Broken

I have not made much time to report on this blog. I was very busy at the beginning of this summer and had a few projects in the works that were occupying the majority of my time mentally and physically.
Then, it happened. I broke my left leg while playing in a floor hockey game. I am out until the end of september. I am going to miss the whole summer of golf. I wasn't playing particularly well, but this set back really hurts. It is mentally and physically draining. I am very bored sitting and laying on the couch all day. I have been non-weight bearing for 2 months. I should be back on my feet and doing rehab soon.
Before my injury sidelined me I got a chance to go to an AimPoint putting clinic put on my John Graham. It was very informative and very fun. I learned a new system and when I get cleared to walk again I plan on spending my time practicing my putting and working on my AimPoint technique. I will report more on this when I get some practice time in.
Right now I have a lot of free time but am working on those side ventures. I will also report more on them again when I reach an appropriate point in the process.
There are a lot of things in the works for me and I am really looking forward to getting back on my feet, starting back with a fitness regimen and my workouts and golf specific workouts. I am very excited and plan on putting in a lot of work. I will probably set up my garage to be my off season gym and put up some motivational pictures/posters to keep me going,
This coming season will be a great season, I plan on working extremely hard this off season and hopefully I will remain injury free.

Stay Tuned!

Home, Home on the Range.

This week was a great week with respect to my golfing. Wednesday I made a trip down to Endicott to see Chris Welch at ZenoLink. We ran through some of the PST's for a dynamic warm up and then shot some video of my swing for analysis. Chris got some really trick new Casio cameras that we used, they were really nice. Chris and I also talked about my game plan coming into golf season. We will be doing some speed building stuff and then more of a maintenance phase. I also talked with Chris about this coming off season and really gearing up on my training, so we will more than likely be building up a more in depth off season training program for in the gym as well as PST's to get me going. It was a really good visit and I will have more to talk about after all the data is processed.
Thursday I spent some serious time on the range. I went to Webster's practice range and had the whole place to myself. It was only 38 degrees out and windy and spots of rain here and there. It was a perfect working enviornment for me though. I grabbed a large bucket and got to work. I noticed my divots were pointing a little left of my target line while practicing, i tried some drills to fix it, like placing a soft barrier outside and behind the ball, but i wasn't hitting it and still having the same divot. I was also hitting more off the toe of the club. I started addressing the ball off the hosel and would hit it flush in the middle of the club face. So I moved a little closer to the ball and addressed it normally. This made me stand just a little more upright, but right away it felt much more natural and comfortable. Immediately I got the results I was after, center face strikes with a divot finishing just to the right of my target line. I grabbed my Ipod and turned on the tour tempo 24/8 track and started hitting shots and trying to feel extremely light grip pressure, as light as I could possibly go without losing the club. I immediately felt the tension in my shoulders and upper arms disappear and got a nice release throuh the ball and started hitting nice 2-5 yard draws. Perfection. I grabbed a second large bucket and worked on hitting just my driver for half the bucket. I then finished with hitting different shots to different flags with a different club and target for every last ball. It was probably the most productive individual ball striking practice I had done. I followed this up with chipping for 20 minutes. I would hit from the same location but to different flags for four balls at a time. I would then putt out the remaining distance to the hole. I then mixed it up by hitting four different shots to the same flag from the same spot with the same club. Super high flop, bump and run, low spinning check shot and a mid trajectory chip that would hit and run out to the hole. Lastly finished with some putting to different holes with one ball. And then some lag putts the length of the green with four balls. What a session.
Wednesday starts league practice for the next three weeks so that will be the time to really try and take what I figured out on the range to the course and see what I come up with. Stay tuned.
A little sneak peak ahead, I will be doing another 24 day challenge. Really looking to drop down to 225 pounds. And I will be getting back to lifting weights, and adding some cardio. Right now I am getting my butt kicked in school with homework. Till next week, hit 'em straight!

