The Stack System

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, RCGA said:

First I'm told ball speed is all that matters....then I show spin has a big impact on distance

 

No, you haven't done that, really. You did it on a sim with a hole that was downhill 10% with TWO shots. An incredibly small sample size.

 

It's going to take a lot more than that to overcome thousands of golf balls hit in the real world by a guy with a PhD and another who has played in multiple major championships and who trusts this to practice his wedge game.

 

The onus remains on you.

[mstuewe]

4 hours ago, RCGA said:

First I'm told ball speed is all that matters....then I show spin has a big impact on distance

 

Next I'm told no one would spin a wedge at 5k RPM....then I show a 100y shot at 5100 RPM finishing 6y from the flag. 

 

Now it's an algorithm, not real world.....okay, you got me there. 

 

And yes, my examples at both ends of the spectrum. I don't disagree that a "normal" wedge shot with a "normal" urethane ball will produce acceptable accuracy with just ball speed. But you can't discount a high handicap in his garage hitting a mixture of urethane and surlyn golf balls, a funky swing off a mat and no reference to what a 100y swing should feel like. 

if a high handicapper is trying to dial in wedge distances while mixing urethane and surlyn golf balls, then he has bigger issues to deal with beyond stack radar accuracy.

Edited February 15 by mstuewe
grammar

[NosajNeelik]

9 hours ago, RCGA said:

First I'm told ball speed is all that matters....then I show spin has a big impact on distance

 

Next I'm told no one would spin a wedge at 5k RPM....then I show a 100y shot at 5100 RPM finishing 6y from the flag. 

 

Now it's an algorithm, not real world.....okay, you got me there. 

 

And yes, my examples at both ends of the spectrum. I don't disagree that a "normal" wedge shot with a "normal" urethane ball will produce acceptable accuracy with just ball speed. But you can't discount a high handicap in his garage hitting a mixture of urethane and surlyn golf balls, a funky swing off a mat and no reference to what a 100y swing should feel like. 

What clubs did you use there? I still think unwittingly you’re not proving your point as much as you think.  The fact there’s only 17 yd difference on a downhill shot with what I’m guessing are prob a wedge and a 6 iron or something with a difference of over 5000 rpm’s but similar ball speeds seems to prove my point not yours. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, NosajNeelik said:

What clubs did you use there? I still think unwittingly you’re not proving your point as much as you think.  The fact there’s only 17 yd difference on a downhill shot with what I’m guessing are prob a wedge and a 6 iron or something with a difference of over 5000 rpm’s but similar ball speeds seems to prove my point not yours. 

 

The carry difference was less than 9 yards. 108.5 versus 99.9.

[NosajNeelik]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

 

The carry difference was less than 9 yards. 108.5 versus 99.9.

Even better!!

[GolfTurkey]

Anything is possible, but what are the odds that Sasho M and Marty J release a major new feature that can easily be "gotcha'd" on a technical basis by the peanut gallery?

[Tpbiker]

I'd say spin has a massive influence on distance. I have a launch monitor and my old 7 iron with 34 degrees of launch flies about 155 yards, whereas my brand new t150 with 32 degrees flies about 149. 

 

I'm using fairly hard balls, but the spin on the old club is around 4000 with a 101 ball speed, where as my t150 has 6000 spin and 105 ball speed. Tried out an even older 990 7 iron (36 degrees) which flew over 150 on average with sub 4000 spin.

 

Make of those numbers what you will

[iacas]

34 minutes ago, Tpbiker said:

I'd say spin has a massive influence on distance. I have a launch monitor and my old 7 iron with 34 degrees of launch flies about 155 yards, whereas my brand new t150 with 32 degrees flies about 149. 

 

I'm using fairly hard balls, but the spin on the old club is around 4000 with a 101 ball speed, where as my t150 has 6000 spin and 105 ball speed. Tried out an even older 990 7 iron (36 degrees) which flew over 150 on average with sub 4000 spin.

 

Make of those numbers what you will

That’s outside of the wedge distances The Stack aims to measure here.

[Tpbiker]

5 minutes ago, iacas said:

That’s outside of the wedge distances The Stack aims to measure here.

Fair point!

 

As an aside, I can't believe how much difference in spin there is off old and new irons

[OHGolfer2]

25 minutes ago, iacas said:

That’s outside of the wedge distances The Stack aims to measure here.

@iacas- It looks like the wedge game focuses on a range from 30-150 yards.  Ooc, is there a tighter range that is especially important for ams to work on?  For example, is it more important to practice, say, 100-120 vs 30-50 (just making up numbers)?  Of course, if there's a glaring weakness, we should work on that weakness, but I'm wondering about distance ranges with a bigger separation value (from LSW).  

