My Swing (RandallT)

[RandallT]

23 hours ago, iacas said:

Note the hand path. Goes left a bit sooner than it should. Just a little.

Thanks. I messed with that yesterday, and I think I can feel it in slow motion, but will take time to ingrain at anything faster than that.

Went to the range today to knock out my assignment for the next submission to my instructor, but I was not getting it at all. My only goal was the club path improvement. I tried to forget about all the work I've been doing (left wrist, right elbow, backswing, etc), just let all that happen naturally, and focus solely on the club coming through more shallow and not tipping up over my hands by A6.

It was almost like the more I tried, the more it tipped up and over!

I did 45 balls like what you see below- very slow swings, really took my time. Some were slower than this, but those were even worse. Not one met the requirement for submission to my instructor, and not one ball was at all solid contact. Lots of hooks left, lots of fat shots. Not sure I've had a more frustrating range session based on contact AND inability to change the picture. Probably trying to force it too much that I couldn't relax.

I'll have to review this to see what pieces I've backslid on. Right off the bat I see the club is more open at the top, perhaps left wrist cupping again?

I also see that everything is pointing and moving leftward near impact. The hands, as mentioned above, but also my head, my feet alignment. Almost like I'm sweeping everything across right to left. 

 

[No Mulligans]

You really have a smooth easy look to your swing... brings to mind the Big Easy (Ernie Els).

[natureboy]

Hey Randall. Just wanted to say cheers, and thanks for the fun discussions about stats.

Hope your progress continues apace!

[mistermuhl]

I like looking back and seeing some progress. And I like your slow swings where you are working on flattening the plane. Very similar to what I need to work on. I struggle consistently swinging slow because <90% is a tough concept for me. 

[RandallT]

1 hour ago, mistermuhl said:

I like looking back and seeing some progress. And I like your slow swings where you are working on flattening the plane. Very similar to what I need to work on. I struggle consistently swinging slow because <90% is a tough concept for me. 

Yah I wish I were better at swinging in slow motion.  It takes me a while to speed things up, and I often get impatient and speed up to a 50-75% speed too fast. 

Looking back, my last session I needed to basically dribble the ball off the tee with correct form. Get that video.

Then hit one about 20yards with my 6-iron with good form. Save the video. Solidify it a bit and confirm. 

Then get a 50yd shot working, etc.

I jumped ahead to 100yd-ish swings - because I convinced myself my form was breaking down because it was too slow!

On 2/24/2017 at 2:23 PM, No Mulligans said:

You really have a smooth easy look to your swing... brings to mind the Big Easy (Ernie Els).

Well if you ever saw the ball flight on the course, Ernie might not come to mind! 

But thanks! I'm still plugging away with slow-ish swings on the range. My goal was to update that steepness thread I created last spring with a success story before the 2017 season really kicks in.

I feel close, but it's elusive- my current feeling is that I need to improve my hand path such that I don't pull the down,inward, left so much, tipping the club steeper. Trying to get the sensation of moving the hands more to the right and slinging the club around flatter. Will see if I can get that in slow mo at the range next week.

 

 

[roamin]

On 2/26/2017 at 0:51 PM, RandallT said:

Yah I wish I were better at swinging in slow motion.  It takes me a while to speed things up, and I often get impatient and speed up to a 50-75% speed too fast. 

Looking back, my last session I needed to basically dribble the ball off the tee with correct form.

Man, I'm the same way. Some days are better than others. I've gotten in the habit of stopping myself and switching to pitching practice for a while just to relax and have some fun with practice. After about 15-20 shots, I'll try again and remind myself what slow really means... 

Spoiler

 

 

[RandallT]

14 hours ago, roamin said:

Man, I'm the same way. Some days are better than others.

Well, I did pretty well today. 45 balls over about 2 hours.

So in the video below, the only goal was to get the club coming to come in more shallow. Primarily, stop tipping it up so that the club came in over my hands on its way to A6. While I think I achieved that below, I can't tell you how awkward it all felt. Skip ahead to 1:04 or so to see the final swing, as the rest is just messing around trying to get the awareness. No thought of left wrist, right elbow, head steady, nothing- just club position and path awareness. 

Some stills, here is A4 and A5. Trying to feel club head fall behind more.

Then the main part of what I was working on is below at A5.5 and A6.

At A5.5, the goal was to have the club more through the bicep and less "tipped up" through my shoulder. So I think that's decent. 

At A6, I wanted the club where it is in the pic! I achieved this on several of the last few videos, but I haven't tried speeding up yet. Today was all slow motion.

The contact was generally poor for all of these slow motion shots, so yes, it's tough for me to keep doing it over and over when the hits are so clunky. But at least I'm getting the feel for the club path coming through like this.

[RandallT]

Well, it's "steady as she goes" after the most recent instructor feedback. And that's a good thing, as things are taking shape.

Next range session will be a similar assignment as previously. Go as slow as necessary (perhaps a bit faster than above?) demonstrating a good downswing club path from DTL. The work shown above a few days ago was a leap forward, but still work to do (is there ever NOT work to do?).

