Jon Drexler

@Brett_A_Taylor @BleacherNation If it ended a series or season, would it be a SCABS? (series/season concluding) Scabs can leave scars…permanent reminders of the trauma from that day.

This needs to have a special name, the way a walk-off bases-loaded walk is called a shrimp. My vote: Crabs. It sticks with the theme, is just kinda funny sounding, and it has ABS in the name!

@stevemagness Interesting analogy. Given there is a biased drive leg and desire for flexibility when rotating/landing, would the 400m hurdles be an appropriate comparison? (Perhaps 1000m steeplechase for more running/separation between jumps?)

Hot take with science: Pitching is more like a middle distance runner than a sprinter. Old school pitchers ran miles. Over the last decade, that shifted to almost exclusively sprints or sprint/power based training. The rational was that pitching is a power activity, dominated almost completely by ATP-CP system. That’s mostly a misunderstanding of physiology. Let's break it down. The modern argument went like this. Each pitch only lasts ~2 seconds of windup. It's about power. We should train like sprint/power athletes. The problem is this: It's repeated sprint-power, with a pitching clock between pitches which gives you 15-20 seconds. The misunderstanding of physiology is that the ATP-CP system would give you enough juice to handle those 2 seconds, recover, and do it again and again. But that's not how the energy systems work... They aren't all or nothing, they share the load, especially as fatigue comes into play. We can see this in recent data that looked at continuous lactate of a simulated 15min pitching, lactate levels peaked at 7.2mmol. HR reached close to 90% max HR. This shows you that there's both a strong anaerobic and aerobic component, and that contrary to what some have said, it's not just ATP-PC dominating...it's all three energy systems. As we'd expect. And while lactate does NOT cause fatigue, it's helpful surrogate marker that rises at similar time as things that do. So the first pitch looks a lot different than throwing with 5, 6, 7mmol of lactate in the system from an energetic system standpoint. In addition the study found that lactate took 20-25min to return to baseline. So...what we've got instead of a pure speed/power profile is one where fatigue matters. Where we need to be near-max, but then be able to recover well enough to maintain that ability. The aerobic system is what helps the most on that recoverability. Think of it in track terms: If I said, who "wins" this workout? 6 sets of 15x 15 meter near max sprint with 15 seconds recovery, with long recovery between sets? The 100m sprinter will look great for a good number of these initial sprints, but the short rest, and rising lactate will catch up. They'll start to tire. And even with long rest, won't recover enough to repeat. The marathon runner won't have enough pure speed to get close for a long time until fatigue really did the sprinter in. But the 800m runner with strong power/speed and endurance will do the best. I get it's a simplistic imperfect analogy. But it helps get at the underlying energetics. You want someone with great speed/power with also solid endurance. Which is why, often in training the pendelum swings from one extreme to the other, but th4e best lies somewhere in the messy middle. In speed/power training systems there's often this mostly overblown fear of running miles. As if it instantly saps all your speed. They fear a 1-3 mile run... Look, at some point distance does take away...But an occasional run here or there is NOT doing that. It's over blown. And secondly, it discounts that there are many effective ways to train aerobically without just running easy miles. We can use aerobic intervals, Igloi style intervals, fartlek, etc. which is often seen in modern 400 and 800m training. Plus...you periodize it, building some aerobic foundation before switching to more speed and power. The point: I'm not a baseball guru. Just a good that understands physiology and training. But to me, from the outside looking in, it seems the pendelum swung all the way to the other side, when it should have landed somewhere in the middle. Plus...the fear of an occasional jog is overblown. Take it or leave it. Just an observation. Study: Continuous lactate monitoring for real-time fatigue assessment in baseball pitchers

After chatting with a friend, did the programmer use an 8-bit integer for the delay (in minutes)? When the delay was 240 minutes, we got four red people. At this level, either the color is broken. Or it indicates you want to be elsewhere? Friday morning travel should be fun.

@LouStagner We can change the numbers, but it makes me wonder: Would I want a putter that improves my make % by 8% for putts that are 5-15’ from the hole…if it increases my miss distance by 50% for putts 20’ and longer?

@LouStagner I’m hoping there is a paper that can answer these questions. Am also curious. I’ll note that these are mostly “scoring range” putts where the focus is making them. Curious what distance-control range (> 20ft) looks like.

What is the skill level of the testers? How many testers? What surface did they putt on? Most of the make rates you listed from the test group are better than pga tour average make rates.

PCA to the rescue. Hit one to deep CF in 1st AB. Second AB hit one just foul. Third one is the charm.

@paulwood79 (/sarcasm) Just don’t line everything up straight. Aim left lip and open the face up a smidge. Problem solved.

I just heard a commentator on TV say “the last thing you want is a straight putt. It cuts your margin of error in half.” Come on, seriously?

@TheHerdBros @JBRBracketology I believe the 2003-04 Utah State team had two losses in regular season. Lost their only conf tournament game (bye to semis). Went to NIT with three losses. Can’t think of a team with fewer losses that missed.

@JBRBracketology I wasn’t suggesting the should receive a 1-seed. They’re a top 25 team. 4-6 seed would be reasonable. 7-8 if they enter with 1 loss. 11-12 if they lose 2. Has any 3 loss team ever missed the NCAAT? If not, what’s the least number of losses of a team to miss an at-large bid?

The NET has ruined March Madness for mid-majors. Miami University (28-0!) is a projected ELEVEN seed.

@JJGolfPutting @engineeringolf @LouStagner Would be surprised if there is any statistical difference for long putts. If there is, I wonder if it goes away when using heads-up putting.