Put in work

This week I got out and spent some time on the Range. I drove out to Ravenwood and spent about an hour and half working on my swing. Layed down a golf club on the target line and a couple driveway sticks for you feet line and lie angle to set my swing plane. I also spent some time listening to some tempo audio tracks. Specifically the tour tempo 27/9 tracks. My backswing time was a little shorter than that of the tempo tracks so I might be better off using the 24/8 tempo track. All in all it went pretty well. I also spent some time on the putting green just rolling the ball and working on alignment. I am going to have to grab my chalk line and toss that in the car. I am hoping to get out and spend lots of time working on my short game. I need to find a way to work on the score game 100 yards and in. Considering some afternoon rounds where I can play alone and drop multiple balls down when I am inside 100 yards and hit to the green. But this could prove to be difficult if the course is busy. This coming week I am also going down to Endicott to work with Chris Welch and retest my progress and hopefully start some new PST's but we will see. I have been lacking time to get anything other than homework and house work done right now. Not a whole lot of Me time. I need to reconfigure some things and hopefully get some more ME time to get things done.

Falling behind.

 I am sure you have noticed, being the astute readers that you are, I have fallen behind in posting. There isn't a whole lot of good stuff to report on. I have been really busy with work and school and have not been keeping up with my working out and PST's. Unfortunately it has been getting really hecktic lately, but I am planning on revamping my routine and maybe that will help. I am going to break down my working out into much small sessions everyday. I am not sure if i will split it into a morning and evening session three times a week, or if I will split it up and do some morning sessions every day, but I will have to analyze what will work best for me and then experiment.
Last week, on wedneday, I played 18 holes at Shadow Lake. It was an okay outing. I think I expected more from my game. I did work out that monday really hard, in an attempt to make up some lost ground, and was super sore wednesday. I hit a bunch of slices and was really tight on the first 9, but felt much looser on the back 9 and hit a few better shots. I didn't keep score. My short game was impeccable. I got up and down routinely and was my normal self with regard to my putting.
This week on wednesday I played a quick 9. I played by myself again so I was able to hit multiple shots from the same spot when things weren't going well to try and work out the kinks. I was much straighter compared to last week. I hit less fat shots as well. I was loosing a fair amount of distance on most of my shots and had a hard time getting comfortable over the ball. Again my short game was fantastic and my putting was normal. I consider myself Mr. 2 putt. Now I just need to shave that to Mr. 1.5 putt and my scores will drop. I did keep score and wrote down my misses on my scorecard.
This week it is supposed to be really warm. I have been doing some drills in the yard using driveway markers and a barrier on the outside of the ball to make sure I am coming from the inside etc. I am going to try and get out and hit balls at the Range on wednesday, Hopefully I can get  back to where I was as far as ball striking rather quickly with a little time outside. Only time will tell. Thanks for sticking with me.
Eric had forwarded me some more pictures from my trip to PennState, so here are a couple more.

Me taking hitting balls all wired up and markered up

Getting Markers put on

Penn State Trip

As I am sure you have noticed, I did not make a post this past week. I was very busy with work and school and had a week hiatus. I was pretty bummed how it turned out, but I did manage to get out and hit some balls that wednesday. I also pushed back writing this post. My schedule has been so busy with work and school and family, nevermind golf and working out. I am hoping to get back on track.

So to start this week I got off to a great start with a really good workout tonight. I hit it extra hard tonight to try and make up for some of my time off. I felt really good, but did get a little tight in the hamstrings and quads. Obviously the time off does have its effects. My only regrets of lately have been my diet. I have gotten away from making my food and eating healthier and have fallen back on quick and easy food. Partly because of work/school stress and time constraints and partly because I got bored of eating the same foods. I will try and do some meal planning tuesday night and some food shopping wednesday evening so that I can get back on track. I am toying with the idea of another 24 day challenge!!

