My Swing (ShaftFarmer)

[ShaftFarmer]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

That's a decent drill for you, yes. Look at your left knee through impact and early follow-through. It never really extends.

Those are related. If the hips stall the clubhead overtakes. You are doing more than that, though, too, but that's a part of it.

I appreciate the reply! 

I will definitely work on effectively clearing the hips!

I grabbed a clip of a different swing where my impact/follow-through looks much better and it seems like my left knee does extend there. Is this similar to what I would want to see?

 

I took a screenshot of both swings to compare and the more I look at them side by side, it almost looks like the swing where I get some extension in the knee (right), my hips are even less cleared than the swing where I don't have any extension (left). However, it does look like my right wrist is in a slightly better position on the right. Or maybe it's due to angles being slightly different.

[iacas]

8 hours ago, ShaftFarmer said:

I took a screenshot of both swings to compare and the more I look at them side by side, it almost looks like the swing where I get some extension in the knee (right), my hips are even less cleared than the swing where I don't have any extension (left). However, it does look like my right wrist is in a slightly better position on the right. Or maybe it's due to angles being slightly different.

But look at your hands. It's not necessarily about how open your hips are by the same point, but how that affects your ability to hit the ball and how smoothly or continuously your hips can open. And on some players (see also: McIlroy, Rory) there is a little hitch in the follow-through, and it is fine.

[ShaftFarmer]

11 hours ago, iacas said:

But look at your hands. It's not necessarily about how open your hips are by the same point, but how that affects your ability to hit the ball and how smoothly or continuously your hips can open. And on some players (see also: McIlroy, Rory) there is a little hitch in the follow-through, and it is fine.

Ahhh yeah that makes sense. Going to head to the range tonight and work on the feeling of having that string attached to my leading him and really clear those hips. I think that will also fix my balance issue in the follow-through where I sometimes feel like I'm falling forward (towards the target)

[ShaftFarmer]

Last night, I was on the range working on the clearing of the hips on the downswing as well as trying to shallow out the club a bit more to start the downswing.

As far as swing thoughts went I was trying to feel my right elbow coming in towards my side and my left elbow going out towards ball slightly at start of downswing. In order to effectively hit the ball I could tell I really needed to clear my hips from that position. 

This was actually a pretty consistent day as far as divots go. I don't believe I chunked any and there weren't many shots that felt "bad". However, I was having trouble hitting the ball straight. When I started trying to shallow club I began pulling a lot of shots that a light draw flight which was causing a lot of my shots to get well left of the target. 

 

I was really I'd be able to see some shallowing of the club here considering I felt like I was over-exaggerating the elbows. Maybe I need more hip turn at the beginning of my downswing? Also, is my club face too open at the top of my swing? I couldn't for the life of me get the toe to be any more pointed down than it is in the swing above. 

[ShaftFarmer]

Yesterday I came across a before and after video of someone's swing and it really helped me understand early extension. 

(this is NOT me)

Before

 

After

 

By seeing these 2 swings side-by-side I was finally able to see what exactly the hips/lower body should be doing. To me, that second swing looks a lot like the swing of @billchao , especially regarding how he clears the hips. Which I am jealous of because that swing looks textbook to me!!

When I look at my swing, I don't see a whole lot of early extension, however, my swing looks nothing like the one in the second video. So I think I need to work on my hips at the start of downswing to try to combat my slightly over-the-top move I have. 

Hoping the rain/storms clear up later today so I can get out and take some swings otherwise I'm going to go crazy!

[billchao]

20 minutes ago, ShaftFarmer said:

To me, that second swing looks a lot like the swing of @billchao , especially regarding how he clears the hips. Which I am jealous of because that swing looks textbook to me!!

You give me too much credit. I get “off the wall” a couple of inches, myself.

[ShaftFarmer]

The angle from my last DTL video was off so I decided to get another one from a better position.

 

I think these are my best looking swings so far. It looks like I'm finally getting an effective hip extension on the downswing. As far as the ball flights just about every iron shot was pulled a decent amount. I can tell my club face is too closed at the top, even with going using a weaker grip. 

Specific things I was working on (watched a lot of George Gankas videos yesterday):

1. Steeper backswing

2. Leave hands alone at transition and fire hips/chest ("eat the ball")

 

It's funny the last 2 instructors I've paid attention to are George Gankas and Mike Malaska, who seem to have polar opposite opinions on how to swing the club.

 

[ShaftFarmer]

Purchased Lowest Score Wins over weekend! Super pumped to get it and give it a read!

This weekend, I made it out to the range and also played 9 holes. I've been working on really clearing the hips and turning through the ball with my lower body. That and also trying to keep my hands back for a second on transition. A lot of my shots had a hard fade/slice ball-flight which I'm sure is due to me coming over the top. 

I've also noticed whenever I try to add some cupping to my lead wrist on the backswing, my grip gets real messed up and just doesn't feel smooth at all. I have a couple blisters on my left hand so figured it would be a good time to check my grip! 

Frustrating weekend with the swing, but I'll keep working on it

[billchao]

59 minutes ago, ShaftFarmer said:

Purchased Lowest Score Wins over weekend! Super pumped to get it and give it a read!

