A week of recovery...

26/5/12 Saturday. The good news is my conqueror in the matchplay won through to the final pairing. Better than that is my body is back in decent condition again and I went out and let rip with the drivers today. Both the 380 and 400cc clubs alongside each other and once again the longest went to the smallest. The Toskii 400cc stays in the bag though as it was the most accurate by a long way.

The point of the excersise today was to release more of the full swing that is gradually establishing itself. This is no effort or strain on my body and is a result of the recent coaching in particular. The improvement became apparent in my irons first and after a good practice session and a couple of casual rounds put aside an hour to give the driver a trial. By no means is this the end of the quest to improve off the tee. There is a lot more to be done yet in coming months.

24/5/12 Thursday. Back on my feet again, after the matchplay round on Sunday. No excuses played as well as possible and lost on the 19th hole. Coming from 3 down with four to play it was a reasonable effort to get square by the 18th and make my opponent earn his victory. Had my chances and just could not capitalise on them missed a couple of one metre putts that really hurt and could not string two winning holes in succession together all day. There was two bladed chips as well that cost me dearly in the end. Given where I had come from physically during the week the effort was all I could muster.
Wednesday I saw the winner and his opponent playing their matchplay event, dont know the result at the minute. Fact is that the best player on the day won and if it had been me I would have really struggled to play 18 holes today. Managed 9 holes and had to do that in 2 sections with 2 hours between walks. It was a dog of a day too with gale warnings out for the region and the seas are smashing over the breakwater with a night time storm brewing. Honestly looking forward to relaxing a bit golf wise in coming weeks and start preparing for June competitions. With 3rd round of the Caledonian Inn trophy and in with a chance to defend my win last season on the 17th of June a Nett 71 or better will keep me in the hunt.the 23rd and 24th of June is the Keith Tournament and I will get there for at least one of the days golfing. In the meantime a bit of rest will be the best golfing option for me.


21/5/12 Monday Busy day no golf sticks picked up at all for a swing and rarely out in the fresh air since rising. The result in the matchplay was not what I wanted. Losing on the 19th hole after the regulation 18 had been played. Not a bad effort considering the obstacles over come during the previous week fitness wise. No excuses I had several chances to win the match missing two putts and a couple of bladed chips did not help. Was 3 down with four holes to play so getting all square on the 18th with a cracking birdie putt was a good effort.
The better golfer on the day was the deserved winner. There is a definite relief now that I am out of the running looking forward to having a little less golf during the week and refreshing my enjoyment of the game. Have to come to terms with the improved distance off the fairways in particular. That was a little disconcerting on Sunday with my club selection with the longer irons made particularly difficult. Having and extra 10-15m is great but not what was needed when trying to adjust to having a much improved swing from a week of injury restriction.
No matter the improvement is going to deliver in coming moths of that I am sure. It will be enjoyable developing this further to my advantage and freed up a goodly part of my mental game to the driver development.
Next committee meeting I will be presenting an addition to the club membership categories. A remote Member who lives a significant distance away from the club who want to be able to have an official handicap through golf link. With the category will come discounted green fees and free rounds during selected periods at the club. This will be much appreciated by the many golfers who are tourists to the town and without another club membership cannot take out a Country Membership. Thankyou for your time and attention, “hit ‘em straight all”




Geoff

Golf errors can be so subtle...

20/5/12 Sunday. Jumped the gun on the usual early 5.30 am start to a Sunday. Just a few extra jobs to get done first so my  mind is clear for today's handicap championship matchplay Quarter Final. After the week of discomfort and gradual recovery since the treatment on Friday physically all is good.

"Keeping the practise on the go over the past week has been hard work with the injury restrictions. With a little adjustment the form has been maintained. Did experiment with a comparison between the old driver and the new for a refresher. It is a slight quandary of distance over accuracy.

The new 400cc Toskii driver is more consistent for fairway hits. The MDD Tour 380cc driver is much more sensitive to working the ball and this unfortunately is beyond my capability to control. The trade off is that the smaller driver gets an extra 10 to 20m off the tee that is sacrificed with my using the larger club head at the minute. This week the cooler wetter weather has been constant and the loss of distance has became an obvious affect on my game. Forewarned is forearmed and I can make a decision on this over coming weeks.

