What Are You Working On? - Page 46

 

don't worry about it, it happens to me too. if i take too much time off it just feels like i've never swung a golf club in my life.

 

i have a practice net at home now and i hit into that every day, even if it's only a couple dozen balls it keeps my muscle memory going. i also do a little chipping game with my wife because an instructor told me one time that chipping contains almost all the essentials of a full swing.

 

the other thing that'll kill you (or at least it really bugs me) is i'll get a rhythm with my irons and then i won't be able to hit my driver, or i'll hit my driver well and then lose feeling for the hybrid.

 

it's all just learning. that's why i try to go out and play even if i haven't practiced because i play better after a few holes than i ever do in a practice session.

First post!

1) putting: No three putts, keeping track of how many holes I can go without one, 28 is my record. Also working on a repeating motion for better consistency.
2) takeaway: I want to feel hands working in and club out
3) steady head: especially on downswing, my head tends to move forward, working on keeping it back.

Today I was working on, and failing miserably at, the mental aspect. In particular, tuning out a babbling fool that was my partner's son-in-law. I wanted to tell him to shut the #@#$! up !!!! He talked constantly, through every pre-shot routine. The only time he didn't talk was the time it took to take the club back and follow through. As soon as I hit it, there he was again blah, blah, blah....

I've made a lot of changes that I'm working on.

Old stuff I'm re-focusing on:
- Steep shoulders (aka, shoulder turn on plane)
- Not flexing the left knee too far on the backswing

Newer changes:
- No more hitting with my left wrist. - I'm trying to fire through impact primarily with my right arm now. I used to keep as passive a right arm as possible, due to it causing trouble for me in the past, but I think that's silly paranoia and I've decided to learn how to use it. Progress is decent so far. It took a couple range sessions to get comfortable with it, but now I can swing without exerting my left wrist hardly at all in th downswing.
- Holding lag longer. - Rather than strain during the whole backswing, I've decided to just let centripetal force do it's thing on the first part of the swing and hold off trying to intentionally hit the ball until impact. Initially I fought to hold my lag as long as possible then I'd "throw" it at the ball, but that created a lot of problems for me. Now I have more of a swinging motion than before (was more of a hitter), and I let the lag naturally unhinge a bit during the first half to two-thirds of the downswing before intentionally hitting with my right arm.
- Tempo. - Not sure how visible the difference is, but I'm trying for a tempo of controlled, constant acceleration of the left arm through the downswing. I had more of a "accelerate as fast as you feel you can" tempo before. My left arm guides the downswing, so the tempo feeling I have for it is important.

Today I had a great range session. Once I got a groove going with the new things, I had several runs where I was hitting almost everything well. A couple mishits crept in, but I was hitting online and not hitting those OTT pulls that I'd been struggling with before. I was hitting about as far with less effort, too. Good stuff, we'll see if I can keep it up.

Sucking less, as usual. 

 

I HATE the way my swing feels right now, but am actually hitting it pretty well (by my standards). This is why golf is such a stupid game.

Keeping my right arm closer to my body during take away. It's helped my natural slice ball flight and forces me to rotate more and swing with my arms less.

Today i worked on how to start the downswing focusing on the left shoulder. Here's what i found:

 

• Thinking to start the downswing by move the left shoulder up made the ball go high & right with a touch of slice (push fade)
• Thinking to start the downswing by move the left shoulder down made the ball go low & left with a smothered closed face (pull hook)

 

So my routine was to do 2 practice swings, one doing each of the above, and then for my shot my thought was to do something in the middle of the two extremes......and it worked, i was hitting good straight shots!  Eureka!*    (*for today, anyway)

Left handed golfer here:

 

Consistency, both physically and mentally:

Mentally playing smart and playing the angles of the course. Where do I want to hit my approach from? What pins can I go after and where can I miss but still recover? Etc.........

Physically by focusing only on the shot at hand and swinging within myself.

 

Swing: Firm right arm and tension free left (allowing it to fold during backswing).

 

Grip pressure even throughout swing.

 

Most of all: enjoying my time and realizing how blessed  I am to have the money, time and physical capabilities to play this wonderful game.

I'm working on 3 things

Flexibility
Short game (around 40 yards and in)
Same swing every club (so I can have a consistent reliable and repeatable swing)

I'd become inconsistent and wasn't catching the sweet spot. On the range a kid asked me to video his swing, which I did and promptly felt sick.  Ahh, what a swing...easy, long, effortless, flexible. It really was worthy of the pretty DCI blades he was hitting.  Anyway, it was hot out and I was taking a break and I notice that he is putting a bean bag under his right arm, and I know that drill, and I know why you do it, and I am thinking about my swing lately and it hits me that I am no longer connected...my arms and my body.  I'm not staying connected and I'm swinging with my arms and not my big muscles.

