...but weirdly, many flags had been taken out of the holes. I'm not entirely sure if this is jus a consequence of municipal course golf or if it was to protect the course- it was either pretty soggy or I've suddenly become the master of backspin. (hint: it's not the latter). Course was closed today, so went to the range. Did Neil Plimmer's 18 shot challenge, which went OK but did far too much scrape & hit. Started to have my old weird aiming issues- pushing my irons, pulling my woods, but think now I'm starting to get the better of it. My focus needs to be outwards, at the target, not downward at the ball/club interface. This seems to help.
Got back to the range this evening (unheard of luxury- had parent's evening at Ms Geek's nursery, slid off to range after) and just concentrated on trying to make free swings focusing on the target. Herein the future lies for me at present. Have made a few other discoveries, but want to explore them a little more before blogging them.
Have become part of a fascinating golf community on Twitter; I'm really excited about this and have already learned a lot. So much so I've added this blog's URL to my profile. Now all I need to do is write some more...
to be continued!
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Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Scotland's mini ice age...
...has quashed my plans to practice over the Christmas period. I can't believe that I took my golf clubs from home to the in-laws, back home then on to my folk's place and back to my in-laws. They have been out 3 times- each time for practice with aides that I'd got for Christmas not for "proper"golf , but I do have to face up to the fact that it has been mostly a waste of time.
Or has it? Although I've not done much, what I have done has been quality, and I feel that I'm close to getting my swing to a very good place- the best place it's ever been in terms of impact, plane, tempo and crucially repeatibility; I've been using the "Golfing with your eyes closed" book to work through visualisation, and also worked with Vision54's MYGAME to think through my preshot planning in the "think box". I'm really itching for the snow to clear to allow me get onto the course to try it out.
I'm also really excited about a new hypnotherapy course. I first started using hypnotherapt after my Mum got me Paul McKenna's "Great Golf" video, which was cancelled in the library, for the princely sum of £1. This in terms of cost is by far and away the best purchase I've made in terms of golf improvement, and is up there in terms of all purchases. I've been using several hypnotherapy programs from iTunes, having wanted something I could hear through headphones and that was more portable and versatile than a video. These include Glenn Harrold's Great Golf, one by Darren Mark and the Golf Doctor series. These are all fairly useful and have helped ny game but are pretty general; little work on short game or putting, the scoring shots.
I did a Google search, and came across Roseanna Leaton's "Golfer Within" series. Although more expensive than the other ones, they look very detailed and absolutely fantastic. I toyed with ordering the entire mental skills package, and would have done had it not been just after Christmas, but settled instead on the short game, putting and winning disks. If they arfe as good as I think they'll be, I'll go back for the others. I've introduced her to Fred Greene of the excellent "Golf Smarter" podcast, so hopefully she'll be a guest on there and hopefully I might be able to ask for a cheeky discount for my future purchases!
I've also started using the Powerball, a hand-held gyroscope; they are endorsed by a long drive champion, so we'll see how that goes. Not something I would have bought, but was a gift from my brother and his wife; as I've mentioned above my family's gifts have worked out well before, so we'll see how this one goes. I also got the 5minutes to tee time warm up program, which looks really good; well, it got a good review (a filler piece) in Golf Monthly, but looked underwhelming when it arrived. I did the stretches last night and was very impressed. Although it's meant as a warm-up, I'm not the most flexible, so it might well work as a stretching program, particularly if repeated a few times. Interesting. Hopefully we'll be home soon (we're currently stranded at the inlaws) for Wii Fit+ and a customisable routine...
Or has it? Although I've not done much, what I have done has been quality, and I feel that I'm close to getting my swing to a very good place- the best place it's ever been in terms of impact, plane, tempo and crucially repeatibility; I've been using the "Golfing with your eyes closed" book to work through visualisation, and also worked with Vision54's MYGAME to think through my preshot planning in the "think box". I'm really itching for the snow to clear to allow me get onto the course to try it out.
I'm also really excited about a new hypnotherapy course. I first started using hypnotherapt after my Mum got me Paul McKenna's "Great Golf" video, which was cancelled in the library, for the princely sum of £1. This in terms of cost is by far and away the best purchase I've made in terms of golf improvement, and is up there in terms of all purchases. I've been using several hypnotherapy programs from iTunes, having wanted something I could hear through headphones and that was more portable and versatile than a video. These include Glenn Harrold's Great Golf, one by Darren Mark and the Golf Doctor series. These are all fairly useful and have helped ny game but are pretty general; little work on short game or putting, the scoring shots.
I did a Google search, and came across Roseanna Leaton's "Golfer Within" series. Although more expensive than the other ones, they look very detailed and absolutely fantastic. I toyed with ordering the entire mental skills package, and would have done had it not been just after Christmas, but settled instead on the short game, putting and winning disks. If they arfe as good as I think they'll be, I'll go back for the others. I've introduced her to Fred Greene of the excellent "Golf Smarter" podcast, so hopefully she'll be a guest on there and hopefully I might be able to ask for a cheeky discount for my future purchases!
I've also started using the Powerball, a hand-held gyroscope; they are endorsed by a long drive champion, so we'll see how that goes. Not something I would have bought, but was a gift from my brother and his wife; as I've mentioned above my family's gifts have worked out well before, so we'll see how this one goes. I also got the 5minutes to tee time warm up program, which looks really good; well, it got a good review (a filler piece) in Golf Monthly, but looked underwhelming when it arrived. I did the stretches last night and was very impressed. Although it's meant as a warm-up, I'm not the most flexible, so it might well work as a stretching program, particularly if repeated a few times. Interesting. Hopefully we'll be home soon (we're currently stranded at the inlaws) for Wii Fit+ and a customisable routine...
Friday, 1 January 2010
Goals for 2010
The first of January does seem a good time to record some goals.
This year I want to:
1.Break 90
2.Play in medals
3.Be in contention in a competition
4.Drop handicap by 4 strokes to 24
This may be tricky, Miss Geek and Master Geek are 3.5 years and 3.5 months old respectively, and my golf cannot be at their expense. Not only do I not want this, the fragrant but no nonsense Mrs. Geek would never allow it. However, I got a number of training aides for Christmas, and I will continue to work on short game, putting and flexibility over the winter and try to get out as much as possible over the summer after the kids in bed. I'm working on a number of things in mental game and through Vision54 I've looked hard at how to practice; they also have an online mentoring program that I'm a member of, and I'm goign to use this to track rounds, stats etc.
I'm taking part in the #TTUC, the Twitter Trim Up Challenge, which I'm going to use to help motivate me to do the Yoga and Muscle workouts in Wii Fit & Wii Fit+.
Plenty to be going on with then. As if that wasn't ambitious enough, my ultimate goal is to try to get to scratch, to allow me to attempt to qualify for the senior open, and perhaps even to take part in qualifying for The Open Championship. I have 25 years for this last, with 60 being the limit. The goal is obviously not to be competetive, but to play a part in the oldest and most prestigious of golf championships.
I've also become very interested in the mental game of golf, and this is a thread I'm going to pick at to see where it ultimately leads.
We shall see!
This year I want to:
1.Break 90
2.Play in medals
3.Be in contention in a competition
4.Drop handicap by 4 strokes to 24
This may be tricky, Miss Geek and Master Geek are 3.5 years and 3.5 months old respectively, and my golf cannot be at their expense. Not only do I not want this, the fragrant but no nonsense Mrs. Geek would never allow it. However, I got a number of training aides for Christmas, and I will continue to work on short game, putting and flexibility over the winter and try to get out as much as possible over the summer after the kids in bed. I'm working on a number of things in mental game and through Vision54 I've looked hard at how to practice; they also have an online mentoring program that I'm a member of, and I'm goign to use this to track rounds, stats etc.
