So if you saw the previous post, you read that I started my practice and my pre round routine with a stretch. It's good to get the blood flowing and the muscles limber in order to keep your swing fluid and to avoid hurting yourself. If you go to a PGA event (or LGPA, Web.com,...) go check out the players on the range, they always do a variety of stretches to get ready for a round. Below is my routine: (always go slow and don't do anything that would hurt you, I'm not a specialist!)
Hands high - fold hands together then rotate and push as high above your head as you can, you should feel it in your back, shoulders, and arms. Give it a few seconds, deep breaths then tilt side to side slowly and stretch out that rib cage area.
Hands side to side - looks like you are directing traffic, reach left and rotate around the hips, come back like a back swing and slowly rotate through, always deep breaths. Then move hands to the right and repeat. Now 2-3 more times with your hands as if you are holding a club. Feel how free your swing is when you aren't stressing!!!
Hands low - feet shoulder width, fold those hands, rotate, and take them towards the ground. Go slow! Breath deep, go a little lower on each breath. Then move hands towards right ankle, hold for a few seconds then back to the middle, then over to the left.
Grab a club for your legs - take a long iron and use it for light support while doing a few squats, then calf and hamstring stretches.
Grab a club for your shoulders - take the same long iron, take hold of the grip in your right hand, raise it up as if you were taking a back swing, hold at the top, then tilt the club down till you can grab it with your left hand below your triceps. Very Lightly hold and rotate back to stretch your rotator cuff, BE CAREFUL! Now repeat on the left side.
Swing the club - start with 3 irons of similar length and take 3-4 very slow swings, drop it down to 2 and repeat, now just 1 for about 3-4 easy full swings, then a few 3/4 speed.
Finish with your head - Do some head circles, DO NOT TURN YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS!!! Only use the natural motions of your head to stretch your neck.
That's it. Takes me about 7 minutes to go through the whole series. You'll be amazed how much better you feel! (If you use sunscreen, its great to put it on right before so that it has time to soak in while you stretch) Remember always go slow and breath deep.
Use this time to do 3 things, let go of the things you cannot change or will not change while you are at the course, getting yourself loose and muscles warm, visualizing that opening tee shot going straight down the fairway.
Thanks for the read!
G
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Golf Hacks - Using your stats
Ok,
If you didn't read the post before about starting to keep your stats, then you need to read it as this won't make much sense to you otherwise. Or, if you just don't feel like it, you are free to use my stats as a base line and adjust accordingly (not recommended!).
Using my stats from before, we saw that I used my putter, woods, and wedges the most. If you want to count the higher irons (8-9) as a "wedge" then I rarely pull the other clubs from the bag. My longer irons are only used if I've hit a bad shot before (most common) or if it is a longer yardage hole (maybe once or twice a round). So knowing what I use, I adjust my time at the range accordingly.
This is a sample hour or so spent at the range (I usually go about every 10-14 days), cut this in half for a good pre-round warm up.
1. stretch - swing 3 clubs, then 2, then 1, then the usual touch the toes, stretch the back etc...
2. putting (25-30 minutes) - start with short, then long, then lags, then fringe putts.
3. chipping / pitching (15 minutes) - high and soft then low rollers.
4. range (15 minutes) - full and 3/4 shots with one of the wedges, full with one midrange iron, 3 wood, and finish with the driver.
Your stats may be different from mine and you should adjust your practice accordingly.
The other thing you may need to work on is the flight of your shots. Check your little book and see how many went off line and how they went off line. If you are slicing or hooking the ball out of play, you need to get that sorted out. If I had an easy tip to cure a slice... I'd be making big bucks selling it on golf infomercials at 3.00am. If its a straight shot to the left or right, it could just be your alignment. Are you coming up short or hitting them long? You might not know your yardages or you could have a gap in your lofts.
By tracking my stats I found that from 95-110 yards I kept coming up short with my SW but my PW was often times to strong, the problem was two fold, #1 I didn't know that my carry with my SW was only about 90 yards tops. #2 I didn't realize that I had a gap in my club lofts. My PW is at 48* and at the time I was carrying a 56* and a 60*, which meant I had 0 clubs in the bag that I could swing a full shot and hit it 100 yards! So I swapped out the 60* for the 52* UW and problem solved.
That's it for today! I will cover each of the practice zones in future Golf Hacks along with a great way to get your distances for each club.
If you didn't read the post before about starting to keep your stats, then you need to read it as this won't make much sense to you otherwise. Or, if you just don't feel like it, you are free to use my stats as a base line and adjust accordingly (not recommended!).
Using my stats from before, we saw that I used my putter, woods, and wedges the most. If you want to count the higher irons (8-9) as a "wedge" then I rarely pull the other clubs from the bag. My longer irons are only used if I've hit a bad shot before (most common) or if it is a longer yardage hole (maybe once or twice a round). So knowing what I use, I adjust my time at the range accordingly.
This is a sample hour or so spent at the range (I usually go about every 10-14 days), cut this in half for a good pre-round warm up.
1. stretch - swing 3 clubs, then 2, then 1, then the usual touch the toes, stretch the back etc...
