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Practice
Review: Powerchute
Dec 28th
Powerchute
For the past month I’ve worked with a swing trainer called the Powerchute. I’ve given it an extensive test and the results are in.
What is the Powerchute?
It’s a swing training aid that aims to increase clubhead speed and lag, and improve timing and lag. In addition it strengthens the fast twitch muscles.
Tour Striker gets me back on track
Sep 13th
If you’ve played golf with me in the past month you would have known that my ball striking has put me in a bit of a slump. My distance control was off, and my shots were coming up short.
In a few minutes the Tour Striker brought my ball striking back. An hour and half and two buckets of balls later, I’m feeling much better about my ball striking. The difference is dramatic.
Sadly, before this session I was having trouble hitting my 8 iron 150 yards. It was extremely frustrating. This afternoon, my 8 iron was a much more respectable 165-170 average carry, with several carrying 175-180. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
I knew I was on the right track when I started to hit what some low bullets with the Tour Striker. These bullets went no higher than about 30 feet, but they carried about 200 yards. The Tour Striker pro that I use is the equivalent of an 8 iron, so that’s some serious contact. In an earlier conversation I had with Martin Chuck, the inventor of the Tour Striker, he assured me that when I’m hitting those low bullets, it means I’m very close to excellent contact, just millimeters away from perfection. He’s right.
My new favorite practice putting game – Split Nines
Aug 10th
If you want to add some pressure to your putting practice to make it feel a bit more like what you’ll feel on the golf course then try this game.
The game is split into two halves, your front nine and your back nine. On your front 9, each putt is like you’ve hit the in regulation. Every putt made is a birdie, every putt missed leaves a par putt (you must putt in, 3 putting does count as a bogey).
On your back nine, these are your greens missed in regulation. Every putt is for par. Miss and your next putt is for bogey.
So, on the front nine, you want to get as quickly and as far under par as you can. Be sure to mix in 3 shorter putts (4-6 ft), 3 medium putts (6 – 12ft) and 3 longer putts (more than 12 feet) in each nine.
A key to serious power and distance
Jul 12th
I had a very interesting experience on the range yesterday and had a revelation as I was practicing.
I’ve tried a lot of different things to maintain a good tempo, but a quick thought came into my head that made for a really good swing thought. ”Lazy Explosion”.
It may sound a bit funny, but it really worked for me. The feeling that resulted was one where the swing felt slow, especially the downswing, but the ball just EXPLODED off the club face and flew very far consistently. When I was doing it right, I never felt rushed and it felt like power built up in a very subtle way. Of course I still fought my tendency to swing hard, but this idea of a lazy explosion really cut through that most of the time. I was compressing the ball way more than usual and it felt like it stuck on the clubhead for a split second, before blasting off into space. Even though my irons are very stiff, with shafts designed for a lower ball flight, the ball flew higher, farther than I’m used to, with no balooning.
Obviously the swing itself wasn’t slow, but it felt that way. In fact it felt like I had a lot of time between the top of the swing and the start of my downswing and the resulting shots were really exciting to watch.
Tour Striker – Day 12 – Confidence Building
May 7th
Over the past 12 days working with the tour striker I’ve seen a significant improvement in my ball striking. For a while and before re-acquainting myself with the TS my distance control was inconsistent.
I’m now much more consistent with my distance control and my I’ve added about 15 yards with each iron.
I’ve found that not only is the TS a great practice tool, but it is also a fantastic way to check your ballstriking.
The Tour Striker helps with consistency
Twelve days ago I was very inconsistent with the TS. If you take a look at the last few posts you’ll see me talk about the inconsistencies. Yesterday on the range my strikes with the TS really surprised me. Not only did the ball fly high and far and straight but it just felt great.
I’ve been working on the on practicing with each hand separately and wow is that a challenging drill. It’s really good though. I’m very pleased with progress I’m making with the Tour Striker.
