My Swing (saevel25)

[iacas]

Probably earlier & more is better to say than faster.

Yeah, that's better.

There's a certain amount of "regaining flexion" and "keeping flexion" particularly in the left hip area that you have to do in order to crash your ass through the wall. Would love to see some slow downswings (not even hitting a ball, just making the motion).

And seriously, build that thing, or use a chair in your house or something, and film some of those sessions. Let's see 'em.

[saevel25]

Would love to see some slow downswings (not even hitting a ball, just making the motion).

And seriously, build that thing, or use a chair in your house or something, and film some of those sessions. Let's see 'em.

Will do

[saevel25]

And seriously, build that thing, or use a chair in your house or something, and film some of those sessions. Let's see 'em.

Tried to make some slower swings getting my left hip to the chair. Hard to make slow enough swings because its a power move and it wants to bring the club through impact with some force.

[iacas]

Tried to make some slower swings getting my left hip to the chair. Hard to make slow enough swings because its a power move and it wants to bring the club through impact with some force.

Those look good. You can do it in very very very slow motion and really exaggerate the flexion in the left hip as it turns out of the way too.

[saevel25]

So the left hip looses a bit of flex in the backswing the regains some in the downswing, the squatish move, then goes into extension in the finish as the belt buckle points to the sky?

[iacas]

So the left hip looses a bit of flex in the backswing the regains some in the downswing, the squatish move, then goes into extension in the finish as the belt buckle points to the sky?

No. It gains on the backswing. Stays flexed longer during the downswing as it bumps forward and turns. Do a few in a several second long downswing and you'll see.

[mvmac]

That chair drill looks great @saevel25 , keep it up. And like @iacas said can do it even slower.

[saevel25]

No. It gains on the backswing. Stays flexed longer during the downswing as it bumps forward and turns. Do a few in a several second long downswing and you'll see.

That chair drill looks great @saevel25, keep it up. And like @iacas said can do it even slower.

Will do

[saevel25]

Struggle through my round tonight. A few really good solid shots and a few really bad shots. Struggled a bit with the driver. The hooks showed their ugly head.

When I get the left hip to get back and around I can hit some really solid shots. When I don't and I stall out bad things happen. When I play I can get caught into trying hard to get that left side cleared that I end up swinging harder than swinging better.

Distances Wedges were so-so. I only had a few of them. First I caught a flier lie and pulled it a bit, but contact was good. Second one I thinned. Third I hit a tad fat because the ball was above my feet. Just need a lot more reps on using proper technique. I think some of my hip things bleeds into this as well.

Pitching was really good. I only had one bad short game shot when I duffed a chip. Ball was sitting up and I needed to pick it clean more and the club just went right under the ball. Besides that I think I averaged inside of 10 feet for my pitches and had a few easy 3-4 footers.

The downside, when I missed it was very much in the wrong place. I had two hazards and an OB. The OB was just a block driver that flew through a dog leg into some trees. The first hazard was just a massive push cut hybrid that went way right of where I was aiming. The final hazard was hook with a driver.

Oh well, I decided to take some video of my swing at the range afterwards. Set up a station with an alignment rod behind me to try to hit with my left toosh.

I decided to swing the club short and easier on the range. Much better results.

[saevel25]

Finally got around to a bit of change the picture stuff.

This one is better. Club is much lower than what it use to be. Left hip is actually really near the alignment stick. Clubshaft use to (sometimes still does) exit to high around the left shoulder.

Thoughts on this swing. 1/2 to 3/4 swing length, 3/4 swing speed, really get that left hip to go back. Good check to make sure I maintain that spine tilt into the finish.

Not as good swing at the range. Heads probably fallen back a bit and the club overtakes the hands to fast. Head tends to fall back more often when the swing gets to long in the backswing and gets to fast. Still can happen when I take a shorter swing. I can catch a few shots fat from time to time. Would like to see more Zach Johnson, he's an extreme case but a good model for me I think.

Mostly a good swing from above produces a better overtake rate. Maybe more arms together into the finish might help. Not really overly concerned about getting extreme on this. This position is more of a response to not being good in the downswing. Would like to see more of the Zach Johnson finish.

Conclusion keep practicing on what I need to do

Other parts of the game

Distance Wedges, just needs practice. Easy fix from Saturday but needs to become 2nd nature.

Pitching, getting good. I actually chipped in for par yesterday. I do much much better when I do not rush and thinking of my landing spots.

Putting is much better, especially when I take my time lining up. I can get lazy in my preshot routine and it effects my putting stroke.

On a side note, my air compressor is waiting for me at the land lady's office. So this evening I'll be changing my grips the easy way.

Thinks are looking better. The shots on the range were much more consistent than what I was doing the past few weeks. Before I would go to the range and thin half my shots and just search for any sort of contact. Now I am really hitting the ball solid, but just need to get that downswing piece down to really allow me to get keys 4 and 5 better.

[iacas]

Not as good swing at the range. Heads probably fallen back a bit and the club overtakes the hands to fast. Head tends to fall back more often when the swing gets to long in the backswing and gets to fast. Still can happen when I take a shorter swing. I can catch a few shots fat from time to time. Would like to see more Zach Johnson, he's an extreme case but a good model for me I think.

