My Swing (Golfingdad)

[cipher]

Very Impressive!  Well done.  That that 37 is especially impressive.

[David in FL]

76 on an unfamiliar course with a double......nice round!

Now, about that 91......

[JohnLund]

We all have days like your original post. Days when your front nine plays like a champ and your back nine plays like a chump. I know, I shot a 78 last week and a 92 this week. How the heck does that happen? If I can start well I can usually carry it all day. However some days it is easier to stay focused for the entire round. I play best when I can carry a confident easy feeling knowing that I will hit the fairway, knock the approach on or close to the green, chip up and make the putt. No problem! However, some days I will be playing well and out of the blue hit it into the trees and totally screw up a hole. The challenge then is to just let it go and not get all tense by swinging harder to make up for the bad hole. Trying harder adds tension to the golf swing and we all know what this does to that easy confident feeling. By keeping that easy feeling I often can catch a birdie or two and make up for the earlier mistake. Anything else just compounds the problems.

[Golfingdad]

Here are a few stills showing what I am working on.  My goal is a fairly radical new "move" from A3.5 to A5.  I tend to cup my left wrist right as I get to the top, and simultaneously my right elbow starts to separate away from the left, and as a consequence the club shaft starts to tip out.  Once I put myself in that position, I have no choice but to come down really, really steep in to the ball.  A lot of partial swings and poses in front of a mirror just to try and get comfortable with this feel.

One thing that will help make it a little easier is backing up from the ball.  What's funny, though, is that I'm really only back maybe an extra inch here ... but it feels like a mile!

There is definitely at least a tiny bit of improvement at this point.  The wrist is still cupped but slightly less, and I really like where the shaft is pointing.  However ...

Really no difference here.  It would be much more noticeable in a FO view, but that wrist is back to being pretty cupped, and the shaft is still really steep.

Baby steps though.  Next time out, I'll try and back up from the ball a bit more, and I'll just keep hammering away on those poses and swings indoors until this starts to feel natural.

[Mr. Desmond]

Dana Dahlquist had me bending back the right wrist from almost the start of the backswing all the way to the top. That stopped any cupping for me.

[JetFan1983]

Golfingdad's conversation with his instructor:

[Wally]

I friggin' hate this game!!!  Here is my scorecard from last Thursday ... [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/79570/] [/URL] I couldn't do anything right.  It was so frustrating.  Thoughts start lingering in my head ... perhaps I should stop taking it seriously, perhaps I should stop taking lessons, perhaps I should just quit altogether (my previous round a week earlier at the same course was an 89, so I was already a bit annoyed at myself)  And to top it all off, I am trying to get ready for a tournament on Sunday.  This is not going to go well .... Did I mention ... I friggin love this game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Here is my scorecard from yesterday's tournament ... [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/79571/] [/URL] In stark contrast to my last two rounds ... I couldn't really do anything wrong yesterday.  I realize I only "hit" 5 fairways, but that is a bit misleading because the fairways are narrow at this course, the "rough" is short, and I was never far enough off the fairway to not have a shot at the green.  And even though I missed 10 greens, I was never too far off there.  Even though I was playing the course for the first time, I was missing in all the right spots, because my up and downs were never terribly difficult.  I started on #10, so I actually made it to the 14th hole at even par.  (I think part of the reason for my "collapse" is a bit of an irrational fear of being labeled as a sandbagger, but thats another story).  PS:  I won my division by 2 shots! Anyways ... I friggin' love this game!!!!

Congrats! I hope to be making progress like this soon as my swing is starting to come along. And it's about damn time too. Haha. [quote name="JetFan1983" url="/t/60622/my-swing-golfingdad/120#post_873594"]Golfingdad's conversation with his instructor: [/quote] I laughed when the doctor mentioned he was going on vacation.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Dana Dahlquist had me bending back the right wrist from almost the start of the backswing all the way to the top. That stopped any cupping for me.

Yeah, James also mentioned that I may want or need to tinker with my grip as well while learning this.  I see what he means too, my right hand grip is pretty strong so when I do manage to avoid the cupping at the top and on the way down the ball will go straight left.  Like, the opposite of a shank left.  Started with a weaker right hand, I think, is similar to what Dana's telling you.  It's not bending back the right wrist from "almost the start" but rather, its basically bending back the right wrist before the start.  Of course, it also leads to some enormous push slices at this point if I still cup the wrist at the top.

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

Golfingdad's conversation with his instructor:

I like that this is extra apropos, even with the time line.  "I'm going on vacation for a month and won't be back until after labor day."  Sounds about right.  Luckily for me, there's no panic there because I doubt I'll even have my homework finished by Labor Day anyway. :)

[Golfingdad]

Not sure why I thought that I had magically solved all of my problems, but I was happier with everything prior to seeing this video.  Now all I see is the right elbow still getting way behind the shirt seam, and the left wrist still cupped at the top (albeit maybe a pinch less than before).  However, the bright side is that the angles are a bit better (meaning I'm not nearly as steep in the downswing) simply because I moved a few inches away from the ball.  That move by itself seemed to bring solid contact (with the driver) a lot more often.  Next tournament (and last for the season) is this coming Sunday, so we'll wait and see ...

Really happy with the (lack of) head movement here in the FO video.  I still come off the wall in the DTL, but at least I'm not swaying all over the place.  Another thing I noticed this last couple of days is that my balance seemed to be really good, whereas in the past, especially with the driver, it has not been.  I don't know if that is more attributable to the setup change, or the snazzy new True Protos hugging my feet, but whatever it is ... it sure is nice not to feel like I'm falling over after every shot. :)

[cipher]

I really like the little pause you have in your swing. Are you hitting a draw here in this video?

