My Swing (RPMPIRE)

[RPMPIRE]

Your swing looks good though. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Have you tried feeling like your hips START your backswing? It looks as though your hands and arms almost start, and the hips don't move much until later. So your hands get forced out and up a teeny bit more than you'd like. What if you feel your hips almost "dragging" your hands in by turning to start the backswing?

Thanks, Erik. I'll try and get the feeling of my hips dragging my hands and arms tonight. Will probably hit the range during lunch time tomorrow and give that a try hitting balls. Would the lack/delayed hip turn also contribute to the clubface being shut at the top since my hands go too far up than back?

[iacas]

Thanks, Erik. I'll try and get the feeling of my hips dragging my hands and arms tonight. Will probably hit the range during lunch time tomorrow and give that a try hitting balls. Would the lack/delayed hip turn also contribute to the clubface being shut at the top since my hands go too far up than back?

Not really, no. I didn't notice anything odd there. It's a bit shut, but if you look at it at about A5.7 it's fine, and you seemed to push all the balls slightly (they drew a bit too yes?).

[RPMPIRE]

Okay, I'll stay focused on the hip turn.

On good shots, they drew about 2-3 yard - baby draws basically. The bad ones were just outright pushes.

[Wally]

I know some people get criticized for saying "how are you a X.X handicap with a swing that good?" but seriously... your swing looks better than a 12.2. Of course, I haven't downloaded it, but to the naked eye it looks better than that.  Sorry to hear about your recurring back issues. Hope you can figure that out very soon so you can get back to and stay at 100%. Good luck to you, bud. Injuries suck.

One thing I've learned that is especially true for golf is that looks are deceiving.

[RPMPIRE]

Your swing looks good though. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Have you tried feeling like your hips START your backswing? It looks as though your hands and arms almost start, and the hips don't move much until later. So your hands get forced out and up a teeny bit more than you'd like. What if you feel your hips almost "dragging" your hands in by turning to start the backswing?

So I tried this out on the range where my hips drag my arms on the backswing. What I think to do now is to "preset my hips" before I reach A4. It's worked well so far to the point where I can tell I didn't turn my hips all the way. Thanks for that bit Erik.

Also, I got another analysis from Stephen and my next priority piece is to fix the shut club face at A4. The drill he has me doing is to swing a club with just my right arm and check the positions at the mirror. Also, I should see the toe facing more vertical (not completely) than it currently is at. I tried this drill at the range, and the feel I'm getting it a lot of dorsiflexion in my right hand, pretty much to it's full potential. I tried it with full swings, and as long as I got my sequencing correct, I was hitting more consistent push draws. My misses went from pushes to push-overdraws,

Gonna try to get a new video sometime later this week.

[RPMPIRE]

I haven't filmed my swing in a while but took some time to do that today. Wow...I didn't know my swing would look so different after two months. It looks so...Dufner like.

Anyway, the last few weeks, I've been shuffling between my last two lessons of turning my hips (from James) and my club face position (from Stephen). I struggled a lot trying to improve my club face position as the video shows, but I feel like my ball striking improves a lot more if I focused on turning my hips so that's what I've been focusing on.

I think I've been able to understand what I'm doing wrong based on my mishits. If I shank or push the ball, it's because I'm not doing Key #1. There are times I hit a low hook (straight-hook) and it's a combination of Key #1 and Key #2. The last few weeks, I've been limiting myself to a couple of drills that focus on both keys and it's been working fairly well so far.

I have been pleased with my ball striking lately, especially with my long irons, so I'm just trying to maintain what I'm working on.

[JetFan1983]

Yikes, that backswing is way too Dufner! I'm sure they told you to steepen the shaft to point more inside baseline, right?

But don't listen to me, I'm not an instructor. You didn't tip out at all on the downswing, so maybe that doesn't matter. I'm just guessing anyways.

I work with James too, so obviously I'm not questioning him . He's really good.

The downswing is really looking good though! Nice!

[RPMPIRE]

Yikes, that backswing is way too Dufner! I'm sure they told you to steepen the shaft to point more inside baseline, right?

But don't listen to me, I'm not an instructor. You didn't tip out at all on the downswing, so maybe that doesn't matter. I'm just guessing anyways.

I work with James too, so obviously I'm not questioning him . He's really good.

The downswing is really looking good though! Nice!

