My Swing (mvmac)

[mvmac]

Qualified for the U.S. Am Four-Ball yesterday. I was -5 thru 13 on my own ball and my partner carried me on the last few holes, especially with his birdie on the 4th playoff hole.

As Mario mentioned, made a visit to Dr. Kwon last week, got measured and analyzed.

I was turning my pelvis like 70 degrees on the backswing and losing all the stretch between the upper and lower body from 3-4 and couldn’t take advantage of the early shift. Have to engage muscles in right side, especially right hip, which I wasn’t doing.  Upper and lower turning at same rate from 3-4. No stretch which means I open the upper early and left arm swings across it. 

So my horizontal stuff was good just need more vertical on backswing with better transition rhythm/sequencing. Right hip much higher to 4. 

Dr. Kwon recommended more “kick” up and outward after the shift at 1. Tried out some triggers and he changed mine a bit. More trigger with right knee going down and in (right hip lowers as a result) to elevate the right hip more going back. "Post up" move Mario is talking about.

 

Biggest takeaways from the whole thing. 

- What the pelvis is doing is his top priority, ground interaction is second. What the arms, wrists, club does is a reaction to all that. 

- How he suggests training the changes.

- Importance of self discovery. Figuring out your trigger move to create momentum early. 

- How anyone who is good is still winding up the upper body as the body is shifting forward (transition/downswing). 

- According to him, swings should feel like “less effort” at impact. Ties into creating a big enough moment arm, the point above and loading the thigh to rib section of the trail side on the backswing.

[mvmac]

PG-13 warning for this post 😂

One of Kwon's assistants sent this to me.

Pleased I was able to capture some good swings during my visit. Not snatching the club inside at 2, not narrow at 3. Have worked hard to get it to where I can do it without thinking about it.

 

[boogielicious]

We can’t unsee this @mvmac! But it is better that it’s you in the photos than me for everyone’s sake!

[Slim_Pivot]

First thing I see in the morning is @mvmac pretending to be Henrik Stenson. What a day to be alive lol

[CarlSpackler]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

We can’t unsee this @mvmac! But it is better that it’s you in the photos than me for everyone’s sake!

 

13 minutes ago, Slim_Pivot said:

First thing I see in the morning is @mvmac pretending to be Henrik Stenson. What a day to be alive lol

Could this be the next TST challenge / badge...

Edited February 27, 2020 by CarlSpackler

[mvmac]

Haha, I knew that post would get some reactions 

[bwdial]

Couldn't help but think of this.

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, bwdial said:

Couldn't help but think of this.

Ha ha!

[mvmac]

Had a couple questions for Dr. Kwon, mostly double checking on some parts of the report, this was his response. Drawing he added was at the TB image, red line/right hip.

 

Review from this week.

Swings from this week. Working through the updated feels/priorities. Still have a long ways to go on the sequencing. Got ball speed to 160 on driver with stock speed feeling swings, which even though it's a ways off, shows it's better. I like how that right hip/thigh is working "to the line" and then climbing up it (face-on), rather than sliding past it like and then over-rotating like some earlier swings.

[mvmac]

Good progress the last week. Put in a lot of time on what I posted last week along with some self-discovery of my own. Feeling on the good ones is after the shift, I push outward and maintain a long “stretch” up the trail side while the bad ones I lose the stretch. Lose the tension/torque which means I'm just going to coast on the downswing. Best way I can explain it right now.

 

Step Drills.

Few highlights of the updated feel is that the right hip is climbing up rather than sliding. Compared to the swing on the left where I was moving too far right and over-rotating.

Right thigh/femur is more vertical as a result (Kwon drawing in last post). Puts me in a better position to windup as I fall left in transition. Easier for me to take divots, "compress it".

In terms of sequencing, I like this, some shift early and then back to the line by 4.5. Swings from a year or few months ago would have been late here.

