Tips for practicing off of mats

[Motoboss]

Personally I find mat practice to be very effective and efficient. Never had any joint issues and find only improvement on the course. Maybe because most of my mat work is technique practice and only during winter weather, hitting the range when weather allows. 
I might end with a dozen or so fuller (up too) 7 iron swings but chipping is the main workout. I use impact face tape so visually I know immediately how I struck the ball and learning to use the bounce and  “pick” the ball off the surface is the end goal.

 

If you chipped as bad as I did last year practice of any kind can only help.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Motoboss

[ezra76]

On 5/24/2019 at 9:59 AM, cardoustie said:

I hit off a mat in my garage over one winter. Almost every night. This was 20 years ago. It took me 3 weeks to learn to take divots

Never again. They can also be murder on your hands/wrists/elbows

Your likely picking it (leaving weight back) because your brain knows that trapping the ball will be detrimental on the joints

Work on your pivot

 

Good points. I'm done with shorter irons and wedges off mats completely. I rented an hour on a sim to get all my iron gaps and ended up with tendonitis for a week. 

 

I got these little tee holders from amazon that you can put under a range mat and use your own tee. The smallest ones have the ball barely above the mat without using a tee in it. I use that for hybrid and woods. I don't bring anything higher than a 7iron to the range. Pretty much the range with mats is tee shot work exclusively.

 

I have a field near my house I can hit wedges and even down to a 9iron if I want. I usually just setup a 60yd. shot from a tree to a bucket and go back and forth with 5 balls, try to get all 5 inside of 5-6ft. in less than 10shots. It's been great for my short iron and wedge striking.

[me05501]

I have a mat in my workshop. It's a nice thick rubber one but it sits right on a poured concrete floor. I fight tennis elbow on my lead side so I try to be very cautious in how I use my mat. 

 

I limit myself to about 30 balls a day. That's how many I keep out to use with the net, so I just gather them up, hit them once and quit for the day. 

 

Lately I've been hitting most of the balls with a Whippy Tempomaster club (similar to Lag Shot). You can't really jar your joints with these because the shaft is so soft. Even better, it teaches you to naturally shallow the club and make pure ball first contact so I have a lot less fat mat strikes to deal with. 

 

Lately I'll hit 25 Whippy shots and then the last five with my 7 iron. My goal is to take the feel that works with the Whippy club to the course, so it makes sense to groove that swing more and hit fewer shots with a real club.