Following yesterdays treatment I have got flexibility and freedom of movement back. Played the last 12 holes on the course this morning for a tune up in preparation for tomorrows matchplay. All was good from the tee to the hole and will get in some chipping and putting practise later in the afternoon. Followed with some long iron work on the practise fairway.

Have to give my opponent one stroke so the game is going to be virtually head to head matchplay."

Mentally yesterday I just could not get satisfied with the driver performance and the loss of distance off the tee. Added to that was the need to tune up with my irons to remove the occasional pull to the left that was affecting accuracy. Even after this the driver matter was still a distraction, not withstanding that I had no problem with playing Sundays round accommodating the distance loss. Finally at the end  of the afternoon managed to get back on the course with both drivers  to have a few swings and hits.

Hit balls with each and the smaller driver still had the longer reach but much worse accuracy. Something was niggling away in the back of my mind that there was something not quite right with the fella swinging the club. This is where the coaching video taken of the last session proved its worth again. 1) Rotate hips and follow through. Yes doing that. 2) Bend knees, squat down in stance. Yes doing that 3) Roll wrists. Yes doing that. 4) Oh crap there was one more, the subtle one that is so easy to omit. Lifting the front foot in the back swing.

Off went the flashing lights and ringing bells. Plant the front foot with a little extra weight on it, the swing then has a stable base. Importantly is the fact that it is not a solid pivot point again, no longer being moved to accommodate the injury constraints of the week. The swing is back with the body behind the forward motion and 220m off the tee and dead straight. Walked four holes hitting five balls off each tee as the sun sank and the distance was there and importantly the balls were all in a 20m circle on  the respective fairways.

Something that is a reality with my golf and life also is that I make subconscious adjustments for the various injury flareups. Life is easy deal with. Golf that takes a bigger effort and is more important, that is why the video of the coaching session was so important to do. The four points that the coach identified are all subtle errors the alone have a minor effect on my golf swing. As a group they are the four corners of erratic, unpredictable golf.
Thankyou for your time and attention, "Hit 'em straight all"

Geoff

Footyhead's rd 7 AFL Review

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Maintaining injury recovery with practice...

16/5/12 Wednesday. Following on from Sunday morning the last two days have still not been in best physical condition at the minute, improvement on yesterday though and that is important. While not able to pick up and swing a golf stick Monday. Tuesday morning went out and got myself around fourteen holes playing well within my limits. This practise is in case I cannot get a Bowen Treatment during the week to repair the injury flareup. Have to play the next Handicap Championship matchplay round on Sunday morning and some physical therapy is a must.

The round on Tuesday was the epitomy of why coaching is so effective with my game. The efficiency of the stance and swing changes accommodated the physical injury restrictions so well that selecting two clubs up inside 140m delivered GIR. Outside of that distance taking it easy in the swing and still clubbing up would get well within premium chipping distances. Was joined on the walk for a few holes by another club golfer who commented on how easy I was doing it, that was further confirmation of my golf improvement in 2012. The putter was not very effective on the day although that was not a particular focus in the round, being able to play par/bogie golf with the restrictions was.

It is not often these days that I get knocked flat by the old injuries, been building towards this over the last fortnight of practise and it has peaked now. The tens machine makes a lot of difference but the nights are restless from being unable to get comfortable, waking up each ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. The flareups are a fact of life for me and will not be reduced over the coming months. At the minute it is not crippling and while the limit of my capability is being tested again, there is a definite purpose in the effort. For some time now I have been feeling a little more power is available in my swing and recent experiments in practise have not refuted that. In the coaching last week I was instructed to release the subconscious restrictions on my swing towards the end of the session. This was done and the distance and accuracy off the tee was delivered without any effort.

What is required now it to develop the practise routine to incorporate the same build up to being able to hit the ball like that more often. It was a combination of all the coaching and repetition of strokes on the range that day which allowed me to produce the shots I have been working towards. It is not going to be easy and I will have to gradually build up to the level desired. Will not be doing anything along these lines for a few weeks at the minute until I have the physical condition to be able to push the limits again. Thankyou for your time and attention. “Hit ‘em straight all”

 Geoff