My Swing (Stretch) - Page 12

Quick session on SAM Puttlab today. Worked on getting the little loops out of the backswing (Before left, After right. The path average is skewed in the second series by a big fat pull on the third putt.):

And on getting a bit more natural rise, back and through.

I used to have a face angle issue to go along with my path problems, but that's now sorted quite nicely! 

From the putter to the driver today.

Long session on a FlightScope X2 with video and impact tape. Good news and bad news.

Good news: Hitting it dead nuts center of the face almost all the time. Eight shots with impact tapes -- only one outside the center ring. Confirmed on the monitor, average smash factor for the session was 1.49 and over half of the individual shots were reported at 1.50. Impact is good -- seeing between 10 and 11 degrees of spin loft, AoA averaged around +0.5 degrees -- and the pattern is not a problem. Swing direction around 2.5 degrees right, path around 2 degrees right, face slightly open to roughly square. Average spin axis tilt was -0.5 degrees. Hard to get in too much trouble with that little curve.

Bad news: Averaged only 90 mph club head speed. Have lost almost 10 mph, and I didn't have much to spare in the first place. Mother****er! There are 90-year-old men who hit it harder than that, I'm sure. The funny thing is that I haven't seen any distance loss on the course. In fact, if anything, I hit it further now than a few years ago -- because my power transfer is so much more efficient. I was way down and way left before, for a very glancing blow. Smash used to be around 1.42, which is dismal.

Anyway, the takeaway is this, I'm optimized for where I am. 90 club, 135 ball, perfect launch gets you about 220 carry at best. And I'm right around there on the box and in actual play. The only way I can hit it significantly further is to get the club head moving faster. So that's going to be my focus for the rest of the year. 

Yeah, the lack of club head speed isn't due to any physical limitation -- it's a mechanics issue. Very little loading of the #1 and #2 power accumulators (i.e.. right arm doesn't fold that much  -- or, at least, doesn't fold in the correct orientation) and left wrist hardly cocks at all. Left arm is pulled too deep across the chest, restricting the amount it can travel. Basically I go to just past P3 and never reach the top -- what most people would think of as a "half swing" -- then reverse as hard as possible from there to create some loading. If I didn't have such long levers, I wouldn't even get what I do manage to squeeze out of it.

Thanks. I'll see how that feels. You know how it is though -- because you're sort of going down the same track with your EE -- even with good information and good understanding, some moves are just so deeply ingrained that shifting them is a matter of inch by inch by inch. There is no lightbulb or sudden quantum leap. I can make 100 perfect practice backswings in a row, but drop a ball and I am right back inside, under and across. As someone who shall remain nameless put it to me the other day: "Stretch, you have myelinated the **** out of that particular pathway!"  

Hey, if it was easy, it wouldn't be interesting. 

From the putter to the driver today.

Long session on a FlightScope X2 with video and impact tape. Good news and bad news.

Good news: Hitting it dead nuts center of the face almost all the time. Eight shots with impact tapes -- only one outside the center ring. Confirmed on the monitor, average smash factor for the session was 1.49 and over half of the individual shots were reported at 1.50. Impact is good -- seeing between 10 and 11 degrees of spin loft, AoA averaged around +0.5 degrees -- and the pattern is not a problem. Swing direction around 2.5 degrees right, path around 2 degrees right, face slightly open to roughly square. Average spin axis tilt was -0.5 degrees. Hard to get in too much trouble with that little curve.

Bad news: Averaged only 90 mph club head speed. Have lost almost 10 mph, and I didn't have much to spare in the first place. Mother****er! There are 90-year-old men who hit it harder than that, I'm sure. The funny thing is that I haven't seen any distance loss on the course. In fact, if anything, I hit it further now than a few years ago -- because my power transfer is so much more efficient. I was way down and way left before, for a very glancing blow. Smash used to be around 1.42, which is dismal.

Anyway, the takeaway is this, I'm optimized for where I am. 90 club, 135 ball, perfect launch gets you about 220 carry at best. And I'm right around there on the box and in actual play. The only way I can hit it significantly further is to get the club head moving faster. So that's going to be my focus for the rest of the year. 

Yeah, the lack of club head speed isn't due to any physical limitation -- it's a mechanics issue. Very little loading of the #1 and #2 power accumulators (i.e.. right arm doesn't fold that much  -- or, at least, doesn't fold in the correct orientation) and left wrist hardly cocks at all. Left arm is pulled too deep across the chest, restricting the amount it can travel. Basically I go to just past P3 and never reach the top -- what most people would think of as a "half swing" -- then reverse as hard as possible from there to create some loading. If I didn't have such long levers, I wouldn't even get what I do manage to squeeze out of it.

Have an 11 degree driver. Off the numbers, I could go as high as 12.5 in loft, but would rather try and alter the swing. I have gone from 3.5 degrees down to half a degree up with the driver in the last year or so and am going to try and keep increasing my AoA. Can fairly easily produce +3 or +4 on the monitor by moving the ball forward of the left big toe and really exaggerating my axis tilt at setup -- but then I start having contact issues. Kind of a balancing act.

Reminds me even more how important control is because of how good your scoring is.