Welcome to the Grind

[iacas]

40 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

That’s actually motivating to me @iacas. Did you ever struggle with keeping your lead arm straight? I’ve done so many repetitions with this and seems the instant I go beyond 1/2 speed it bends. What’s hard for me is how it totally feels straight, just like when I’m going slow. Yet video shows I’m bending the hell out of it every time. 

No, not really.

You probably aren’t using your body enough so your arms try to make up for it.

if you can’t do it at 60% speed, why go any faster?

[Vinsk]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

No, not really.

You probably aren’t using your body enough so your arms try to make up for it.

if you can’t do it at 60% speed, why go any faster?

Well my shoulder turn is well over 90*. I’ve been measured over 100* as well. You’re right about the 60%. It’s just a feeling I suppose that if I don’t crank back farther than that I lose power. It doesn’t help that my chest is rather thick as well. I’m gonna do a grind session as you did with emphasis on my lead arm. The ‘pushing arms’ out drill you did a while back. 

[Bo the Golfer]

Great topic. I agree with you @iacas that grind really shouldn't have a negative connotation. It's just what we need to do in order to improve. I feel as if I've always done a disservice to myself by trying to go the route of self discovery. While that may work in a mental health arena (has for me), with golf it either seems to exponentially increase the time to improvement or make it unattainable in certain areas of the game. I do love hitting balls but in watching your video I feel somewhat foolish in how I've gone about things expecting improvement. Going forward part of the grind needs to include connecting with the right way of learning what needs improvement and working on one piece of that at a time. 

[ChetlovesMer]

On 11/9/2022 at 11:20 PM, iacas said:

The problem I have is that a golfer left to teach himself will often solve the problem sub-optimally. Furthermore, as you may know, I view your actual technique as a baseline, with the skill

Oh my goodness. You're talking about me. 

This is/was my problem throughout my golf life. ... "Sub-Optimally" is a euphemism for I'm liable to really f#ck things up. 

If I charted my handicap over the 30 years or so I've been playing golf it would look like a roller coaster. ... It could also be a weather report -> "Over the next 30 years or so Chet's high will be well over thirty with a low down in single digits...."  

Here's some facts about me. 

• I'm not a natural athlete. Nobody has ever said I have rhythm. My balance sucks; Always has. It's not getting any better with age. 
• I do try to keep a reasonable level of fitness. Not just for golf, but more for like life. 
• When left to "teach myself" my handicap climbs. Sometime really high. 
• Every time my handicap has gotten low (at or around single digits) it has been after at least two years working with the same coach.
• So far I've had 3 good coaches: One from 2002-2006. One from about 2013-2016. And for the last 15 months I've been working with Yoda. (On a related note. My coach before Yoda is a really good guy, I'm still friends with him and I talk to him often. But truthfully he didn't help me. I worked with him for quite a while, but it just wasn't working. It's like that girl you tried dating then discovered you're both better off as friends... there you go.) 
• I consider myself at least a descent student. (I'm pretty much a shining star when you look at folks coming out of the Ch!cago Publ!c Sch00L System.) 
• I've always been willing to "put in the work". 
• I truly enjoy practicing. If it wasn't for "real life" responsibilities I would do so even more. Sometimes its like a mistress where I sneak away to practice. 
• My golf swing at this moment might be as good as its ever been. 

What I'm getting at is through the 90's I played golf with the teach myself approach. Sometimes I broke 100... but not often. Back then I had tons of time. I played and practiced a lot. I was also really fit back then. What I didn't understand back then was the difference between practice and exercise. 

Here are the things I wish I knew when I started: 1 - Short practice sessions more often trumps long-ass sessions of reinforcing bad swings. 2 - People who teach golf know more about how to teach golf then I do. 3 - Working on something until I get it right is good. Working on it until I can't get it wrong is much better.