My Swing (JonMA1)

[GolfLug]

Nothing terribly wrong with a strong grip but yeah let the club drop to the base of your right hand ring finger. Middle two right hand fingers should cradle the club like holding  suitcase handle with two middle fingers.

You wouldn't skip a rock with your palm.

Overpowering would mean messing up sequencing, turn rates, etc. Honestly I wouldn't worry about all that though. 

I think nice soft arms with little less palm will do a world of good to your turning drills. 

Keep at it.

 

[JonMA1]

Just wanted to follow up with a video trying to implement suggestions from my previous one.

I don't have a lot of flexibility in my neck so I'm trying to lower my lead shoulder in order to make a full shoulder turn while minimizing my head turning. This might be as good as it gets for now. Trying to practice closer to how I play and hopefully vice-versa. 

Also trying to make sure the club is more in my fingers and less palmy.

 

 

[boogielicious]

@JonMA1,

that is a pretty good turn and good position at the top. Your A4 is higher than mine. You may not get more range of motion, but you can still work on core strength to keep what your have.

The core strength drill in the thread below (item 4) really helps. I do a version of this daily and before I hit balls. Basically, with a club across your shoulders, turn to A4 and hold for 3 to 5 slow breaths. Remember to keep your form. If you have a mirror, do this in front of the mirro. Rotate to the other side and hold. I add the turn to the finish and hold. It is a great warm up stretch and builds core strength.

 

[JonMA1]

10 hours ago, boogielicious said:

The core strength drill in the thread below (item 4) really helps. I do a version of this daily and before I hit balls. Basically, with a club across your shoulders, turn to A4 and hold for 3 to 5 slow breaths. Remember to keep your form. If you have a mirror, do this in front of the mirro. Rotate to the other side and hold. I add the turn to the finish and hold. It is a great warm up stretch and builds core strength.

That's a really good drill, Scott. I could feel it everywhere, even in my legs.  Not sure how I missed that entire post but I'm going to continue doing it. Thanks for the link!

Btw, I noticed you're back hitting into a net. Glad to see the injuries are healed enough for you to get out there.

So.. what's all that green stuff on the ground alongside your house?

[boogielicious]

13 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

That's a really good drill, Scott. I could feel it everywhere, even in my legs.  Not sure how I missed that entire post but I'm going to continue doing it. Thanks for the link!

Btw, I noticed you're back hitting into a net. Glad to see the injuries are healed enough for you to get out there.

So.. what's all that green stuff on the ground alongside your house?

It's called 'grass' I think. It's been a while since we've seen it. 

You can do that drill daily, even without a club. It makes a difference for our older bodies.

[JonMA1]

Opening round on my home course today. I rarely get optimistic about a good round of golf (f-you golf gods) so I try not think of a bad round as any sort of trend. But boy, most everything was pretty bad today.

Driver: Started out having no control with getting good contact. That improved after the first couple of drives.

Woods: Poor contact that never got better.

Long and mid irons: Probably the only part of the game that was tolerable throughout the entire round. Actually made ok to very good contact with every shot. Had some misses left and right.

Partial wedges/approaches 125 yards and under: This has been the best part of my game the last couple of years but today it was really bad. It's hard to take advantage of good tee shots when I can't hit the easy greens. Started getting it dialed in on the last few holes.

And missing greens brings about....

Short game: Yikes! Scary bad... like my first-year-playing bad. Sand was especially troublesome even by my poor standards.

Putting: After a few holes threw my putter and broke it. That should be enough said, but I think I putted better with my 4i after that. Time to consider getting fit for a putter. Will have to scrape some pennies together.

Today's round suggested that I haven't even made an incremental change in getting weight forward. When I put that into perspective along with the last several years, I have to start thinking it's never going to happen. Not ready to give up, but my heart is barely in it. Maybe Stack and Tilt or some bastardized weight forward stance at address.... I don't know. I don't give a shit that my swing looks funny, but improvement here would help my game. On the other hand, spending time in vain trying to fix something that can't be fixed is stupid when I could be working towards improving what's already in place.

