My Swing (RandallT)

[RandallT]

I've been Playing Golf for: 20 years, but focused only for the past two seasons

My current handicap index or average score is: 11.3

My typical ball flight is: Was OTT/Slice, but now more draws unless I revert back

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Pull hook or hit fat from fairway

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Videos:

I cringe when I see these, because I think I reverted my swing back a little bit, just due to the filming. But if this is how I swing when I am aware I'm being filmed, these must be my natural tendencies. I felt like my wrists kept breaking down and I was going past parallel. I could see the club in my peripheral vision on the left for most of these.

Driver Down the Line

Driver Face On

Six Iron Down the Line

Six Iron Face On

[clueless]

Nice swing but a little to much sliding back and thru not enough hip rotation

[RandallT]

Agreed!

[RandallT]

I see why I hit it fat a lot lately- my head is all over the place as I sway. My left arm and wrist are not very controlled.  Man, I need to do video more often! I swear at my last lesson a while back, we had mostly gotten rid of all that. Amazing how old habits tend to creep right back into the swing.

[Seymore McFly]

Hey RandallT,

Not sure if this video will help, but I think it could give you a few good thoughts at the range.  Plus the instructor has A LOT of great videos on youtube.

[RandallT]

I haven't gotten outside with a club yet this year, but I just submitted these to Evolvr to start the learning process for 5SK. I think I've got some work to do, but it's a start. Comments always welcome.

[RandallT]

My attempt at analysis before I get any feedback from Evolvr:

1. Head not steady. In FO view, it goes back and up on the backswing. Down and forward on downswing.

2. Weight not transferring forward onto front foot like I see in videos. Some weight shift but I need to practice exaggerrated shift so that I can get it ingrained

3. Too much sway

4. Flipping hands, I think. Need better camera to capture each frame with less blur.

5. Falling forward. In the DTL view, my butt moves dramatically toward the ball on the downswing.

6. Extension at impact and followthrough looks timid. Need to get hips and chest pulling body upward like I see in Mike video. I'm facing things forward at end, not upward like his tutorial.

Probably tons more, but that's the stuff that jumps out at me.

[iacas]

Stand with your heels almost touching a wall. Take your stance without your butt touching the wall.

Notice your stance in DL - your weight is well back on your heels.

[RandallT]

Thanks! I'll work on that.

[RandallT]

I got a quick reply from Evolvr (very impressed). Quick meaning that it was sooner than I expected. The reply itself was QUITE detailed. I'll be working strictly on 4 things until the next submission:

1. Posture. Weight shouldn't be so much on my heels. Less knee flex at address. Stand straighter. I'll also review the many excellent posture videos here to make sure I'm not getting some other aspect of posture out of whack.

2. More shaft lean at address.

3. Straighten up right leg at top of backswing, getting better angles for my hips and shoulders (pointing downward, less flat)

4. Grip check, primarily on left hand. I'll upload via video where my left hand is next time so that he can see better where I'm placing it.

Lastly, I need to get outside and do real swings, not timid ones. I nearly hit my ceiling fan here!  If anyone has further comment, I'll take it onboard, but not get distracted from the 4 things here. It looks my guesses as to what I needed to focus on would have led me in the wrong direction. I suspect that these 4 things here will build the correct foundation from which to address the mess of things I had in Post #7 above. I'm glad to get expert advice, rather than try to self-diagnose!

[mvmac]

1. Posture. Weight shouldn't be so much on my heels. Less knee flex at address. Stand straighter. I'll also review the many excellent posture videos here to make sure I'm not getting some other aspect of posture out of whack.

3. Straighten up right leg at top of backswing, getting better angles for my hips and shoulders (pointing downward, less flat)

Good to hear. Yes make sure to do the posture drill @iacas suggested, will help with #3. If the weight is favoring the heels, tough to turn the hips and shoulders steep enough because the right knee will want to retain it's flex for balance.

Couple good examples

[RandallT]

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate the extra info- makes sense. I'm definitely working on Erik's tip and trying to get my posture better. Eye opening how far back I was settled.

