My Swing (mvmac)

[mvmac]

7 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Do you think when you were right hand low that it was causing alignment issues? I wonder if right hand low can cause people to aim right.

I think my face alignment was ok, body positioning and stroke was causing me to pull it a bit.

[iacas]

I wouldn't mind seeing the elbows orbit your body a little bit more rather than swinging "out" quite so much.

But… putting is highly personal, so if you're controlling your Bead and Speed… never mind.

[mvmac]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

I wouldn't mind seeing the elbows orbit your body a little bit more rather than swinging "out" quite so much.

Yeah I would agree, thanks.

Think it's a little left over from "pushing" the handle forward with the claw motion.

[mvmac]

Been a good month of golf, never shot scores like this and then to do it so close together is kinda crazy. Had a streak going where I shot under par eight or nine rounds in a row, which included a 63 and couple mid-60 scores. I credit the improvements I'd made with my putting and the recent swing cues I've added that have distilled and also connected a lot of the work I've done the past couple years. Hitting it a touch farther and my misses have been a little on the thin side and straight. Most importantly I just had my best tournament of the year, so it was great to take what I've been doing and play well in competition on a tough track.

Swing cues are basically the same as I posted last time. Keeping it simple.

- Weight on balls of the feet at 1
- Early lateral shift before I move the club/hands back
- Use that shift to "propel" the pivot, full range of motion with the turn, right hip deep
- Hit it hard

Few things I look for.

-  Arms hanging, humorous somewhere between 90 and 85 degrees at 1
- Clearly see the early load into the right side, could have done better with the swing below
- Hands working straighter back, don't want the left arm pressure point tight at 2, really good here
- Right scap is visible at 4 caddy view, borderline with this swing
- Sweetspot position at 6 dtl, tend to get in low and in, this swing was good for me.
- Long term: Create more separation between the hips and chest in transition as the lead arm loads against my pec. Get the knees square by 5. 

Pitching has been crappy lately so had to address some mechanics issues. Was taking the hands in too much with the club "toe down". Now working on,

- Soft left arm at 1
- Feeling more open with the chest at 1
- Focus on maintaining left wrist extension on takeaway
- All that hasn't gotten rid of the un-playable misses and some of the anxiety I was starting to get over tight lies.

 

[mvmac]

Swing on the left was after a few weeks of playing a lot so earlier this week had to clean up some laziness with my pivot. Green line was drawn just outside my right hip at 1. Can see the trail hip was swaying a bit into the line. 

Same feels as what I've been doing, just more conscious of the right hip working back AND around. Little flow right, then use that momentum to "throw" the right side back and around. Also important for me when I flow right that I don't lower my head.

Now I can "fall" forward with more pressure forward early.

Which then helps me stretch out the left side more into impact. Left side is being "pulled" up rather than slide with super saggy knees and an under-flip release.

Can really see the effects of the better pressure sequence with the driver below, left leg and left foot.

Also, forgot to post this, lesson review from October.

 

[mvmac]

Some 2018 stats:

• 133 posted rounds
• Index beginning of the year was .7, ended the year +2.1, lowest during the year was +3.1
• 72.3 scoring average
• Highest round 79
• Lowest round 63 (home course)
• 47 rounds under par
• 17 rounds in the 60's (16 at my home course, one at TPC Summerlin)

Frustrating year for tournament golf, scored horribly for how I hit it. Not winning the club championship still hurts. Ended the year on a positive note with an under par qualifying round and was +1 for two days at the event on a tough, windy course.

Mechanics wise I feel I've made some nice improvements. Speed is faster than last year, I like my feels/cues for the swing, think I condensed some feels and made it more simple. Just keep moving things in the same direction. Keep things as athletic or dynamic as possible, good rotation with the trunk, better pressure sequence and create more separation with the ribs and shoulders in transition.

Goal for the next year is to get the swing speed averaging 115, have more rounds under par than over at my home course and have multiple tournament rounds under par (I'll post in the 2019 thread later).

Some recent practice. Smashed it in the caddy view swing, 180 yard 7-iron

With putting, ball feeling middle of the stance, shoulders level, stroke is right hand/arm focused. Elbows less flared out during the stroke and follow though.

 

[GolfLug]

On 1/1/2019 at 5:24 PM, mvmac said:

Smashed it in the caddy view swing, 180 yard 7-iron

That looked/sounded pure. It's been a good year to see you progress. Congrats. 