I'm not like most people, but c'mon. I never thought I was this much of a spazz. Slight improvement in this area shouldn't be impossible. Still, even after a round like this I love this game! It was nice to be out there again today. 

[JonMA1]

Haven't posted in a while and thought I should record some thoughts. I've played 3 rounds of golf since my last post. All three were below my average with the differentials right around my index. So I guess that's ok. The thing is, I'm doing it with a worse iron swing.

I've been practicing every day but have not been very focused or disciplined. I'd all but given up on my priority and haven't recorded any video in over a month. Finishing with so much weight on my back foot tells me what's going on.

Then, I have a practice like today. All I did was slow way down, hold my backswing at the top for a moment and concentrate on finishing on the top part of my trail toe. It was one of those rare practices when both the mechanics and the resulting ball flight were better. It's almost like I experienced how the game can seem easy or at least under control for some folks.

I've been at this long enough to know the next practice or round will be different. Whatever swing thought I used to get my weight forward and my swing path, face angle, and inline position to all behave properly will fail.

But at least for this practice, it was nice to feel a sense of accomplishment.

Thoughts:

1. At the top, think top of my right toe (to start the weight shift).

2. Pull the handle down right at the ball.

3. Square the club face.

4. Controlled or abbreviated followthrough with right hand turning over the left.

[JonMA1]

 

Just wanted to post a couple swings taken during practice this week. These are probably close to some of the swings I make on the course. On average, I'm still falling back far too often on the course.

I like the shoulder turn I'm getting with my irons... close to 90° I think. Still not getting weight forward but I'm starting accept success with that priority may never happen, and that's ok. I am a bit "flippy" with key #3 but the results have been ok. Iron distance is better this year even if a bit inconsistent. The biggest change I've made is how I'm bringing the club back... how I'm hinging the wrists and opening the face, and then trying to close the face at impact as my hands roll over on the followthrough. The results are an occasional pull because of the timing that's required. It's showing up more often on my mid irons than it is on my long irons oddly enough. I'm going to invest some time this season into trying to improve on the starting line and keeping the fade from turning into a slice. Because I'm working at this on my own, it's probably f'ed up.

The driver swing isn't very good as far as distance. On this video it looks like I'm getting too steep at the top and making a correction to get on plane to start the downswing but I don't really know much about the swing plane.

Not getting the shoulder turn I am with the irons and my driver club head speed is down this year. Slowing my arms has been a conscious decision. I'm focusing more on control and, thus far, it has improved. The downside is that I may be losing up to 10% of my distance even on center-of-face strikes. The ball flight has been nice with a predominate fade. It's nice not piling up the penalties from errant drives. I've always claimed I'd be willing to give up a few yards to gain accuracy (keeping it in play and not to be confused with hitting fairways). I'm sticking by that. On the upside, I've closed the distance gap between my 5w and driver without buying another club (I know... that's not really an upside  )

[JonMA1]

Why can't I practice like this all the time??!!

I've all but given up on my priority of late. Hell, I'm very close to giving up on improvement, period. But I was looking at my bookmarks and noticed a link to a YouTube video called "Weight Shift Made REALLY Easy". I watched the video and headed out to try the drill. 

I jumped right to the part of the drill that involves hitting a ball as that's where my problem exists. The main thought for me was to pull my weight and left hip forward as opposed to pushing it. I know it's a subtle difference, but sometimes a different way of thinking about something can work wonders.

I didn't take video and I'm sure it wasn't pretty, but it felt a lot better. The drill involves bringing the club to the top, pausing, pulling with my left side, and then starting my downswing.

I didn't get hung up on results - even though most were surprisingly good. The few tops and pulls were ok because I had succeeded in my objective before I even hit the ball.

What's frustrating about all this is that I never seem able to repeat a drill the next day. If it were that easy, I'd take this one to the course and use it during my rounds until it became second nature. But that just never seems to be the case.

 

[Phil McGleno]

17 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

Why can't I practice like this all the time??!!

Do you want an honest answer?-Or are you just happy for the one day?

There are some people that should just not play golf if they cannot be happy playing terrible golf at their best-You seem like one of those people.

