Unlimited Balls...

[Loop]

There's a driving range near where I live in, and you hit from the grass. I've been going there for a month and a half. A full bucket is about 10$... So I always took my time when hitting them, trying to make a good swing. As I talked to some other fellow ball rangers, one of them told me he had a card for unlimited balls.
So I went and buy the unlimited balls card for 600$ for the whole season (ends in November). Yes, expensive!
But, this is just awesome. Today, I've hit a full 6 buckets of balls. I didn't care if I swung like crap, or what were the results.
Hitting balls after balls after balls, rifle like, I was freed from making a good swing.
But the best thing, is that I got to practice swings changes I never would have made before.
Soon swing thoughts became muscle memory.
After four buckets, I literally solved a lot of my ballstriking problems I had lately. In part because I was hot, but also because of the swing changes. My brother watched me, and was surprised my swing changed in just an hour, but also for the better.

And I figured if I used two buckets a day (that's a bare minimum ), the card will be fully paid for in a month or so.

So greetings to all fellow rangers, especially Vijay

[VtDivot]

Holy crap... unlimited Range pass here is $225, that includes a really nice short game area.

[Loop]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How about having a new neighbor? You live in Vermont right?

[VtDivot]

Originally Posted by Loop

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How about having a new neighbor? You live in Vermont right?

VT is where it's at... we love it here. Friends and family come to visit us all the time from Nova Scotia to shop etc, since things are so cheap too. I really can't say enough good things about this place (except the winter is as cold as hell)

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by VtDivot

I really can't say enough good things about this place (except the winter is as cold as hell)

Cry me a river.

Ever seen -77C? Call me and we can compare notes.

R35

[VtDivot]

One place I wouldn't want to spend the winter is on the prairie that's for sure. Damn cold. The east coast was nice because you got the warm martime climate and the gulf stream which contribute to a relative;y mild winter compared to the VT winters we have now. It cracks me up when some of the more ignorant people I meet say to me "Man you're from Canada - you must be used to the cold winters.....eh?"

[sdurham1662]

holy crap, don't you ever get tired? I'm dead after I hit a Family bucket of balls. More power to you man, fatigue is a big part of the game.

[mediaguru]

Hitting that many balls would induce the law of diminishing returns for me. It would also cause a relapse of my tennis & golfer's elbow...

[caddyshackgolf]

Thats awesome that you get to hit as many golfballs as you want. Up here where I go there is no such thing of unlimted range balls. I would get it to if they had it.

[LottaBalata]

It would be nice to have an unlimited rangeball card. But there is NO way I could pay $600 for it. That's just waaaayy too much for me. Hell, my regular green fees pass didn't cost that much. But, I've never had to pay $10 a bucket either. . .So it depends on how economical you view it. Buckets average 3 to 5 around here.

[dave.]

Loop

its worked now,but i wouldn't make a habit of it

every shot should be played as if you were on the course.You need to grind in your preshot routine and tempo as much as your swing

I take an hour to hit a bucket of 100 because i stand back on everyone and imagine i'm on the course,on the last hole needing a birdie for my record round.And i always have a target to aim at

also,there is no such thing as muscle memory.What you doing is training the mind to use millions of electrical impulses to swing the club properly,to do that you need a preshot routine that sets up the swing properly and consistently every time

imo,you had some luck with your 6 buckets,but i would suggest you slow it down and focus on each shot or the next posts will be about how it all went wrong................just my 2p,it works for me,you could be an entirley different entity

I just think the best way to improve is to able to take your range routine onto the course and the only way to do that is to pratice it to the point you trust it completely on the course.This has the added advantage of being able to focus on the shot at hand on the course

[Loop]

dave, I see your point, and even agree to it to a certain extent. You see, I frequently go to the range, maybe more than 4 times a week.
I used to do exactly what you said, taking my time, visualizing the shot and all. In part, because I knew each ball counted, and I had to make the most out of what I paid my bucket.
But I could hardly change some aspects of my swing. When I was satisfied about my swing, after hitting a half bucket, full of confidence I went to the course.
But the problem is that swing doesn't hold up on the course, and after 9 holes, I'm forced to make a swing change to make it work. You guessed it, my swing was full of swing thoughts. Even though I swung with one thought, other thoughts about forgetting how to do the backswing or whatever would creep up.

