My Swing (ChetlovesMer)

[ChetlovesMer]

I've been Playing Golf for: Almost 30 years. I started when I was 22. 
My current handicap index or average score is: A mess right now. 2 years ago I got my handicap below 8, but right now I don't feel like I could even break 100. Thus this thread. 
My typical ball flight is: Fade
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: For 15 years I fought a snaphook. I played a draw, but when it went badly golf was no longer fun. So, the last 5 years or so, I've played what I hoped was a power fade. Now however I'm trying to eliminate the weak fade with the driver and the hosel rocket with my irons. (The hosel shot sucks as much as the snaphook used to.)

---

Videos: 

Before I get to the videos. Here's some stuff I'm working on: 

And

and

Now some video:

I know this is shot in my basement. But I just can't get any time to get to the range. So, I figured I could at least use this to practice taking video. I attempted to shoot this straight down the toe line.

 

This is the caddie view. 

 

I realized I was a little close the camera. So, I tried to do the Caddie View again.

Of course I realize I still have a way to go. These swings are far from perfect. They are, however, perfect examples of where my swing is right now. 

[colin007]

Weight forward, my mans. That alone will help with the massive OtT move. Look at your left hip in relation to the molding on the doorway behind you in that first caddy view video.

[boogielicious]

47 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Weight forward, my mans. That alone will help with the massive OtT move. Look at your left hip in relation to the molding on the doorway behind you in that first caddy view video.

I agree with Colin and work with partial and slower swings when practicing. 

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

work with partial and slower swings when practicing. 

That's pretty much all I'm doing these days. 
I did want to capture the full swing "as is" so I have something to use for comparison. 

[iacas]

Keep working on the piece I gave you at Chautauqua. Face down, right hand on top… watch the cupping left wrist at the end of the backswing.

Then we're doing work on that downswing. Make 1/2 swings for now.

Record yourself doing those 1/2 swings with the face down for the backswing.

[ChetlovesMer]

19 hours ago, iacas said:

Keep working on the piece I gave you at Chautauqua. Face down, right hand on top… watch the cupping left wrist at the end of the backswing.

Then we're doing work on that downswing. Make 1/2 swings for now.

Record yourself doing those 1/2 swings with the face down for the backswing.

I have so many issues. 

 

 

 

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I have so many issues. 

 

 

 

Think about swinging out more so your hands are further from you body at A6. My Evolvr instructor wants my left arm to not be vertical at A6, but a good hand width out. Try swinging out so your hands are past the ball from your eye view. What this does is move the club head back on plane. You can almost over do it it in practice where you swing way out thinking you’ll miss the ball, but you won’t.  Do them slowly at first.

[iacas]

Good half swing. Do more of that. If you keep hitting pulls, your body/mind will start to re-organize a bit and help you shift the swing path a bit farther to the right.

[ChetlovesMer]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:07 PM, iacas said:

Good half swing. Do more of that. If you keep hitting pulls, your body/mind will start to re-organize a bit and help you shift the swing path a bit farther to the right.

I'm hitting a ton of pulls. 

When I hit full shots which isn't that often. Mostly I'm just doing those half swings. 

I have 2 questions:
1 - My LEFT forearm is starting to hurt all the time. I would think the new grip would make might RIGHT forearm hurt, but it doesn't. I guess that's a statement not a question. But it leads to my next question.

2 - How's my grip. I ask because when I look at picks of myself the down the line looks pretty similar to what I've been seeing for a long time. But my Caddie view looks like there's tremendous tilt in my shoulders. I assume that's because with my new grip and my trail hand being more "under the club" it pulls the right shoulder down at set up. 

Does my grip look okay? Then how about the rest of my set up? My right shoulder feels like its super low. 

[iacas]

You’ve overdone the grip.

2.5 knuckles. Not 4.

[ChetlovesMer]

9 minutes ago, iacas said:

You’ve overdone the grip.

2.5 knuckles. Not 4.

Thought so

I'll keep working on it. 

[ChetlovesMer]

Okay, so I was hitting pull after pull after pull. So much so that I started to play the pull. I actually shot 2 mediocre rounds just playing the pull. 

 

Here's my recent history. 
On August 2nd up in Erie I shot a round in which my score was just under a million. Absolute trainwreck.

August 9, I shot a 105.

August 16, I played the pull and shot a 89. Leaked oil down the stretch.

August 23, Continued to play the pull and shot 84. ... Getting better.

August 30, I actually scored pretty close to the same score as August 23rd. I shot 85, but something was wrong. I could tell. My carry distance was down like 10-15 yards throughout the bag. 

My range sessions this week have been dreadful. One day everything's off the hosel. The next day everything's a weak fade. I'm lost again. I'm about to give up the game forever. So, either quit golf or film my swing. Those are my only two options, my swing coach is down in Florida. So I filmed my swing. Didn't take long to see it's a mess again. 