Tour Striker – Day 3 of 30 – a plan comes into focus
Apr 27th
This morning I headed to the driving range early. Got there around 6:50 am, got set up and hit balls into the foggy morning.
I was encouraged by my practice session on Monday evening. This morning it was a slightly different story. I hit a couple of toppers which right away told me that I had too little shaft lean. When I corrected that I hit a number of low flat stingers. The balls took off low, stayed lower than 30 yards high and carried about 175 yards into the fog. They felt solid.
I decided to reach out to Martin Chuck, the inventor of the Tour Striker to tell him about this month long test with his product as well as to get some advice on how best to take advantage of the time.
Based on his suggestions I will be working on the following over the next 30 days. Read the rest of this entry »
Tour Striker – a month long test with it began today
Apr 25th
I’ve decided to do a month long test with each of my favorite swing training aids to see how they impact my ball striking and my game with intense practice. To begin this series I’m going to use the one that I’ve used the least lately, the Tour Striker.
Why the Tour Striker
I picked the Tour Striker because over the past couple of months I’ve noticed something interesting. Inexplicably I’ve had periods of incredible ball striking, followed by periods where I lost significant distance with my irons.
With this in mind I decided the Tour Striker would be the perfect tool for the job.
Stop quitting on your putts
Apr 14th
One night while I was on a golf trip in Maryland a few weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to have some putting contests in the room. The carpet was probably rolling about a 10 so it wasn’t too quick. We played a version of leap frog and set the cup out about 12 feet away. The thing that quickly became clear was that it was hard to hit the putts short enough in the beginning to set you up for a good potential leap frog run. It took me some time but I finally figured out why that was.
What I’ve realized is that I was decelerating on those short putts and when you do that it becomes very difficult to have any consistency or to actually control the speed of your putts. Our minds don’t react well to deceleration. They can’t judge have quickly something is slowing down as well as they can judge how quickly something is speeding up. At least that’s true in my experience, although I’m sure there are some of you out there who will disagree and that’s fine.
For putting though you always want to be accelerating. One of the best ways to practice this is actually with short putts. It will really train in feel an in an amazing way.
As I worked with this technique last night, in a very short while I gained tremendous feel for distance. The main thing I did was to ensure that on every through-stroke you feel an acceleration compared to your back swing. Try this out, take some short putts and really focus on feeling the acceleration into the ball. You’ll start to get a lot more feel, and your putting will improve.
Winter practice – beating the winter blues
Feb 22nd
Finally it looked like winter was going away, but my hometown just got dumped with a few more inches of snow. Luckily I hear an early spring is in the works.
With all this snow, I couldn’t really get out to practice much. I hit the driving range on a few warm days, just to ensure that the things I’ve been working on are having a positive impact. The result: I’m satisfied with the work I’ve put in over the winter.
My main focus has been on simplifying my swing. I figure, the less moving parts, the easier it will be to repeat. A subset of this has been to focus on automating the squaring of the club so that it is not dependent on timing it precisely, but rather it happens automatically as I turn through the ball.
Both of these concepts, while simple in design, have required work to get into my muscle memory. The upside is that everything is coming together. In my last range sessions, I’ve noticed the following: straighter ball flight, better distance control, more solid contact in the center of the club face, and additional ability to work the ball.
How to make swing changes stick
Jan 12th
Recent experience has taught me that you need two things to make swing changes stick. Practice and time. Now while these may seem self evident there is more going on behind the scenes in the subconscious mind than meets the eye.
We’ve all heard the phrases “Practice makes perfect” and “Perfect practice makes perfect”. We all know that tour players have practiced all their lives to get the level they are at. The thing is that they are not always practicing the same things in the same way. They have built up enough skill level, that as they dial one thing in, they can work and address another part of the game.
What am I getting at?
As amateur golfers we don’t have the luxury to practice to practice like a tour player. In fact, for most of us, we rarely get to practice. I’ve tried to combat this by investing in some things that bring the practice home, and while that does address much of the problem, there is another part of practicing that has to be thought through as well.
