction of my hitting platform is done and the backyard range is open! Check out this video snippet of the first shot. Now my family of non-golfers are whacking balls with growing regularity and all of a sudden, I’m in the market for some women’s clubs.

Usually I get my off-range work in up at the adjacent school field, but can only hit pitching wedges due to space limitations.  Now that the school year has started, the field is no longer available but this get up is great!  I’ve banged over 100 balls over two days and mostly with driver.  Not one has gotten through (won’t discuss the few hosel hits from the non-golfers that went a bit wide.)

Total cost for the mat, net, and wood to build the platform was about $300 and should easily pay for itself in terms of better ball striking satisfaction and lower practice costs.  Last item in my shopping cart is a floodlight and I’ll be setup for night action deep into November – December.  The truly great benefit is the convenience.  You belt a couple dozen, come in for dinner and head back out.  The AC, TV, and refrigerator are just steps away.  Commercial during a football game – half a dozen drivers are in order.  This Fall is going to be fun!