[RandallT]

Evolution of my posture in one month.

First two shots during Feb/March when it was tough to get to range. Weight on heels. Grip awkward. Club leaning back at address a bit.  After lots of drills with my butt against the wall, you can see where I stand in early April (see the orange shirt outside). It looks better to me. Weight more forward, hands look better. On my backswing, my right leg is straightening more naturally now, whereas before I kept my kneeflex pretty much locked.

At the range, the ball flight is more consistent, I think, but I've yet to see if I can bring this to the course. I look forward to April 6, TST Mid-Atlantic outing.

Next steps:

Bow my knees out a bit to match my foot flare.

Continue all of the things in the first analysis above. Plus:

Work on getting the club to "lay down" at the start of the downswing. When my arm gets to parallel (A5), the club should point outside the ball. Mine is currently well inside.

Practice hitting to the right of an alignment rod that is straight in front of me at the range. Get that in to out sensation of hitting the ball out to the right.

[iacas]

SEXY!

[RandallT]

	Carry	Total	Swing Speed	Ball Speed	Spin	Axis	Axis tilt	Launch Vert	Height	Time in Air	Shape
	255	274	101.2	151.2	2080	9.8	R	10.5	74	5.9	fade
	260	269	101.6	152.5	2864	7	R	13.1	108	7	fade
	253	269	102.4	152.7	2478	16.6	R	10.5	77	6.1	slice
	255	265	99.9	150.1	1972	15.7	R	14.4	97	6.5	push/slice
	252	262	99.5	149.2	2241	4.3	R	10.6	82	6.4	fade
	246	261	99.7	149.7	2108	9.4	R	11.1	75	6	fade
	258	261	101.8	154.6	3369	8.1	R	14	131	7.5	push/fade
	245	258	100.7	144.6	2098	15.4	R	16.1	95	6.2	push/fade
	252	257	102.1	152.5	2121	9.6	R	13.7	108	6.9	fade
	244	256	106.6	155.2	2384	11.1	R	10.7	77	6	fade
	249	256	102	150.2	2475	11.9	R	13	92	6.5	fade
	240	256	101.2	151.2	2070	14.1	L	12.6	79	5.9	draw
	226	255	103.6	155.2	1564	13.7	L	11	55	4.7	draw
	241	255	104.3	154.4	2164	2	R	10.6	74	5.9	straight
	247	255	101.2	151	2512	13.6	R	14.5	102	6.6	push/fade
	246	254	101.8	151	2237	9.8	R	10.9	79	6.2	fade
	248	254	103	151.7	3255	3.1	R	13.1	108	6.9	fade
	246	254	102.5	144.1	2076	19.4	R	15.7	106	6.7	push/slice
	234	253	100	148.7	1912	16.6	R	11	67	5.5	fade
	226	253	101	150.5	1680	30.4	L	11.1	56	4.9	hook
	247	253	101.7	148.8	2756	21.9	R	16.8	117	6.9	push/slice
	230	250	99.9	149.2	2106	9.1	L	11	65	5.4	draw
	238	250	99.1	148.9	2479	4.6	R	15.3	87	6	fade
	239	249	99.3	147.5	1967	1.4	R	10.9	77	6.2	straight
	240	246	100.9	151.5	3091	13.3	R	10.6	83	6.4	slice
	241	246	102.5	153.7	2691	24.7	R	14.6	114	6.8	push/slice
	227	245	100.4	145.8	2391	22	R	9.4	60	5.4	slice
	239	245	100	148.8	2756	13.3	R	10	85	6.5	slice
	233	244	100.5	151.3	2859	21.1	R	11.2	70	5.7	slice
	229	243	99.6	149.1	1910	11.4	L	11.8	72	5.7	draw
	234	242	102.3	146.3	3391	6.3	R	10.5	83	6.3	fade
	237	241	102.4	149.5	3089	2.3	L	12.1	108	6.9	draw
	232	239	101.5	151.7	2947	21.3	R	10.6	79	6.1	push/slice
	233	239	100.8	148	2520	12	R	9.7	79	6.3	fade
	229	232	105.9	151.3	4941	10.5	R	11.8	119	7.1	slice
	227	232	99.7	146	3730	10.5	R	11.6	93	6.3	fade
	225	231	102.7	149.1	3116	18.5	R	11	76	6	slice
	227	231	103	150.2	5710	9.4	R	14.4	114	6.8	push/fade
	225	229	103.9	150.3	2816	24	R	15.4	114	6.7	push/slice
	222	227	103.7	147.3	3130	11.7	R	10	76	6.1	fade
	224	226	98	144.7	3212	2.3	R	11.7	103	6.9	fade
	221	226	103.5	146.7	3990	23	R	9.1	76	6.1	slice
Average	238.6	248.6	101.6	149.9	2697			12.1	87.9	6.26
Top 5	255.0	267.8	100.9	151.1	2327			11.8	87.6	6.4

