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Posted

I've been Playing Golf for: 20 years, although the vast majority of that was extremely casual. I've taken golf more seriously the last 3-4 years since joining a league, and this is the year I'd like to really improve my game.
My current handicap index or average score is: Typically in the mid 90s, although there's nothing consistent about my game.
My typical ball flight is: I have a fade/slice on just about every club, although some days I seem to hit it pretty straight. Never a draw.
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Leaving it short. To compensate for my slice I've slowed my swing down quite a bit, especially off the box. My accuracy off the box is a relative strength, but hitting a GIR is a minor miracle.

I'm starting Evolvr today after months (years) of dragging my feet. I definitely know this will be the next step in improving my game, so I figure I might as well track my progress here as well. My goals are more consistent contact, more power with all my clubs, and to beat my dad regularly, of course.

My other big focus is my overall iron play. I typically go driver > hybrid > wedge > putter, and more of that has to do with a lack of confidence in my irons than anything else. I feel like my 6-9 irons all go about the same distance, 110-140 yards. I have a suspicion it's not the clubs.


Videos: 

 

 


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Posted

Welcome to The Sand Trap. I’m glad you signed up for Evolvr. I’ve been using it for years. It helps if your focus on what they have identify as your priorities to work on and not get distracted by tips you read on the net or even here. It also will really help if you learn how to practice smart. It took me a long time to learn good practice techniques. Below is a thread that really helps. 

 

Scott

Titleist, Edel, Scotty Cameron Putter, Snell - AimPoint - Evolvr - MirrorVision

My Swing Thread

boogielicious - Adjective describing the perfect surf wave

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Posted
5 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Welcome to The Sand Trap. I’m glad you signed up for Evolvr. I’ve been using it for years. It helps if your focus on what they have identify as your priorities to work on and not get distracted by tips you read on the net or even here. It also will really help if you learn how to practice smart. It took me a long time to learn good practice techniques. Below is a thread that really helps. 

 

That's a great thread, thanks so much for sharing! Now I just have to patiently wait for my feedback so I can put that into action.


Posted

I got my feedback at the end of last week; the focus is on camera angles and grip.

The main grip changes are strengthening the grip on the my left hand, as well as lengthening that thumb. The right hand was fine, so mostly just focusing on the left hand for now.

Still feels a little off, but I played Saturday with the new grip and was happy with the change. Very noticeable with the driver.

 

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  • Moderator
Posted

If your Evolvr instructor gave you drills to do, post those in this thread to show the work you are doing. That can help others as well.

Scott

Titleist, Edel, Scotty Cameron Putter, Snell - AimPoint - Evolvr - MirrorVision

My Swing Thread

boogielicious - Adjective describing the perfect surf wave

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Posted new videos to my Evolvr topic, adding them here as well. Still no drills to share, as everything has been centered around my grip.

That being said, I'm going through the COVID-19 Practice Plan Challenge thread. I'm on day 5, but I'll go back through and film all the days to post here to potentially get some feedback.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Administrator
Posted

Bit narrow there on day 3. Look at that right elbow.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

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Posted
12 hours ago, iacas said:

Bit narrow there on day 3. Look at that right elbow.

Thanks for the feedback. At the time it seemed right, but I see what you’re talking about. 
 

I’m gonna assume I should focus on my priority piece, and get back to this drill when I can. Or am I safe to practice this separately from my priority piece?


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Posted
2 minutes ago, DaHolla said:

I’m gonna assume I should focus on my priority piece, and get back to this drill when I can. Or am I safe to practice this separately from my priority piece?

You can do both, but spend the vast majority of your time on your priority stuff, for sure.

  • Informative 1

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Here's the latest with my centered pivot, working on keeping the hips centered:

I've also been playing some good golf lately. I started putting my scores into Diablo Golf, has me at a 17.8 after 12 rounds. Each time I update my index I'll try to post in this thread, as well.

 

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  • Moderator
Posted

Do it a bit slower and hold the turn for a few seconds. It is a good stretch/core strength exercise. I use this drill as a warmup exercise and stretch. 

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Scott

Titleist, Edel, Scotty Cameron Putter, Snell - AimPoint - Evolvr - MirrorVision

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Posted
20 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Do it a bit slower and hold the turn for a few seconds. It is a good stretch/core strength exercise. I use this drill as a warmup exercise and stretch. 

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I definitely get a stretch on my right side when I'm doing it.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

Been awhile, glad to finally have my mat/net/tripod setup now that the patio is done.

Updating my handicap, Diablo Golf now has it as a 17.1.

Current drill is still the helicopter drill, but with a quicker shoulder turn and a straighter trail elbow.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

Finally getting there with my hips, just need to keep at it so it feels more natural.

Handicap is down to a 16.5, although in general I haven't been playing great lately. Sunday I went out and played a few awful holes, worst I've played in a while. After that I played bogey golf, but I was pulling just about everything. The few exceptions were hits where the club face was completely open. The focus with Evolvr has been all grip/backswing to this point, so I know a lot of my issues will get corrected with a better downswing.

 


Posted
53 minutes ago, DaHolla said:

Finally getting there with my hips, just need to keep at it so it feels more natural.