[mvmac]

Sticking with the early shift and "push outward" feels l mentioned in my last post. Also, keeping up with the step drills to key in on the "closed while shifting forward" aspect of my swing.

But there is a reason I have a tough time keeping the upper closed. My shoulders keep spinning open in response to the "skipping a rock" trail shoulder external rotation My tendency is to go super external with my trail arm, left shoulder works down and around. My brain isn't going to allow for right side bend (which I need a lot more of in transition) with the ER trail shoulder because it's a double shallowing mechanism. Excessive ER forces me to to get the shoulders opening with the knees staying flexed to make sure the excessively shallow club hits the ground.

Reason those drills are good is because it helps me keep the right side "wound up" as I shift (along with the right elbow), I don't coast the left shoulder forward.

Upgrades at 6, handle more forward, result of having more right side bend and room.

[mvmac]

Long post.

Trending in the right direction. Today was five straight rounds under par.

Did a Facetime session with Mario this week. Here is the "before" and what he saw:

"Keep working that trail side climb earlier to get the recenter fractionally sooner. Shoulders are getting a little "rounded" at the top.  Will reduce the linear needed from here to get the pressure onto lead foot then the force back can happen quicker.

Pressure can still be on the right of COM then tilt and shift over to the lead lead from here.

If you lift up each foot back and forth quick  the pressure shifts left to right quick but the body COM does not move. If you drift right too long or too slow, the COM will drift with the pressure shift for too long on the trail side. So if it just breaks the red line then turns on it the COM shifted to the trail side and is ready for the arrow tilt from the trail and to move over to the lead quick for the larger moment arm."

Based on that I'm going to experiment with unweighting the left foot more, allowing the left heel to raise. Here are those swings.

Better. Feel wise on the course I’m more “aware” of how different the unweighting is compared to a couple days ago, feels “taller” on the backswing.

Doing a drill with a light kettlebell and the step drills to enforce the feels and momentum.

Then some pitching. Keeping it simple. Arms soft, sternum forward of my belt buckle, sternum stays forward

 

[phillyk]

I haven’t gone through a lot of pages, so sorry if this was mentioned. But why the trigger? The drill motions in the video looks like it forces almost more sliding-like motions. I don’t know, just seems like its adding another piece to time just right at impact. 

[iacas]

10 hours ago, phillyk said:

I haven’t gone through a lot of pages, so sorry if this was mentioned. But why the trigger? The drill motions in the video looks like it forces almost more sliding-like motions. I don’t know, just seems like its adding another piece to time just right at impact. 

I don't know that I'd question the "trigger" itself. A lot of good swings have a trigger move, because you're going from somewhat static to motion.

Mike's movements are still within the realm of "steady" and they're still mostly rotational. They still honor Keys 1 and 2 (and all those Keys entail).

I'd also still call what Mike is doing a "centered pivot." His upper and lower centers are staying pretty much over each other, and the lateral movement is literally less than two inches (maybe about two inches when he's exaggerating it).

Essentially, the pelvis and torso tend to move back in elite players, and transition to moving forward mid-late-backswing. If you understand that these are all blended, the swing in many elite players is "sway, turn, sway, turn". Sway right, turn, sway left, turn. That's grossly over-simplified, but I think you'll get what I mean.

The "problems" with a "static" centered turn — zero inches or even a pelvis that moves forward during the backswing — are two-fold:

• It's sometimes difficult to get forward properly. The body has no real "momentum" and no "flow."
• It's slightly less powerful, efficient, whatever. It's just a bit less dynamic, and you can eke out a little performance gain if you can do this versus being more "static."

For some, the tradeoff is worth it… in both directions. For some who struggle with contact, they can stay somewhat centered with NO "flow" and play their best golf. But for better players, a little of this flow can get the last 2 or 4% or whatever of performance out of them.

[phillyk]

25 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know that I'd question the "trigger" itself. A lot of good swings have a trigger move, because you're going from somewhat static to motion.

