Thoughts on practicing into a net?

[MBAndrews21]

I’ve been hitting balls into a net a home quite a bit. The idea was to get my mechanics right, without worrying about ball flight.

 

However, I’ve noticed that my swing looks different when I hit into a net. This makes me worried that I am wasting my time practicing the “wrong thing”.

 

What are your thoughts about practicing into a net? Has anyone had success with doing so?

[SBH9458]

Success came for me when I got an affordable launch monitor. Then it worked for mechanics to deliver the club to get the desired flight, distance and landing I wanted. 

[airjammer]

I’ve been hitting into a net for a couple of years now with a real ball and it’ definitely has it’s advantages and disadvantages. 
 

imo to make great strides it’s almost required to have a reliable launch monitor and hit a real ball and take lots of swing videos. 
 

I definitely have a garage swing and course swing because there is no pressure in my garage and it’s a drastic difference. My garage swing is so good it looks like I could be a professional. My course swing has people amazed I can sniff scratch. Even my driving range swing is different than my garage swing. 

 

In the end I highly recommend it as you age as long as you have proper feedback.  There zero chance I would have been able to keep my handicap when my daughter was born going from 90+ rounds a year to 9 holes a week during daylight savings time months. 
 

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

The greatest success I had making people better at golf was during the lockdown in 2020 when I was doing 30-40 face time lessons a week.  People just worked on their Motor pattern and were unconcerned with ball flight.

 

[slytown]

9 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

The greatest success I had making people better at golf was during the lockdown in 2020 when I was doing 30-40 face time lessons a week.  People just worked on their Motor pattern and were unconcerned with ball flight.

 

 

Yes, If the player is working on a swing mechanic, I think its the best way to practice. Ball flights screw up your practice.

[MonteScheinblum]

28 minutes ago, slytown said:

 

Yes, If the player is working on a swing mechanic, I think its the best way to practice. Ball flights screw up your practice.

Here are two pieces of advice that will improve everyone….even those who have a less than positive view of my swing ideas. 😜

 

1.  There are three kinds of practice.  Movement pattern practice, shot making practice, scoring practice.  Ams tend to try and mix the three and that’s a recipe for abject failure.  You must separate them into 3 individual pursuits.

 

2.  Ams tend to judge each of the three results by criticizing a different one.  On the range they will be trying to change their movements and lament every poor strike and ball flight.  On the course, they will espouse the poor movements they made after every bad shot.  That’s backwards.  Then when trying to score better, they spend the entire time lamenting poor shots and poor movements instead of trying to learn how to recover from those errors.

Edited September 18, 2023 by MonteScheinblum

[KD1]

I have a dumb question: how exactly do you define shot making vs scoring.

 

... Is it ball striking/flight vs course management?

[MonteScheinblum]

8 minutes ago, KD1 said:

I have a dumb question: how exactly do you define shot making vs scoring.

 

... Is it ball striking/flight vs course management?

Shot making is learning to hit the ball straight and solid.

 

Scoring is learning to manage misses, minimize wasted shots, etc.

 

For example.  You know how to hit a putt solid and online.  Learning to adapt to slope, break and varying green speeds from day to day is scoring.

 

Learning how to read how much distance gain or loss you get out of different lengths of rough.

 

Hitting shots form different slope lies.

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

7 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Shot making is learning to hit the ball straight and solid.

 

Scoring is learning to manage misses, minimize wasted shots, etc.

 

For example.  You know how to hit a putt solid and online.  Learning to adapt to slope, break and varying green speeds from day to day is scoring.

 

Learning how to read how much distance gain or loss you get out of different lengths of rough.

 

Hitting shots form different slope lies.

 

 

Using some of the above examples on how ams Jack it up.

 

Someone learns to hit putts more solid.  First round at the course they have a bunch of 3 putts and say how bad their putting is.  
 

In fact their putting is better, they just haven’t adapted to hitting putts more solid.

 

Someone starts striping irons after learning a better shift.  They airmail a bunch of greens and shoot 6 shots over their handicap.

 

”This doesn’t work, that’s my worst round in 3 months.”

Edited September 19, 2023 by MonteScheinblum

[MBAndrews21]

In addition, is it a good idea to hit foam/wiffle balls (into net or backyard)? Or is that just way too different from a normal golf shot? I'd think it may help if you are making bad contact while fixing mechanics. You wouldn't notice bad strikes as much.

Edited September 19, 2023 by MBAndrews21

[Santiago Golf]

11 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Shot making is learning to hit the ball straight and solid.

 

Scoring is learning to manage misses, minimize wasted shots, etc.

 

For example.  You know how to hit a putt solid and online.  Learning to adapt to slope, break and varying green speeds from day to day is scoring.

