Athletic Motion Golf Video Featuring Our Own Erik Barzeski

[boogielicious]

@iacas is a featured guest on the newest AMG video release talking about the top swing faults instructors see from using GEARS. The first one we caught on my first GEARS lesson. I still work on that.

Worth a watch.

 

[M2R]

Quote

12:36ish: Having the right concept allows you to work towards the right movements.

I feel like this captures where I am at. I guess the struggle for me is finding, understanding, internalizing, "the right concept". What I mean is it pisses me off thinking about all the time and money I wasted on instructors who were teaching based on bad ball flight concepts/understanding. Seeing the data/high speed video for ball flight is what convinces me how in error they were.

While I think it is kind of cool to have lived through the birth and growth of competent data driven golf instruction, it is also kind of disheartening thinking about all the golfers killed or injured by incompetent instruction - which I feel is still an ongoing and concerning process.

[boogielicious]

The first issue Erik spoke about is something we worked on for my swing during both GEARS sessions. GEARS was showing my pelvis center moving towards the ball during the back swing. I wasn’t the 4” guy though! This forced me to correct on the downswing to give myself space. My hip rotation was to high as well.

We corrected it by first getting the weight off my heels in my stance and getting my posture correct. Then the feel was shifting back into my right hip at a 45 degree angle. This kept my pelvis center from moving towards the ball at the start of the backswing. I also didn’t sway back as much as I felt I did because of the angle I was shifting. Feel Ain’t Real.

The cool thing about GEARS is as you work on something you can see the exact (Real) change happening. On video, it is much harder to spot this issue because of the 2D nature of filming. But I know what to look for now.

Sadly, I was hurt all last year and most of this year so I really haven’t been able to work on it much. I did do a lot of backswing work though.

[saevel25]

That was a good watch.

When I started working on pelvis in the backswing. I thought, this sounds contradictory to those leg straightening threads on the site. Erik has already done a correction.

Then the last lesson we went more down the route of feeling the right knee gains flex. It doesn’t, but the feeling keeps my knee position in a good range. Also, I just realized how much extra work my right hip needed to do to stabilize the body with the proper weight shift. Those glute and hip stabilizers got worked. 🤣

I wish this evolution in the golf instruction happened 20 years ago! 😭

[iacas]

I need to drop a couple of stone. 🙂 😛 

10 hours ago, saevel25 said:

When I started working on pelvis in the backswing. I thought, this sounds contradictory to those leg straightening threads on the site. Erik has already done a correction.

 

Yep.

10 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Then the last lesson we went more down the route of feeling the right knee gains flex. It doesn’t, but the feeling keeps my knee position in a good range. Also, I just realized how much extra work my right hip needed to do to stabilize the body with the proper weight shift. Those glute and hip stabilizers got worked. 🤣

Yeah, but in the end, it feels more athletic, like you're actually using your legs, yeah?

10 hours ago, saevel25 said:

I wish this evolution in the golf instruction happened 20 years ago! 😭

As you know… we use the best available info we have. Like others, I was fooled a little by 2D images for awhile (moving or still). Unlike others, I've learned and grown and moved on since then, while they're still looking at their images (often from lousy camera angles).

[saevel25]

8 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, but in the end, it feels more athletic, like you're actually using your legs, yeah?

Yep. I think it will start to feel even more athletic when we start on the downswing stuff later. 

9 minutes ago, iacas said:

As you know… we use the best available info we have. Like others, I was fooled a little by 2D images for awhile (moving or still). Unlike others, I've learned and grown and moved on since then, while they're still looking at their images (often from lousy camera angles).

I know, it's just I want to be younger so I have more time to enjoy the changes. 🙂 

[boogielicious]

New Video with our own Erik Barzeski!

 

[iacas]

Except for "you could lose 30 pounds," (you're right) I'm curious to hear what y'all think of the podcast.

Direct commentary is appreciated.

[boogielicious]

I agree on the four types of golfers. Being #4, a good practice student, is obviously my goal. My question is really about practice vs play and how do we separate them. You went into it a bit in the episode. But bad shots affect me and I feel I revert when that starts to happen.

All three of you mentioned the “getting through the round” swing. Got that. But there was also talk of transition time when making swing changes. An example was sighted where a student was working on his swing path and it was working but he was pushing everything to the right. That indicated his path was better. I guess I would want coaching on that for when I play. Do I set up so I expect the push on every shot? I would have liked a little bit more discussion on that.

[Ty_Webb]

I'm pretty sure I've been three of the four of these. I don't think I've ever been the combative one. I may have internally disagreed with something a coach said, but I wouldn't voice that. I would say if I didn't understand what they were getting at. I think sometimes people (and since coaches are people to, at least for the time being) make jumps in their logic, which might very well be reasonable and justifiable, but they don't express the reasoning, so I may ask them to explain more or differently. But I don't think I've ever been #1. #2 I did to Erik a week or two ago. #4 is what I'm always aspiring to do and #3 is where I often end up because life finds a way.

Really good listen and it was very interesting to hear the three of you talk like this about this stuff. I think this format can be a great way to get information across. And people are probably more responsive to criticism if it's not being directed at them specifically. Much better to talk to each other about generic type issues and people listening thinking "huh, I guess I do that sometimes, maybe I should try this instead" rather than having someone talking to the camera and saying "don't do this" or "try this". Also giving examples of people actually being #4 is good too. Seems more tangible than just saying to be a #4

[saevel25]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

Except for "you could lose 30 pounds," (you're right) I'm curious to hear what y'all think of the podcast.

Same here ;). I need to lose about 39 lbs of fat and gain 11 lbs of muscle. It's going to be a fun 17-20 weeks.

14 hours ago, iacas said:

Direct commentary is appreciated.

I think the assessment of type of golfers is correct. I think there could be some overlap. The bad concept golfer could also be the band-aid golfer. I think the first two types of golfers are more likely to use YouTube now to fix their swings. YouTube will perpetuate bad concepts and also give them quick fixes. 

Could I say that The Great Practicer might not need to know about making small mistakes to improve? I think learning can be intuitive. It might be quicker for them to have an instructor point out the exaggerations to get the feel. 

I do think it is a good point on using foam balls. I actually like using them now. As long as you don't chunk a shot, the feel is consistent on mishits. You can really focus on just working on the swing and not hitting a shot. Also, I never thought about the advantage of being indoors all winter and setting up for the start of the season. When you live in the south, you can almost just get caught in playing 365 and not utilizing an off season to improve. 

Yea, I think the only time block practice exists is the golfer on the range just mindlessly hitting golf balls. A great practicer could use block practice is specific cases. I agree that most everything falls into the variable practice. 

I think most people tend not to be great practicers. I like the idea of practicing to be a great practicer. You have to be really diligent in how you structure your practices to make sure you are falling into the great practicer bin. 

I do think in some instances being a band-aid golfer can be beneficial. If you are a great practicer, you have a tournament, but you are stuck with something and need help finding a shot for a weekend. I would see that as putting a band-aid on something then going back to being a great practicer. Like, hey you need to open the face, aim left, and hit a big push cut. 

14 hours ago, boogielicious said:

My question is really about practice vs play and how do we separate them. You went into it a bit in the episode. But bad shots affect me and I feel I revert when that starts to happen.

I agree. Once you turn on the practice mind it is tough to turn it off during a round.