Two things to add to the very specific list of items to work on:

1. Near impact, feel like someone is pulling my left pocket around behind me. In other words, keep those hips driving around. Straightening the left leg will help/be needed, as I tend to keep flex in the lead knee.
2. Keep an eye on opening the club after A2. That has been a problem since starting lessons. A persistent issue has been that I open the club until fairly late in the sequence, and making good contact has depended on my pausing my hips and using my eye-hand coordination to square up the club in a mere instant with a hand roll. If I can keep the club closed (stop cupping, etc), the focus will be on whipping the club around on the correct path via rotation, and I won't have use my hands to square the club (or so I understand).

All very exciting, as today, I did some practice in the foyer, and perhaps for the first time, these movements felt ... dare I say... natural. Snow is coming to the area, so with the return of colder weather, the range is probably a couple weeks away. But I'm rejuvenated to stay on course and solidify the progress. 

If I can get a couple more good range sessions, I'll update the stubborn steepness thread and document a before and after, including all the things necessary for me to power through the issue. 

 

[RandallT]

Bit of backsliding at the range today. 

Just two swings on this one- first to about 50yds, second to maybe 100. The only thing I was trying to think about was steepness.

My hope was that all of the work I've been doing daily with left wrist, right elbow, keeping the club face more closed on the backswing, left hip back and around near impact by straightening my left leg, etc.  All that I was hoping was starting to become natural and that I'd see some effect on how I deliver the club on the downswing.

But not to be. I think I've done some backsliding here, and what I felt like I couldn't get right was my hand path. I felt like I couldn't keep them from going down and in- which tips the club up.  Even while actively trying to think about the hands going out and around, I was still feeling like it was natural to have them go down and swipe across to the left. That was a bit frustrating. I'll try to get some better vids and submit to instructor later this week.

So while it's frustrating to not make any progress on something I've been focusing on for a while, I do feel like I'm getting a feel for what I'm doing wrong, which I suppose is a necessary step to stop doing it!

 

[RandallT]

 

Just submitted these to my instructor. I haven't analyzed much, but one thing I look at right away is to see if I'm laying the club down any better. My long-term goal is to get rid of my steepness. From the pic below (somewhere between A5 and A6), I am hoping the club will eventually be more along the line of my bicep here, and not through my shoulder.  By A6, the club is still coming in a bit over my hands, but it's definitely way better than it was.

So I'll wait for my instructor's analysis and just stop there with my own detailed look, but my gut is that there's a ton more to do, but it is feeling so much better. Specifically, the good points:

1. My swing is feeling natural and athletic now (whereas in previous range sessions I've felt out of control),
2. the contact with the ball is more solid than I've felt in the past, and 
3. the consistency I'm getting when I swing freely with the last balls in the bucket seem much improved.

Good signs that progress is being made, so I'm ready to start bringing this to the course to see where my handicap lands me early in the season.

 

[iacas]

21 hours ago, RandallT said:

• My swing is feeling natural and athletic now (whereas in previous range sessions I've felt out of control),
• the contact with the ball is more solid than I've felt in the past, and 
• the consistency I'm getting when I swing freely with the last balls in the bucket seem much improved.

None of those sound bad to me.

[RandallT]

I'm back!

Lots of stretching and physical therapy, and I think I'm nearing 100%. I've been to the range and even played a few 9-hole rounds with family, but mainly just to stay loose- no real deliberate practice.

So I shot these vids to get a baseline on where I stand after a hiatus. I have been reading my last few lessons and doing some mirror work at home, particularly around the pieces related to my steepness on the downswing.

My one thought in these swings was to start my hand path more toward the ball (horizontally) than down. As always with video, I am surprised about what I'm seeing. The club is definitely doing what I want it to do or hoped it would do! My last assignment was to go slow enough to show improvement, so I'll need to go even slower. These felt like 50% but look more like 75%. 

The plan from here is:

• review the vids to see what parts of my old lessons show regression (fix those issues)
• take another set of vids at slower speeds to see if I can make progress on my final assignments from my instructor (from spring 2017),
• restart Evolvr in November,
• play a few rounds by the end of the year to see how this swing holds up on the course. I played only a few rounds early in 2017 after a good winter 2016 of progress but I really don't know where my scores stand,
• continue through the winter with deliberate practice like last year, and hopefully declare a victory in spring 2018 on the downswing steepness that I can't seem to shake.

 

[JonMA1]

I really like the tempo and follow-through - like you could hit good shots with it all day long.

 

(how's that for a technical evaluation?)

[billchao]

@RandallT it's good to see you back at the game. Make sure you take care of that neck and hopefully we'll meet out on the course again next year.

[RandallT]

Thanks, Jon & Bill. Good to be back! 

On 9/26/2017 at 6:17 PM, JonMA1 said:

I really like the tempo and follow-through - like you could hit good shots with it all day long.

