Big Question?
What questions are you asking yourself about your fitness, practice and play?
Feels
My feeling this week is one of potential.
This week has been another positive one, following on from last week's ‘flow’ state. I am seeing and feeling some improvements in my body and golf. I am continuing to make small steps forward. I am loving engaging with other golfers on Twitter, so much wisdom and challenge, it’s great! Finally, I am keeping the day-to-day stuff at the front of my mind rather than focusing on future goals. The small wins. The consistency. The accountability. This is where success will come from.
Practice
I enjoyed a tough practice session this week. The session followed a similar structure to the previous 4 weeks; starting with a warm-up and some technical work. The technical work is still an attempt to embed the move given to me by my coach in my most recent lesson. Move down and into the lead leg and turn. The next part of the session was a Pressure Building Game, designed by Adam Young (@adamyounggolf)
The premise of the game is to hit a series of shots that require a level of accuracy and lead to a ‘pressure’ shot of your choice. This pressure shot should be one you struggle with on the course and should still have a target. This week I chose a drive, a 4 iron and a flop shot as my pressure shots. To judge your target and differentiate for different levels of golfer, targets are selected using a ‘finger system’ (image below). I decided on 6 fingers total distance from the target (3 on each side of my target at 160 yards).
Round 1
My game started with 3 7-iron shots at a target around 160 yards away. I hit the target with shot 1 and shot 2 but missed the 3rd shot meaning 0 points for that round.
Round 2
Hit the target with all 3 7-irons and took a 4-iron to the 200-yard marker (still to a 6-finger total, left to right) and managed to hit the target. 1 point
Round 3
Managed to get all 3 7-iron shots into the target area but missed with a driver this time. 0 points
Round 4
Missed the second 7-iron with a pull draw. 0 points
Round 5
Managed to get all 3 7-iron shots into the target area and hit a good flop shot to a 20-yard target (reduced to 4-finger total due to distance). 1 point
Total points 2. Total shots 16. Total time 30 minutes.
I enjoyed the challenge of this game and made sure I was resetting after each shot. I fully engaged with my routine and picked an intermediate target each time. I have a benchmark now and will revisit this in the next 2 weeks to see if I can improve my points tally. Below are some suggested differentiators based on more challenging ‘levels’.
The final drill was a straightforward one but interesting! The premise of this drill is to work on some extreme club face positions and explore the impact on ball flight and your self-organisation. I started with a very closed face at the address position, then grip the club, and hit a shot. To make the shot functional, I had to move my hands quite far forward and rotate my forearms a little. The ball flight was lower and had more draw-spin. I hit 5 of these shots, all with quite similar results. It was challenging and interesting. It made me consider when I could use such skills on the course, being behind a tree, is an obvious example.
I did the same thing using a wide-open face and didn’t find this quite as challenging. This also made me reflect on why this was the case. It is clear I have spent most of my time playing golf, correcting and compensating for a wide-open face. It actually felt quite similar to how I swung the club before my most recent lesson. I had to raise the handle and almost stand up to get a semi-functional shot out of it. The result was a high, wafty one with fade spin. Once again though, this shot could be quite a useful one on the course if I had a tree to go over, for example.
Total shots 10. Total time 16 minutes.
Overall, this type of practice has added some enjoyment to my time at the range and is building some skills that I don’t currently have. The pressure-building game had me engaged with my process and will be revisited and levelled up in future sessions. One of my favourite sessions so far.
Playing
I played one round this week, in a pairs scramble. I have no stats to share but a reflection.
My practice has been mainly focused on my approach play, based on my poor strokes gained data in this area. I have thrown in some driver speed work, some indoor putting practice and a little amount of short game work. However, in the last 3 rounds, there has been a noticeable improvement in my pitching and chipping across a range of distances inside 100 yards. I am going to put this down to how I am using my body a little more versus my previous way of using my hands more. My playing partners have commented on it too. It has given me confidence and is putting less onus on the approach to play to be ‘on’ in order to score.
Training and Nutrition
A full week of training and more progression in most exercises. Monday of this week is the first time I haven’t felt like training since starting the program. I had a busy day at work, it’s half term and I felt a little lacking in energy. I forced myself to go and I am so glad I did. I enjoyed the workout and after my shower, I felt an additional hit of pleasure, knowing I hadn’t quit on it.
My weight is 90.9kg (down 3.1kg) which I am pleased with. To be realistic about the weight loss so far, much of it is down to work in the kitchen rather than the workouts themselves. A calorie deficit is required to elicit a reduction in body fat. The workouts will only offer a small calorie burn in the grand scheme of things. Meaning what I consume is primary to my weight loss goal.
One thing I do notice when I am training is that it has a positive impact on my food choices. It makes me more mindful to fuel my exercise. It makes me consider my recovery, my sleep and my hydration. It makes me cook more and consider ingredients! All this compounds quite quickly and it has left me feeling great. My clothes are already fitting better. My sleep has improved. My general mood is better. Next week I will measure my driving distances and carry to see what impact the first 4 weeks have had on that too!
Interested in the nutrition side of things?
I have produced a couple of FREE guides on Cooking Skills and using MyFitnessPal to track your intake.
Available at the links below;
Reflective questions
Are you analysing shot by shot, hole by hole or round by round?
Do you use multiple tee heights for your driver, for different outcomes?
What do you need to unlearn in your golf game?