 

I need to re-read ESC and LSW at some point soon, but I vaguely remember that certain approach shot distances were particularly important for amateurs (like how you should practice more 7 foot putts than 18 footers).  

[iacas]

1 minute ago, OHGolfer2 said:

@iacas- It looks like the wedge game focuses on a range from 30-150 yards.  Ooc, is there a tighter range that is especially important for ams to work on?  For example, is it more important to practice, say, 100-120 vs 30-50 (just making up numbers)?  Of course, if there's a glaring weakness, we should work on that weakness, but I'm wondering about distance ranges with a bigger separation value (from LSW).  

 

I need to re-read ESC and LSW at some point soon, but I vaguely remember that certain approach shot distances were particularly important for amateurs (like how you should practice more 7 foot putts than 18 footers).  

 

That can depend on the courses you play, too. If you have a lot of 70-100 yard shots, spend time on those.

[iacas]

 

[AmicusCuriae]

On 2/14/2025 at 2:47 PM, iacas said:

 

No. Not currently.

FYI I just had a back and forth with their customer service who confirmed it will be "available to PRGR eventually" but they don't have a firm timeline for a widespread release. I just bought the PRGR/Stack bundle a few weeks back and was disappointed to miss out on the wedge sessions, so am happy to hear it is going to be released to other radars.

[OHGolfer2]

18 hours ago, AmicusCuriae said:

FYI I just had a back and forth with their customer service who confirmed it will be "available to PRGR eventually" but they don't have a firm timeline for a widespread release. I just bought the PRGR/Stack bundle a few weeks back and was disappointed to miss out on the wedge sessions, so am happy to hear it is going to be released to other radars.

Thanks for checking with them.  I also bought a PRGR bundle (back in early Jan), so I'm looking forward to this.  In the meantime, maybe people can just use the PRGR to track wedge shots and improvement over time.  

[ryannas]

On 2/14/2025 at 7:10 PM, birdiestobogeys said:

Because you’ll be hitting such big bombs that all you’ll need is a flip wedge in. Makes sense to me. 

I’m intrigued by the concept but also am a really visual person. Cant be the only one. 
 

I can’t imagine hitting shots in to a net, 4 feet in front of me, is going to benefit me in any way on the course. If we are talking no ball flight, direction, ground interaction, etc.  Maybe I am wrong.

 

I can definitely see the utility as a range / practice companion. 

[birdiestobogeys]

43 minutes ago, ryannas said:

I’m intrigued by the concept but also am a really visual person. Cant be the only one. 
 

I can’t imagine hitting shots in to a net, 4 feet in front of me, is going to benefit me in any way on the course. If we are talking no ball flight, direction, ground interaction, etc.  Maybe I am wrong.

 

I can definitely see the utility as a range / practice companion. 

I think most tend to be more visual 100 yards and in. I’m looking forward to trying this out in a net and taking away those variables. That way I’ll be less focused on the result and more focus on what feels different between a 60 and 70 yard swing, for example. 

[OHGolfer2]

19 hours ago, ryannas said:

I’m intrigued by the concept but also am a really visual person. Cant be the only one. 
 

I can’t imagine hitting shots in to a net, 4 feet in front of me, is going to benefit me in any way on the course. If we are talking no ball flight, direction, ground interaction, etc.  Maybe I am wrong.

 

I can definitely see the utility as a range / practice companion. 

I'm also curious about how much improvement can be made indoor with the wedge game.  My thinking is that if someone has bad distance control with wedges, and they suddenly start using the Stack wedge indoor into a net, their initial scores will probably be bad.  But, if they work at it for a couple months, their numbers should get a lot better.  It seems like that improvement should carry over to the course despite the practice occurring indoors (compared to if they had done zero wedge practice).  

 

@iacaswould probably know more about whether indoor/net/mat practice with wedges will lead to improvement on course, and if there is a ceiling on how much someone can improve.  

[swh0507]

19 hours ago, birdiestobogeys said:

I think most tend to be more visual 100 yards and in. I’m looking forward to trying this out in a net and taking away those variables. That way I’ll be less focused on the result and more focus on what feels different between a 60 and 70 yard swing, for example. 

I practice wedges into a net and am also a visual person. It has only helped me improve because now once I know my general distance, I know the swing range (backswing length, power etc) I want to use. This allows me to focus on my target and eliminates the doubt that creeps in during the swing. 