On 1/1/2019 at 5:24 PM, mvmac said:

 

With putting, ball feeling middle of the stance, shoulders level, stroke is right hand/arm focused. Elbows less flared out during the stroke and follow though.

 

By that do you mean that it moves as a 'unit'?

 

[mvmac]

6 hours ago, GolfLug said:

That looked/sounded pure. It's been a good year to see you progress. Congrats. 

By that do you mean that it moves as a 'unit'?

More that it feels like I'm just putting with my right hand only. I actually want less body motion and more arm swing. Getting very technical here but idea is to try and have the stroke resemble an upside-down pizza slice 😉Basically allowing the putter to swing and the hands not moving a lot side to side, similar to how a belly putter works.

The claw grip I was using most of last year was the opposite of that. Overall this just feels like less work, better flow, easier to gauge distance control and much more pleasing impact sound and roll.

[GolfLug]

4 hours ago, mvmac said:

More that it feels like I'm just putting with my right hand only. I actually want less body motion and more arm swing. Getting very technical here but idea is to try and have the stroke resemble an upside-down pizza slice 😉Basically allowing the putter to swing and the hands not moving a lot side to side, similar to how a belly putter works.

The claw grip I was using most of last year was the opposite of that. Overall this just feels like less work, better flow, easier to gauge distance control and much more pleasing impact sound and roll.

Thanks. Appreciate you letting me pick your brain a bit. Couple of more questions when you have a moment.

Would you say that your putter head arc is more vertical than it is horizontal? Putter head does not seem to roll over much. 

Is your realease feel still smooth or are you trying to pop it a tad? 

I also have been feeling like I use my body too much with chicken wing elbows, arms, hands and putter frozen to it through the stroke and distance control is a dice roll. My focus 'frame' has become too narrow (like I am about to pick a splinter out my sole with a needle) and putter head bound back and through the stroke which I think makes it worse. Anyway, what you are doing makes a lot of sense and a free-er, more reactive stroke would do me a lot of good. 

 

 

[mvmac]

Swipe to see the swing, not posed positions 😀

Feels are:
- Flow up and right (upload)
- Rotate right ribs back and around
- Keep right side "back" in transition, keep the stretch longer
- Straight left leg at 5

 

[albatross2]

On 1/1/2019 at 4:24 PM, mvmac said:

Some 2018 stats:

• 133 posted rounds
• Index beginning of the year was .7, ended the year +2.1, lowest during the year was +3.1
• 72.3 scoring average
• Highest round 79
• Lowest round 63 (home course)
• 47 rounds under par
• 17 rounds in the 60's (16 at my home course, one at TPC Summerlin)

Frustrating year for tournament golf, scored horribly for how I hit it. Not winning the club championship still hurts. Ended the year on a positive note with an under par qualifying round and was +1 for two days at the event on a tough, windy course.

Mechanics wise I feel I've made some nice improvements. Speed is faster than last year, I like my feels/cues for the swing, think I condensed some feels and made it more simple. Just keep moving things in the same direction. Keep things as athletic or dynamic as possible, good rotation with the trunk, better pressure sequence and create more separation with the ribs and shoulders in transition.

Goal for the next year is to get the swing speed averaging 115, have more rounds under par than over at my home course and have multiple tournament rounds under par (I'll post in the 2019 thread later).

Some recent practice. Smashed it in the caddy view swing, 180 yard 7-iron

With putting, ball feeling middle of the stance, shoulders level, stroke is right hand/arm focused. Elbows less flared out during the stroke and follow though.

 

That 7-iron swing was beautiful. Love the JRose rehearsal creating distance between your knees. That's proven to be an incredible feel for me - and is a relatively new development. I'll need to grab some video as I'm working on my swing this winter. In your rehearsal, as you're creating that distance your head moves down toward the ground, letting you fire up off the ground. Explosive. The feel obviously is working for you - as that 180 yards must mean something like 91-2 mph of swing speed.

During my last lesson, my 7i swing speed moved from a pretty established 90 mph to a consistent 93. And I attribute it largely to working toward that move in your rehearsal.

In your 'real' swing, I noted that your head stayed level through impact and your left knee didn't fire ahead of your right to create that distance. Impact, extension, and balance were still terrific. My question is this: do you do that rehearsal just to create the 'feel' of that move without the intent of fully executing it? 