I'm taking part in the #TTUC, the Twitter Trim Up Challenge, which I'm going to use to help motivate me to do the Yoga and Muscle workouts in Wii Fit & Wii Fit+.
Plenty to be going on with then. As if that wasn't ambitious enough, my ultimate goal is to try to get to scratch, to allow me to attempt to qualify for the senior open, and perhaps even to take part in qualifying for The Open Championship. I have 25 years for this last, with 60 being the limit. The goal is obviously not to be competetive, but to play a part in the oldest and most prestigious of golf championships.
I've also become very interested in the mental game of golf, and this is a thread I'm going to pick at to see where it ultimately leads.
We shall see!
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Been a while...
...but I'm back, armed with a notebook, nore thoughts on how to learn and some increasingly defined goals, along with having signed up for #TTUC, the Twitter Trim Up Challenge, and I may well put this URL on my twitter profile to see if I get some traffic; the group seems very nice and supportive & I've picked up a few followers-always good.
It is 3am, though and will need to get up with kids in the morning so will stop playing with new notebook and get to sleep!
It is 3am, though and will need to get up with kids in the morning so will stop playing with new notebook and get to sleep!
Monday, 26 October 2009
Practice Plan
Just spent most of the evening drawing up various practice plans on 6x4 cards. Really unsure as to the ultimate purpose of this- is it to aid improvement or is it in fact a way to feel like I'm working at golf, even though I'm not, a bit like those entire evenings spent drawing up incredibly elaborate study plans that I knew would never be followed? Time, and scores will tel, although I'm a bit concerned that the use of three different ink colours indicates at least a touch of the latter...
Saturday, 24 October 2009
A little background...
Perhaps it might be an idea to give a bit of background. I'm a 28 handicap golf addict, a family man who is absolutely determined to improve or to die trying, and this is an attempt to chronicle my successes and let's face it failures and frustrations along the way. Hopefully with a bit of humour and humility.
I still can't quite believe I'm as smitten with the game as I am. I tried the game in my teens after moving to a town where seemingly everyone played and hated it. Mostly it was because I had no natural ability, and absolutely no patience to persist with a anything that looked like the ratio of fun to work was unfavorable. But it was also the seemingly endless silly little rules, which at the time seemed to have been made up by my playing partners on the spot with the sole purpose of making me feel even more uncomfortable and out of place (this may in fact have been the case; they were enjoying my discomfiture a little too much). Even now, although I recognise that much of the etiquette of golf is absolutely necessary to ensure all enjoy it (replacing divots, being quiet when someone is playing a shot) there is an awful lot of nonsense that some people take very very seriously. I don't tend to wear jeans, even on the courses that allow it, but this is simply because I believe denim isn't a great material to walk around wet grass in, rather than a belief that civilisation will end if Levis are sighted on the Links.
But it's funny how life goes. After resisting the overtures of many friends I finally succumbed to trying it, and this was at a time I was realising, after abandoning partying following the birth of Miss Geek, and just coming out of the the early, all consuming phase of parenthood, that I had no pastimes or hobbies, nothing just for me. Mrs Geek also encouraged me, something she now professess to regret.
And I loved it, despite confirming my lack of natural ability. I was then off work for a long long time with a bizarre, chronic abdominal pain thing (still ongoing). This meant that although there were some days where I couldn't do anything, there were many others where Mrs Geek was at work and Miss Geek at nursery that golf really helped take my mind off what could be wrong, as this was at a stage where several unpleasant diagnoses were being bandied about, and it really really helped.
And then it snowballed, on and on, to a four magazine a month, lessons every week addiction. It's evolved- I realise now that magazines are an often harmful distraction, finding a helpful tip is a bit like panning for gold you have to sift through an awful lot of mud before finding a nugget- but it's never left and has even intensified. I've listened to about a hundred hours of golf podcasts, read countless books and even managed to converse with really interesting and thought provoking teachers. I hope to share some of that, chronicle my thoughts and responses and see how they evolve over time. I'm also hoping people will read, and contribute their thoughts and experiences, but we'll just have to see what happens.