Thanks! I was completely shocked when I first saw my back swing on film today. There wasn't too much mention of the shaft by either James or Stephen. What was said was to get my hands to line up with my heels at A3 to A4. I think I did okay with that.

The last two weeks at the range was a pretty good stretch for me overall. I do want to work a little on steepening the shaft a little, but I'm still working on my hip turn (and being a stupid monkey), which is starting to become a permanent feel on my backswing.

I really like how my downswing has progressed. Working on Key #1 throughout the swing up until A7 has helped keep my head and butt to the wall and has allowed me hit down and through. My stock shot has become a slight push draw for all my clubs except my wedges so I'm pretty satisfied with that.

[JetFan1983]

Yea, stay the stupid monkey. Keeping working on what you're working on. I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe what I'm seeing is the right elbow not detaching enough at A4? Whatever, don't listen to me, listen to the evolvr guys.

But yea, it's definitely looking good, especially if it's repeatable.

[RPMPIRE]

Yea, stay the stupid monkey. Keeping working on what you're working on. I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe what I'm seeing is the right elbow not detaching enough at A4? Whatever, don't listen to me, listen to the evolvr guys.

But yea, it's definitely looking good, especially if it's repeatable.

Just got a new analysis from Stephen and now I'll be fully focusing on my clubface from A2 to A6. It looks hooded shut from A2 all the way to A4. I've gotten the early hip turn to be almost a natural part of my swing now so time to move on.

Basically, my two priorities now are to:

1. Get the club more "toe up" at A2 and bend my right elbow adding some pressure under my right arm pit.

2. Feel like the club is more "toe down" at A4

Stephen gave me a visual of pretending that a plastic cup is covering the clubhead. At A2, the cup should be facing up and at A4, the cup should be able to fully drop from the club head.

Before I got the analysis, I actually went to the range to try to increase the incline of my backswing using one of Mike's drills from a while back. I actually started hitting it more consistently as long as I hit my checkpoints. Not sure if this is the right way to go about it, but I feel like my right arm brings the swing more behind me and my left arm brings my swing more vertically.

[RPMPIRE]

It's been a busy beginning of the year for me, but it also included a few rounds of golf and a tournament, which is the first tournament I've played in years. I've still been working hard on my priority piece, which was to square my club face throughout the swing and I have a few good days and bad days, but I can say that it has gotten better. I've also really been pushing myself to stop working on my priority pieces on full speed swings and really just try and slow things down on the range. I always think to myself that I can't hit it well at full speed if I can't even do it at half speed.

Anyway, for the tournament, I played the SF City Golf Championship, which is a match play tournament. During the qualifying, I didn't play so well and shot an 87 on a par 68 course so that placed me in a middle-tiered bracket. I shot my irons decently, but my drives off the tee, chipping, and putting were atrocious. So I decided to work on that all week. The day before my first match, I went to an indoor range since they had a GC2 launch monitor to get my exact carry distances for each iron (this was probably the best thing I've done for the tournament) and the pro there actually gave me a quick lesson on chipping and get a good feel of squaring the club face on my full swings.

On my first match, I won 2&1. The next week, I won the second match 3&2. The third match was the toughest since I went 2 down after the first two holes, won the third, and then was one down for the rest of the front. I lost the 10th hole and was two down. Then I won the next hole with 25-foot birdie putt. We played even the next three holes even, and then won the next three holes to win the match 2&1. The hole where I went 1up was through a 20-foot par save. On our 17th hole, my opponent hooked his drive left into a construction area, couldn't find his ball, and he called the conceded the hole after. Being down throughout the entire match to come back like that I still can't believe but was relieved to move into the semifinals. My next opponent had a family emergency and couldn't make his match and that put me into the finals. It's not the way I would have wanted to advance, but I nothing I could do about that.

My final match was somewhat up and down. I went two up after two holes, and bad chipping gave up that lead on the next three holes. I won the 7th and 8th but lost the 9th and 10th to give up the lead again. Won the 11th, lost the 12th, halved the 13th, won the 14th and 15th, halved 16th and won the 17th to win the match 3&1 and my bracket. It felt good to win and also felt lucky since I haven't played much golf leading up to the tournament.

After getting my carry distances measured, I was able to play a lot more strategically with my irons. Choosing a club became much easier even given tough lies and weather conditions.

Now I might take a week or two off from golf to rest my back.