Altitude, Adjustments, and the Illusion of a Practice Plan

I’ve been a little MIA the last few weeks, but with good reason. In no particular order: we relocated from Florida back to New Mexico for the season, welcomed a grandbaby (cue the “awwws”), and spent an absurd amount of time re-learning how to breathe at altitude again. But I’m back now, and the clubs have been dusted off.

We joined a weekly Spark Golf league, which sounds more official than it is. We’re a week behind already, but no one’s losing sleep over it. The vibe is super chill, and the course is of the roadside-brown muni variety. Which is to say: a very different experience from playing at our club in Florida. My handicap gets me 14 strokes on 9 holes 😂, but I only maxed out on strokes twice so, not the worst I’ve ever done!

I also joined the Albuquerque Chapter of the LPGA Amateurs and hope to play with them some. The ladies in the group seem more seasoned, but hopefully patient while I fumble my way toward a consistent double bogey game.

In other news, I found a golf instructor here that I like. He teaches on an indoor simulator … no wind, no uneven ground, no excuses. He has me working on the same things that Brian had already pointed out, which means I’ve apparently been not fixing the same problems across state lines. Consistency!

Here’s my current hit list of swing corrections:

Get my arm and club straighter in the setup
Close my shoulders
Keep my weight on my left foot
Swing inside-out (sounds like yoga)
Rotate my hands to close the clubface

So basically: same shirt, different day.

The good news is, I’ve got a net in my garage now. So I occasionally wander down there, hit a few balls, and pretend I’m doing something useful. I had another chat with my GPT Golf Coach, who kindly generated a detailed, structured practice plan for me. It’s adorable. I never follow it. But I do get a nice little dopamine buzz just reading it, so that counts for something, right?

🟡 Garage Practice Routine (35–40 minutes w/ Impact Bag)

🔹 1. Warm-Up Movement Patterns (5 minutes – No Ball, No Bag)

10 slow motion swings, barefoot or in socks if possible (for ground feel).
- Focus only on getting weight onto your lead foot.
- Try to feel your pressure into the inside of your left foot and under your big toe at impact.
- Hold your finish and make sure you’re not falling back.

🔹 2. Impact Bag Drill – Weight + Clubface Focus (10–12 minutes)

Set up normally with 7-iron into the bag.
Start with half-swings, nice and slow.
Key feels to hit:
- Weight is already forward at impact (not shifting during contact).
- Shaft leaning forward slightly.
- Back of left hand flat, right wrist bent (clubface square).
- Hands ahead of the clubhead at impact.

✅ Do 3 slow reps, then 1 medium speed rep. Repeat this pattern.

➡️ Do 15 total reps. Film a couple if you can—you’ll be shocked at what you feel vs. what you see.

🔹 3. Box Drill – Path Work (10–12 minutes with Nerf balls)

Cardboard box set just outside the target line, angled slightly right.
Use it to train your swing to come more from the inside.
Make slow swings focusing on:
- Inside path
- Gentle hand rotation (toe-over)
- Weight forward

💡 Cue: Try to feel like the club is “traveling under and out” toward right field.

➡️ Hit 15–20 Nerf balls. Don’t worry about distance or direction, just movement quality.

🔹 4. Impact Bag Release Drill – Hands Only (5–7 minutes)

This one’s underrated:
- Make mini-swings, waist high to waist high, into the bag.
- Focus purely on rotating your forearms and squaring the face.
- You should feel the toe “close” through impact.

✅ You want the sound of the bag hit to be snappy, not mushy. That tells you your release was timed and your wrists weren’t locked up.