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by cipher

I really like the little pause you have in your swing. Are you hitting a draw here in this video?

Thanks.  When I start hitting it poorly, the first thing I do (and this is especially true off the tee) is evaluate how quick I'm getting in the transition.  Oftentimes I rush it, don't turn far enough, and get all out of sequence.

Yes, not quite, ummm, I forget. ;)  It's 3 different swings, and the first one is a nice push draw (a little on the low side).  The second one is a lot of push, with a little draw, and I think the FO one was also a slight push draw, but I honestly don't remember. ;)

[Ernest Jones]

Looking good big guy, not that I know what I'm talking about :-p That is a snazzy shirt in anycase. Do you consciously swing out to 1st base or is it just a product of other things? I only ask because that is my main swing thought right now and it has me drawing the ball much more reliably than in the past. Your over all motion looks similar (but much, much better) to what I'm doing with a lot of focus on swinging out to the right. My miss is big old straight push.

[cipher]

Thanks.  When I start hitting it poorly, the first thing I do (and this is especially true off the tee) is evaluate how quick I'm getting in the transition.  Oftentimes I rush it, don't turn far enough, and get all out of sequence. Yes, not quite, ummm, I forget. ;)  It's 3 different swings, and the first one is a nice push draw (a little on the low side).  The second one is a lot of push, with a little draw, and I think the FO one was also a slight push draw, but I honestly don't remember. ;)

Nice, a very good piece to be able to fall back on like that.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Looking good big guy, not that I know what I'm talking about :-p That is a snazzy shirt in anycase. Do you consciously swing out to 1st base or is it just a product of other things? I only ask because that is my main swing thought right now and it has me drawing the ball much more reliably than in the past. Your over all motion looks similar (but much, much better) to what I'm doing with a lot of focus on swinging out to the right. My miss is big old straight push.

LOL, thanks.  I got it when I signed up for the am tour ... its got the Golf Channel logo on it and everything.  The announcers of the US Am were wearing the exact same color shirts on Wednesday. ;)

To answer your question, yes I am doing it consciously.  It's directly related to the move I am working on right now.  It starts with a conscious effort to bow the left wrist at about A3.9, which in turn causes the right wrist to cup, then that helps get the right elbow tucked back into my ribs, which helps get the path going right.  When I don't do that ... I get an ugly push fade or slice.

But overall, especially with irons, I have the exact same miss ... a big straight push.  But I'm OK with that, because I rarely miss left these days.  If I can keep those push slices to a minimum, then I'll be in business because it means I got myself a nice, repeating shot-cone.  I could aim down the left side of every fairway and at the left side of every green and I should be able to hit all of them. ;)  (mad that sounds so easy on paper lol!!!)

Originally Posted by cipher

Nice, a very good piece to be able to fall back on like that.

Thanks!  Not gonna lie ... compliments from guys with swings like yours mean a lot to me.  It's very encouraging!!

[Golfingdad]

Well, the golf gods apparently decided that I was too confident and getting too big of a head after my last tournament and they saw fit to remind of that yesterday.  It was the final tournament of the season, played at a really nice, really tough course that I'd never seen.  I wasn't really worried about that though, because the last tournament was at a nice, fairly tough course I'd never seen and I shot a 76 and won by 2 shots.  Yesterday, ummm, well, yeah, (looks at ground, shuffles feet) ... I don't know what to say other than just to laugh.  Before you read down I should warn you ... it's NSFW (if you work in the golf business at least ;)) ...

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In all seriousness though, I had a great time this year playing tournaments for the first time.  And, overall, it was a pretty good success.  Here are my results from the 7 tournaments this year:

T5   (out of 20)

T17 (out of 26)

10   (out of 10)

T4   (out of 27)

7     (out of 17)

17   (out of 17)

Some good rounds, a great round, and some bad rounds.  That sounds about right, eh?  Can't wait for next season though!  (It starts in November for me, I think)

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Well, the golf gods apparently decided that I was too confident and getting too big of a head after my last tournament and they saw fit to remind of that yesterday.  It was the final tournament of the season, played at a really nice, really tough course that I'd never seen.  I wasn't really worried about that though, because the last tournament was at a nice, fairly tough course I'd never seen and I shot a 76 and won by 2 shots.  Yesterday, ummm, well, yeah, (looks at ground, shuffles feet) ... I don't know what to say other than just to laugh.  Before you read down I should warn you ... it's NSFW (if you work in the golf business at least ;)) ...

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In all seriousness though, I had a great time this year playing tournaments for the first time.  And, overall, it was a pretty good success.  Here are my results from the 7 tournaments this year:

T5   (out of 20)

T17 (out of 26)

10   (out of 10)

T4   (out of 27)

7     (out of 17)

17   (out of 17)

Some good rounds, a great round, and some bad rounds.  That sounds about right, eh?  Can't wait for next season though!  (It starts in November for me, I think)

Ouch, is that 3 penalties on 10? Looks like you had a great year though!

[Ernest Jones]

As long as you can laugh about it you'll be fine!

[David in FL]

NSFW..... :dance: Gotta admit, I did not expect that score when I scrolled down! It happens though. Thanks for reminding me that I'm not the only one that can do silly things with a golf club in my hand! :beer: