Practice blades

[wildcatden]

Anybody ever pickup a harder to hit than a USKG cavity back iron for their junior to practice ball striking?  Perhaps a 7, 8 or 9-iron in something like a 1999 Hogan Apex or more modern club like a Wilson Staff Blade?   Of course, the  club would need to be cut down to proper length and shaft installed needs to be proper flex for your junior.

 

Or is this a terrible idea?

Edited August 27, 2020 by wildcatden

[leezer99]

Terrible idea. Swing weight, stiffness, torque, etc will all be off. Could lead to significant compensations. 

[hangontight]

Have not tried but think I would agree with leezer. 

[darter79]

USKG is more of a blade than people thing speaking of the tour series line. My kids coach put it next to the t100 which is Titleist players cavity they were a lot closer in size than you would think. If memory serves me correctly the USKG is the smaller of the two. 

[MB19]

10 hours ago, wildcatden said:

Anybody ever pickup a harder to hit than a USKG cavity back iron for their junior to practice ball striking?  Perhaps a 7, 8 or 9-iron in something like a 1999 Hogan Apex or more modern club like a Wilson Staff Blade?   Of course, the  club would need to be cut down to proper length and shaft installed needs to be proper flex for your junior.

 

Or is this a terrible idea?

Two months ago, I was club browsing on eBay for my daughter and I came across a Titleist 712 CB Forged 6i and 8i fitted with ProLaunch junior shafts.  For $40 shipped to my door, it was a cheap experiment that turned into me buying a PW and a 9i (club head only) and putting Tensei Red ladies shafts on them and turning it into her set of gaming irons.  As soon as I can find a used 7i at an agreeable price, I'll round out the set.  This was for my 56"/83 lb daughter who is almost 9.

 

I would say that her yardages are more predictable now than they have ever been with other irons, which include USKG UL, Flynn Velocity (these were very good, but handed down to little brother) and Cobra King Jr.  The clubs feel balanced and are cut to 60" Flynn specs.  I'm curious to see how she will do with them as she grows over the next year, but so far/so good.  I'm impressed with how these irons launch, and she will likely hand these down to her brother when she grows out of them.

 

*Edit*

I'd like to add that this is no longer a cheap experiment.  Even buying the 9i head and PW as cheap as I did (~$65 shipped combined), I still had to buy the Tensei shafts ($60 combined), and get them fitted/regripped ($40 combined).  Here and now, I have an iron set that lacks a 7i for $205--not expensive, mind you, but hardly the "cheap" experiment anymore.  Add $80 to this I am setting as my budget for the 7i, and we're at $285 for a 6-P set of used Titleist Forged 712 CB irons.  All in, this  still cheaper than what one would pay per-iron for Ping Prodi G new, with no shaft program for buying 6 clubs and a little more than used USKG TS2 prices.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by MB19

[leezer99]

Go to estate sales or garage sales in senior living areas near golf courses if you're looking for quality equipment at a reasonable price.  Widows will sell their husband's clubs on the cheap and it's possible to find a lot of senior flex stuff.  Palm Springs / Palm Desert are a prime example but I'm sure Scottsdale and other 'winter home' areas would work as well.

[MB19]

5 minutes ago, leezer99 said:

Go to estate sales or garage sales in senior living areas near golf courses if you're looking for quality equipment at a reasonable price.  Widows will sell their husband's clubs on the cheap and it's possible to find a lot of senior flex stuff.  Palm Springs / Palm Desert are a prime example but I'm sure Scottsdale and other 'winter home' areas would work as well.

Not sure why, but this reminds me of the part in Wedding Crashers when Farrell and Wilson crash a funeral.

 

Yes, I know there's something wrong with me.

[wildcatden]

11 hours ago, leezer99 said:

Terrible idea. Swing weight, stiffness, torque, etc will all be off. Could lead to significant compensations. 

 

I see the swing weight issue.  Stiffness and torque would  be taken care of by the shaft change.  Perhaps 6-iron (which has about the same weight as the USKG 9-iron/PW area) that is shafted and cut down to USKG 9/PW length would work.  Don't forget the loft (6-iron bent/lofted as much as can reasonable be done) and lie angle adjusted.

 

2 hours ago, darter79 said:

USKG is more of a blade than people thing speaking of the tour series line. My kids coach put it next to the t100 which is Titleist players cavity they were a lot closer in size than you would think. If memory serves me correctly the USKG is the smaller of the two. 

 

I would think the USKG club regardless is dimensions is significantly more forgiving than a players blade? 

 

Anyway, just a thought experiment. Interesting to see that @MB19 has essentially tried this.  One of the goals would be to see if I can get my junior to feel where the clubface is contacting the ball more.

Edited August 27, 2020 by wildcatden

[darter79]

@wildcatdencould be the face is too light for him. I know quite a few players who need the feel of a heavier head to really feel the head correctly. But to your point more to it than size of the head of course but I know few juniors who made that move pretty easily. I don't think its a completely terrible idea if weight is close. 

