Your yard is always a great place to practice with the bucket. One time I tried to chip it into a bird feeder from 20 yards out.

Today was 5 ball rotation. focusing still on the takeaway and secondary was tempo, hitting 5 balls with each club then switching clubs. Helps concentration on each swing rather than just pounding balls till you get one right. Today also, i was striping it. I mean ropes on almost every single shot. I fanned a few just because i still have moments when i don't 100% trust the new swing and try to compensate. I don't think i've ever hit them this well though to date. It was the kind of range work where people stop and just watch you a while. It's kinda eerie and a little embarrassing when you are zoned in and you realize "hey, i don't hear anybody else hitting balls". let's see how it translates to sunday's round at Berkleigh and if it stays together in a week and a half.

Spent a lot of time practicing this week especially around the green. I think I made a lot of progress with my irons. I hit a full bucket this morning mostly with my five iron. All but about five were beauties. Let's see if it translates to the course. The adjustment I made was widening my stance and keeping the ball the same distance from my front foot.

I also hit about 50 balls this morning working on a 50 yard chip/pitch. I'm pushing them all about ten degrees to the right. Every single one. I guess I'll be factoring that into my round today, but at least I got the distance down.

Worked almost exclusively on 30 and 50 yard chip/pitch shots this morning before my round, and the results finally started to show. I've learned that to avoid chunking these shots, I need to keep my weight on my front foot. My next practice session is going to involve hitting my full wedge swing. I started chunking those over the last few days as well, but only when I'm hitting from the fairway. I'm going to experiment with the weight on the front foot and see what happens.

My other revelation over the past few days is the hip rotation that needs to occur at the beginning of my downswing. I've really been thinking hard about that lately. My shots weren't nearly as good today as they were yesterday, and I think the reason for that is because all of those hours on the range have started to stiffen up that one muscle that I probably haven't been using correctly until now. I pinpointed that muscle on the course today because it hurt and I couldn't use it effectively.

Worked on tempo a lot this week...doing nothing except swinging a club. I'm trying to integrate the hip rotation that I learned a couple of weeks ago into my swing...trying to make it a fundamental part of the swing. It still feels uncomfortable at times, but there is no denying what it has accomplished on the course.

I also measured my swing this week. I haven't done so since Spring, and I was surprised at that time to see that I was over 100 mph. Well, in three tries, I ranged from 117 mph to 119 mph with my driver. I think it might be time to upgrade to an x-stiff shaft.

I swing at 105.

I just worked on trying to isolate the muscle I pulled the other day to ensure that I know where it is so that I can properly stretch it in the future. Oh...that and bombing my driver over the driving range.

I had an epiphany on the driving range this morning that had to do with my grip combined with where the ball is in my stance. I learned that I could compensate for too strong of a grip by putting the ball back in my stance, and I could compensate for too weak of a grip by putting the ball forward in my stance. So what I did was I started gripping the club however it felt comfortable. Then I'd take a practice swing. And then, I would reverse that swing back to the point where the club was square to the target, and that is where I would put the ball in my stance.

The result?

I had more good iron shots in my round today than I've had in a long time. I hit five greens in regulation, which is a good number for me. And if you take out my one blow up hole, I would have shot in the 80's.

I learned that in my apartment I can make a full release, draw swing at full speed with no problem. Practicing any kind of holdoff fade action however should not be attempted ever again.

legitimatebeef wrote:

I learned that in my apartment I can make a full release, draw swing at full speed with no problem. Practicing any kind of holdoff fade action however should not be attempted ever again.

Ooops!

Yes, for sure, draw swings are much flatter than fade swings!

Hit a few balls today. I have made some progress lately in my quest to shorten the backswing. Still not where I'd like it but I realize this kind of change can only happen gradually. I have been using video to help me connect the sensations I feel to the reality of what actually happens. To me it still feels like I'm taking the arms back to "9 o clock" but video tells me I'm going way past that. Basically I am learning that a full turn does not need to mean lurching my hands and arms back as far as humanly possible.

Also worked on my waggle. It is very hard to work on the waggle because boy is it tedious and dull. But it is such a key component of the swing and I am making big changes right now. I'm taking it way more inside than I used to--what feels inside to me is actually the optimal plane. But I'm a devotee of the waggle, do it right and it tells so much about the state of your grip, setup and alignment.

legitimatebeef wrote:

Also worked on my waggle. It is very hard to work on the waggle because boy is it tedious and dull. But it is such a key component of the swing and I am making big changes right now. I'm taking it way more inside than I used to--what feels inside to me is actually the optimal plane. But I'm a devotee of the waggle, do it right and it tells so much about the state of your grip, setup and alignment.

This is so true. I started the waggle because it helped me get my wrist rotation down. It helped me learn to rotate them counter clockwise as I hit through the ball rather than clockwise. Now, as that part of my swing has become natural, it has started to tell me so much more. It tells me whether I need to rotate my grip. And if I'm trying an open faced or closed face shot by design, it tells me where the ball needs to be in my stance to keep the club face square to the target. This information, I think, is the beginning of learning to consistently make solid contact on a consistent basis.

Plus, it's something I can practice in my apartment.

i haven't practiced my full swing since the round i played after Myrtle Beach. I need to get out, i'm going stir crazy. Mostly because i have to pack and start getting things together for the move into the new house (huge back yard for chipping and short game practice hehe). I have to force myself to get out before saturday, as i have a swing analysis that i won down at the WAHC at the 19th hole. It's at Golftec, but hey i'd rather it be free so i can check them out. anybody ever go there?

I bought a used Nike SQ driver and a Nike Sumo SQ 3-metal yesterday and hit about half a bucket of balls getting used to them. The other half went to practicing my short iron shots getting ready for tons of golf next week.

I snuck in a few balls at the range yesterday. This is what I'm working on.

-flatter plane
-higher hands at address/stand closer to the ball/more upright posture
-more relaxed grip (i.e. no more death grip)
-firm left side through impact

It is a lot to deal with at the same time. At times it feels like I'm a beginner. I am pretty sure I'm overexaggerating some of these changes. Lord help me, I just want to hit the ball properly.