My Swing (Zeph)

[Zeph]

11 hours ago, iacas said:

Welcome back!

Evolvr.com?

Thanks! Evolvr, for sure. My indoors setup is pretty close to ready. I want to add a few more lights as it's a pretty dark place to begin with (old barn). Plan to use my iPhone 14 Pro, 720p 240 FPS. I think I got a tripod somewhere, but I nail everything down so I'll make a small box I can just plop the phone into. That way I know it's always in the same spot and level. How does the setup look in terms of angles and stuff. 

11 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't use the full extreme end of it, and that's probably dipped to 75% or so nowadays. But I use the sole more than I don't, yeah.

Also… it's good to learn this shot:

I saw that topic and bookmarked it for later. A technique where you want the head to move forward and down? I've been doing that for twenty years! (not on purpose) 😛 Looks fun, I'll certainly try it out.

11 hours ago, iacas said:

Look at the GC3. You can find them for really good prices sometimes.

£7000. That's certainly "down the line". What would be a good price?

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Do your research first and if you’re still interested in the Mevo I can sell you mine for less than that.

Thanks. I'll probably hold off until at least winter comes and see where we're living at that point. For the next six months I'll combine indoor practice with the range, which helps.

Edited May 8, 2024 by Zeph

[iacas]

The angles look fine. Get as much light as you can on the area — you want the highest shutter speed you can get. Less blur.

[Zeph]

Good tip. You can’t set the shutter speed manually on the built-in camera app on an iPhone, but it’s possible with a different app. I bought the ProCam 8 ($9.99), where you can set everything manually. For videos, I can set it to a maximum of 1/1600-1800.

I tried 60 and 240 FPS, and even at 60 FPS the video is much better with higher shutter speed than the built-in app where you can’t control the shutter speed. You can see the face angle in every frame, while on the built-in app with 240 FPS the entire club is a blur. And that’s with only a pair of portable LED work lights.

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, Zeph said:

Good tip. You can’t set the shutter speed manually on the built-in camera app on an iPhone, but it’s possible with a different app. I bought the ProCam 8 ($9.99), where you can set everything manually. For videos, I can set it to a maximum of 1/1600-1800.

I tried 60 and 240 FPS, and even at 60 FPS the video is much better with higher shutter speed than the built-in app where you can’t control the shutter speed. You can see the face angle in every frame, while on the built-in app with 240 FPS the entire club is a blur. And that’s with only a pair of portable LED work lights.

That sounds good. And, yeah, the default camera app tries to take in as much light as possible.

[Zeph]

The good part first. Short game has improved a lot. Not that it took much to improve, and there’s still work to do, but I feel more confident. It’s fun to practice.

“Soft hands” has become an important element when working on chipping and pitching. When I set up for a chip with ball in the middle, leaning forward, loading the club a little in the transition, the hands doing too much is almost the only thing that can go wrong. For the pitch I want the hands even less involved, but it feels like a softer grip and being less handsy helps on chipping as well.

Now, full swing. I now remember what it was like playing with a slice. “Slice” to me is like “Voldemort” to the wizards. It’s absolutely abysmal. I can take a fat or thin shot, but a slice is the worst. Getting my path sorted out is sorely needed.

I have signed up for Evolvr again and trust they will help me get there. I see a lot of issues I’ve worked on before. I’ll take it a step at the time in whatever order they recommend.

Backswing is too long, rotating the shoulders too much, not getting enough weight forward, not extending through the downswing, pulling, slicing. I’m very happy to be able to use Golf Evolution for this work.

 

[Zeph]

Grip

More in the fingers, left hand knuckles closer to parallell with shaft. Feels like a big change.

Setup

Shifting weight more forward to the balls of the feet and more bent over. Trying to get the hips closer to the ball so the middle of the hips is more over the ankles. Haven’t quite found the balance yet in the swing, but there are probably moving parts reponsible for that as well.

Still a very mixed bag of shots, but generally an improvement. More shots around straight, a few that might have been small push-draws. Still some bananas going right.

Clubface is varying a lot at impact, perhaps partly because of the grip change, but the flip isn’t helping either.

Here’s an image to show the difference in torso angle at setup (yellow), shaft angle at setup (red) and shaft angle on the way down (green).

[Zeph]

A look at setup changes. Erik may want to adjust a little more on Evolvr, but it's closer now.  Making tiny changes is difficult. I've moved the ball position back and forth so many times. It looks and feels a bit forward here maybe, but we're getting there. Baby steps.

Also working on the backswing and trying to lift the arms later. Feels so weird to let the hands get deeper early, especially since one goal is to avoid the hands getting too deep at the top. I think my mind has imagined the arms moving in a straight line (in plane) back, when they should be going first in a bit and then more straight up than around. Feeling the hands more in front of the chest seems like a good thought.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Zeph said:

If the left is 1 and the right is 10, you can go to about 8. That is a slight bit too far away, basically. Let the arms fall down a bit more and stand up a teeny tiny bit more.

