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Good Ash

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  1. Good Ash

    Good Ash

  2. So I haven't posted in while but thought I should probably check in and post where everything is at. I have been diligently working on my priority pieces which have included having more connected arms, open hips at impact, left elbow more connected to body, and a shallower downswing. In looking at some of my old videos, the swing changes are barely noticeable until I start looking frame by frame. A few things that I am noticing when looking at these frame by frames right now are that; I have much more room to swing around myself and I don't look as scrunched up, my hands are more extended from my body when coming into impact, my swing path is pretty neutral now and much better than what it was, my arms are more connected and I am maintaining a better triangle than previously (I can still get much better at this), my hands do a much better job in moving towards the ball in a straight line instead of the "j" type shape they made before and my elbow seems to move on a much better plane when looking DTL. As far as swing feels go, I feel that my swing is much more arm driven than it was before, in fact, moving my arms towards the ball is my thought for the downswing. On the course, I am finally hitting pretty good consistent shots with my mid-irons and my scoring has caught up to where it was before I started making these changes. I think the reason it hasn't improved beyond that point is that I am using the end of last summer as my guide and during that period I relied on a really good short game to score well for my level (upper 80's). Now, I feel like I am hitting the ball better and to say my short game is rusty would be an understatement. Before, it seemed like I would chip and tap in for bogey quite a bit but now it seems like I chip and two put for bogey. I hope with a little work on this I can drop those couple shots and get more into the mid to low 80's. I still have a long ways to go in getting to where I want to be, but this is definitely a start. As follows are some images of my latest 7 iron and driver swings.
  3. Still working on my arm structure and boy is this a process. I just submitted these for a lesson and thought I would post as it's been a while. In the following videos I've been doing these drills pretty much nightly and this is still all the faster I can swing. I went down a rabbit hole or two for a couple days during the process thinking I had figured out "the secret" but have done pretty well in pulling my self out and just focusing on my priority. Right now, I'm focusing on keeping my elbows closer together and in particular not letting them spread apart on the downswing and into impact. Right now I noticed that I can come into the ball with a really open clubface if I'm not careful. I have been rolling my forearm at the top and during the later part of my backswing, then holding it to try to compensate. It's going to take a while for my "on the course" swing to look like this but I think I am heading in the right direction.
  4. Well...I got out on the course 2 weeks ago and it wasn't all I had hoped for. Conditions were tough with all the rain we have had but I still botched more than my fair share of iron shots. The good news, if there is any, is that my driving and my short game helped me stay below triple digits (shot 99 with a couple penalties). I am right in the middle of busy season so I haven't been able to work on my swing as much as I would like but pieces are still improving. My arm structure is looking much better coming into impact, which is also why I think I have been hitting a lot of fat shots recently. I think that while we have been working on this, I need to remember to keep my "butt on the wall" and give my self space to extend (I asked my instructor about this so I will see what he says. It also looks like I need to revisit keeping my front knee a little more still on the back swing. Another aspect of my swing that I have been thinking about is my transition. It looks like I have a tendency to get my hips and lower body moving while my upper body stays relatively still. I think that is the cause for my steep move as I have to shorten the distance between the club and the ball to catch up. I asked my instructor about trying to move my upper body more in connection with my lower body. Just doing practice swing and tinkering around with the mirror, if I have the feeling like there is a rod going from my right hip and connecting to my hands my swing seems to be much more shallow in the transition. Everything looks better in slow motion without a ball so I will see what he says about this. I am uploading my last driver swing today as I really like how that is starting to look. Hoping next week my iron swing will be catching up a bit.
  5. Just my $0.02 but majors are really important. Not only are the best golfers of the world in each field but it seems like they typically play in harder conditions than a regular tournament as well. I have only watched golf for a couple years so I have a pretty limited sample size, but it seems like there are some pro's who are great at playing the "easy courses" but very few whom can play well in the majors year in and year out.
  6. Just a quick update. Progress with the new arm structure was going really well up until a couple days ago. When I went to the range (two days in a row just to hit a warm up sized bucket) everything seemed to fall apart. I was hitting weak slices and couldn't even control my 7i. I was so frustrated that all of that progress wasn't showing and somehow just disappeared. After working with some mirror work after these range sessions, I think I was being too aggressive through the ball and really rotating my shoulders. I think this was a result of me taking that lower body feeling a little to far which was causing a lot of total body rotation and jumping into full swings when I wasn't ready for them. It seems I can continue working on this but I need to keep my shoulders more square through impact. I received my last video back and my instructor and got a lot of my questions answered. I can play around with my making my grip a little more neutral and work on getting the backside of my hand to face more towards the target at impact. The result of this is quite good on the swings where I really get the rear elbow tight into my body coming down to my backswing. I am going out to play a round today and am super excited (I feel like a kid at Christmas). I played one round in January but the course was frozen and the temperature was in the mid 20's so it was hard to really gauge any progress. Before that, the last round I played was probably in October. Swing thoughts for today are going to be tight rear elbow and keep my shoulders square. I am going to try to not focus on my score and judge the round just by how solidly I hit the ball.
  7. There is an executive 27 hole course where I live in a retirement community and it is pretty fun (you have to tee off early though or the round takes longer than if you were at a full length course because of the retirement community). Lot's of par 3 and short par 4's. What I like about the par 4's is they really make you weigh the cost benefit of trying for the green and a lot of your tee shots are the same as a 5 to 7 iron approach shots where you are hitting to have an angle at the green. They have narrow fairways, lots of hazards around the green and tree's that block the angles. The par 3's are pretty unique as well. It's not a course that I frequent but I try to play it every so often because it really puts an emphasis on my approach shots and my iron play. In my experience the par three courses that have character are great and seem to do well. I think a lot of par 3 course can seem like your hitting the same shot over and over into the same green complex and most people think of these courses when thinking about the typical par 3.