You see, with unlimited balls, you're not forced to hit every ball that counts, because in the back of your mind, you have unlimited balls, and you don't care. That's one of the biggest revelation.
So I hit balls, with a certain swing thoughts, and after hitting quite a number of them, I can say: "Hey, that doesn't work. Let's try something else".
You see, you hit balls intelligently, not like a mindless lunatic hitting balls just for the fun of it.
And little by little, your swing gets into a groove.
You get to know the most subtle little thing in your swing, like how much cocking you have in your backswing, how big was your turn, how much forward are your shoulders at address.
You get to experiment all those little stuff, and the stuff like rhythm.
Before, I used to initiate my downswing before I completed my backswing.
It's something I always wanted to try, but couldn't because I had to make the most out of my bucket. Even when I tried it, it wouldn't work. I needed practice, but with a lot of balls.
Believe me, the body remembers. Muscle memory really exists.
Preshot routine is nice, but it didn't worked for me. Some of my weekend partners have their ritual before hitting a shot, and their ballstriking isn't consistent.

But then again, you might be quite talented. I remember that Sam Snead was talented, as he doesn't have a clue on how he swings, but he just swings it good

PS: BTW, so far so good, my swing holds up

[dave.]

If it works for you,who cares what I think

But I do maintain muscle memory doesn't work.Its your mind that control your muscles and as such you HAVE to work on your mind to improve your game.What you are doing on the range is training your brain to move the muscles as you want them to ove,the muscles don't have memories on their own,you do.So working on the mind,ie preshot routine as an example is how you train your mind to maintain the swing on the course.You simply learn how to trust your swing out there and it will not collapse.

Swing thoughts on the course are just course destroyers.Trust it,erradicate swing thoughts by practising as you play and vice versa.

Your body doesn't remember anything,thats physically impossible.Its your brain that does all that for you which is fed by your mind.Work on your mind and forget muscle memory.Practice clinically with one or 2 swing thoughts on the range then trust it on the course.

But hey,i'm sure there are many pros who do what you do and as I say,if it works,what the hell!

I would be interested to know how you get on in the future.I would be surprised if you din't have a few bad sessions and the result of these is yo slowly down and taking your time.

Also,I will chuck this in but you probably know it anyway,tension creeps in during practise and you don't notice.Well I don't anway.So i use my preshot routine which includes and anti-tension waggle (think Nicklaus) to ensure i'm not tensing up.Its easy to over analyse when in fact all thst happened is your arms have tensed up.I also spend most of time on the range working on tempo.

all the best!

[Lamma]

Like Dave said, whatever works for you is what you should be doing. But I also agree with Dave in that one should absolutely ingrain their preshot routine on the range. For me, this means that after hitting a shot on the range, I step back, think about where I want to hit the next shot, waggle a few times, set up, look at the target, make a practice swing to groove tempo, and then strike the ball. Then I go back and do the exact same thing with every shot; every time without fail.

And as someone else said, hitting that many balls would bring the law of diminishing returns into play for me. When I go to the range I always try to have one or two things that I'm going to work on, but NEVER more than two.

I need to go to the course where I like to practice and see if they have a card I can get for unlimited range balls. I spend a good $50 a week already.

[Loop]

Hehe... Of course, muscle memory is just a term to describe how your nervous system learns. The brain does a lot of work, but also the peripheral nerves.
For example, try doing the V with your hand as Mr. Spock from Star Trek does it (index and medius together forming a V with the annular and aricular together).
At first, it can be difficult to do. But as you practice over time, you develop more nerves so you can move the untrained muscle to do that type of movement.
Remember it`s a term. It would be like arguing:" Do you see what I`m saying?" when in fact you can`t see words coming out from my mouth, but you can visualize the meaning....
And please don`t get me started that centrifugal force does not exist

As you say, if it works for you, then stick with it.
On another point, you can see players on the range hitting balls without doing their preshot routine (eg. Vijay). I mean, if you`re on the range not practicing and improving your swing, then you`re only practicing your current swing, and that means, you don`t need to go to the range... Just teasing you