Handicap is down to a 16.5, although in general I haven't been playing great lately. Sunday I went out and played a few awful holes, worst I've played in a while. After that I played bogey golf, but I was pulling just about everything. The few exceptions were hits where the club face was completely open. The focus with Evolvr has been all grip/backswing to this point, so I know a lot of my issues will get corrected with a better downswing.

 

I thought these looked pretty good.  Love that you have some forward press at setup.  That should give you the vision to hit down on the ball.  However, it appeared to me that from the face on view that you did not hit down enough on the ball.  It looked like you bottomed out too quickly instead of allowing the club to continue traveling down through and even after the hit.  I see the downswing like a hula hoop where the club head should be traveling down even after the ball is struck, and then the club comes up and left. 

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    • He's using a driver swing, while I used the iron swing. Bryson goes from about 65° B to 15° B, hence the 50°. If you bend your right elbow, you're going to pull your hands across your chest some. Conversely, if you abduct your right arm and hold onto a grip with your left arm, you can see how extending the right elbow as we do in the golf swing during the downswing will "pull" the right shoulder/humerus forward (adducting it, as going from 65° to 15° of abduction is). Even people who pull their right shoulder WAY too far around them eventually get it "back in front" when their right arm/elbow extends. So, such a motion shows up as shoulder adduction even though the movement that causes it is just widening the trail elbow. The left hand on the grip almost "pulls" the hands forward as the left arm can't stretch much (there's some shoulder protraction, but that's almost maxed out at P4). Oh, I downloaded it and watched it (and commented there) before he blocked me. It's what led to him posting the comment in the "update" above. 😄  Single shoulder range of 75°, and that's going out well into the follow-through. 50° Max range up to impact. Manavian's video is bad. He keeps saying "midline" which is just a horrible way to look at it. He also kept saying that the club was moving that amount — also wrong. Adding left and right together is really freaking dumb. Another golf instructor said "That's like saying the player has 100 degrees of knee bend (adding left knee bend to right knee bend) 🤦‍♂️" (similar to what the biomechanist said about squatting). Also, see my post above about elbow bend. That's why Plummer’s alignment stick demo is so intellectually dishonest. A golfer can't get anywhere near that position on the left with his left hand on the alignment stick (quoted below).  
    • That makes no sense at all.  so, I watched that Instagram. Here is a summary...  Bryson.... Address: Trail Shoulder 0 degrees adduction. P4: Trail Shoulder 65-deg abduction. Impact: Right shoulder 15-deg abduction. P9: 10 degrees adduction. Rory... Address: Trail Shoulder 16 degrees adduction. P4: Trail Shoulder 26 degrees abduction. Impact: Right shoulder 0 degrees abduction.  P9: 18 degrees of adduction.  DJ... Address: Trail Shoulder 4 degrees adduction. P4: Trail Shoulder 42 degrees abduction. Impact: Right shoulder 2 degrees abduction.  P9: 15 degrees of adduction.  Their point is that arm doesn't stay on the trail side. That the arms have to get across the chest from P4 to P9. I mean they do. What matters is the rate of which it happens relative to the position of the swing. The trail shoulder at P9 is not abducted a lot. The range of that total abduction movement is like 40 to 70 degrees. Bryson might be an outlier. Rory might be an outlier as well.  A couple of points.  1. None of them had any adduction at impact. So, this tells me the trail arms stays on the trail side of the body at impact. Is it moving towards lead shoulder, yes. It doesn't happen till post impact. The right side of the body is moving towards the target, so the arms don't have to as much as people think.  2. Trail shoulder adduction from Impact to P9 is 18 to 25 degrees.  3. P9 adduction of the trail shoulder is only about 2 to 12 degrees more adducted than at address. The arms/hands stay in front of the chest a long-time post impact. If Rory, from his address position just rotated his body towards the target and raised up his arms so he is at P9. He basically didn't have to move his trail arm further across his chest than where he started at address. Visualize that for a bit. I bet for people who tend to stall and drag their arms across their body to hit the ball, that would emphasize how much the arms stay in front of the body and how much you have to turn.             
    • Do you know how Manavian is measuring his shoulder adduction-abduction that purports to demonstrate 50 degrees or motion in Bryson's downswing? I know the broader biomechanics research/scientific literature on this suggests shoulder adduction-abduction is only a modest contributor of force generation in the downswing, so I'm definitely not convinced by anything he's arguing, I'm just curious how different people can be claiming to use ostensibly the same "data" to tell a much different story.
    • I have an update… I don't have much of a response, because the fact that they would ADD the numbers for the lead and trail shoulder together… I mean, wow. I was giving them too much credit. Nobody would think to assume they were doing THAT. That's beyond comical. One of the biomechanists I talked to put it this way: "So if I squatted down and went from 180 to 90 deg knee angle, then I would say 180 deg range of motion because I have two knees?" I'd type more (maybe), but honestly, I'm laughing a bit too hard. 🤣 Update: Mini Manavian blocked me on Instagram, so I cannot see his post showing Bryson with about 50° of range of motion (with a driver) from P4 to P7, and 75° only if you go out to the mid-follow-through. What a terrible loss for me. 😉 
    • Thanks, interesting to read. The swing is definitely very timing dependent. I hit it consistently I guess but consistently bad.    
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