 

So that is what I'm working on, getting my right elbow in and connected.  When I do that and make a correct turn so that the left shoulder is below my chin, initiate with my left shoulder and get my hips moving, and then keep my head still enough to see the club face come through the hitting area, and get all the way to the end (tall order, right?)...it's a good swing.  So a couple of range sessions later the swing is much more connected, the ball striking is back, effort is much easier and distance is back to being consistent (wedges through 7i, still working on the longer irons).

 

My struggle is that I'll do this for a couple of weeks and then I'll start thinking about more power, and I'll start getting less connected in a quest to get more of a whipping action out of the club head, and it will work!  For a little while anyway, long enough that I have a decent round just whipping my arms, but that doesn't last, it gets more inconsistent and I end up chasing that swing idea and getting more and more unhappy with everything.  And then an epiphany like I described above and I'll work on getting thing more compact and connected and I'll be amazed at how easy it is, how effortless the swing is.  So now the trick is to get this progression to happen faster, or to short circuit it completely by keeping that "more power" thought out in the first place.

 

Start every range session and round warm up with a head cover under my right arm?  That might be enough of a reminder to stay connected.  I'll do that for the next month and see how it goes.

Great post from another lefty. Could not have said it better myself. Last round out I could not hit off the tee for love nor money, but short game was awesome. Round before that was the opposite. So, for me consistency is king!

Later today I will be trying something new, I've got a blue tarp (10x12) which I will place the center of at 100yards. Then of course try to hit it. This week I'm gonna look at building a swing net cage thing. I always work on accuracy, ball striking, and distance control. I might try a few drills on shaping for the fun of it....I'll be getting my 3 wood towards Friday. Looking forward to the par 5's in 2!

Thanks!

 

Went this evening for the twilight round but ended up stopping after 9 holes. Couldn't hold a swing thought in my head long enough to execute. Was hitting it all over the place and ended up stopping after 9 holes. I guess I spent too much time out in the sun earlier in the day spreading mulch. Too dehydrated to think properly.

 

I'm hitting them again tomorrow morning to try out my new Sun Mountain Speed Card V1. No more walking and carrying the clubs in this insane heat.

 

Good luck to you.

 

Pablo

Working on:-

 

1) Extensor action (using at address is hard to remember at times).

 

2) Left arm leverage/feel of loading at transition and trying to keep everything connected whilst swinging.

 

3) Soft hands & arms (as always).

 

Using primarly my 5W for the above (easier for the clubhead awareness & leverage feel)

 

Working on all three at the same time as they all need to fit together, it really is taking some effort, can only normally concentrate on one feel at a time.

 

Aim is to improve ball striking, small ballspeed increase (already seen evidence in distance increase), and improve my clubhead feel/loading awareness.

 

**Also working the ball while doing the above.**

 

 **..** = I must be nuts!

I'm working on playing golf at least twice a week and being comfortable finding my swing and not being a robot. 

I read this and wanted to post in memory of a friend with whom I used to play a ton of golf. It's a story, not a tip, so here goes.

My buddy was about 58 (fifteen years older than me at the time) when we started playing together. He was a big boy....6'3", 280+ and not in very good shape. He played to about a 15, didn't hit the ball very far, and certainly didn't have a very pretty golf swing. From 40-50 yards out, though, he was a very different player. Completely effortless (and different) golf swing, and he was money if he could scrape the ball to that yardage. Our foursome once counted 26 (that's an actual number, not a guess) consecutive times over several rounds that he hit it within 6 feet from that distance, sometimes lobbing it in, other times hitting a lower traj. shot. Same basic, flowing swing, though. Such a soft touch when he got to that distance.

Ten days before he passed away, we played in a scramble at our club. He was so very sick, but he loved golf and managed to play that day. My two other friends and I decided after the first hole to hit as many shots as possible to Dick's favorite yardage just so he could feel like he was contributing. He was weak from cancer and had no energy, but his eyes lit up when he got to hit his shot. Wish I could say he jarred one that day, but while that didn't happen, he got us close enough to make a bunch of pars considering we missed virtually every green. Our score relative to the field wasn't good, but it was as much fun as I've ever had playing a scramble, and almost as much fun as I've had playing any kind of golf.

I guess the 'same swing every club' comment made me think of him. I hope you guys are fortunate enough to have someone like my old friend to enjoy golf with.

Driving accuracy and around the green accuracy.

 

I have been finding that most of my bogey+s are from an errant short game shot. Can't tell you how many times I've been chipping 3 and then 2 putt a par 4.

Improving my longer iron play.  My irons ore overlofted so my 5 hits like a 4, and I tend to overswing on the 5 and sometimes 6 irons. I don't know why. I'm working on getting those irons more in line with my driver and short irons, which I usually hit under more control.  It's a mental thing, but it's getting better as shown in my improved 5 iron contact and ball flight on my last trip to the range.  It's been raining for five days now, with at least 4 or 5 more days of it, so I haven't had the chance to work on it since 8 days ago.  I can't wait to get back out since I bought a new 52* wedge and a new UST ProForce V2 HL shaft for my adjustable driver (actually, I bought the same driver that I already own, with a headcover, grip, and adjustment wrench, for little more than the shaft itself would have cost me).