Mostly a good swing from above produces a better overtake rate. Maybe more arms together into the finish might help. Not really overly concerned about getting extreme on this. This position is more of a response to not being good in the downswing. Would like to see more of the Zach Johnson finish.

Yes, keep doing what your'e doing, but remember it's mostly about the hips (with a tiny bit of the backswing stuff, and a little of the left arm shifting out stuff, which the backswing almost completely cures, too).

The Zach Johnson FO view is the "result" (to an extreme). Zach does well to do that and I could make a case that he almost has to because… his butt tends to come off the wall and he early extends, too. It works for him, because he manages to keep his turn rates up AND his overtaking rate down, but he's not really the "model" for you from DL:

Another Johnson is a good model for your piece, though:

(Never mind that your clubhead speed is closer to Dustin's than Zach's anyway.)

Thinks are looking better. The shots on the range were much more consistent than what I was doing the past few weeks. Before I would go to the range and thin half my shots and just search for any sort of contact. Now I am really hitting the ball solid, but just need to get that downswing piece down to really allow me to get keys 4 and 5 better.

Yes, good. The first priority was to make contact better, and the overtaking rate and the head movement had as much to do with that as they did with 4 and 5. But now, yes, exacxtly: now it comes down to getting 4 and 5 right. The shitty thing about that is that 4 1, 2, 3, and 5 can be perfect and it's a horrible result, or 1-4 can be there, with 5 missing, and it's still horrible.

Practice at the edge of your ability, Dough. You know what this means (I think). When you play, play. When you practice, do it at the edge.

[saevel25]

Driver was erratic tonight. Push cut, hook, push draw, toey push draw, push, block cut Iron contact was better. Did pull draw on one tee shot on a par three. Distance wedges are heavy. Pitching was distance control. Putting was horrible. Lots of three putts. Need longer backstroke.

[saevel25]

Bit of self diagnosis on the golf swing.

Driver: Swinging way to hard. Probably swinging in the 90%+ range. Not good for someone who needs to keep it lower. I just think left hip more open and I want to really turn faster. Which isn't what I need. I need earlier and more not faster. When I am  on the course I just rip at it with the driver.

Irons: Better, not great.

Distance Wedges: Not sure, maybe I need to be more upright or more teeter totter feeling. Probably need a lot of reps. I can't brush the ground or take small nice divots in the practice swing, then I just hit the ball slightly heavy and much more descending blow. Maybe it's the hips stalling and a bit of a flip. I'll probably get video of this over the weekend.

I like the progression of the full swing. The game isn't coming together quick enough for my liking. Wedges to putting isn't sharp at all right now.

[iacas]

I like the progression of the full swing. The game isn't coming together quick enough for my liking. Wedges to putting isn't sharp at all right now.

This isn't going to be an excuse, but… stop playing crappy courses. They can make you feel like a crappy putter sometimes. Play more at BC. :)

Send video (even real-time not slow-mo) of five or ten minutes of your range session. Let's see a few different clubs practicing at the edge of your (current) ability.

[saevel25]

Send video (even real-time not slow-mo) of five or ten minutes of your range session. Let's see a few different clubs practicing at the edge of your (current) ability.

Explain at the "edge of your (current) ability". Is that in context of swing speed?

[cedrictheo]

@saevel25 at the edge of your ability means that you are exploring a change at a speed where you are successful roughly 80% of the time. For me this starts at about 50% swing speed and feels sooooo uncomfortable. Then as it becomes more comfortable I'll increase my swing speed. You need to be practicing slow enough that you can feel whether you made the change or you didn't make the change. (Then confirm using video) Deep practice is an exploration of your body and what the change feels like to you. Also looking forward to how @iacas will describe "the edge of your ability"

[saevel25]

@saevel25 at the edge of your ability means that you are exploring a change at a speed where you are successful roughly 80% of the time. For me this starts at about 50% swing speed and feels sooooo uncomfortable. Then as it becomes more comfortable I'll increase my swing speed.

You need to be practicing slow enough that you can feel whether you made the change or you didn't make the change. (Then confirm using video)

That makes a lot of sense.

I know about about the slow practice. I do a lot of slow motion swings inside in the evenings after work. Slow backswings, hold to feel the club position, slight pump of the hands (vertically because I have a bad habit of pumping the club around, not up), then very slow downswing really getting the hips open.

I do think I need to go to the range more often just so I can get contact with the swing changes, and develop that swing speed I am comfortable with my swing changes. That is probably related to the edge of my ability things.

[CarlSpackler]

This isn't going to be an excuse, but… stop playing crappy courses. They can make you feel like a crappy putter sometimes. Play more at BC. :)

Send video (even real-time not slow-mo) of five or ten minutes of your range session. Let's see a few different clubs practicing at the edge of your (current) ability.

Yes. With a membership to BCreek, why in the hell are you still playing community??? I'm having trouble adjusting from a country club to a sh**hole.