With the 10 worst flubbed shots removed, here is data from a recent swing analysis (sorted by total carry). I've been still working on the key points from my Evolvr lessons, hopefully starting up those again in the off-season.  Hmmm, 10 our 52 shots were bad- I need to improve consistency right off the bat. Let's see at that rate, on 14 drives in a round, that's 3 of them that would be flubbed.

[RandallT]

First 18-hole round after purchasing the new driver based on the fitting above. Hit 7/12 fairways with it. Averaged 243yds. Was hoping for a little more distance, but I mishit on 17 and 18 off the bottom of the face to bring the average down. Overall, I'm happy with my game today and continued work on the basics will pay off. http://www.ushandicap.com/golf-handicap/scores_detail.asp?scoreID=113662820 Sandy greens today. So sandy you could see the track after each putt. Here's the last 15 feet of my 30-foot birdie putt on 16. As soon as it was struck, we all knew it was tracking. Dead center pretty much. Pretty cool.

[RandallT]

Played only twice this year but should have time rest of summer to play more. My average drive is about 240 so far, and it's interesting to compare with Trackman data above when I purchased my drive last September. I think their Trackman was a bit juiced frankly. Their averages were 239 carry and 249 total for several drivers I tried. We were hitting uphill into the wind that day I remember. My swing now feels pretty good at the range ( still plan to restart Evolvr), but after throwing out the bad drives, my average for 2 rounds is 240. And at the range, the fence line is 235 and I rarely hit the net. I doubt my swing was vastly better last September than now, but it seems to be about 10 yards more "optimistic" at the driver purchase session than reality indicates. Bottom line, so far my new driver (SLDR) is identical to my old driver in performance (older TaylorMade model). Kinda a bummer.

[RandallT]

Time to brag a bit. Got my first hole in one today:

White tees were way back, and played 2 clubs longer than normal. 6-iron (graphic says 5-iron based on my normal distances) from 174 (downhill with wind). Bounced about 6 feet shy of hole, but none of us saw it drop due to lighting. We did the obligatory search around the green, thinking we'd possibly misjudged the distance with the wind. Sure enough, the ball was in the hole. I never expected to ever achieve a hole in one in my life, but there you have it. What a thrill!!

True story, but the guys I was with were discussing centered hip turns and steady heads. My swing was nice and controlled, with a smooth rhythm. As it was in flight, one guy said my hips did exactly what I had been saying I was striving for.  The ball zinged off the club face effortlessly, and my playing partners were all rooting for it to get close.

I've been working on my old evolvr lessons these past couple weeks, lots of slow motion stuff in the mirror. I have been to the range to solidify it, and this round was strictly a "practice," with no pressure to score. In fact, I missed the second and third holes due to an emergency call from my daughter, and then I hit one couple OB on the 4th tee. The 1st hole was played brilliantly though, and I was swinging easy and effortlessly compared to when I last played.

The rest of my round was nothing to brag about score-wise, but hey, a hole in one- that's a successful day, by any standard.

My gut is that I'm striking the ball better than last month with a more sound swing, but I'll have to restart Evolvr to confirm that any improvement has been made. It sure felt like it today.