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The THP Range/Practice Thread

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Back to the range today, this time to work on my fairway woods. I definitely improved hitting them, focusing on my wrist hinge. Started to get tired and confusing myself with my takeaway towards the end of a large bucket, but realized I was reverting to my laid off position at the top.

This range has buckets lined up at the 75 and 100 yard markers and if you get your ball in, you get a free bucket of balls. Sure enough, a quarter swing with my PW went right in the 75 yard bucket. They give you the ball you hit in as well, so it was pretty cool. Hopefully I didn't waste all my hole in one karma.

The SpeedBlades have been in my bag recently and I may leave them in for the time being. It's a good problem to have, as I really like the SpeedBlades and the Diablos and love hitting both of them, but I'm feeling the SpeedBlades right now.

I have a lesson on Tuesday and already have some questions to ask about my take away, but am liking where things are headed right now. The winter game improvement program keeps trucking along.
 
Got the green light for the golftec lessons...gonna start in Dec..it's on!!!
 
Nice Mike!
 
I putted for a little while today again....
Cross handed grip felt good once again.

I only went cross handed for about 15 putts. Surprised that it does not feel totally wrong.

Today also worked on keeping my index finger wrapped instead of pointing down the shaft.
 
Michigan Slice said:
I putted for a little while today again....
Cross handed grip felt good once again.

I only went cross handed for about 15 putts. Surprised that it does not feel totally wrong.

Today also worked on keeping my index finger wrapped instead of pointing down the shaft.
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This makes me smile. A lot.
 
Jman said:
This makes me smile. A lot.
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I need to focus more on that, its what I do when I get lazy and it always gives me fits.
 
mikedean441 said:
Got the green light for the golftec lessons...gonna start in Dec..it's on!!!
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That is awesome to hear. It's great being able to see your swing on their video screens--makes it easy to see what your teacher is trying to explain.


Went to the range today and worked on my takeaway, position of my hands at the top of my swing, trying to keep my right elbow closer to the my body on the downswing, and hitting down and through the ball. That's a lot, haha.
 
War Eagle said:
I need to focus more on that, its what I do when I get lazy and it always gives me fits.
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Its a tough one for a lot of people, it gives the illusion of more control in the stroke when in reality it causes manipulation of the head during the stroke instead of just letting it release on its own. I used to be terrible about it.
 
Had a nice long practice session, really focusing on making my swing with my mid-irons more smooth and consistent. Need to remember to slow down and really finish my body turn in my backswing, rather than getting my hands in position. Once that fell into place, I was getting my 7 iron 150+ yards and consistent in terms of direction (a reliable little push). Then spent some time hitting driver, with pretty pleasing results. Again, full body turn, hip driven, good distance.

It occurred to me as I was trying to see if I could hit the 150 sign with my 8 iron (unsuccessfully) that getting my 7 iron out there means that, since May, I've added nearly 3 clubs of carry, going from hitting my 4 hybrid 150 yards to now hitting my 7 iron nearly 155. Feels pretty good.

Also spent a lot of time in the greenside practice rough, working on chipping. I know there's a ton of strokes I can save from an 18 hole round if I can knock it close and turn some 2 putt-bogeys and doubles into 1-putt pars and bogeys. Still, chipping is an art form I just haven't quite figured out yet. What club to hit, when to try and pitch it close or bump & run, what shots you can hit from what lie. It's a combination of feel and course management that is currently way over my head.
 
Had my first lesson tonight. It was a 1 hour swing evaluation. I dont think it could have gone better. My mechanics are good. Just some swing flaws that need to be worked on. Head stability, straighten arms on takeaway, and work on shifting my weight through the swing. Saw some great improvements already tonight.
 
DevRickus said:
Had my first lesson tonight. It was a 1 hour swing evaluation. I dont think it could have gone better. My mechanics are good. Just some swing flaws that need to be worked on. Head stability, straighten arms on takeaway, and work on shifting my weight through the swing. Saw some great improvements already tonight.
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I kinda had the same experience that it sounds like you did on my first lesson. My pro made a couple of tweaks and I went from a bad slice to a baby fade just like that. It's the little stuff. Keep it up dude!
 
dcbrad said:
I kinda had the same experience that it sounds like you did on my first lesson. My pro made a couple of tweaks and I went from a bad slice to a baby fade just like that. It's the little stuff. Keep it up dude!
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Yeah man. His exact words "How are you around the greens?" Good "You are going to be lethal. Your ball flight is so straight and I have seen such an improvement in ball flight already". I am so pumped right now.
 
Love it Ricky! That's the best feeling ever, isn't it? Excited to see where this takes you buddy.
 