I still can't quite believe I'm as smitten with the game as I am. I tried the game in my teens after moving to a town where seemingly everyone played and hated it. Mostly it was because I had no natural ability, and absolutely no patience to persist with a anything that looked like the ratio of fun to work was unfavorable. But it was also the seemingly endless silly little rules, which at the time seemed to have been made up by my playing partners on the spot with the sole purpose of making me feel even more uncomfortable and out of place (this may in fact have been the case; they were enjoying my discomfiture a little too much). Even now, although I recognise that much of the etiquette of golf is absolutely necessary to ensure all enjoy it (replacing divots, being quiet when someone is playing a shot) there is an awful lot of nonsense that some people take very very seriously. I don't tend to wear jeans, even on the courses that allow it, but this is simply because I believe denim isn't a great material to walk around wet grass in, rather than a belief that civilisation will end if Levis are sighted on the Links.
But it's funny how life goes. After resisting the overtures of many friends I finally succumbed to trying it, and this was at a time I was realising, after abandoning partying following the birth of Miss Geek, and just coming out of the the early, all consuming phase of parenthood, that I had no pastimes or hobbies, nothing just for me. Mrs Geek also encouraged me, something she now professess to regret.
And I loved it, despite confirming my lack of natural ability. I was then off work for a long long time with a bizarre, chronic abdominal pain thing (still ongoing). This meant that although there were some days where I couldn't do anything, there were many others where Mrs Geek was at work and Miss Geek at nursery that golf really helped take my mind off what could be wrong, as this was at a stage where several unpleasant diagnoses were being bandied about, and it really really helped.
And then it snowballed, on and on, to a four magazine a month, lessons every week addiction. It's evolved- I realise now that magazines are an often harmful distraction, finding a helpful tip is a bit like panning for gold you have to sift through an awful lot of mud before finding a nugget- but it's never left and has even intensified. I've listened to about a hundred hours of golf podcasts, read countless books and even managed to converse with really interesting and thought provoking teachers. I hope to share some of that, chronicle my thoughts and responses and see how they evolve over time. I'm also hoping people will read, and contribute their thoughts and experiences, but we'll just have to see what happens.
The Golf Geek goes mobile!
Alright, so it's only the second post (and the first that isn't just a title) but I'm excited. I thought my posts would have to come from my computer, and was concerned that I would struggle to shift Mrs Geek's fingers from Bejewelled Blitz on the laptop. The fact I can do it from my phone massively increases my chances of keeping this up.
Managed a range session today, my first since Master Geek was born some 6 weeks ago. My delight was slightly decreased by Mrs Geek spending a bit longer than anticipated at the supermarket but managed to offset this by wangling 50 free range balls entirely by accident. Then got onto the range to find driving rain and a wind so fierce that it took my 5 iron to reach a green 110yards into the wind. While I'm not the longest hitter with my irons I can generally rely on another 40-70 yards with this club...
Was glad the balls were free, ended up doing scrape and hit, a habit I must get out of, but today was not the day for standing thoughtfully behind the ball before going through a full pre shot routine. I was glad to get out, and I think it's probably best to leave it at that.
Managed a range session today, my first since Master Geek was born some 6 weeks ago. My delight was slightly decreased by Mrs Geek spending a bit longer than anticipated at the supermarket but managed to offset this by wangling 50 free range balls entirely by accident. Then got onto the range to find driving rain and a wind so fierce that it took my 5 iron to reach a green 110yards into the wind. While I'm not the longest hitter with my irons I can generally rely on another 40-70 yards with this club...
Was glad the balls were free, ended up doing scrape and hit, a habit I must get out of, but today was not the day for standing thoughtfully behind the ball before going through a full pre shot routine. I was glad to get out, and I think it's probably best to leave it at that.
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