If you enjoy playing horrible golf-or Practicing fruitlessly for years and years-By all means keep at it.

But I just can not help but wonder sometimes why people like you play golf-And spend so much time and effort on it. Do you like to punish yourself for some past sin or something?-Do you like being outside that much but can not think of something else to do?

\-Why do you play golf? Asking for real.

Not trying to be rude either-Genuinely curious.

[JonMA1]

2 hours ago, Phil McGleno said:

Do you want an honest answer?

Yes, of course I do.

2 hours ago, Phil McGleno said:

\-Why do you play golf? Asking for real.

Because it's the only sport I can play that doesn't involve other people. It is the perfect sport for me... other than the being crappy part.

2 hours ago, Phil McGleno said:

There are some people that should just not play golf if they cannot be happy playing terrible golf at their best-You seem like one of those people.

I'm trying desperately to be one of those people who can be happy playing terrible golf at their best. This might be hard for a +2.5 to understand, but there are more things about my game that I enjoy than there are those I hate. I just need to get better at enjoying the rest (if that makes sense).

2 hours ago, Phil McGleno said:

Not trying to be rude either-Genuinely curious.

I believe you. And I needed to hear this from someone - especially one who has seen a lot of students in his life as you have. 

The worst thing you guys can do (those who know there are some who will never be good) is tell everyone that they can improve. A better message would be "you'd better learn to enjoy golf at a crappy level." 

Nothing wrong with the truth. Wish I'd taken lessons from you 6 years ago.

Thanks Phil. 

[JonMA1]

It's been a few years since I scored over 110 as I did today. i gave up early and just went through the motions. However, I had a playing partner so I wanted to keep track of and enter the score for HC purposes.

Double digit penalty strokes to go along with 39 putts. Only two GIR both of which were followed by 3-putts. I had penalties with wedges, mid to long irons, FW wood and driver. 

I made a change to my path last night and it showed up today. While contact and distance were ok, starting line was pretty bad. A lot of pushes. The swing change did control the slice spin from my previous round, but I had zero control over face angle at impact. I guess if there's anything positive I can take away, it's that even the pushes didn't tail.

The worse part of my game were the 3/4 approach shots. I only had a couple that were online. I'll practice those this week but I'm getting the feeling this is all like trying plug multiple holes in a boat. I fix one and two more pop up. I care less and less every week.

I'm going to have to cancel some outings and return to more solo rounds. I didn't get outwardly pissed once today - no swearing or throwing of clubs. The result of holding in the seething anger was a very fast round. Lol.

 

[Lihu]

I’m happy playing at whatever level I play. Currently, my long game is far better than my short game. Hitting as far and straight  as I ever have with 6 easy greens, but my putting is terrible as is my short game. Scrambling is very low and putting varies by as much as 15 strokes.

My practice consists of 5 to 30 minutes a day of swing, and 2 range sessions and or one round and range session shooting anywhere from 79 to 93. My 2 range sessions always involve a camera or coach/friend and a Mevo.

The difference between a good range session to a bad one is not that significant. Sometimes I hit flags and mostly I don’t, but I enjoy everything I do and no matter my score.

The main thing is I go in with a goal every time I practice. If I don’t fulfill the goal, I set it as a goal for the next session.

Goals and targets are always good for practice and allow you to minimize practice times.

 

[JonMA1]

17 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Goals and targets are always good for practice and allow you to minimize practice times.

Yeah, maybe I should change my practice routine and stop worrying so much about mechanics and priority pieces. It's not like I know what to look for anyway. And even if I notice something I thought was is wrong, it ain't like I'm going to fix it anyway, lol.

So maybe I should just go out there and whack golf balls. I still have some small orange cones from some game the kids had when they were younger. Anyway, I could set up a target area and practice shots from 120 yards and in. Not worry about swing paths, or weight forward or any of that stuff, just work on hitting my target. 

Like you, I really enjoy practicing and but I'm not really interested in minimizing my practice times. I just have to stop looking at it as a means towards improvement and enjoy it more as it's own activity.