This weekend, I made it out to the range and also played 9 holes. I've been working on really clearing the hips and turning through the ball with my lower body. That and also trying to keep my hands back for a second on transition. A lot of my shots had a hard fade/slice ball-flight which I'm sure is due to me coming over the top. 

I've also noticed whenever I try to add some cupping to my lead wrist on the backswing, my grip gets real messed up and just doesn't feel smooth at all. I have a couple blisters on my left hand so figured it would be a good time to check my grip! 

Frustrating weekend with the swing, but I'll keep working on it

The spot on your finger looks like something is chafing that shouldn’t be because it’s ripped a chunk of skin apart, but the spot on your palm just looks like a callous forming. I have one in the exact same spot.

I have a smaller callous on my left index finger, too, but skin that tears like that doesn’t form a callous IME. That’s why I have to tape up my thumb when I play.

[ShaftFarmer]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

The spot on your finger looks like something is chafing that shouldn’t be because it’s ripped a chunk of skin apart, but the spot on your palm just looks like a callous forming. I have one in the exact same spot.

I have a smaller callous on my left index finger, too, but skin that tears like that doesn’t form a callous IME. That’s why I have to tape up my thumb when I play.

Yeah the one on the bottom is definitely a callous. I wasn't sure if it was too much in my palm but that seems like the part of the hand that hits the top portion of the grip. As far as the top blister on my pointer finger (left hand) I think I know what that's from. In some of the DTL videos of mine I can see that finger almost looks like it lifts off the club on the backswing a bit, which is interesting haha. Need to get rid of that!

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, ShaftFarmer said:

Purchased Lowest Score Wins over weekend! Super pumped to get it and give it a read!

This weekend, I made it out to the range and also played 9 holes. I've been working on really clearing the hips and turning through the ball with my lower body. That and also trying to keep my hands back for a second on transition. A lot of my shots had a hard fade/slice ball-flight which I'm sure is due to me coming over the top. 

I've also noticed whenever I try to add some cupping to my lead wrist on the backswing, my grip gets real messed up and just doesn't feel smooth at all. I have a couple blisters on my left hand so figured it would be a good time to check my grip! 

Frustrating weekend with the swing, but I'll keep working on it

 

4 hours ago, billchao said:

The spot on your finger looks like something is chafing that shouldn’t be because it’s ripped a chunk of skin apart, but the spot on your palm just looks like a callous forming. I have one in the exact same spot.

I have a smaller callous on my left index finger, too, but skin that tears like that doesn’t form a callous IME. That’s why I have to tape up my thumb when I play.

I have the same thing on my index finger. Mine will crack. I tape like Bill does.

[Darkfrog]

14 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I have the same thing on my index finger. Mine will crack. I tape like Bill does.

Same with me. I searched Amazon for "golfer's tape" and found a product that is a woven tape with some elasticty so range of motion isn't impacted. I tape my left index finger and right thumb.

[Double Mocha Man]

31 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

 

I have the same thing on my index finger. Mine will crack. I tape like Bill does.

Superglue works.  Underneath the 2 week lifespan of the glue the injury will heal.

[boogielicious]

50 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Superglue works.  Underneath the 2 week lifespan of the glue the injury will heal.

I use it all the time for cracks. I use the Krazy Glue with a brush. 

[ShaftFarmer]

59 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Superglue works.  Underneath the 2 week lifespan of the glue the injury will heal.

Interesting! Never thought of that

[ShaftFarmer]

Hit it a bucket at the range last night (taped up the blisters and they felt fine 😀)

What I was working on:

1. More of a weight shift on transition

2. Slowing down backswing and transition

3. Fixing my closed clubface at top of swing (this seems like it would be the easiest but still no luck on that!)

 

The first 80% of my balls were okay, definitely not great. But on my last 20 balls I started actively trying to shift my weight earlier and it was a night and day difference, in a good way! I was trying to feel when I hit A3 (lead arm horizontal) my weight shift to the right was over and BEFORE the top of my backswing shifting my weight back to the left and trying to get "posted up" on my left side earlier. This finally made me feel like I wasn't rushing the transition

This swing thought seemed to help me a ton with my transition as I was finally getting that penetrating ball-flight by hitting down on the ball slightly. Pretty excited to continue playing with that swing thought and getting some videos up.

 

Also, I'm really considering signing up for Evolvr as I think that would be super helpful for me to help implement these swing changes I'm making. Will probably be doing that in the next couple days!

[ShaftFarmer]

Ended up signing up for Evolvr yesterday! I made it to the range yesterday to get a few videos to share and now I'm just waiting on my analysis!

- My divot looks to be bottoming out 2-3 inches in front of the ball which is great

 

[daSeth]

There is really a lot of good going on here and a lot of potential to develop a really good golf swing. However, as currently working, your hands are "flipping" through the ball. That is to say, the angle you generate at the top of your backswing is unwinding too early in the course of the downswing when compared to elite ballstrikers. If you can figure out the concept of impact hands, you'll improve dramatically, like crazy improvement. You have too much ability to be shooting in the 80s, and I mean that in the most encouraging and positive way. Some resources for you:

Brian Manzella (best $9.99 you ever spent in your life)

Clay Ballard (free on YouTube)

Any other YouTube search for impact hands...