Tag: Golf Simulator

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GOLF

Off Season Golf Simulator Goals

SIMULATOR SEASON EXPECTATIONS

As the 2020 Golf Season in Ontario comes to an end, the Simulator Season begins. The last three off seasons I have utilized Golf Simulators to work on specific aspects of my game. Understanding the limitations of a Golf Simulator is the first thing you should be aware of when planning your Simulator practice. Some of the limitations are obvious. You can’t work on your bunker game, or recovery shots from awkward lies in a Simulator. There are a few limitations that aren’t so obvious. Having a perfectly balanced platform to hit off of is a limitation. Having to aim your shot previous to setup is a limitation. Even the technology of the Simulator can make certain shots impossible. For instance I use a Chipper out on the course but most Simulators read them improperly.

Most people would assume that hitting off perfectly flat ground is an advantage, but it isn’t. I used to wear my most comfortable shoes in a Golf Simulator. I found out the hard way that weight transfer is quite different if I am wearing something other than golf shoes. You can’t dig in or rely on your cleats to help you remain steady during an aggressive swing. In fact I used that understanding to focus on swinging with more precision to gain distance instead of faster. Aiming is quite different in a Simulator. You can’t just adjust your stance and play for a Push Draw or Pull Fade. You first need to adjust the aim point with the software to account for a Push or Pull. Then let your swing dictate how far the ball Draws or Fades. If you make the adjustment at Setup instead of with the software that can cause many Simulators to read it far too extreme, and guarantee a terrible result.

Last Off season I focused on improving my consistency with the Driver. The work I did in Golf Simulators definitely helped. Driving is actually one of the best skills you can practice in a Simulator. It takes the mat out of play, and in most cases the even ground in a Simulator is similar to what you have on a Tee box. It’s about as close to the real thing as you can get. I was able to work on my Setup, Takeaway, Club Face control, and Finish position in the Simulator. The practice worked and my consistency has improved. This Off season I will continue to work on my Driving. Only this time my focus will be on improving my Launch Angle.

Something I have really focused on lately is improving my quality of contact with my Irons. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to work on your Iron striking in a Simulator. First of all most hitting mats are quite forgiving. Bad strikes can read as good strikes depending on the surface. Secondly you can’t take a divot hitting off a mat. So there isn’t a visual indicator of where your club bottomed out. Lastly Irons are more likely to be hit off uneven surfaces in real life. A Simulator can provide you with a false sense of security in your Iron swing because every shot is perfectly level.

Now fortunately I have come up with a way to practice my Iron striking that provides me with a way to measure my quality of strike. Here are the numbers from a perfectly struck 7 Iron.

7 Iron perfection

For a full explanation of how I improved my Ball striking. CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDEO ON IGTV.

So if your Golf Off season is about to begin, and you are serious about improving. Find something that you can effectively work on in a Simulator, and stick to it.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to my blog, and while you’re at it check out my Cobe Life YouTube channel!

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GOLF

TRUE GOLF FIT by My Golf Spy Review

WHAT MY GOLF SPY CLAIMS


TRUEGolfFit is the first service in the golf industry to use a scientific compatibility matching system to find the best equipment configuration for your unique swing


We compare your swing information with our database of over 45,000 swings and 10,000,000 data points to find your TRUE Fit.


Longer. Straighter. Lower. Guaranteed.  Know the clubs that perform best for you BEFORE you buy. TRUEGolfFit the world leader in golf club fit prediction. 

DOES IT WORK?

I decided to put the My Golf Spy True Golf Fit system to the test. First of all I love the idea of taking all of the data that My Golf Spy has collected and making it relevant to the individual golfer. Unlike their Most Wanted tests that determine which clubs are best for the majority of golfers. The True Golf Fit system is designed to predict what works for you specifically.

In order for their system to determine what’s right for you. You must answer a few questions first so that their software can match you up with club testers of a similar ability. It begins with your Handicap, then your Swing Speed, then your Angle of Attack, and lastly your Swing Tempo. Based on these parameters it will match you to the two best clubs they’ve tested.

I already knew going in that their software wouldn’t work for me. In order to achieve a correct Driver fitting for a golfer like myself there’s one more question that should have been asked. WHAT IS YOUR SHOT SHAPE? If you follow me on my Cobe Life YouTube channel. You would already know that my natural shot shape is a heavy Draw. A bad shot becomes a slice. Having tested many Drivers over the last three years I already knew that anything other than a specifically Draw biased Driver wouldn’t perform as well. Even an adjustable Driver with movable weights, and a Draw biased hosel setting won’t work as well. It only costs $7 to see their results so I did it anyway.

MY RESULTS

TOP PICK BY TRUE GOLF FIT
SECOND BEST PICK BY TRUE GOLF FIT

ON TO THE SIMULATOR

In order to be totally fair about my presumptions I headed straight to my local Golf Town and had them tape up those two Drivers. I also had them tape up a couple of specifically Draw biased Drivers as well. Can you guess which Drivers consistenyly performed better for me? If you guessed the Draw biased Drivers then you would be correct.