  8. I have been working on my arm structure and it's really coming along with the pitch shots I have been doing. A couple things that I have noticed that make it easier; focus on rotating my hips a little faster, making sure I release the club. I am using the term "release the club" because that's what I think it is but it's really kind of rotating my lead wrist down or towards the target before impact, which is causing my lead arm go go over my front arm sooner after impact. I have a tendency to hold off my release so this feeling is quite different. I use those foam golf balls so its hard to say, but they come off the face with a lot more compression and a lot more spin. It used to be that when the ball would hit the pillows they would fly towards the left side of the room, but now they seem to shoot right back toward me (might just be that I am squaring the face more or that it is slightly closed at impact). I am nowhere near trying it with a full swing yet but these half swings are going quite well. A couple questions to ask my instructor: 1) Is it normal to need to feel like I really need to turn through the ball while working on this piece (I just don't want this to be some compensation move)? 2) Does it make sense that I should feel like I am beginning to release the club, role my lead wrist down?
  9. As many have said, to me I just enjoy the game more when I walk. I am really conscious of my pace of play and to me it usually seems that walking is faster, maybe it isn't but because I'm always moving it just seems that way. Riding in the cart always stresses me out, your buddy's trying to tell you a story while your getting out, grabbing your club, nodding at him, the whole time thinking your ball is somewhere in the rough, shouldn't you be looking for it??? Also as a lefty when i was starting out I noticed I was for the most part on opposite sides of the fairway. There was also one round a few years ago where I was walking, by myself, and started out 2 over after 8 holes. A single in a cart caught up to me and asked to join up. I jumped in the cart and 10 holes later, carded a 95!! I don't think I actually play better walking but I always remember this round so I have a preconceived notion that I do.
  10. New Priority Piece, Arm Structure My instructor has me moving on to work on my arm structure and maintaining the triangle on my downswing now. I'm excited to work on something different for a change but at the same time a little nervous, if backswing work takes me two months, how long will downswing work take!!! I still think I need to focus on my backswing for part of my practice sessions as there is still some variance in my shaft angles but those are becoming smaller. I ended up purchasing the swing easy arm band swing aid and it really does give me a completely different sensation while swing the club. Almost like I am applying pressure with my rear arm in the downswing and like I am starting the downswing in a really connected fashion with very little arm movement relative to my shoulders. It really does make sense when you hear people equate it to the skipping the rock drill or throwing side arm. For right now I'll continue to work on this but I will be curios to see how things look when I get some video, especially with how far from my body my hands are and what my upper torso positions look like to start the downswing.
  11. His swing speed is definitely impressive for the effort that it looks like he puts into it. Wouldn't the extra speed generated from such a wristy swing cause many more misses though? It seems like the club face would go from open to close really fast and cause your shots to be really sporadic, especially for a high handicapper.
  12. I agree, the one armed swings work well, the only problem is I've put a few holes in the basement ceiling because me rear arm isn't there to hold the club down. Like RandallT, my next piece is working on getting my arms to come out on my downswing instead of down. I feel like I can nail this part until I step up to the ball. I think working on patience and tempo in the downswing will help with this along with my feeling of swinging around and bringing my hands "over the ball" in my downswing. I ended up going to the range during lunch to see how my progress is coming with the "outward" swing. I have to say, I probably hit a couple of the best drives of my life. In the video I was watching the ball flight the entire time in my follow through, probably getting 250 carry but it's hard to say (the small white sign says 255). I do know that I have never hit the ball like that before and I am excited to hit it like that more often in the future, fingers crossed maybe on the course!! It wasn't all great I had a lot of snap hooks and hooks, but only one or two baby fades and no slices so I am taking that to be improvement. Note to self: I noticed is I need to revisit my alignment or at least be a little more cognizant of it. I have been in "change the swing" mode for so long I need to start putting a little more emphasis on what targets I am actually aiming at and how to actually set up for those targets. Should be an easy adjustment but just something to remember.
  13. Since my last video I have been instructed to work on merging this two piece takeaway into one. The positions of this takeaway are pretty much what we are looking for. While I work on this we were also going to look at my driver swing. With the submission of my driver swing my instructor took a minute to point out how good everything is looking and the progress that has been made in my arm and leg structures. Merging the takeaway is going well. My feeling is that I am only using my lead arm to control the back swing, and because I am only using my lead arm, I have to get the club vertical so my arm can support it easier. So far this feeling has been working. The next step is working on getting my hands to move out more on the downswing to get the shaft to come in a little more horizontal. I hope to get to the range either today or tomorrow to see how that is coming.
  14. Finally got to the range to get some new video. For the two and a half months I have been working nightly on trying to get my shaft angle steeper at P3. As you can see with some of my previous posts things were really up and then really down for the last little bit and I was pretty much getting nowhere with this steepness when it came to going to the range. I really needed to change the feeling so that I wouldn't revert back to my old habits which is why I started doing this two piece takeaway. Eventually I will try to merge the backswing to be more of a one piece takeaway, but right now this has really helped ingrain the feeling of my lead arm going up in the backswing and not as much around. To get to this steepness, I feel like my lead arm goes straight up from it's starting location. Eventually I'd like to move on to other things but I know this is my priority piece so I am going to keep on hammering away at it. Sorry for the video quality, it's hard to get the brightness correct with all the snow.
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