[Zeph]

Getting closer. Both looks and feels better.

Still working on the grip. I don’t think I ever put this much effort into the grip before, or realized how important it is.

I’ve gotten an ache in the back the past week. Middle-upper area or something. Maybe from trying different stuff and hitting a lot of fat shots. I’ve hit a lot of balls earlier this year without issues. I’ll take it easy the next couple of days and see what happens (said that three days in a row now).

I also realize that I need to find a new hitting net. The one I got is more of a driving range net I think, because it’s getting holey. I’ll probably order an archery net which I’ve seen recommended in here and place it in front of the other net.

[Zeph]

Grip, grip grip.

This weekend I had more epiphanies about the grip. It's a small visual change, but dynamically and swingwise it's huge. The biggest one was the right hand this time, which I hadn't given enough attention, but Erik wanted it stronger. When making it a little bit stronger, the V pointing more towards the back shoulder, it felt like it actually made sense. My grip used to be palmy and weak, and I never felt comfortable with how the hands moved in the swing. I didn't adjust the left hand this time, but here I also had a realization. When Erik said in his grip video to wrap the pinkie pad on the grip, I missed the part when he said "on top of the club". I'd started wrapping the palm all the way around the grip, over to the backside of the grip, which felt completely wrong and confused me. A quick feedback on Sunday made it click.

Now I think the grip can allow me to achieve an impact position with the shaft pointing towards the forward shoulder. Something I don't recall ever having been able to do before. There's still work to be done, but just the small grip change dramatically improved contact.

I now always grip the club while holding it up with the right hand. My main focus points are where the hands attach to the grip.

Left hand: Place the the grip near the base of the fingers, centered on the first pads of the middle and ring finger. Wrap the pinkie-side pad on top of the grip.
Right hand: Place the first pad of the index finger on the backside of the grip.

On the range the launch angle was finally lower and ball curve better. My default swing is still out-in, but when focusing on the backswing and path, I was able to hit straight shots and some pull-draws. I had more pull-draws than straight-fades. Cleaner contact is everything. On the course I also hit it much better, but it'll take more time and work to get things sorted.

My short game was already moving in the right direction, but the grip change is also a big deal here. With a palmy weak grip and clubhead moving off plane right from the start, it's no wonder it was a struggle. Need to pratice more, but these changes are absolute gold. Hit some really good pitches today. One lovely 58º from a downhill lie, over a bunker to a green running away from me. Got it to two feet.

Here's the aftermath of a partial 58º wedge. I placed a tee at the middle of the ball before hitting. Decent contact, out-in path.

On a short 110 yard par 3 I almost dunked a 52º.

[Zeph]

Goal: Get the hands deeper early by not lifting the arms early in the backswing, then more straight up from there. More difficult than I'd have imagined. From A1 to A2 is the most critical part.

I found an app called APowerMirror on iOS which is very useful. With it, you can link up two phones or a phone and an iPad and cast the screen on one device onto the next. I cast my iPhone to the iPad, then launch the OnForm app and set it to Auto-Detect. The OnForm app will automatically register a swing, record it and display it in a loop after. If you make a new swing, it'll record and display that, etc. OnForm has  a limit to the number of videos you can store without paying, but if you start recording and don't leave that screen, I haven't hit a limit yet. It's only if you leave the recording screen, go to the folder and then try to record again it will say you can't because of the limit. Then you'll have to delete enough recordings first.

With this setup and the iPad right in front of me, I can see what's going on without looking behind me into a mirror. You can also draw lines and stuff on the app which will stay there for all recordings. I've had a line on my spine angle, vertically on the middle of the hips and verically on the hands. Makes it a lot easier and quicker to try different things and find the positions you are looking for. Make a swing, look at the iPad, see what happened, then go again. What I do on a practice move seconds before a full swing is rarely what the full swing looks like if I don't really focus on it.

At the moment, working on backswing stuff, it might be a good thing that I'm not on a range and get too caught up with the ball flight. I can do my backswing perfectly and still hit a terrible shot, but be happy with what I was trying to achieve. It's easier to get distracted by the ball flight on the range and lose focus. Ball contact will still give some feedback on the strike.

 

[JetFan1983]

I've seen huge benefits from using a similar setup, except I'm using the LiveView Camera. Same idea as that mirror app you're using. Keep at it, Zeph!

Edited June 13, 2024 by JetFan1983

[Zeph]

I noticed something during practice today. I had some trouble getting the hands where I wanted them, and think that from A1 to A2, my hands move off the chest, even if I don't lift my arms or bend the back elbow. When doing some practice swings to A2 focusing on not lifting the arms, then just turning the torso back to A1, my hands had now moved from a little forward of center at A1 to back of center. Erik mentioned the elbow sliding behind me at the top, but it may have started the journey in that direction right from the takeaway.