Funny, when I look at my own swing, I cringe! But better to deal with the reality of what is than the fantasy that I feel I am doing! But thanks, I'm actually getting to a point where the swing is starting to feel controlled after the last couple years of working on the basics. I can identify past mistakes now, and can find the right feels to correct them better than I used to be able to do. 

In this first submission after the injury, I was getting lazy on the backswing, but after review, I think I've tightened up on a couple things. It does feel more solid today- video below.

The main thought on the backswing today was to improve the position at the top. I was crossing the line and the club was pointing right of the target. So my only thought today on the backswing was to feel a shorter, right arm straighter, and club pointing up and to the left of the target at the top. I definitely notice how that position is more controllable at the start of the downswing. It's not perfect, but definitely improved.

Today I spent making about 10 videos like you see above, reviewing each one in slow motion to watch the club and hand paths. It was tedious, but I feel pretty good. Other than the backswing, I worked on:

• Moving the arms/hand path more horizontal from the top. The goal being to shallow out the club.
• On the downswing, continue to feel the arms/hands rotation AROUND, and not down the line. Erik has mentioned my tendency to get the hands moving to the left too soon. So I wanted to feel like I was pushing the hand path out to right field. That was difficult. In my slow motions, you can definitely see me focusing on where the arms are going from the top- not to let them drop down as much as I want to do naturally.
• Then just feel that the rotation of everything just keeps on spinning through and let the clubhead naturally square up. By having the club come through more shallow, I can feel that the forces on the club work better to square it up, compared to when it comes through more steeply.

The video shows two swings at a ball. The first strike was terrible, but the swing didn't feel too bad.  Here's a shot between A5/A6, where I typically have the club going through my right shoulder. So even though contact was bad, I achieved what I was going for (I think- experts are certainly free to disagree!)

The second strike was much better, and I'll try to review the differences later. I tried to feel like it was less than a 50% swing, just to confirm that I can do this in slow speeds before I ramp it up.

Overall, I'm pleased with the progress and that I was able to focus on reviewing each set of swings on video. Sometimes I can lack that discipline. Look forward to speeding things up. All in all, successful day.

Hey, @Fairway_CY - this is an example of practice that is fun. What I was trying to express in your thread on your lack of patience with practicing.  It has been a bit tedious (and slow, particular with an injury), but fun when you see glimpses of successful results. Experts (evolvr/Erik/Mike/etc) have pointed me to fix the things above, and it's been slow, but rewarding to make a little bit of progress. Next, it's on to faster swings and then take it to the course. Plus all the inevitable corrections that come next. Who knows, maybe I'm taking a step back on something else while I'm doing this, but I've learned that it's easier to go back and fix something that you've fixed before than it is to start fresh on a new priority. Just wanted to give you a hard time! 

 

[iacas]

Looking pretty darn good @RandallT.

[JonMA1]

On 9/28/2017 at 11:35 AM, RandallT said:

In this first submission after the injury, I was getting lazy on the backswing, but after review, I think I've tightened up on a couple things. It does feel more solid today- video below.

Do you think this may be something a lot of us aren't of aware of or don't think about as much as we should?

As in, we work hard and develop some success in the way of improved mechanics. The improvements start showing up on the course. We then either start on something else or, at the very least, back off on working on that piece. Maybe we expect the changes to be permanent when, in fact, it's easy to slide backwards.

At least you were able to recognize what was going on. You seem to have a good idea of the direction you need to take. Is that from working with Evolvr or just learning what needs to happen in a swing?

[RandallT]

4 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

Do you think this may be something a lot of us aren't of aware of or don't think about as much as we should?

As in, we work hard and develop some success in the way of improved mechanics. The improvements start showing up on the course. We then either start on something else or, at the very least, back off on working on that piece. Maybe we expect the changes to be permanent when, in fact, it's easy to slide backwards.

At least you were able to recognize what was going on. You seem to have a good idea of the direction you need to take. Is that from working with Evolvr or just learning what needs to happen in a swing?

1

Speaking for myself, and standing by what's in this thread, I can say these things that I think in a roundabout way answer your questions:

• It wasn't until I started doing Evolvr lessons that I truly learned about my swing. Having someone guide me through is invaluable for me, and even though no one video lesson is the "aha, I've got it" thing, it's the summary of them all and the hard work doing the lessons that make me far more aware than I've ever been. 
• Regarding the permanence of fixes, I've come to just live with a certain amount regression, but not get too frustrated. I work one thing at a time, and accept that other things may slip. Because of the entirety of the lessons, I think I get more familiar with where I "leak" back to my natural state (which wasn't good), so it gets easier each time to spot.
• One of the things I've come to understand is that getting into a good backswing position makes the downswing part easier. Duh, right?  But I've now had that ingrained. We spent a lot of good time on my backswing, and while it's not perfect, it was enough to get moving on the downswing. And THEN when I got some great direction from them on the downswing, the backswing feelings solidified. I could tell when I was out of position because the downswing wouldn't work otherwise. It's all connected (again, duh right?)

Does that answer everything to your satisfaction, sir?