I hit an average of 18 yards further with the Draw biased Drivers, and was an average of 14 yards closer to center with a far tighter dispersion. Something else that isn’t factored into their equation is the set up of your current gamer. Although it wouldn’t have affected my fitting process. A friend of mine tried out their True Golf Fit system as well, and it definitely affected his results.

He currently games a Callaway XR16 Driver with a Regular Flex Fujikura Speeder Evolution 565 shaft that has been cut down an inch. He routinely swings that particular Driver at around 96mph. This places him in the Medium Swing Speed category. He also generates far more Spin than he would like because he has a Downward Attack Angle. The True Fit System selected the Ping G400 LST as his number 1 choice. The idea of testing a Low Spin Driver had never occured to him before because I don’t suggest Low Spin Drivers to anyone who swings below 105mph. We were still intrigued by the idea because we figured that the Low Spin might counteract his high Spin swing, the way a Draw biased Driver counters my Fade. Well that just wasn’t the case. He was unable to swing that particular club at anything more than 92mph. At that speed the ball just falls out of the sky with the LST. He tried a few other Drivers including a Taylormade M2 and was able to swing those at 97mph quite easily.

CONCLUSION

Obviously the My Golf Spy True Golf Fit system isn’t for everyone. If you hit your drives anything but straight your results won’t be precise. If you have been professionally Fit for your current Driver than your numbers might tell an inaccurate story to the My Golf Spy True Golf Fit software. I’m hoping that over time their software will be updated and appeal to a larger number of golfers. I’m a fan of what My Golf Spy is about, and their goal to get the best equipment for you in to your bag. A lot of what I do is for that exact same reason, only I am more focused on the Beginner Golfer. For that reason the True Golf Fit system isn’t something I would suggest you put your trust in until you have a typically straight and consistently repeatable swing.

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Uncategorized

It’s Simulator Season! Beginner’s Guide to Golf

THE GOOD

So there are some of you that believe that simulators are only good for testing the distance and spin of golf clubs.  The only time you even use a simulator is when you are at your local golf store testing to see if the newest Driver will help you hit longer off the tee.  Now for those of you that are lucky enough to live where golf can be played year round.  Well I can understand why you might not be interested in simulator play.  Although there are benefits to using one every now and then.  

I’ll begin with the obvious, which is to figure out your distances with each club.  What many beginner golfers might not realize is that it’s important to know two distances with each club.  If I were to ask you how far you hit your 7 Iron.  Your answer might be, roughly 140 yards.  What your answer should be is, I carry it about 135 yards, and average 140 yards total distance.  It’s just as important to know your carry distance.  On the course it isn’t enough to know the total distance to the Pin.  What if the total distance is 175 yards, and that’s how far you hit your 4 Hybrid.  In order to get there though you have to carry a pond that’s 165 yards to the opposite edge. Sounds doable right?  It would be except your actual carry distance with your 4 Hybrid is only 163 yards.  So unless you hit it perfect you are likely to end up in the water.  The great thing about Simulators is that they are better at measuring Carry distance than total distance.  While playing on the course it’s easy for you to figure out total distance if you use a GPS or Rangefinder.  Carry distance, not so much.

How often do you find yourself on the course with a difficult to execute shot, and decide against trying it because it could result in a lost ball, and big number on the scorecard?  Then of course you wonder later if you could have made it. Well those are exactly the type of shots you can learn to make in a simulator.  Punch shots, high flops, controlled draws or fades.  You can try them out during a simulated round of golf and see if you are able to make them.  Pretty soon shots you might have been nervous about will begin to seem relatively easy.  That confidence will then carry over on to the course.  There is nothing more important than your degree of confidence when standing over a shot.  Simulators can help give you that.

THE BAD

Is playing a round of golf in a simulator comparable to real world golf?  In a word NO.  In the real world I’m a 22 handicap.  If I actually calculated my Simulator handicap I would be about a 11 handicap.  How often do you get a perfect lie on the course, on perfectly even ground?  The correct answer is never, with the odd tee box as an exception.  Fatigue plays a role in every round of golf as well.  I would be lying if I said that I didn’t experience a bit of fatigue while playing a simulated round.  It’s nothing compared to the level of fatigue I experience over the course of a real round of golf though.  On an actual course I usually find myself clubbing up over the last few holes because I am unable to swing as hard accurately.  In a simulator I play the appropriate club all the way until the end.  

Another thing a simulator can’t recreate is weather conditions.  Now this could also be considered a bonus because nobody enjoys playing in the rain or high winds.  Sure you can simulate how it will affect ball flight, but it doesn’t affect how your swing would change if you were wet and the grips on your clubs had become slippery. 

LETS NOT FORGET FUN

The problem most golfers have with Simulators is that they instinctively compare the experience to actual golf.  What you should really be doing is seeing it as an entirely different thing.  Consider it to be more of an extremely high tech video game.  You don’t see football players complaining about the lack of realism in Madden.  Car buffs can’t wait to get a video gaming race seat to play Gran Turismo in.  Both of those examples aren’t remotely close to the level of realism golfers get to experience in a Simulator.  Maybe it’s because the current technology has come so close to feeling like the real thing that we forget that deep down it’s still just a game.  A game that fortunately for us can help us improve our ability to play the real thing.