[wildcatden]

5 minutes ago, darter79 said:

@wildcatdencould be the face is too light for him. I know quite a few players who need the feel of a heavier head to really feel the head correctly. But to your point more to it than size of the head of course but I know few juniors who made that move pretty easily. I don't think its a completely terrible idea if weight is close. 

 

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what is happening with his swing. His iron distances are short for his 9.5+ year old age (65 yard carry on PW). Maybe this is average. I don't really know.  His driver distances are less than December 2018 (drove it 150-160 total back then....these days its 140-150 or even less).  Started seeing an instructor again last week. I may run this idea by him also.  Anyway,  he is becoming disillusioned with the game he says he absolutely loves. He's a smart kid and knows, without anyone telling him, that sub-150 drives aren't going to cut it. I'm doing all that I can to support him and help him make progress, but I'm not sure how many more rounds are in the chamber.

[MB19]

3 hours ago, wildcatden said:

 

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what is happening with his swing. His iron distances are short for his 9.5+ year old age (65 yard carry on PW). Maybe this is average. I don't really know.  His driver distances are less than December 2018 (drove it 150-160 total back then....these days its 140-150 or even less).  Started seeing an instructor again last week. I may run this idea by him also.  Anyway,  he is becoming disillusioned with the game he says he absolutely loves. He's a smart kid and knows, without anyone telling him, that sub-150 drives aren't going to cut it. I'm doing all that I can to support him and help him make progress, but I'm not sure how many more rounds are in the chamber.

Take the following with a grain of salt, as I hail from southeastern suburbia Michigan--not exactly a tour pro factory. 

 

Growing up, there were maybe a dozen of us in my class, in my town, who really even played golf.  The kids who ended up being captains of our golf team were small kids-- 5'5" 125 and 5'7" 145 as HS seniors.  The smaller one drove 150 at 11, and maxed out at 230 in HS.  The other kid was a freak who could bomb it 280, somehow, and they both shot mid-70s consistently with spurts of par or the occasional 78 or 79.  They were both very good (for our area, at that time), but found different paths to scoring well.  

 

These two kids got to where they did because they put the time into the game it required.  They were not high-end athletes, though they did have good coordination and solid athletic ability.  They certainly weren't big, nor strong--and the only thing they lifted in HS was 12 oz. on the weekends.  Contrast that to the child prodigies from where I live in FL now from over the years--Tryon, Spallone and Dalili--who worked quite a bit harder at their craft, had constant coaching and were able to play year-round--the golfers from my childhood certainly pale in comparison... but that 5'5" 125lb kid who I could outdrive handily as a pre-teen was still a decent #2 varsity golfer years later with zero strength training playing only half the year.  

 

While it isn't necessarily the goal for most prep golfers these days to be a captain on their HS golf team, I guess the story here is that my little buddy was able to play at our area's highest junior level while having bottom 25% power for his age throughout.  Had he done any strength training, that likely changes to perhaps average power.  I look at someone little-framed like Rory, and see the gaines he's made over the years--it's remarkable.  At not yet 10, your son is such an unfinished product--and that's the way it should be.  I know it gets discouraging watching other juniors pound it 20 yards past your kid off the tee, or hit an iron or two lower on approaches, but being in a competitive golfing area that's just the way it is sometimes.  All we can do is sharpen other areas of their games and look for opportunities to add power when they become apparent, right?

 

In baseball, we used to see kids who experience "dead arm"... they would somehow regress or stagnate in arm strength right around 9/10/11.  Some cases it was due to a mechanical flaw in their throwing/pitching motion, some cases it was just a kid not hitting a growth spurt for a year or two--or even both things.  It wasn't for lack of practice or effort, that's for sure.  It just takes a fresh set of trained eyes, sometimes, to pick up a mechanical flaw that's robbing a kid of power.

 

 

[MB19]

5 hours ago, wildcatden said:

 

I see the swing weight issue.  Stiffness and torque would  be taken care of by the shaft change.  Perhaps 6-iron (which has about the same weight as the USKG 9-iron/PW area) that is shafted and cut down to USKG 9/PW length would work.  Don't forget the loft (6-iron bent/lofted as much as can reasonable be done) and lie angle adjusted.

 

 

I would think the USKG club regardless is dimensions is significantly more forgiving than a players blade? 

 

Anyway, just a thought experiment. Interesting to see that @MB19 has essentially tried this.  One of the goals would be to see if I can get my junior to feel where the clubface is contacting the ball more.

Not sure if this helps or not, but I took pics from all four sets of clubs I mentioned in the above posts side-by-side.  I didn't have a USKG UL 9i, so I just took a pic of the 8i.

 

[kekoa]

Aren't we trying to make this game easier- not harder for kids?  I would see zero, none, zilch benefit in having a kid practice with a blade.  Just my $.02