A Quick Thank You!
A warm welcome to 47 new subscribers. Thank you for joining me on this journey! It is a privilege to be sharing it with you. I’d love you to support my work by sharing it with friends, family and your social networks! Share using the green button below!
Big Question?
What are you currently procrastinating about?
Feels
My feeling this week is one of rhythm.
I have settled into a way of practising and developing, that fits my work and life schedule. I have a plan I can actually maintain, all I need to do is make sure I turn up and give it my attention. It has taken some time and I have identified several pain points. Some days won’t go exactly to plan, some may present opportunities. But after 22 weeks, I can finally say I have settled into a comfortable rhythm which can challenge me to improve.
Practice
Following a lesson on my wedge swing (video below), I got to work on some specific practice.
The lesson identifies that I am too steep with the wedge, following a similar pattern to my initial iron feedback. Clearly part of my DNA as a golfer! This causes an over-the-top pattern which shows itself as pulls and heavy/fat strikes.
One observation from the video - Ryan presents his explanation and uses visuals to represent his feedback. This supports my learning and provides me with a tool to monitor my tendencies in the future. For example, he uses circles around the club face at 3 points in the swing on the way back and the same 3 ponts on the way down. This demonstrates the pitch of the shaft clearly. I can use that tool to monitor and for feedback in the future, when i notice the odd pull or heavy wedge shot.
Practice session
Theme: Draw the Wedge
Technical
Exaggerations, no ball (turning better and path out to the right)
Exaggerations, half shots x 5
Exaggerations, 3/4 shots x 5
I struggled here in several ways. Performance, direction and strike were poor. I had to remind myself that learning is messy. I reminded myself that 2 years of hitting down and to the left won't be undone because someone told me to. I reminded myself that practice sessions should be challenging and my performance does not mean I not learning.
Variable
- 4 targets (50-125) 3 clubs (SW, GW, PW)
12 shots
Game
- Decade 40-90y Combination game
20 balls
I scored 62.5 (benchmark set)
The 40-90 combination game in the Decade app throws out random yardages up to 90 yards and requires you to input your miss (Left, Right, Short, Long). For each shot, you get a score which aggregates and gives you a total score across 20 shots.
It's a great tool and you can see your history, repeat the game and try to beat your previous score! There are other distances available too, I just happened to be working on my wedges this week.
Following the practice, I followed my rhythm and sent a face on and down the line to Ryan for analysis and a check-in. This feedback helped so much, especially after a wobble at my poor performance in the technical section prior. It was positive and helped me move forward.
The great thing about this feedback is how many strategies Ryan shares for me to ‘trial and error’. Here are the key points (if you don’t watch the video) that I can work on to get the desired shot - draw the wedge:
Starting the ball right
Place an alignment stick out in front of me, start the ball to the right of it (external cue)
Drop my trail foot back a little to create a more ‘rounded’ swing (set up tweak)
Consider the hand path being more to the right (internal cue)
More shaft lean
Add some more at the address position
Move the ball position back a tad
Add pressure to the lead side (rather than 60%, trial 70%)
Keep upper body more centred to be more ‘over the ball’
Practice the shot with a lower lofted club (a 46-degree PW for example)
I tweeted last week that this has given me 2 months of practice (maybe more), just from one lesson. All I need to do is turn up, give it my attention and work through the strategies to discover which ones (or a combination of them) may best suit my swing. They may also give me some tools to fall back on if I notice some similar patterns while playing!
Play
I actually played a round of golf!!!
I also prepared poorly!
Having waited 6 weeks to arrange my Winter Pairs Matchplay game, I finally got to tee it up! I did a short warm-up, hit a couple of shots and made our way to the first tee. I hit a decent drive down the left, popped an iron shot down the fairway and pulled my approach to miss the green left! Hit a nice chip to 4 feet and walked to my bag, only to find I had left my putter next to the mat in the house!
I felt I had let my partner down and deep down, I was embarrassed. I rang the pro shop and the assistant pro agreed to bring me one to the second green. Phew!
He arrived and handed me this Slazenger Tri-Ball, obviously modelled on the Odyssey Two-Ball. I was just relieved to have a putter and knew I couldn't spend any time worrying about it. The first putt raced 15 feet past, missed the one coming back and had a nice 3-putt, to start!
From then on, I two-putted from outside 20 feet and holed 2 15 footers, one to win a hole. 27 putts on 16 holes isn't bad going! (I did have 4 gimme’s in that 27 as it was matchplay).
After the round it got me reflecting on mistakes and learning. I have learned a valuable lesson by making a huge mistake that could have been costly! It got me thinking about mistakes I make and which ones I learn from and which ones I repeat! There are many! It raised some questions that you can ponder as you're reading this:
What mistake are you repeating on the course?
What mistakes are you making when thinking about your practice?
The golf itself was better than expected. I have spent very little time hitting drivers and hybrids lately, I was concerned I would hit it off the planet. This wasn't the case. I had 2 drives where I had to knock out from under trees (both left around 10 yards off the fairway) and then 2 random lost balls in the muddy conditions.
I was hoping to see improvements in my approach play. I finished the round happy with some caveats. I still had a couple of pulls. I still came up short on a couple of holes. The strike though was reliable and was better than the last few rounds. The ball flight was lower and straight or a slight draw shape.
It’s difficult to include strokes gained for the full round as I was in a pair and didn't track the two holes where I lost balls in the mud! Approach play, for the holes played, came out at +1.46 on my target handicap of 5. I am very pleased!
Reflective Questions
Have you found a rhythm you can stick to?
What unhelpful stories are you telling yourself?
What are you avoiding in your golf practice?