My Swing (saevel25)

[iacas]

2 hours ago, saevel25 said:

It’s kind of stupid. I feel like it should slice off the planet. I look up and it’s maybe a slight push. 🤣

You've heard me say that one of my feels is that the ball will go 45° right… and it doesn't. At all.

Just make sure you remember HOW crazy that feel is, because… it may feel that extreme for a long time.

[saevel25]

Got some short game and putting practice in the other day. 

Pitching, trying to keep things wider, less wrist hinge to start the pitch. Trust the setup is going to do a lot for the type of shot. If you open the clubface up, you do not need to try to keep it more open with the hands. A bit of release can happen. 

Putting, I was using the line on the ball to get a sense for alignment again. Then I went back to using an intermediate target. I was also trying to keep the putting stroke much more compact. What helped a lot was making sure the forward stroke of the putt finished about the same length as the backstroke of the putt. It felt more abrupt, but the speed control was better. At one point, I made 4 18-FT putts in a row. 

[saevel25]

So, trying out different feels with pitching. I find feeling my right hand controlling the movement to produce better results. 

[saevel25]

So, the struggle right now with the driver is that I’m dipping down with the body, shallowing wrongly. 

When I try to get my arms down, I end up not turning much at all. End up hitting the sweeping overdraws or if I dip with the body then I’ll hit massive pushes.

I’m trying to turn better with the body and also get the arms down at the same time. Easier with the irons than it does the driver.

also, here’s an image when you almost entirely missed the ball. 🤣🤣🤣

[saevel25]

so with the driver. Feel more arm  width at A4. keep an in the eye on the ball. The first move from the top is lowering the hands down. Don’t mix that up with looking up at the target as the club comes down from A4 with the body. Feel like I get width with the arms from the chest in the Downswing.

[saevel25]

So, after seeing this thread.

I added a bit of this back into the swing. Whipping the club back. So it feels like all the speed for the backswing ends at A2. Giving the hands/arms time to slow down and stop, then rip it from the top of the swing. 

The swing felt more athletic, way better flow than before. Contact was a bit off because it does change the timing. I hit the best 8 iron in a while, and the best drive this year. Ripped a 3-wood out of the rough, 270 yards to pin high on a par 5. 

Being slightly off, and that my short game is not hurting me, but not sharp. Throw in my putting is not sharp. Not like I am three putting, but I am just two putting every hole. Scoring is not there yet. 

I like where things are at and heading right now. 

 

[saevel25]

A bit of summary from playing in the 2024 TST golf outing at The Virtues and Eaglesticks. 

I feel like I am starting to figure things out a bit. Especially off the tee. 1st was a bit of a set up change. I lowered my hands a bit, and started to address the ball off the heel with the driver. This helped me to take the high toe ball out of play. I was wearing a spot out on the driver in the high toe area. Next was feeling like I was staying super tall through the downswing. Basically forcing me to get my hands down from the top of the swing better. Finally, realizing I have a lot of swing path before I start pulling the ball left. I was hitting pretty good big pushes off the tee. I didn't have to worry about hitting giant pulls or pull draws if I got my hands down better. It really helped free me up. 

Irons are pretty solid right now. 

Something I need to work on is full swing wedge shots or partial wedge shots. I am shanking these at a non-negligible  rate. Something with those shots is just off.  No other irons have I come close to shanking it. You give me like 60-100 yards. A yardage I can't really pitch it with a 60, 56, or 52 degree. It's like 33% shank rate. I didn't have another one of these shots. I was about to go to a PW and just pitch it from now on.

Set Up: Less reverse K tilt at set up. Lower hands. Especially with the longer clubs and driver. 
Backswing: Fling the club back with the turn, and feel it collect to a stop around A3. Backswing length is still a thing to monitor.  Do not rush the downswing. Feel things stop. I can rush the downswing by making the bad body movement to shallow the club instead of using my arms correctly. 
Downswing: Feeling of staying tall through out the downswing. Get hands down. Feel like my head doesn't lower or tilt back.  It's like the upper center (chest area) stays very tall. 

Putting, I did better when I started to feel some separation in the shoulders. Like, activating each shoulder separately for the back stroke and forward stroke. Feeling it more in the shoulder blades, and less in the torso. Though, I did make one of the worst back strokes ever on a 3-4 FT putt, but somehow still made it. It was kind of interesting thinking at the back of my back stroke, that was horrible. Then just hitting it in the hole. 