I believe two weeks ago I mentioned there was some big things in the works. Well there was! On Wednesday February 29th my coach and I drove down to Penn State to visit Mike Duffey and Eric Handley and do some one of a kind data collection. I was fortunate enough to be the test subject for a first of its kind data collection of a golf swing utelizing three 3D systems, AMM/TPI 3D, Qualisys and Zenolink. For those of you not familiar with these systems you can find more information about all three systems at their respective websites, AMM/TPI, Qualisys and ZenoLink. I will give you the cliffs notes, AMM is an electromagnet system, you use a pick up to define the space and have electromagnet sensors placed on your body and wires that connect them to a computer. Qualisys is a video motion capture system that uses reflective orbs on a spandex/velcro suit and ZenoLink is done by using two video cameras, one face on and one at an angle of 30 degrees from down the line. You film a calibration cube and then film your swings. You would then upload the information to ZenoLink and then will perform a direct linear transformation and process your data.

This would be the first captures of its kind ever done. Getting a single swing on all three systems at one time to compare the information between all three mediums is pretty spectacular to say the least. The whole experience was pretty awesome. Mike and Eric has their research center all set up for our arrival and even recruited the help of some interns, One PGM senior named Matt, and two Kinesiology students named Julie and Eric. Here are a couple pictures of the facility.

                                         From left to right: Matt, Julie and Eric

To caputre the swings with all three systems I first had to be wired up to the AMM/TPI 3D system. After i was all wired up and calibrated, we then put on the spandex/velcro suit and then Julie, Eric and Matt placed all the markers on me and we calibrated me and my golf clubs (driver, 5 iron, 8 iron and pitching wedge) to the space via the Qualisys system. I forgot to mention we had calibrated the space by placing the ZenoLink calibration cube on the mat where Matt is standing in the above picture. We recorded 10 swings with each iron and 15 swings with the driver.
I dont have any pictures of me all suited up, I had forgotten to grab my camera and give it to Dan before we got started, but I think Eric might have taken a picture or two and hopefully I can get my hands on a copy to put up here as well. It was really quite the sight.

I am very fortunate to take part in some pretty cool stuff. I would like to take a brief moment to thank Mike Duffey, Eric Handley and the Penn State students Matt, Eric and Julie for their hospitality and for a really good time. I would also like to thank my coach Dan Parks for allowing me the opportunity to take part in some cool research. Look for a write up in a future issue of JAGR.
As always thanks for reading. Stay tuned there are more things in the works!

Another week in the books.

    I just wrapped up another work out. I feel great now that I finished and stretched. I notice that lately I am in a funk. I think I am at the point where I have been grinding on this workout for a while, and with school and a son who is becoming increasingly difficult to put to bed, I find I am loosing "me" time to get things done. This is increasing my stress level with so much school work and my Toyota MDT test looming over my head. But alas the test is due by friday and I will have to have my take home test for school done for March 1st. So I think once I get those two things done I will feel better, although I start another class on February 29th, so that will make 3 classes, plus work, plus family time, plus house chorse on top of my golf training. I maybe have bitten off more than I can chew, but I am looking forward to the challenge. I think a small getaway will do me a world of good.
    The biggest hurdle now is getting the motivation to workout. But once I get started I am good to go. Lately I just keep reminding myself that the other guys aren't working as hard as I am this off-season, and if I want to win, I need to put in the hard work. Also when I am feeling sluggish and tired I look at my Ben Hogan 1950 U.S. Open picture. It reminds me that he almost died, but came back and then won the open. Talk about inspiration!
    My workout has stayed the same, although I did shuffle my jumping rope. I now jump rope first before I start working out to help avoid feeling sick from water sloshing in my stomach from hydrating with doing exercises. This has helped alot. Now I could use a matt or pad to put under my elbows while planking to help save my joints and keep my arm from going numb.
    I went and hit some golf balls saturday. My parents were up visiting and this gave me the opportunity to sneak away for an hour and hit some balls. I find that my misses are a bit tighter. I still occasionally hit the block when I really try to crank it up with the driver. But I think I can iron that out when I get some more time on the range. I am also looking into buying a Tour Striker training club. Since I am hitting off of  a matt right now on the range it would be nice to hit a few shots with that training club to make sure I am hitting down with forward shaft lean while striking the ball.
    Stay tuned for some more exciting news as we continue on here. I am planning on getting out to hit some more balls this coming week. Maybe I will have the tour striker by then, if so then I will be sure to write a review of it.
Thanks for reading!