DevRickus said:
Had my first lesson tonight. It was a 1 hour swing evaluation. I dont think it could have gone better. My mechanics are good. Just some swing flaws that need to be worked on. Head stability, straighten arms on takeaway, and work on shifting my weight through the swing. Saw some great improvements already tonight.
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Sounds eerily similar to my swing evaluation last week. Now ya know what needs to be worked on and the grinding begins
 
So today was my first range session in awhile where I truly focused on some things. I discovered very quickly that I have been very lazy in my swing. Using more arms and less turn, manipulating the club to hit the ball with hand and arms apposed to delivering contact with the larger muscles. Took a little wile for me to make a good turn , but after some drills and some tour stick check points I'm on my way to where I want to be. Did hit a few fat, and a few pulls. however the consistency of the strikes are improving so much. Ended up practicing there for about two hours and only hit one large bucket.
 
Hit 200 balls last night in my garage range. The first 100 or so were just awful. The numbers I was getting from the launch monitor were some of the worst I've ever seen. Once I warmed up though, I was really starting to like what my coach had done with my swing. I'm hitting a nice baby draw, but can still pull out a fade when I want to. I'm really starting to accept that the money I spent on the launch monitor was well worth it. Hopefully I'll be able to get my handicap down once the posting season starts again in April.
 
Another lesson today. My tendency is to swing under plane, so I've been working hard at staying on plane during my backswing and my teacher was pleased with how much more on plane I was during the entire swing. Mainly I'm starting my wrist hinge pretty early and am getting the shaft parallel with the target line, then am focusing on pointing the butt of the club at the ball, then down the target line. We noticed that the club head was open at impact more often than not (even when on plane), so I focused on turning my hands over. I have always avoided thinking about my hands rotating because I want it to happen naturally, but I was getting much better results. Mind you, this is all at half swing speed, maybe a little faster.

So, now it's time to work on getting the on plane swing with club head square at impact going at full swing speed and groove that. On the course, I have a tendency to revert back to my bad habits, so more work must be done. I like the improvement though and know what I'm doing wrong, so my plan is to keep the lessons and practice going onward and upward.
 
Went to the range hit 75 balls, then putted and talked with my instructor about golf, courses swing, watched some of the tourney and examined swings, putted some more, tales more golf swing and about me signing up for his yearly coach/lesson plan (its gonna happen).

Hit another bucket focusing on shortening my swing, still making a full shoulder turn but not taking my arms so high/vertical. This resulted in much better shot dispersion. I also spent some time trying to tag the 250 sign with the driver came close but no cigar.
 
Hadn't swung my clubs in nearly two weeks after a rough go in a tournament. Came home, told my fiancé "all I want for Christmas is lessons!" So yesterday I decided I needed to get back on the horse.

It was very cold (for coastal CA) around 45° with a steady 10-15mph breeze right in the face. Got set up with a medium bucket and just set about trying to have solid contact with my irons. Really felt like something that I've been missing was there. Not perfect contact every time but generally real good strikes. Broke out the driver and was just striping the ball with a nice high ball flight and a perfect little draw. Time with the driver reaffirmed an earlier epiphany, swinging mellow with a good turn performs much better than trying to crush the ball. Now if I could just figure out what has gone wrong with my fairway & hybrid, yuck!
 
I went outside to hit a few shots with my 50 degree wedge and was extremely pleased with the results. We have big open fields all around us so it's easy to hit shags. My knee held up beautifully although I only hit like 40 balls. Things are looking promising. I'm going to work really hard on my wedges for 2014 and see if I can drop the scoring average by several points.
 
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Ole Gray said:
I went outside to hit a few shots with my 50 degree wedge and was extremely pleased with the results. We have big open fields all around us so it's easy to hit shags. My knee held up beautifully although I only hit like 40 balls. Things are looking promising. I'm going to work really hard on my wedges for 2014 and see if I can drop the scoring average by several points.
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Glad you're getting to swing the club now OG!
 
I am absolutely dying to get out and hit some balls on the range but it's just too freakin' cold. I'm going crazy putting on laminate floors and I can't say I'm accomplishing much aside from keeping the stroke fresh.
 
ArmyGolf said:
I am absolutely dying to get out and hit some balls on the range but it's just too freakin' cold. I'm going crazy putting on laminate floors and I can't say I'm accomplishing much aside from keeping the stroke fresh.
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I hit balls yesterday. I am usually pretty happy to get out and practice, no matter what. It was cold and not fun.
 
Miller Time said:
Glad you're getting to swing the club now OG!
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Thanks cuz! The doc said it would be beneficial for me to wait until the end of January to tee it up. He said to start out hitting balls on the range with the wedges and then work up to the driver. If it feels good, go out for nine holes and then let it rest. If not too sore or our of sorts the next day, another milestone will be reached :thumb:
 
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