Big Question?
How many ‘rabbits’ are you chasing in your golf game?
Feels
My feeling this week is one of pondering.
Having committed to a Winter Strength program, I have noticed a slight drop in time/will/thought to practice. I must recognise this noticing and check how it plays out in the coming weeks. I may need to find a way to balance gaining speed and mobility with practising strike and technical aspects of my game. My aim is to establish a sweet spot and commit to it. Hold myself accountable for it. Share it and my learning. Step one is making sure I am reflecting on my habits and the time I spend, to ensure I am getting the maximum bang for my buck.
Is there such thing as a sweet spot?
Practice
Despite a slightly reduced practice week, I managed to get one excellent session in at the range. Before I share it, I have an important reflection to share. Prior to embarking on this journey, I thought pounding balls at the range (often a large bucket of 75 balls or so) was a useful pursuit. In an hour or so, I would pick some targets and fire away with little thought for routine, technical work, focus, monitoring feedback or manoeuvring strike. I’ve been a fool! Now I’m trying to learn how to swing the club more effectively but I am also learning how to learn and practice. I’m convinced it is not ‘pounding balls’ for an hour. My practice mantra is going to be Quality, not Quantity. I will ensure I have some structure to the session but also that I bolt on and layer several aspects of the game such as routine and my focus, increasing the learning and experience of each.
The session lasted around 1 hour. It consisted of a basic warm-up, including some basic mobility drills and some half swings. The first part of the session was working on my lesson ‘feel’ and included 3-5 exaggerated feels per ball of turn down and into the left side. I hit 10 balls doing this and spent much more time exaggerating the move than ‘hitting’ a ball. The feeling WAS the goal, not the outcome of the shot. Total time around 20 minutes.
Removing the ball when exaggerating the move puts the move at the centre of the experience, not the ball! My decision was only ‘when’ to blend that in to a full shot.
The next part of the session was based on 2 basic drills and had a feedback element. Using the face spray to monitor the strike, I ‘closed’ my stance to encourage an in-to-out path (remember my path was 5 degrees out-to-in). I lined up my face to the target line, go through my routine, address the ball, move my right foot back (image below), exaggerate an in-to-out path with a practice swing and then strike. Total time around 20 minutes.
My findings for strike showed a slight ‘toe’ bias. If you have read any of my other blogs, you may recall I generally have heel bias. The totals looked like this;
Heel - 1
Middle - 5
Toe - 4
The next 10 balls followed the exact same structure but I pulled the left foot back, creating a more ‘open’ stance (image below). This drill ‘felt’ much more comfortable and promoted my turning into the left side element of some of the technical work. Interestingly, strike moved to be a little more heel biased. The totals looked like this;
Heel - 4
Middle - 4
Toe - 2
Having had some time to reflect on the practice session, I am keen to follow this quality-based approach and must have the discipline to continue practising in this manner. Trial, error, reflection and feedback have led me to this point. Discipline, discipline, discipline!
"Well the reason that discipline is necessary is because you're a mass of competing short-term interests and so the question is then well which short-term interest should win out and the answer to that is well none of them." @jordanbpeterson
Training
All three sessions of Week 1 of the Winter Strength program are complete. I have loved the sessions and now have a baseline week to begin applying the principles of progressive overload. The app enables tracking each set, rep and weight for each exercise, making it easy to monitor progress. The program is also based on rep ranges, which provides scope to progress through the range prior to upping the weight lifted. For example, if the Squat is 5-7 reps, I can start at a weight I can do 5 reps for then aim for 6 or 7 the following week with the same weight. A key being to aim for technically sound form on each rep. Once I reach 7 reps with that weight, using excellent form, I will move the weight up and start the 5-7 process again.
My weight has dropped by 1.5kg to 92.5kg this week. As one of my targets was to drop 4kg, that is a promising start. I will complete the body measurements taken last week, every fortnight, so expect an update on those, in next week’s blog. Subscribe if you would like it to drop into your inbox by clicking the link below!
The other workouts have been short mobility workouts using the Golf Flex #2 program. They have really challenged me! I found a huge stretch for me in the lat (latissimus dorsi - large sheet of muscle on the back) using the exercise in the image below. Initially, it was very tough but sticking with it provided a really deep stretch that will help my thoracic rotation in the golf swing. Looking forward to getting stuck into week 2 and progressing further! It feels good to know that I have started!
Reflective Questions
Is mobility holding any part of your golf game back?
How are you using feedback in your practice?
What one thing can you change today to make you better tomorrow?