Mike's movements are still within the realm of "steady" and they're still mostly rotational. They still honor Keys 1 and 2 (and all those Keys entail).

I'd also still call what Mike is doing a "centered pivot." His upper and lower centers are staying pretty much over each other, and the lateral movement is literally less than two inches (maybe about two inches when he's exaggerating it).

Essentially, the pelvis and torso tend to move back in elite players, and transition to moving forward mid-late-backswing. If you understand that these are all blended, the swing in many elite players is "sway, turn, sway, turn". Sway right, turn, sway left, turn. That's grossly over-simplified, but I think you'll get what I mean.

The "problems" with a "static" centered turn — zero inches or even a pelvis that moves forward during the backswing — are two-fold:

• It's sometimes difficult to get forward properly. The body has no real "momentum" and no "flow."
• It's slightly less powerful, efficient, whatever. It's just a bit less dynamic, and you can eke out a little performance gain if you can do this versus being more "static."

For some, the tradeoff is worth it… in both directions. For some who struggle with contact, they can stay somewhat centered with NO "flow" and play their best golf. But for better players, a little of this flow can get the last 2 or 4% or whatever of performance out of them.

Thank you for the clarification. So movement is ok within the parameter of “staying over eachother” so long as it’s coupled with good rotation, which is what Mike sounds like he’s trying to make better with the right leg?

What I like in Mike’s swing is that as he approaches 4 and he starts moving back to the left side, he doesn’t tilt the chest to initiate the move (which i see a lot), it stays in the same orientation until he actually starts the downswing. So the movement he talks about with unweighting is cool. 

[mvmac]

22 hours ago, phillyk said:

I haven’t gone through a lot of pages, so sorry if this was mentioned. But why the trigger? The drill motions in the video looks like it forces almost more sliding-like motions. I don’t know, just seems like its adding another piece to time just right at impact. 

@iacas hit the nail on the head with his post.

The simplest answer I can give is I'm trying to make the swing as "reactive" as possible.

@phillyk, it makes sense what you're seeing with the drill swings and I'm sure it looks like there is a lot of movement going on, I'm just emphasizing movements that become much more subtle when I'm hitting a shot. For now I'd rather err on the side of having good flow and being a little off on my alignments. I've also seen some videos of my swing on the course and everything is much more toned down, the trigger and the amount of movement right.

As Erik mentioned, the trigger or the early shift right helps build some momentum into the swing. You see this with a lot of great players, they do something to get the motion started and "propel" the arms and club back. Some are more evident than others. I'm basically trying to find what works best for me, from a feel standpoint and what can help encourage some positive things in my swing.

I started adding some kind of trigger (it's evolved a few times) about 2-3 years ago. When I went from not playing much to playing  a week. It helped me play better on the course with less effort, allowed me to get the motion started without "thinking". I was too static before, there wasn't any "flow" to the swing and the speed was on the slow side.

12 hours ago, phillyk said:

Thank you for the clarification. So movement is ok within the parameter of “staying over eachother” so long as it’s coupled with good rotation, which is what Mike sounds like he’s trying to make better with the right leg?

More within the parameters of not moving too much side to side. I had been rotating that right leg/hip too much around, not enough "stretch" up that right side.

12 hours ago, phillyk said:

What I like in Mike’s swing is that as he approaches 4 and he starts moving back to the left side, he doesn’t tilt the chest to initiate the move (which i see a lot), it stays in the same orientation until he actually starts the downswing. So the movement he talks about with unweighting is cool. 

Thanks and yeah the idea is to make that a byproduct of how the body and pressure is moving to create that change of direction.

[mvmac]

@phillyk check this out

The real cause of fat shots, according to cutting-edge golf technology

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The team at athletic motion golf use their 'GEARS' technology to uncover the real cause of fat shots in golf. Study up!

[iacas]

Watch tomorrow’s practice plan thing too.