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The THP Range/Practice Thread

Hit the range today. Still working on consistency. Had a little trouble with ball striking with irons - thin shots, and hitting behind the ball. Old habits creeping into the swing when I get a little tired. Too much hip movement in the back swing sometimes and sometimes, not shifting the weight forward and hitting through the ball enough. It is a vast improvement though now I feel more in tune with my swing and understand when things go wrong, why they went wrong.

Whipped out the driver and still working on consistency there as well but when I take my time and go through a good process, I can hit them relatively straight. Top tracer had th best shot at 225 carry and 250 total. When I make good contact, 215-220 seems to be the carry distance.I realize a lot of people hit it much farther but pretty momentous for me. Need to keep practicing for consistency. Will have more lessons coming up in the next few weeks as well.

One thing I did notice - my used clubs, as much as I love the value, I think definitely need to be re-gripped. I've realized one of the bad habits I have is the death grip but when I don't, the club slips in my hands sometimes. A couple swings were really bad where the club would rotate a tiny bit at impact and send the ball way right. I'll likely take them to a shop and get them all regripped from wedges to driver with the same grip.
 
Really good night of practice last night. I haven't taken a full swing since the 12th and I can't play this weekend so I just wanted to make sure the swing was still in-tact and keep the groove. Mission Accomplished.

I brought my nephew to the range and we first worked on some chipping then went over to the bunker since that's an area he admits he struggles in. I'm no expert, but all I told him to do was keep his weight forward, and keep a low center of gravity, get some knee bend. To his surprise he hit 5 safely out of the bunker and will keep that as an easy point of reference.

We made our way over to the range and split a bucket. After warming up with a few different clubs I said let's play certain holes at a course on the range. He hits the ball with no problem but he doesn't pick targets. He said "I'll aim for the white flag." Which is fine, but when he setup to the ball I stood behind him and told him to stop, I kept the club where it was and had him stand behind me. He was horribly aimed well to the left of the target. He did this 3 more times before I even let him swing. I said it's fine to pick his target out in the range but set your club to something just in front of the ball to at least start on the right line. I would put a leaf or a tee as a point of reference and he was aimed much better.

We would start with driver then if it's a good hit we would hit a mid-short iron from the nice grass, and if our drive was off line then I would step on the ball for each of us and practice hitting out of the rough.

It was pretty fun, we played the first 6 holes of a certain course we like and then just finished the bucket hitting different clubs and different shots.

Overall success.
 
My fitting at Club Champion revealed (well, confirmed) an out-to-in clubhead path. The fitter gave me a quick mini-lesson and told me to work on that before I come back to finish the fitting. First trip to the range this week to apply this was ugly. I've got a lot of work to do to straighten this out.
 
Just came in from hitting my mid irons into the net and struggled quite a bit. The R-Motion is probably the worst tool to use for developing a swing. I was too fixated on club head speed and distance I was reading (which may or may not be anywhere close to real) and kept trying to swing harder....just dumb.

I really thought I was on to something by extending my arms just past impact. That followthrough seemed to promote a better weight shift. But I just wasn't feeling it tonight.

Well, I needed this dose of reality after some successful outdoor swings this week. I have to remember to be realistic going into the season.

With that in mind, I'm starting to question the wisdom of hitting into net during the winter. There's no way to know if I'm grooving a better swing or ingraining the bad habits even deeper. Plus, even if gains were to be made, it isn't like they can be applied once I get out in the open. It's funny (not funny ha ha, funny strange) how easily and naturally I revert back to poor mechanics.
 
large bucket tonight. 56, 7i and dr. I was watching my swing on video, and I noticed my backside creeping toward the ball in the backswing, and into impact as well. so trying to keep it in place, and produced some really nice shots. also still trying to get my shoulders steeper in the backswing. the instruction area is to the left of the range, and there was a grouping of balls that were left behind. seemed to be around 30-40 yards away, so I hit pitches there. low, mid and high, and was pretty pleased overall.

now, all of this is going to change tomorrow when I start a new series of lessons with a new instructor haha
 
Playing on Wednesday, went out to make sure I know what end of the club to hit the ball with. Successful enough. I absolutely hate the grass at this range close to me though. It's thin, weak rooted turf with a massive sandy base layer, so divots come out by the pound and your stance gets all out of shape because you're just tearing up the ground with your feet twisting.
 
McLovin said:
i was able to get some swings on video this week. i sent them to some grandaddy teammates because we have some serious sticks in our group. they identified that my backswing was short (has been as long as i can remember), but also my hips were too passive.

@NoShanks sent me this clip of a drill/feel to get the hips properly engaged.

View attachment 8924924
it made a lot of sense. so i went to the range today and got a few range balls to practice with.


i wanted to take 3 full backswings before each shot. and focus on the only downswing move as the hip rotation above. i hit every club in the bag, and plowed through over 200 balls in a little over 2 hours. i was so happy with the results! i feel like i’m onto something here.

even after all of those balls, i was still making good swings and seeing nice results. this was my 8i after hitting the last 10 balls. progress.
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Nice Spongebob Squarepants drill. So I assume the objective is to preset the hips rotated open at impact, before the actual swing?
 
