My Swing (The Flush)

[The Flush]

I've been Playing Golf for: More off than on over 30 years. I haven't played more than twice in a year in many years. 20 years ago I used to play in company leagues, so I at least played 9 holes a week with occasional 18 holes weekends thrown in. A job change ended the league play and family obligations prevented me from playing anything other than occasionally.  I have a teenage son who wants to play, so I am trying to play more so we can play together.

My current handicap index or average score is: Unknown. I doubt I could break 100 right now. 20 years ago I was close to a bogey golfer, but I only broke 90 twice.  I did break 40 for 9 holes once on a short easy course that doesn't exist anymore.

My typical ball flight is: Low pulls right now.

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: I have typically hit down with my driver with frequent hits off the top of the club. 

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Videos: I had never taken video of myself before a couple with bad lighting last week and these from yesterday. I am just using my Moto G5+ phone as I don't have anything higher speed. I hope it is good enough to get started with.

It appears that I have this weird chicken wing or flip going on that I am sure affects my consistency. While I frequently have issues hitting down on the ball and striking it with the top of the club, I was not doing that as much yesterday.  I usually tee the ball pretty low, but yesterday I worked up to using a 3" tee which is unusual for me.  I did trying moving the ball forward in my stance and opening my stance (or the club face) which seemed to help. These were 2 of the better swings that at least started on line and had better launch angle than many of my drives.  I can post some worse ones if anyone wants to see them. I probably need to edit them better.

I am halfway done reading Lowest Score Wins. I know I need to work on my driver the most.  I need help with identifying the simple and specific things to work on as part of the 5Ss of great practice. I have this net in the back yard and can probably make it to the range once a week. We have a large enough yard that we can hit 80-90 yards shots with our wedges, but that doesn't help with the driver.

I look forward to learning and improving.

 

 

 

[iacas]

I'd like to see some setup changes:

• Even though the DL view is well out toward the ball (https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing), your left shoulder is still not visible. This means your shoulders are WELL open.
• I'd like to see a bit less flex in the knees, more of a rounded down back through the hips/waist, and your arms hanging down a bit closer to vertical. Let your chin drop so you can look directly, squarely at the ball.
• Grip in the fingers: https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/75436-how-to-grip-a-golf-club-commonalities-of-a-functional-golf-grip/.

[The Flush]

Thank you for the feedback @iacas !

I recognize that my camera position was wrong and that I need to move the camera in between my feet and the ball.  I will fix that next time. 

When you say my shoulders are open, you mean at setup and that given my poor camera position you should be able to see my left shoulder at address?  Should you also be able to see the left shoulder with proper camera position?

I've made some changes on my own as I grasp at straws that I think include arms hanging closer to vertical, but I don't have it on video.  I will move flexion from my knees to my back and I'll see what it looks like this weekend when I try to record more practice.

I will review the grip article.  I thought I was gripping in the fingers, but I must not be where I need to be.

 

 

[iacas]

33 minutes ago, The Flush said:

When you say my shoulders are open

I mean they're pointing well to the left. Even from the "too-far-right" camera position, you can't see your left shoulder.

[Talldog]

Maybe it's the angle, but (in the first video) it looks to me that your right elbow moves backwards during your backswing and ends up on the right side of your body instead of out front. 

[The Flush]

On 6/13/2019 at 3:43 PM, Talldog said:

Maybe it's the angle, but (in the first video) it looks to me that your right elbow moves backwards during your backswing and ends up on the right side of your body instead of out front. 

I think you are correct.  This is probably one of the things I need to work on.

I tried implementing the previous suggestions from iacas when I played 9 holes on Saturday.  I hit 2 of the best drives of my life on the last 2 holes.  While I didn't think to measure them with my GPS, based on the scorecard distance and the distance to the hole for my second shots, I hit them about 250.  The other 5 drivers were a couple big slices, which is not my usually problem, and some low hooks, my usual problem. The par 3s were nGIR, within a couple yards left of the greens. Iron and hybrid play was chunky, but I hit my wedges decent and can't remember a really bad one. 

Saturday evening I hit some drivers and 7i into the net and recorded video. I haven't uploaded them to YT yet, but other than the changes in setup, they look about the same as before.  The chickenwing is still there and I am sure it was there on my 2 good drives from earlier.  I think I just managed to sync up all the wrong movements just right on those shots and didn't really have a good swing. When I practice my swing slowly and keep my elbows in front on me, it feels like it will help prevent the chickenwing and probably produce more repeatable solid contact.

The forecast for this week is rain and baseball, so I don't know when I will get a chance to work on my swing next.  I will try to get some video uploaded to see if anyone sees anything new to work on.

[The Flush]

I felt like I was making more consistent contact with my driver, but I don't think I have improved my swing much. It looks like my right elbow in still getting behind me.  My first move on the downswing is around instead of down. I need to improve weight shift and stop dragging my right foot forward. I suck at slow specific practice.

 

[The Flush]

I felt like I had fewer mishits today. Focused on a straighter left arm on backswing and downswing. I think I need more knee and hip flexion to initiate the downswing before the hip extension at contact.

 

 

[The Flush]

I have been playing around with the Joe Dante magic moves swing and I think it helps, but I need a lot more practice with it. I played my best 9 of the year 2 days ago with only 2 bad full shots, although I pulled a few iron shots. No bad drivers though, but no really long ones though. I hit a lot of 7 irons today with half swings trying to get the feel for it. Most of them felt good, but there is a long way to go with it. Once I moved to the driver I hit 1 bad shot where I hit down on it and popped it up. After that I focused on keeping my head back and felt like I hit every shot after that pretty well. I think I need to add that head back hips forward focus to my irons too.  The chicken wing is still present, but seems less obvious. Still a long way to go but I think I have made a tiny bit of progress.