@JJGolfPutting @engineeringolf @LouStagner Agree with this. It’s a question of what the variance of line/speed is for a putter. No data but believe it is correlated like you say. Speed/line correlated errors are “better” for R to L for RH putter.

Putting coaches. Help me out. -RH players are comfortable with right-to-left putts. -Then we change for left-to-right. The stroke looks wishy as we manipulate to pull the ball on line. I experience this, and I see it persist to the very top of the game. What's the fix?

@acaseofthegolf1 They used to have intro skeleton classes at the Olympic Parks. Took one years ago in Park City. Went from junior start, not full track. Might be delegated to local sliding clubs now? 1st run was a nightmare experience, but enjoyed my 3rd and final run.

Announcer just said “the kind of run that makes you want to try skeleton” Mrs MQ: “Fuck that, there is nothing that can happen makes me want to go down an ice hill head first on a piece of cardboard on skates”.

@hutch_golf @MMGOLFSTUDIOS Your practice portfolio is based on available time and skill. Top players before an event are calibrating what they have learned to execute during competition. You are reinforcing earlier lessons and fine-tuning feel for that course, so practice should be block at that time.

I don’t know… The difference is that the best players in the world are playing 5x a week and getting PLENTY of variable practice. Block practice is for sure part of a balanced breakfast. No coach would argue otherwise. The question is what makes sense for the vast majority of golfers who are hitting balls a couple times a week and playing on Saturday. Should they be trying to groove the little 3 yard draw 7-iron from the same lie on repeat, or should they maybe pay attention to what the vast majority of motor learning science would say transfers to performance? But yes, if you have the baseline skills of a tour pro and are spending hours every day hitting all kinds of different shots, then yes, groove the thing you’re working on with your coach. No argument there.

I miss Scott on X. People didn’t like him getting into debates with coaches. Maybe no surprise, I really enjoyed it. I’d rather have someone believe in and defend their position. Anyway, block practice. How else do you develop a solid feel and swing thought? Or cOnSiSTenCy

@WKCosmo Not a cosmologist or well-versed in string theory, so this may be a ridiculous question. Does this new knowledge support the idea that our 3-D universe is housed in 9- or 10-dim space…and measurement of dark matter may be the measurement of influences from higher dimensions?

The "WIMP miracle" is officially dead, and it is entirely possible that dark matter doesn't interact with the Standard Model in any way beyond gravity. A bitter pill to swallow, but an increasingly likely one.

@drivelinekyle Forgot he started off that press conference noting the long hours. Also the “I win. Google me.” event around 15:00 youtu.be/ZhR1xqL2SlQ

@drivelinekyle I think his focus is on what the goals are and what we need to get there. Eliminate inefficient/wasteful prep. If your goal is to be successful in your career, that same mentality likely requires pushing early/often in 20s. But also notes long hours does not always mean growth

Indeed. Cignetti’s recent interviews stand out on not overworking yourself but it’s typically required from a young age (in your 20s-30s) so you can accelerate your growth into mid-career faster than your peers. Remember - the time will pass anyway. Use it. It waits for no one.

@undercover_pga @MattH_4America This in northern Minnesota. Wish I had tried the boiling water -> crystallized cloud experiment

@MattH_4America - 83 wind chill. -38 no wind

What's the coldest temperature you have ever experienced? (not the wind chill) For me, -2

@LukeKerrDineen I’ve seen some awful strokes that produce great results because of their consistency. Would love to see how stable these metrics are when extended to 20’, 30’…. My guess is if we captured that, the great putters would stand out more.

A lot of people don’t know that when Tiger measured his stroke on a SAM PuttLab they found some surprising stuff - Toe strikes - Tons of face rotation - Aim right - Closed clubface Not textbook, but didn’t matter. His consistency was off the charts. Unfathomably good.

@LouStagner @McLeanGolf This is why heads-up putting on lag putts is something I transitioned to. I’m willing to take some horizontal variability in ball strike if my impact velocity is improved. Cluster balls closer to the hole, even with horizontal mis-hits (less than 1cm)

Jon Karlsen ran study on off-center hits with putter. His research found that horizontal off-center strikes cause a small deviation in ball direction, approximately 0.34° for putts struck one centimeter from the center of the face (0.39 inches). Let’s put that into perspective: imagine you’re attempting a 10-foot putt, but your strike is 2 cm off-center (0.79 inches). The resulting deviation would be 0.68°, which translates to the ball being 1.4 inches off the intended line by the time it reaches the hole. Distance Loss Varies by Design While all putters lose some distance on off-center strikes, designs with more forgiving head shapes reduced this loss. For example: Blade and mallet putters showed a 5.5% reduction in distance for a 2 cm off-center hit. Winged putters minimized the loss to just 2%. On a 30-footer, if you strike it 2 cm from the center of the face (0.79 inches), and we assume the putt would have traveled exactly 30 feet if you hit the sweet spot, the off-center strike will end up about 20 inches short of the hole if you use a blade or mallet putter and only 7 inches short with a winged putter.

Does this advertisement strike any of you as perhaps not correct? I have no doubt that there are some benefits to a mallet putter regarding the engineering. But it’s microscopical. Where was this testing done? Did they get any instructions? How many participated? #golf

@paulwood79 @ArccosGolf This might be an oversimplification, but the increase in full swing metals seems like some should play a tee forward. The second piece is 90s players could use more practice/coaching around the green. (From personal experience I’ve skulled more than my share)

Doing some analysis of millions of shots in the @ArccosGolf database. This chart describes the % increase in types of shot that make up a round in the low 90s vs the low 70s. The extra 20 shots are not evenly distributed. Lots more metalwoods and partial wedge shots! #GolfScience