 

[Hardspoon]

50 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I am shanking these at a non-negligible rate

Love it - the kind of golf comment only an engineer would make!  🙂

Was good getting out there to play with you again, even if we never ended up in the same group.  Been too long.

[saevel25]

14 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

Love it - the kind of golf comment only an engineer would make!  🙂

Was good getting out there to play with you again, even if we never ended up in the same group.  Been too long.

Yep! It was good to see you come out to one of these again. We will need to meet up some where near Pittsburgh for a round. 

[saevel25]

I may need to go to the driving range this weekend and get some video. It looks like I developed a case of the hooks. And not the snap hooks, but just  feels like a really good swing, but the path is probably like 7 to 10° out and the face square. It doesn’t feel like the club is snapping through, like the traditional snap  hooks.

I also need to retrain my alignment. I am  aiming everything like 10 to 20° right of where I need to. This even goes down to my putting and pitching as well. It just feels like I can line my feet up, but I am like aiming my body way right. Also feels like I can’t grip the club open enough.

So, I am not sure if I am adding outward swing path with my alignment or not. Even when it feels like I get my hands down and stay taller through the shot. I’m just hooking the ball left. I am also wondering if it may be not turning enough. 

[saevel25]

Base Swing 

A bit of regression here. Too long, bad right elbow. 

Worked on getting it shorter again. Didn’t take me too long. Feels less amount of turn and hands are slow to a stop from A2 to A3. 

Face on view. I widened the stance here a bit.

 

[iacas]

19 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I have to fix this toe hook I am having. I the swing feels decent, just over drawing more than I want. It is tough for me to feel like I can open the club face up that much to counter act it. Especially with the driver since I sole the club down on the ground to grip the club. I am not feeling like I am hitting that far inside to out. I wonder if it is an alignment issue. Like, maybe my slight push is a straight ball and the toe hook might be a straight hook. I might play a practice round out there and lay an alignment stick down to get a feel for where I am aiming and what I am actually hitting. 

Get on a launch monitor to get some actual info?

[saevel25]

Went back to feeling the hands slowing down and stopping at A3. Feel a significant pause at A3. Hands down towards the ground. I get the mental image of Morikawa with how he pauses at the top of the swing, but then really rips at it.  For me, I have to  grip the club about 5° open. Or at least what looks like.

With the driver, it’s another story. A bit of a regression here. Lots of John Daly– esque over swing. Lots of  shallowing with the body.

If I try to send the club behind me with the hands going down to the ground. I have a bad habit of timing that with an over swing. So, I had to go back to feeling a significant positive again to control the back swing length. Then I went back to try to bring the back of the right hand down to my right hip. It feels stupidly, awkward. Like no flow to the swing. But from A6 through impact  feels more effortless. Now I’m hitting some decent push cuts this way. In the swing feels like it has no speed. But, it’s probably better overall.

something I noticed that is way different from my irons to my driver is that with my irons I can keep my eyes looking at the ball much better through the downswing. With the driver, I find it pretty much impossible to do.

Will post some videos later.

[saevel25]

DTL Driver (Base) - 

DTL Driver - Shorter + Back of hand toward ground. Loopy as heck, but really focusing on it. Kind of surprised I was able to get this look that fast. 

 

[iacas]

Have you considered hitting balls literally stopping at 3 and seeing what kind of speed you can generate from there?

I think the hand speed is still too high too late in the first video. So the arms go on too far, the right elbow over-bends, the left arm gets pulled across your chest, and they can't come down fast enough from there. Not really new, as you know.

[saevel25]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

Have you considered hitting balls literally stopping at 3 and seeing what kind of speed you can generate from there?

I will give this a try. 

6 hours ago, iacas said:

I think the hand speed is still too high too late in the first video. So the arms go on too far, the right elbow over-bends, the left arm gets pulled across your chest, and they can't come down fast enough from there. Not really new, as you know.

Yea. I sometimes try to break down how much the right arm moves in the backswing. It isn't much. So, yea not slowing it down fast enough or soon enough. 

[GolfLug]

Matt, grain of salt but left shoulder looks like it is moving a bit too flat starting out. IMO it should move a bit more 'under' your right at least till A2. 

[saevel25]

2 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Matt, grain of salt but left shoulder looks like it is moving a bit too flat starting out. IMO it should move a bit more 'under' your right at least till A2. 

Thanks for the insight. This is not on my radar, and I am not sure it is something I need to worry about right now or if at all. I am a bit more concerned with swing length right now. Maybe tilt affects that, but most likely not to the degree in which I overswing 😉. 

Edited June 17, 2024 by saevel25