[iacas]

5 hours ago, OHGolfer2 said:

I'm also curious about how much improvement can be made indoor with the wedge game.  My thinking is that if someone has bad distance control with wedges, and they suddenly start using the Stack wedge indoor into a net, their initial scores will probably be bad.  But, if they work at it for a couple months, their numbers should get a lot better. It seems like that improvement should carry over to the course despite the practice occurring indoors (compared to if they had done zero wedge practice).  

 

@iacaswould probably know more about whether indoor/net/mat practice with wedges will lead to improvement on course, and if there is a ceiling on how much someone can improve.  

 

You can get a ton better. I do a quick wedge test at the end of each winter and write my yardages down on the bottom of my shafts at the start of the golf season.

[lookylookitzadam]

I am now a few sessions in on Neural Drive and am seeing my training speeds drop as others have mentioned. Funny thing is that my on course speeds are unaffected. 
 

One big thing is that I want to shoutout the special session of “speed priming with balls” for a great pre-round routine. It took more time than I expected but had me ready to go on the first tee to the point where my soft opening fairway finder got more distance than normal. 

[darom86]

Anyone have an update when Stack Wedges is going to be available for non Stack PRGR radars?  

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, darom86 said:

Anyone have an update when Stack Wedges is going to be available for non Stack PRGR radars?  

 

It's been like a week. It's gonna be awhile more, if it's ever available.

[Rbsiedsc]

On 2/24/2025 at 11:32 AM, lookylookitzadam said:

I am now a few sessions in on Neural Drive and am seeing my training speeds drop as others have mentioned. Funny thing is that my on course speeds are unaffected. 
 

One big thing is that I want to shoutout the special session of “speed priming with balls” for a great pre-round routine. It took more time than I expected but had me ready to go on the first tee to the point where my soft opening fairway finder got more distance than normal. 

That’s interesting. I am the opposite. Mine are gaining. 

[lookylookitzadam]

41 minutes ago, Rbsiedsc said:

That’s interesting. I am the opposite. Mine are gaining. 

Nice work! I suspect I’ll start seeing the increases now that I have moved into “max intent” swings. I have trouble with the full intent swings as I can swing harder than I would play and still keep form and balance when doing them, so I sort of ping-pong up and down in speed. With the max intent it’s easy because I just go all out. 

[Rbsiedsc]

2 minutes ago, lookylookitzadam said:

Nice work! I suspect I’ll start seeing the increases now that I have moved into “max intent” swings. I have trouble with the full intent swings as I can swing harder than I would play and still keep form and balance when doing them, so I sort of ping-pong up and down in speed. With the max intent it’s easy because I just go all out. 

I totally agree on the full swings. Its why after I finished foundations my baseline was poor as I thought I had to swing easier instead of swinging with "full" intent.

[Photon_]

Just finished my first stack program. 
 

My swing speed has been quite low, and my pro recommended the stack to me to improve it over the winter.

Finished the foundation program, with some fit for golf program sprinkled in :).

 

Got from around 72mph with a 7i to around 80-82, which is plenty for me at the moment :).

 

The app recommends me to keep going with a full speed spectrum program next. 

Do people feel like the app recommendation usually checks out?

[lookylookitzadam]

 

4 hours ago, Photon_ said:

Just finished my first stack program. 
 

My swing speed has been quite low, and my pro recommended the stack to me to improve it over the winter.

Finished the foundation program, with some fit for golf program sprinkled in :).

 

Got from around 72mph with a 7i to around 80-82, which is plenty for me at the moment :).

 

The app recommends me to keep going with a full speed spectrum program next. 

Do people feel like the app recommendation usually checks out?

I just started the second program (Neural Drive for me) and I think it makes sense for me. It’s giving me the weights I struggled with previously so I think it’s trying to help me out in that manner. 

[Photon_]

Nice :). For me, I’m not the strongest person to say the least, so I stated I was feeling like I was close to my current potential. 
 

Has anyone watched many of the short videos in the learn section, and felt like any of them were of particular value?

[lookylookitzadam]

13 hours ago, Photon_ said:

Nice :). For me, I’m not the strongest person to say the least, so I stated I was feeling like I was close to my current potential. 
 

Has anyone watched many of the short videos in the learn section, and felt like any of them were of particular value?

 

I have watched a few but have not felt they added any value at this time. I am always hesitant to start picking random videos to learn from without some sort of understanding of what they are trying to change or implement. That being said, there is a lot of good stuff in there that can be very helpful based on what is wrong or limiting your swing.

 

I guess I was hoping the app would suggest something to implement based on progression or results as you move through the program but I don’t know if that is the case. 

[birdiestobogeys]

Tried out wedge mode at the range. It worked really well. I feel like I’ll really benefit from this type of practice. Looking forward to going through the program.