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Feeling really good about my swing again. When I got back into it, after the injuries, I was focusing so much on making my hands and arms do the thing I worked all winter on them doing that I forgot about the left shoulder down stuff.

Power and speed are back. Divots are back. Freedom through the ball is back.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
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As I told Mike, the title is a spoiler alert. 🙂

I'll write more about this later. And no, this isn't really even close to garbage. I'm just being sarcastic and hard on myself.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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Same clothes, new day. More comments later.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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On 12/31/2018 at 11:36 AM, iacas said:

As I told Mike, the title is a spoiler alert. 🙂

I'll write more about this later. And no, this isn't really even close to garbage. I'm just being sarcastic and hard on myself.

One man’s garbage is another man’s gold.

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Gah! I am going to try to make myself find the time to do this tonight. Getting tired of having this browser tab open with no time to write up what I want to write up.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

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(edited)
On 1/1/2019 at 8:35 PM, iacas said:

Same clothes, new day. More comments later.

I don't know much about the swing, but I like it.  I don't know your numbers or your tendencies, but the backswing looks good.  Looks like a strange reroute in the transition to steepen the club coming through.  But I've an untrained eye.  Swing looks like a good player's swing though.  Also, are your hips laboring to get through?  Looks like a slight stall.

Edited by ncates00
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4 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

Also, are your hips laboring to get through?

No.

More later tonight.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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What's up with the cross the line at the top and super steep at A5?

Matt

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4 minutes ago, mdl said:

What's up with the cross the line at the top and super steep at A5?

f*** you too. 😄

I mean that as a joke, obviously. 😄

This has always been my main thing. It's proof that you don't have to have a perfect swing to shoot 70… I've just started working on it again after a bad last year with two injuries that didn't let me work on it. It was great after my work last winter, and then has devolved again.

Yes, it's a flaw. My flaw. For like a decade now. 😄 It's getting better. But there's a reason I called the video "garbage." 😉

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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10 minutes ago, iacas said:

f*** you too. 😄

I mean that as a joke, obviously. 😄

This has always been my main thing. It's proof that you don't have to have a perfect swing to shoot 70… I've just started working on it again after a bad last year with two injuries that didn't let me work on it. It was great after my work last winter, and then has devolved again.

Yes, it's a flaw. My flaw. For like a decade now. 😄 It's getting better. But there's a reason I called the video "garbage." 😉

Haha.  You're welcome.  Notice I haven't posted a video of my own swings in a while.  I know they're ugly and have obvious flaws to work on when time permits.  Don't need online evidence of how ugly it is :-)

 

Matt

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20 minutes ago, iacas said:

his has always been my main thing. It's proof that you don't have to have a perfect swing to shoot 70

What allows someone with such a flaw (steepness) to still play good golf? The ability to make the right compensations? 

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Do you naturally fade or draw the ball Iacas? 

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Is this related to something I read a while ago where you wanted a Furyk type feel going up from A2?

And is it generally better to go shallow to steep on the way down?

Colin P.

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4 hours ago, Nail said:

Do you naturally fade or draw the ball Iacas? 

I normally hit the ball pretty straight, and when I pull it slightly, it fades, and when I push it slightly, it draws.

4 hours ago, colin007 said:

Is this related to something I read a while ago where you wanted a Furyk type feel going up from A2?

And is it generally better to go shallow to steep on the way down?

Yes to the second, and the first thing I've largely fixed. I used to, like many, roll it pretty far in from A1 to A3.

More tk.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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So, I thought of making this a long post, but in the end, it's going to be a lot shorter than I had originally planned.

I worked hard all of last winter, and was doing really well early in the spring. Then I hurt my ankle in soccer, and had a hard time playing for awhile. Then I hurt my groin, and likewise had a hard time playing. So that kinda sucked, because in the spring I was doing really, really well. Golf felt "easy." For like two or three weeks. 😛

Fast forward to the winter now, where things have settled down and I've gotten back to starting to do this work hard core. I worked hard for about three weeks, and shared a video or two with Mike. And this is where I'd like to thank @mvmac for getting my head out of my ass.