Quick background: I'm currently a .4 (here in Wisconsin) and post about 60 rounds a year. Index typically ranges +.9 - 1.6 (early season scoring is a beast here in WI and I also typically post 8-10 rounds from Bandon in June where scoring isn't the goal...). 

Edited January 14, 2019 by albatross2
grammar

[mvmac]

On 1/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, albatross2 said:

That 7-iron swing was beautiful. Love the JRose rehearsal creating distance between your knees.

The knee spread is just a by-product of how I'm moving my torso and stretching things on the backswing. FYI I'm not trying to go dual external rotation with the legs. Ideally the trail hip would move to slight ER or less IR than where it was at the top and the lead hip would be internal until later in the downswing where it releases to ER via rotation of the torso.

On 1/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, albatross2 said:

In your 'real' swing, I noted that your head stayed level through impact and your left knee didn't fire ahead of your right to create that distance. 

It's more of the right knee buckling early than what's going on with the left leg.

Yeah my tendency is to lower the head during the takeaway, lift it towards the end of the backswing, coast in transition and knees have to sag to get the club down to the ball. The most recent swing in the green shirt was good, you can see the head doesn't lower early allowing me to lower in transition (hip flexion), "encouraging" the left knee to extend.

On 1/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, albatross2 said:

My question is this: do you do that rehearsal just to create the 'feel' of that move without the intent of fully executing it? 

Both. I'm trying to rotate in a way to create separation between the shoulders and hips in transition. I'm exaggerating how much I'm holding the shoulders back and what you see with the head/knees is a reaction to that. I also know that it won't be like that when I play or go full speed. The goal is just to keep it trending in the right direction. Any change will lead to better ball striking.

On 1/14/2019 at 1:54 PM, albatross2 said:

During my last lesson, my 7i swing speed moved from a pretty established 90 mph to a consistent 93. And I attribute it largely to working toward that move in your rehearsal.

Nice work, that's some great gains for an iron.

[mvmac]

Filming my swing for basically 10 years now, wow, time flies.

Change in the pelvis at impact is pretty cool.

Wish I knew then what I know now....but I'm sure we can all say that. Going down the S&T road was probably the worst thing I could have done for my game but I made some great friends along the journey. Don't have swings of me in college but I remember having the torso fairly vertical and even leaning a bit left at the top, so trying to add more tilt/extension while trying to get the hands more inward was no bueno. Would have been better if I went with more of a Bender pattern.

Facial expressions during the swing hasn't changed 😂

With the pitching, working on hitting more low-mid nippers from tight lies. Feeling a little more "flow" with the clubhead, less extension of the right wrist and right arm going external early. Would like to see the toe be more rotated.

 

[Vinsk]

Great work Mike! You’ve certainly ‘changed the dang picture.’ With all your hard work and diligence your swing thread makes a great read. Thanks for all the help you’ve given me and many others. Cheers Mike!

[mvmac]

Driver practice from the other day. Got swing speed up to 111, average 108 for 19 swings. Originally thought the lower ball speed was due to not having the stickers on the balls for the Mevo but @iacas pointed out the range balls are probably limited flight and yes they are.

I was surprised how long I could go swinging that fast. I was just going to hit 8-10 balls but my speed kept getting faster or staying the same. Idea was to stop when I saw a sudden drop off.

Swing practice. Same feels as my last post, 
- Flow up and right (upload)
- Rotate right ribs back and around
- Keep right side "back" in transition, keep the stretch longer
- Straight left leg at 5,
Except experimenting with a faster hand and pivot speed on the takeaway/backswing. Reason is I wanted to see the result of creating more momentum going back. Definitely makes achieving the second and third points listed above easier and it's probably closer to my "play" speed. When filming I can err more on the slow side and then have to work hard at getting the pivot deep enough.

 

 

[iacas]

33 minutes ago, mvmac said:

Ball speed on the low side (didn't use the stickers for the Mevo)

Those are just for the spin. So the ball speed should be right either way.

[mvmac]

23 minutes ago, iacas said:

Those are just for the spin. So the ball speed should be right either way.

Good to know, thanks.

[boogielicious]

7 hours ago, iacas said:

Those are just for the spin. So the ball speed should be right either way.

 

6 hours ago, mvmac said:

Good to know, thanks.

I've had luck using a silver metallic magic marker instead of the stick-on reflectors with the MEVO. It is less weight (although the weight is minimal), but it won't fall off.