Grins said:
Nice Spongebob Squarepants drill. So I assume the objective is to preset the hips rotated open at impact, before the actual swing?
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that wasn't really my interpretation. I internalized it as feeling the hips rotating into and just past impact, then make a normal 1/2-3/4 backswing, and rotate hard.
 
MWard said:
Playing on Wednesday, went out to make sure I know what end of the club to hit the ball with. Successful enough. I absolutely hate the grass at this range close to me though. It's thin, weak rooted turf with a massive sandy base layer, so divots come out by the pound and your stance gets all out of shape because you're just tearing up the ground with your feet twisting.
Click to expand...

the range by my house went mats only for a good 6-8 weeks to try to get the grass to grow back. within less than a month it was already jacked up again. people take massive craters out of the ground, no etiquette at all. then the ground gets all uneven and it's awful.
 
McLovin said:
the range by my house went mats only for a good 6-8 weeks to try to get the grass to grow back. within less than a month it was already jacked up again. people take massive craters out of the ground, no etiquette at all. then the ground gets all uneven and it's awful.
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The ball is definitely above my feet on this range. I mean it's a good 2-3 degrees, you can feel yourself get right into the heels with no effort. I try to take the lines for divots, but the ground gets so jacked up from twisting that I'm just trying to find solid ground to stand on for... 15 balls? It's embarrassing.
 
McLovin said:
the range by my house went mats only for a good 6-8 weeks to try to get the grass to grow back. within less than a month it was already jacked up again. people take massive craters out of the ground, no etiquette at all. then the ground gets all uneven and it's awful.
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Curious, what're diggers supposed to do when they hit balls on the range? I mean, it's not like they can magically become pickers. I wish I could get myself to take a consistent divot nowadays. I used to be a digger, but lately the only divots I take are when I hit 10" behind the ball.
 
McLovin said:
that wasn't really my interpretation. I internalized it as feeling the hips rotating into and just past impact, then make a normal 1/2-3/4 backswing, and rotate hard.
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Got it. I didn't mean "keep hips open", but just get that feeling prior to the swing. It reminds me of what Matthew Wolff's move before he starts his swing.
 
OGputtnfool said:
Curious, what're diggers supposed to do when they hit balls on the range? I mean, it's not like they can magically become pickers. I wish I could get myself to take a consistent divot nowadays. I used to be a digger, but lately the only divots I take are when I hit 10" behind the ball.
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OGputtnfool said:
I try my best to stay in lines since that's, far and away, better for the turf. I cringe when I see a square foot of turf dug out because I know I'll see that same square there for ages since it'll take forever for it to repair itself.
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Gotcha. I think we think alike. It's less about their depth than their method/spacing.
 
Went our this morning and practiced hitting 40/60 and 80/90 yard wedges. trying to get super consistent in this area. helps me with focusing on keeping my elbow in the proper position.
 
AnthonyC said:
@greekelite ha damn. You work around there?
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The parkway 100 complex right down the street.. I try to get there a couple times a week in spring and summer, plus a way to avoid the southbound traffic by staying up there an extra hour+
 
I've been working every day this week on the stuff my instructor and I discussed in our lesson this past weekend. It's pretty simple. A couple setup queues to get the balance right and back straighter. Then it's just getting to the top and feeling the hands over the right shoulder (instead of so far behind me), and club pointed across the line (it's nowhere near across the line, that's just the feel). then when I feel like i'm in a good position at the top, a smooth downswing to a balanced finish.

i'm on day 3, and it's getting easier to go from address to the what feels like the proper backswing position. the results are so freaking crazy. a much higher flight, spin in the air, and plenty of distance despite feeling like i'm swinging at less than half effort.

we also worked just a little on short game. he wants more wrist hinge for me (the opposite of what the guy had me doing last year), but keeping the chest from racing ahead so the bottom of the arc is just behind the ball. my club is bottoming out too far ahead of the ball and the results are no good. that's harder for me, but when I do it I absolutely love the results. this will be a bigger task for me.
 
Hit a large bucket last night and was happy with 9i, 7i, 5i, 4H...All on and off the tee.

Then Driver. It wasn't working well. First few swings were OK but living on the heel causing some left to right misses, they would be ok, but obviously massive distance loss. I worked on releasing the club at the top sooner and it would be great distance but I'd be OB at any course, just straight pulls. Then I reset and hit 3 straight heel rockets 50 yards low and left.

I was perplexed at this point since driver has been ok and went back to hitting my irons...Solid strikes, happy.

Back to driver and still a mess with trying to find any sort of rhythm. What I noticed is my right arm/elbow completely detached from my body causing these horrible swings/misses.

I focused on a more deliberate takeaway and on the downswing had my arm attached and I was hitting it well enough, nothing great, just adequate. Ended on 4 straight drives that did ok and finished up with my hybrid.

Kind of a letdown hitting 35-40 golf balls with driver and not getting any consistency. But that's why you practice and work a way to get out of your funk when a club(s) isn't working.

Onto Sunday.
 
Working on not lifting my wrists in my back swing or rolling my wrists ATM it's tough going but getting there.
 
20200209_121039.jpg
 
Golf cave, trackman sim today. Really got my ball striking in a great place but my driver is killing me. Really need to nail it down soon.
 
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