 

 

[ChetlovesMer]

Here's the caddie view. I wasn't able to film true slow motion. I actually had to go to a different driving range to get this footage. My driving range has "COVID - Dividers" up. Which is fine. Except it's impossible to film caddie view. 

 

This is dreadfull:

 

Okay, here's the down the line view. All I can say is "IT'S BAAAACCCCK!" I wanted to cry when I watched this. 

 

Sometimes I hate me:

 

 

 

[boogielicious]

7 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Here's the caddie view. I wasn't able to film true slow motion. I actually had to go to a different driving range to get this footage. My driving range has "COVID - Dividers" up. Which is fine. Except it's impossible to film caddie view. 

 

This is dreadfull:

 

Okay, here's the down the line view. All I can say is "IT'S BAAAACCCCK!" I wanted to cry when I watched this. 

 

Sometimes I hate me:

 

 

 

Start with shorter, slower swings and work on path. You can’t make changes at full speed. Also look at the aid that @nevets88 built per @iacas specs. It helps you work on path. It’s in the top video.

[iacas]

The position at the top isn’t that bad. You’re not rolling the face open anywhere near as much.

You need to fix the path now. Had you pulled the back longer you’d have done that kind of automatically but you tried something I guess and that led to confusion.

Right hand on top, swing right of the stick.

Start with 40-yard 6-irons. Work up slowly from there.

[ChetlovesMer]

I need to get some more video, because it's actually getting much better. 

I've been hitting tons of short shots with a 6 iron or 7 iron. Trying my best to start them all off to the right.

Secondly, I had a bit of breakthrough last weekend. I played 9 holes during pretty high winds. Here's how that went.

Hole 1, 376 yard, par 4 into the wind. Hit weak driver, it faded. Hybrid from rough, chip on, 2 putts - Bogey. 

Hole 2, 358 yard, par 4 up hill into the wind. Hit a better drive, still a fade. 8 iron, near GIR, chip, 2 putts - Bogey.

Hole 3, 138 yard, par 3, hard left to right wind. Tried to hit a low draw, ended up hitting a dead straight bullet. 2 putts - par

Hole 4, 490 yard, par 5 , hard left to right wind. Visualized a low draw, hit another dead straight bullet. Hmm.... Tried a 3 wood again, went for a low draw. Hit a dead straight bullet. Actually had an eagle putt, - 2 putts, birdie. 

Hole 5, 410 yard, par 4 - Wind is now right to left. Still visualized a low draw, hit a monster drive. Left a 125 yard, normally PW - Instead tried again, to hit a low draw with the 9 iron. Flew the green. Chip on, 1 putt, par

Hole 6, 151 yard, par 3 - Wind is again right to left. Once again, tried to visualize a low draw. Bang! Center of the green. 2 putt, par

Hole 7, 526 yard, par 5 - Wind is back to left to right. Visualized a low draw again. Hit a great drive. Hybrid, visualized a low draw.... OOPS! Over cooked it, pulled it (and drew it) way left. Ended up making a snowman from the tree line one fairway over to the left. 

Hole 8, 390 yard, par 4 - Wind is kind of hurting, but mostly right to left. I stuck with the low draw visualization. Smoked another drive. Full PW to the green, visualized a low draw, GIR, 2 putts, par

Hole 9, 430 yard, par 4 - Wind is kind of helping, but mostly left to right. Visualized a low draw and banged another great drive. It actually faded just a bit, but left me 150 and change to the green. Hit 7 iron, visualized a low draw, tugged it a bit left. Sand trap. - Got up and down for Par Yeah, Baby! Sand-save Par. 

So, what's the point of me writing all of that down? Simple, I played the last 7 holes hitting every shot while visualizing a low draw and the good new is I hit almost all great shots. (The over-cooked hybrid on hole 7 not withstanding). I went 2 over on the first 2 holes and 2 over on the last 7 holes where I used the low-draw swing thought. 

So, the good news is my visualizing a low draw before every swing really seems to be working for me. I'm hitting mostly dead straight shots with beautiful trajectory. The bad news is I can't seem to ACTUALLY hit a low draw! 

My hope is that this "Low Draw" swing-thought swing will eventually become my "normal" swing and then I'll be able to once again hit a low draw when it's needed. 
 

 

[RFKFREAK]

Progress is being made, well done!

[iacas]

Uhm, maybe this will work, but I'd wager a tidy sum that a swing thought like "low draw" will not work long-term. Or even for more than a week or two.

Get some video, develop the feels from the proper mechanics, and then rehearse those mechanics, checking in frequently to see if the mechanics and feels are still producing the desired results.

You might have just timed things well that day, and still done a bunch of "bad" things, and gotten away with it for a bit. It probably won't last. It's a band-aid fix, not a long-term solution, I'd wager heavily.

Sorry for the dousing of cold water, but if you just want a bunch of "rah rah" bullshit, you've come to the wrong place.

😉😄