My Swing (RandallT)

[RandallT]

  On 12/27/2016 at 7:21 PM, iacas said:

Buy a… I'm trying to think of the name…

https://www.facebook.com/TorcSwingtrainer/

http://www.torcgolf.com

There are threads here on this.

I like it just under the grip. It doesn't affect swingweight much, and you can "feel" where the shaft is better.

Hmmm, I wonder if they're still around.

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Bummer, it appears to be unavailable now.

For now, I think I'll go on an all-out blitz to focus solely on flat left wrist. I've been focusing on lots of backswing elements for weeks or months now to get at the steepness issue ultimately, but checking multiple things (too many?). By trying to simultaneously check at A2 (club hooded a bit), A3 position of hands vertically relative to feet and wrist hinge, A4 hand depth, right elbow, full shoulder turn, position of club, wrist, etc- maybe that's too much.

I thought I was being laser focused on a backswing piece (and that I could handle it all), but I'll just narrow it to just the wrist until I declare better success on just that. Just need something better than the loosey goosey cupping that I seem to want to do at full speed when a ball is there. That darn ball makes me forget everything. I swear in my foyer with the mirror, I'm perfect! Haha. One thing I'm learning is that I need to do full swings with a ball (and video review) to check how well my slow motion practice is sticking.

Well, I submitted the video, so we'll see what my instructor has to say, regardless. As they used to say on those campy Batman episodes, stay tuned.

[iacas]

  On 12/27/2016 at 8:16 PM, RandallT said:

Bummer, it appears to be unavailable now.

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[mchepp]

  On 12/27/2016 at 8:16 PM, RandallT said:

Bummer, it appears to be unavailable now.

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I'd be interested in purchasing one if you find one @RandallT

[iacas]

  On 12/27/2016 at 9:38 PM, mchepp said:

I'd be interested in purchasing one if you find one @RandallT

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He'll sell ten to me for $100. I don't know what it'd cost to mail them out individually.

[nevets88]

  On 12/27/2016 at 9:58 PM, iacas said:

He'll sell ten to me for $100. I don't know what it'd cost to mail them out individually.

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I'd like to buy one too.

[Good Ash]

I have noticed the wrist thing myself when working on the steepness of my back swing.  Usually I have a pretty flat wrist but occasionally I am finding where it cups a little in the last couple weeks.  I think it is because I am applying a stronger base to my backswing with my rear arm (rear arm is controlling the depth and not letting my arms get as deep)  I don't know if that is right but just what I have noticed.  

 

[iacas]

  On 12/27/2016 at 10:42 PM, nevets88 said:

I'd like to buy one too.

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I have ten on the way. Your cost will be somewhere between $15 and $20, I think. I just have to figure out how to send them, now.

[Club Rat]

  On 12/29/2016 at 3:16 AM, iacas said:

I just have to figure out how to send them, now.

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I'd like one. I'll even write a review.

[boogielicious]

  On 12/29/2016 at 3:16 AM, iacas said:

I have ten on the way. Your cost will be somewhere between $15 and $20, I think. I just have to figure out how to send them, now.

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I'd buy one as well. I think I may have one already, but I can't tell from the pictures if it's the same thing.

[RandallT]

  On 12/29/2016 at 3:16 AM, iacas said:

I have ten on the way. Your cost will be somewhere between $15 and $20, I think. I just have to figure out how to send them, now.

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It'll be interesting to experience how the extra weight on the club gives some extra awareness.

Regarding my progress, I am to continue marching forward with the same pieces, and there is progress. Perhaps a small step back, but I feel like I'm close to making a couple steps forward pretty soon. 

One of my main challenges (no secret to those following along): I need to stop cupping the left wrist at the top and on the downswing so that there will be less rotation of the club needed near impact to get it square. I can feel now that when I cup my wrist, the club gets very open, requiring manipulation near impact to square it up. That's a step forward, as I have internalized that feeling. The less I cup it, the longer the club will be closer to square coming through impact, and in slow motion, that is making perfect sense to me now.

