My Swing (Stretch) - Page 5

Re: My Swing (Stretch)

Tilt like you mean it, mofos!

Re: My Swing (Stretch)

And my ball striking still sucks. Which of us is the fool I wonder?

Re: My Swing (Stretch)

I have been working for the last month on maintaining more of a pitch elbow position in my downswing and getting my hands further forward into impact to fight the flip. Am starting to feel this pay off in better contact and increased yardages. I'm hitting some drives out over 250 yards now and my 100 yard club has gone from a 46* pitching wedge to a 52* gap wedge. Hopefully somewhat illustrated below by these three strikes today on the range with a 7 iron.

Other visible positives: Hips have gone forward pretty well -- indicated by left knee position outside left ankle -- and head has stayed stable. Footwork is good, with right heel still down.

Other visible negatives: Legs are not nearly extended enough. Hands are still not far enough forward. Takeaway is severely under plane. (OK, that's not actually visible. )

Haven't done any real swing work for the last three months. Just been playing and enjoying the sunny summer weather. 

 

Handicap was coming down nicely, but then plateaued, which I decided likely meant the real turds in my swing had been polished as shiny as they were going to get -- and that maybe it was time to think seriously about flushing them.

 

First order -- the clockwise rotation of my wrists at the start of the takeaway. As noted several times in this thread already by Erik and others, this sucked the club head inside and under the plane straight away -- leading to a very flat backswing that sort of "stuck" half way up with very little wrist hinge or bending of the right elbow. From there, with the club laid way off, I had to work down very, very steep to get to the ball -- setting up timing issues and the constant temptation to come over the top. To try and fix the first move in the chain, I started working with a Medicus hinged club (breaks if you roll it inside) and concentrating on keeping a very firm pressure in PP#4 (left arm against left pec) as the backswing is initiated by the left shoulder turning down. Do this basic motion every day for a half hour or so, just going smoothly to a good P2 position and then smoothly back through to P8. After that, I hit balls, again focusing on getting back to P2 with the club parallel to the target line -- then just letting the arms go to the top. Haven't really started focusing on striking, but can definitely feel the changes starting to ingrain themselves and see the general results in terms of ball flight -- higher, more draw spin, miss moving from pull to push -- of a delivery coming more from the inside and more shallow into impact.

 

Anyway, here how it looks at the moment. (Sorry about the V1, Erik. Our pro here did a quick-and-dirty on the footage for me as a favor and he hasn't seen the light yet.) Right frames are from a few weeks ago and left frames were shot the other day. Yes, the camera angles are inconsistent but hopefully the position differences are clear enough to discount that as the sole factor. No, I don't always wear the same shirt, it was a coincidence.

 

 

 

Next steps, do it more! After that start work on letting the club set itself properly. If I can actually get some decent loading of the #1 and #2 accumulators, I might even start occasionally hitting the ball out of the proverbial paper bag...

 

 

 

Hey Bill. Did not have a USGA handicap at the time (04/2010), as hadn't played golf more than a half dozen times in the previous two decades. When I did play, would shoot in the low/mid 90s playing "country club rules."

Anyway, practiced religiously (without actually playing) from April to August, although a big chunk of that time was confined to short game work only due to an injury caused by ... practicing too much. 

 

After carding the required minimum number of rounds here in South Africa, my first SAGA handicap came in at 12 on 08/26 and has trended as follows since then:

 

 

Probably TMI, but perhaps may be of some interest to you. 

 

PS: Thanks Erik. I'll work on my "Furyk feeling."

 

 

 

My swing is not in good shape at all right now, but I am hitting the ball solidly. Took some video today and it looks like -- despite all the funky shit going on -- I am still consistently returning the hands and club at impact quite close to their position at address. Andrew Rice has written about how this will forgive many other sins as far as ballstriking is concerned*, and I'm becoming a believer.

 

* (If I remember correctly, he says the only four players he's been able to find who returned the club to exactly where it was at address were Hogan, Trevino, Price and Garcia.)