Missed Posting on Friday, but making up for it today.

Sorry to miss posting on Friday. I have been so busy with school in addition to my golf that was unable to get on the computer. But to catch you up, and myself, I will post a rather long post today to recap what has been going on.

My workout has not changed, I am still performing the same routine, and still with the same increased weight. I am pushing the weight up much easier now, but not quite easy enough to move up more weight.
Since I was sick last week and missed two workouts, my first two workouts back were a little tougher. My core felt a little weaker and I was starting to "shake" sooner while bracing my core for my Plank matrix. But since I am better this week and haven't missed a workout I am back to normal. I still "shake" while bracing for a plank but it doesn't start until later during each rep.

During the week this week I also got out and hit some balls. It was really nice to get out and hit some even though it was off of mats. On the plus side, I went to Big Oak driving range which is outdoors and has a cover incase of inclement weather. It was a windy cold day but I hit the ball well. They have a nice little pitching practice area with makers at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 yard increments. I was hitting my yardages really well, but off of a mat you can get away with anything and still hit a good shot so I dont put much weight into that. The biggest benefit of hitting outside is being able to see your ball flight. I have also spent a large portion of practice time hitting my driver, trying to get that club under control. I also "played holes" in my head while practicing, making imaginary fairways with yardage signs and flag sticks. I also spent a bit of time on the putting green and was really making some great strokes. I was only sinking about 50% of my putts but my speed was perfect, I either died the ball right at the hole or ran it 8-10 inches past the hole, only left 2 out of 60 putts short. Speed is really the biggest concern for me with regards to my putting so I was pleased.

As promised before I will review my goals and my progress towards those goals, think of it as sort of a mid post season report card.

My first goal was to improve my ball striking. And I planned on doing that by Swinging my golf club everyday. Performing 50 focused swings, working of perfect form and keeping my head still. And also by performing my TPI workout three times a week.
With regards to this goal, I would have to give my self a B+ on the condition that I have diligently stuck to doing my workouts 3 times a week. I am not really doing the TPI workout, but instead my own lifting, stretching and PST program. I am swinging the club almost every day, 3 days a week during PST's I swing the club more than 50 times in a day, but these aren't performed with perfect golf form in mind. I will have to start spending some time doing a few swing specific drills with perfect form in mind.

My second goal was to improve my driving accuracy. I was going to do this by working on core strength and stability and hitting at least 20 balls during practice sessions,
I would give myself an A+ on this part. I spend 30 minutes, 3 times a week on just core work during my workouts, and the couple times I have gone and hit balls I have hit at least 1/3 if not more of the bucket with just driver. So i would guess 30-40 balls each time.

Third goal was to improve my short game. I was going to spend 30 minutes a day on short game, chipping and pitching, and 15 minutes during practice sessions chipping around the green.
I would have to give myself a C+ on this. I am spending 15-20 minutes every few days on chipping inside the house, practicing into a net. When at the range I would hit about 20 or so balls to various yardages 10,20,30,40 and 50 yards, i would also hit some chips to the 6 different pins on the practice green. I give myself a C+ because I haven't gotten to put in that much time into short game. I will be able to spend more time when the weather is nicer and I can get out to the range more.

Lastly I was going to work on maintaining my putting stroke by putting around the living room and checking alignment with a mirror and video camera.
I would rate myself a C- on this. I haven't spent much time putting around the living room, and I only used the putting mirror and alignment sticks a couple times so far. I am going to have to start spending a little more time working on my putting and alignment. These are things I can definetly do in the living room. I am looking into signing up for the AimPoint class and working on green reading for this season as well. Hopefully this will help me sink a few more putts and shave 2-3 putts a round off my game.

To recap, I would give myself an overall grade of B+ I think i put in a lot of good work so far. I have some more cool stuff in the works so stay tuned to hear about that. Thanks for following me and I hope you are having a great off season as well.