01.jpg

I spent those three weeks working so hard on what my arms, right elbow, wrists, etc. were doing, that I'd gotten into a bit of a clusterf*** below the belly button. I focused so hard on what everything above my belt was doing that my lower body was just kind of doing very little. When my lower body does "very little," it stays in place. My left knee doesn't move, my upper weight stays forward*

* In the A1 picture at left above this is actually closer to A1.1. I sometimes get into a little habit of a little sway back to start the swing and then I "rebound" forward a little. Kinda like the opposite of Gary Player's forward press to start his backswing. I'll sway back an inch or two and then "rebound" by turning forward a bit. Normal setup for me is about 55-60% forward.

At any rate, even doing that crap, I could play golf because I have Keys 1 (pretty well), 2, 3, 4 "okay", and 5 really well:

02.jpg

So, I could still play golf pretty well.

Anyway, Mike reminded me of a little bit. Which got me the next day (yeah, again, I'm wearing the same clothes, because I'd literally worn them for about 90 minutes the day before):

03.jpg

Some key points there are that the tilt is better, the left knee is allowed to move a little bit, and the left shoulder moves not only down but back.

This will eventually provide just a hair more room for the right elbow to work, because even though it lines up pretty well at A6 (right, below), how it gets there is "blech":

04.jpg

That's from this:

swing_elbow_thing.gif

The elbow and wrist load a little too late and, honestly, run on a little too far, and then when the torso starts down ever so slightly before the arms, the shaft gets that tiny bit across and steep coming down.

I have the fix for this. It's not "easy" per se, but it is simple, specific, etc. I can have success doing this.

Basically:

  • Elbow/wrist a bit sooner.
  • Arms maintain width so they stop a bit shorter (left arm not quite as close to the chest)
  • Start down (feeling) with a right elbow move, not the torso.
Spoiler

That's just a slightly bigger version of the animated GIF.

Thanks @mvmac.

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Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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Happy to help. Always good to get fresh eyes on it. Yes, the after looks so much better with the pivot. I figured that would be an easy fix or at least get the picture better fast since you've swung like the after pics before. Would make sense you might get into some bad habits with the injury. 

For people viewing this thread, everyone has stuff they dislike in their swing but that doesn't mean it can't be very functional.

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Arms maintain width so they stop a bit shorter (left arm not quite as close to the chest)

Agree 100% for the next step/piece.

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Mike McLoughlin

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18 hours ago, HJJ003 said:

What allows someone with such a flaw (steepness) to still play good golf? The ability to make the right compensations? 

What up, Henry. Congrats on winning rookie of the year! :beer:

Yea, like @mvmac said, it's about being functional first and foremost and for Erik, it clearly is. Plus this guy below does it hard and has 40+ wins and 5 majors. 

Rickie Fowler actually does it too, but it's a lot harder to notice if you aren't looking for it. 

 

Again, it's really subtle in Fowler's swing but he does it too. 

 

Good changes, Erik! I like your garbage move tho. I know that thing can move it 300+ off the tee (seen it in person), so yea. Shut up. 

PS- Brian Creghan gave me some awesome drills to get rid of stubborn steepness though if you want them. You probably already know what they are, but they definitely work, and they double as overspeed training, so two bird w/ one stone. I'll probably post it about it on my swing thread at some point soon as to not hijack here. Executive summary: it's just one arm swinging (either arm) with an alignment stick and doing it fast. 

Anyway, good stuff! I always love an @iacas My Swing update!

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Constantine

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3 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

 

PS- Brian Creghan gave me some awesome drills to get rid of stubborn steepness though if you want them. You probably already know what they are, but they definitely work, and they double as overspeed training, so two bird w/ one stone. I'll probably post it about it on my swing thread at some point soon as to not hijack here. Executive summary: it's just one arm swinging (either arm) with an alignment stick and doing it fast. 

Anyway, good stuff! I always love an @iacas My Swing update!

@JetFan1983

Can you post those drills in @RandallT's world famous Stubborn Steepness thread?

 

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