Tag: skytrak

SkyTrak Launch Monitor Practice

The new golf season 2018 is on our doorstep. Today is March 4, 2018. We had over a foot of snow on March 2nd and the temperature today is about 32 degrees with a stiff wind blowing.

I had cut my practice nets down because the rain before the snow froze and there was about a ton of snow caught on the nets. So Yesterday I rehung the nets after a hard pull out of the snow and today I decided to it balls again.

The sun was bright even though the ground was wet and muddy and the temperature was no conducive to practicing my golf swing. But what the hell its march and I wanted to practice.

I turned on my SkyTrak launch monitor and connected to my iPhone and went to work. i have been practicing hard since the season ended last November and at times have been able to get my driver club head speed up to 96 and ball speed near 140.

A far cry from the old days when I averaged 116 mph with ball speeds in the 160’s and 170’s. Of course I was 20 years younger and have undergone battles with cancer, knee surgeries, torn cartilages, infections and other surgeries and ailments.

Seems like its been 10 years of a downhill energy spiral, although last year 2017, was a relatively good year knock on wood and all sorts of other things to keep the blues way.

So today in the old and sunny weather surrounded by piles of now I managed to get my club speed to about 85 with ball speed about 131. Not too bad I thought for the conditions and by condition.

I have been experimenting with different shafts. I can still swing a stiff shaft but always need a higher kick point due to the fact that I have a fast hard release of the club head and have strong powerful wrists and hands. Swings with a regular lighter longer shaft have produced better numbers and more distance.

Funny thing about practicing. One day last week when it was a little warmer I hit about 80 balls with a driver and was caught in the 85 to 90 mph comfort zone. Then I decided to call on my adrenaline and try to pump myself up to a “game day” frame of mind. The result of the experiment into a raised level of concentration and awareness was 96 mph with balls speeds of a little over 140.

I guess animated practice is more productive than steady level practice, at least in the context of trying to increase distance, clubbed speed, and ball speed. Although I have played my best golf score-wise when I play in a state of steady level headed clear headed detached concentration.

I am hitting the ball pretty straight on a consistent basis, but I am also starting to become aware of a slight tweak in my downswing move that increases my numbers pretty dramatically. The only problem is that the ball goes way right of my usual direction, which is a slight draw of little fad when I want to hit a fade.

As I sit here the 2018 golf season is right on our doorstep. My SkyTrak launch monitor has afforded me hours of really productive practice during this off season. I will continue to work hard and am looking forward to playing some good golf this season.

Let the games begin!

Golf Lesson Goals

Golf Teacher Goals

My goal here is to relate the information and experience I have gained in the golf business over the past thirty years to help make those who visit golfteacher.com better golfers, better shot-makers, and to enhance their enjoyment of the game. Golf truly is the “game of a lifetime.”

I use both high tech teaching equipment and observation. Watching your golf ball flight in regards to what you are doing in your golf swing is the key to any good golf lesson.

By watching and listening to great golfers, and sitting behind the counter watching countless thousands of golfers tee off on the first tee and hit balls on the range, I have developed a great eye and ear for technique or lack of technique in any golf swing. Being able to see and decipher each individual golf  swing as it relates to itself is the key component to any great teacher of the game.

High tech equipment is great, but only for the student who requires it. Most of us just want some simple, common sense help with our golf games.

I started using video in my lessons as an instructional tool back in the early 1990’s. I have used many video systems that have evolved into taking video with an iPhone using the V1 system. I take and analyze video seamlessly in real time with no interruptions, right at the site of the lesson. It is a quick accurate system that gives, you the student, instantaneous feedback before you have a chance to forget the feel and results of the shots that we have on video. Video training has also helped me as a player, as it is always a new experience seeing yourself in real time on the screen. Pictures do not lie.

I just this week (4/23/2017) purchased a SkyTrak Golf Launch Monitor Unit. Its a great piece of equipment. I will probably  only use it for myself but I view it as a very worthwhile investment in my career as a golf teacher and a golf professional; and as a proficient player. The SkyTrak has much the same interface as the old GolfAchiever, only much more refined.

Over the years I have also used the GolfAchiever golf swing analyzer and launch monitor, the Ernest Golf ES12 monitor, as well as my iPhone video camera and iPhone swing analyzing devices and software. I have hit countless thousands of golf balls using this swing analyzers. But one thing I have found is that most golfers want to get better, but do not necessarily have a need for high tech teaching tools or high priced swing aids that just add to the confusion.

If somebody, a golf teacher for example, would have offered lessons and told me 40 years ago when I first started to golf seriously, (and it is ok to take it seriously because I figure everyone’s goal is to play better, to do this you have to have a little interest) that there is one golf swing move to practice that will incorporate and nurture all other moves into a cohesive pattern that would produce good to great consistent golf shots, I would probably have been skeptical at best and figured there was no easy way to make this move called the golf swing. That is why I spent the last 30 to 35 years as a teacher, player, and observer while playing and giving lessons, trying to figure out how to hit consistent golf shots. And again, I never ran across anybody or any body of work as far as golf swing instruction that would lead me down the path to what I call good golf and good to great golf shots, consistently. Anything that is understandable, coherent, and to the point.

I took my first golf lesson and only golf lesson from Mike Pedersen, a world renowned teacher at PGA National in Florida. I learned about my golf swing, and I learned how great golf teachers teach.

I have heard it said that “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.” Taking a golf lesson or two from a qualified golf teacher that speaks to you in common sense language can improve your game and the quality of your shot-making, thereby improving your scores.