 

Learning how to read how much distance gain or loss you get out of different lengths of rough.

 

Hitting shots form different slope lies.

 

 

 

Simple Checklist I use 

1) Can you strike it solid

2) Can you control the distance

3) Can you control the directional

3.5) Can you control the height (for slower swing speeds, this is irrelevant)

4) now start firing at flags (not even really necessary to score well)

 

For most golfers they should just be aiming away from trouble off the tee and then grab what ever club get them to the back of the green & swing smooth.

Don't worry if you miss the fairway and don't worry if you miss the green. 

There scores would go down

[Kuuuch]

12 hours ago, MBAndrews21 said:

In addition, is it a good idea to hit foam/wiffle balls (into net or backyard)? Or is that just way too different from a normal golf shot? I'd think it may help if you are making bad contact while fixing mechanics. You wouldn't notice bad strikes as much.

I use the orange foam balls from golf galaxy. Have hit into a net with those for years now and I've made the biggest improvements on my swing there vs the range. I now have a full simulator in my attic but still choose to work on mechanics for the most part just hitting foam balls into a net. 

 

I've found it best to work on new movements for 2-3 days in my garage using foam balls/net then go to the range to see how far off I really am. Some folks above referenced that their "garage" swing looked different from the range and imo they will look slightly different. I prefer to view the garage swing as more of what you're capable of or your potential. 

[me05501]

13 hours ago, MBAndrews21 said:

In addition, is it a good idea to hit foam/wiffle balls (into net or backyard)? Or is that just way too different from a normal golf shot? I'd think it may help if you are making bad contact while fixing mechanics. You wouldn't notice bad strikes as much.

 

I spent a lot of pandemic time hitting the firm foam balls that fly 35-40% as far as real balls. I could practice drivers on a local soccer field and all the balls stayed within the bounds of the field. You can still see if you're launching them with the right trajectory, direction, etc. The flight is just like a real ball up to a point. 

 

I also have a net in my basement but my low ceiling limits me to about 8 iron. I have an SC200 monitor so I can keep an eye on the stats I'm generating. It has helped me connect the feel of impact to specific results on the monitor. I think it can be helpful. 

Edited September 19, 2023 by me05501

[vandyfan]

I use my net at least every other day for about 10-30 minutes. Have done so for the last 2 years. Having that net, working in concert with instruction on a quarterly basis, has improved my golf game tremendously. Without the net, I wouldn't have been able to get as many reps in working on the change in motor pattern. Without the instruction, I wouldn't know to change my motor pattern. 

 

If nothing else, it keeps me connected to my feels and gives me confidence as most sessions I am hitting the center of the clubface most of the time. I have yet to have the issue occur that I always warned about with a net "you will think you are hitting it solid but you are actually hitting big pulls." By mixing the net and the range and playing, I *think* I have a pretty good idea of what is solid contact (my irons provide good feedback), where my club is relative to path and where my face was at impact. Just my two cents. I should probably putt more but I have too much fun just hitting iron shots into a net. 

[acekun]

I stopped golfing for about 10 years -- was around a 12 handicap. When I started back up after my break, I was a 20 handicap. In 11 months, I got down to 6 handicap.

 

My improvement was due to hitting into a net almost every day. 

[WAGolf82]

I've had great success with mine. 3 modes all useful -

 

1-repeat feel I've been working on, focus on good contact. Good for a quick 5 to 10 min session

 

2- work on positions I'm trying to hit, use video feedback, remove ball flight consequences. Good for learning

 

3-use as a driving range with high quality launch monitor

 

4- combo of 2 and 3. Where I spend most of my time. I attribute 75 percent of my full swing progress to this sort of practice. In general I like it more than going to the range where if find it easy to get unfocused or frustrated. Something calming about being in my own front yard.

[Nickc]

On 9/19/2023 at 2:07 AM, MBAndrews21 said:

In addition, is it a good idea to hit foam/wiffle balls (into net or backyard)? Or is that just way too different from a normal golf shot? I'd think it may help if you are making bad contact while fixing mechanics. You wouldn't notice bad strikes as much.

I use "Almost golf balls". A little more pricey than other practice balls. Also use them on a common outside our house..lots of dog walkers ...as if go astray won't hurt any one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/practice-training-feedback-backyard-AlmostGolf/dp/B074JL25QB/ref=asc_df_B074JL25QB/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=586196233096&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5973368914026672593&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-584500703179&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

 Probably also available in the US.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Nickc

[Rdailey9108]

I'd say the biggest thing for me when I hit into the net at work is to not worry about how I hit it and just make sure I'm exaggerating or doing the correct motions. I also make sure I record my swing occasionally and make sure my feels and reals are correct. I have a very tough time with my shoulders being open and I almost have to feel closed for them to be square. Video shows this to be the case.