2. putting (25-30 minutes) - start with short, then long, then lags, then fringe putts.
3. chipping / pitching (15 minutes) - high and soft then low rollers.
4. range (15 minutes) - full and 3/4 shots with one of the wedges, full with one midrange iron, 3 wood, and finish with the driver.
Your stats may be different from mine and you should adjust your practice accordingly.
The other thing you may need to work on is the flight of your shots. Check your little book and see how many went off line and how they went off line. If you are slicing or hooking the ball out of play, you need to get that sorted out. If I had an easy tip to cure a slice... I'd be making big bucks selling it on golf infomercials at 3.00am. If its a straight shot to the left or right, it could just be your alignment. Are you coming up short or hitting them long? You might not know your yardages or you could have a gap in your lofts.
By tracking my stats I found that from 95-110 yards I kept coming up short with my SW but my PW was often times to strong, the problem was two fold, #1 I didn't know that my carry with my SW was only about 90 yards tops. #2 I didn't realize that I had a gap in my club lofts. My PW is at 48* and at the time I was carrying a 56* and a 60*, which meant I had 0 clubs in the bag that I could swing a full shot and hit it 100 yards! So I swapped out the 60* for the 52* UW and problem solved.
That's it for today! I will cover each of the practice zones in future Golf Hacks along with a great way to get your distances for each club.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Golf Hacks
New Thread!
Golf Hacks as in well... I'm not fully sure what a "hack" is, but I see it on twitter when someone is mentioning neat tricks to save money or time. So in this case these are tricks I have used recently to shave some strokes off my golf game. How many strokes is up to you, but I've lowered my average score by close to 9 strokes in the last 12 months. Now, of course I am not the best golfer in the world, but if these tips can save you a stroke or 2, it's cheaper than a new driver!
Golf Hack #1
Start keeping your stats. Get a little notebook to take with you then crunch the numbers when you get home. I track the following:
Course Name
Holes Played
Score
Par
Fairways Hit
GIR
Up and Downs
Putts
Club Used
How it was hit (left, right, long, straight, etc...)
Penalty Shots
You can keep whatever data you want, but having numbers help you know what to work on. For instance I played 9 holes this morning and 76% of my shots came from just 3 clubs in my bag:
Putter 40%
Putter (off the green) 6%
Sand Wedge 17%
3 Wood 13%
(I play my 3 wood off the tee a lot of the time, since the driver is not necessary unless it is 380+ yard par 4 or if it is a length based par 5)
Take a look at that for a minute, almost half the shots are with the putter. Which means next time I go to hit balls at the range, I need to spend half my time on the putting green. My 3 wedges (48* Pitching, 52* Utility, 56* Sand) accounted for 23% of my shots. Which means I need to spend at least a quarter of my time at the range chipping and pitching. My woods (Driver and 3 Wood) 17% and all my irons (2-9) 11% round out the rest.
So if I've got a hour to spend at the range, I should break it down as follows:
Putting - 30 minutes
Chipping and Pitching - 15 minutes
Woods - 10 minutes
Irons - 5 minutes
Sounds weird, but the stats don't lie.... I'll beak down my routine at the range in the next golf hack, until then start keeping your stats and I'll show you great ways to use them.
Thanks for the read!
G
Golf Hacks as in well... I'm not fully sure what a "hack" is, but I see it on twitter when someone is mentioning neat tricks to save money or time. So in this case these are tricks I have used recently to shave some strokes off my golf game. How many strokes is up to you, but I've lowered my average score by close to 9 strokes in the last 12 months. Now, of course I am not the best golfer in the world, but if these tips can save you a stroke or 2, it's cheaper than a new driver!
Golf Hack #1
Start keeping your stats. Get a little notebook to take with you then crunch the numbers when you get home. I track the following:
Course Name
Holes Played
Score
Par
Fairways Hit
GIR
Up and Downs
Putts
Club Used
How it was hit (left, right, long, straight, etc...)
Penalty Shots
You can keep whatever data you want, but having numbers help you know what to work on. For instance I played 9 holes this morning and 76% of my shots came from just 3 clubs in my bag:
Putter 40%
Putter (off the green) 6%
Sand Wedge 17%
3 Wood 13%
(I play my 3 wood off the tee a lot of the time, since the driver is not necessary unless it is 380+ yard par 4 or if it is a length based par 5)
Take a look at that for a minute, almost half the shots are with the putter. Which means next time I go to hit balls at the range, I need to spend half my time on the putting green. My 3 wedges (48* Pitching, 52* Utility, 56* Sand) accounted for 23% of my shots. Which means I need to spend at least a quarter of my time at the range chipping and pitching. My woods (Driver and 3 Wood) 17% and all my irons (2-9) 11% round out the rest.
So if I've got a hour to spend at the range, I should break it down as follows:
Putting - 30 minutes
Chipping and Pitching - 15 minutes
Woods - 10 minutes
Irons - 5 minutes
Sounds weird, but the stats don't lie.... I'll beak down my routine at the range in the next golf hack, until then start keeping your stats and I'll show you great ways to use them.
Thanks for the read!
G
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