[Lihu]

23 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

Yeah, maybe I should change my practice routine and stop worrying so much about mechanics and priority pieces. It's not like I know what to look for anyway. And even if I notice something I thought was is wrong, it ain't like I'm going to fix it anyway, lol.

So maybe I should just go out there and whack golf balls. I still have some small orange cones from some game the kids had when they were younger. Anyway, I could set up a target area and practice shots from 120 yards and in. Not worry about swing paths, or weight forward or any of that stuff, just work on hitting my target. 

Like you, I really enjoy practicing and but I'm not really interested in minimizing my practice times. I just have to stop looking at it as a means towards improvement and enjoy it more as it's own activity.

There’s no one that can’t improve, and I’d like to note that I didn’t just tell you to go whack balls. Kind of the opposite, actually.

Spend some time on every shot to think about what you did wrong in general. Focus on only one change at a time until you get it reasonable, then move on to the next big thing.

I warm up hitting balls for a bit, then pull out the Mevo and ponder over ever shot thinking about what I didn’t do to fix my issues.

Takes a lot of time and practice to get good at practicing 😁

Edited June 11, 2018 by Lihu

[JonMA1]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

I’d like to note that I didn’t just tell you to go whack balls.

Lol. Sorry @Lihu I didn't mean to suggest you did. That's all me and I'm kind of serious about it. I've admitted defeat.... golf has kicked my ass.

---

I just got back in from doing exactly what I said I was going to do in my previous post. I setup the orange cones about 45 ft apart corner to corner. I then dropped 20 balls out in the field at distances ranging between 50 to 120 yards.

I setup the iphone camera overlooking the "green" and went out into the field with a gap wedge and a 9 iron to take partial shots. The camera caught the first two from 50 yds that hit and stayed in the small area, but the wind blew it over before I hit my 3rd ball.

I ended up doing ok. Eight shots landed in that small area, another 6 were just outside - probably on a normal-sized green or at least nGIR's. A couple gap wedge shots were short, a couple 9i's went quite a ways right - lost balls on some of the greens on my home course - and I shanked two with the 9. The shanks would have bothered me... a lot, but take those away and I'd have been ok with the other 18 results. I certainly don't expect to hit that sized target 100% of the time.

Edited June 11, 2018 by JonMA1

[Lihu]

That’s kind of cool having a nice area to hit balls. I’m sure there’s a population of people perfectly content playing golf like that. Just like there are some who just like going to the driving range for the social aspect.

However, I’m not going to let you give up on improving. I’m sure something will click.

My full swing is as good now as ever. Hasn’t changed a huge amount over the past three years, but my short game and putting are awful. Should I give up on trying to improve that? No, I’m still trying just like I encourage you to. Keep trying, but just don’t get frustrated. It’s enjoyable.

I’ve thought about bringing a set of clubs to some of the places I hike and shoot up in the Trinity range in NorCal with similar scenery you have, but I think some might complain 😂

Keep in plodding along and enjoy. 😊

[JonMA1]

@Lihu  - you'll appreciate the irony...

I was/am serious about just hitting balls for a while, but I'm finding it's not that easy.

For the last couple of nights I went out just to goof off and not worry about mechanics. Next thing I know, I'm slowing way down and rehearsing a move over and over again before hitting the ball at 60-70%. I suppose once something is engrained - right or wrong - it's tough to just stop cold turkey.

I was working on my partial 9i swing the other night and seemed to make some progress with club face control. Whether that carries out to the course remains to be seen. That is such an important part of my game and I have to get it back to have a prayer of shooting in the mid 90's.

Then there was the work with the 5w and driver, trying to reduce the slice spin. I've found that if I (think) extend my arms in the followthrough I'm less likely to come across the ball. Probably not technically sound, but oh well.

Tonight it was the long irons and it was a very focused practice as well. Again, not at all what I intended to do when I headed out.

Old habits die hard as they say.

Seriously @Lihu, I appreciate the support. Very decent of you.

Edit: I hope you get your short game and putting figured out. Let me know when you do.

Edited June 14, 2018 by JonMA1