I have at least figured out why I cup it. I have this mental image that in order to get lag, the wrist needs to do the crazy thing it's doing. But cocking the wrist for lag is quite different, of course. Over the years, I've gone into auto-pilot and substituted that nasty wrist cupping for the feeling of getting lag, so that needs to be undone. I am gaining the sensation now that I can cock my wrists, independent of any cupping. Bizarre how I've had those confused over the years- without really thinking about it. (unconscious incompetence with that piece?)

Below is the start of my downswing, and it's here that I start cupping more- drastically opening the face causing more problems later on.

The backswing, in general, also still needs work to put me in better position to drop the club at the transition. It's the initial move in the transition that seems like it will be key to getting the hands and club started on good paths to optimize all of the forces that will be generated on the downswing. But that'll come a bit later after I nail a smoother backswing.

As it stands now, from the top of the backswing, I'm doing things that start to shallow the club from the top (which is good). But fairly quickly, I get the club tipping back vertical (which is bad). It should be coming into the ball from the angle shown below in red. So by this point in the swing, I'm just trying to save things as the club is very open, and it's coming in from an angle such that the hand path/club path relationship is not too great. Lots of compensations needed from here. 

So the work stays the same: ingrain the backswing, eliminate wrist cupping. Get those into the unconscious competence phase: 

My hope is that then I'll be able to zero in on a better transition, so that the club can fall more behind me, rather than tipping back vertically (my problem since I've started the sport, I believe).

 

[RandallT]

No video today, but I played a round. Shot 90 on a par 71, 70.4/134 rated course. Soggy, bit breezy, and some rain through the mid-part of the round, but I was really able to bring some of the work in these lessons to the course. The key was that I didn't lose any balls off the tee. I actually have a reliable draw now, and only once over-cooked it to the left trees for a recovery shot back out. Overall, the drives were playable, and I was advancing it to the near the green fairly reliably (16/18 nGIR). So I feel like it's a bit of a breakthrough regarding confidence over every shot- even if the score doesn't reflect it. 

I think I'll be able to clean up the short game. Perhaps as @boogielicious mentioned in another thread, I could even use some of my lesson time of the winter to do some formal lessons there (I've never done that actually).

So I'm pretty pumped to get in a round after a long break, and it's back to work on the swing, rejuvenated that I am feeling pretty confident over the ball and able to feel my backswing and left wrist in course conditions. Let's hope video backs that up soon!

[boogielicious]

  On 1/4/2017 at 5:29 PM, RandallT said:

No video today, but I played a round. Shot 90 on a par 71, 70.4/134 rated course. Soggy, bit breezy, and some rain through the mid-part of the round, but I was really able to bring some of the work in these lessons to the course. The key was that I didn't lose any balls off the tee. I actually have a reliable draw now, and only once over-cooked it to the left trees for a recovery shot back out. Overall, the drives were playable, and I was advancing it to the near the green fairly reliably (16/18 nGIR). So I feel like it's a bit of a breakthrough regarding confidence over every shot- even if the score doesn't reflect it. 

I think I'll be able to clean up the short game. Perhaps as @boogielicious mentioned in another thread, I could even use some of my lesson time of the winter to do some formal lessons there (I've never done that actually).

So I'm pretty pumped to get in a round after a long break, and it's back to work on the swing, rejuvenated that I am feeling pretty confident over the ball and able to feel my backswing and left wrist in course conditions. Let's hope video backs that up soon!

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I'm jealous you got to play!

Start with the pitch technique for short game video because that applies to sand as well. For sand, the set up is slightly different.

[CarlSpackler]

  On 1/4/2017 at 6:12 PM, boogielicious said:

I'm jealous you got to play!

Start with the pitch technique for short game video because that applies to sand as well. For sand, the set up is slightly different.

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Me too. I'm at work today. =)

[RandallT]

Range today. Course tomorrow perhaps! Woohoo- it's almost like I've got Spackler's weather.

  Reveal hidden contents

yes, i know it's really shane

Those videos were strictly trying to focus on left wrist. A tiny bit on a proper backswing, but my goal was to start the process of making my left flat wrist be automatic. In each video, there's a slow motion swing where the wrist is on my mind- without hitting a ball. The next swing is slow-ish motion (hitting the ball), and I think about the wrist condition a bit less. The final swing is mostly full speed, where I try to just let it happen.

My assessment: the flat wrist is better than before, but still have a tendency to rev my wrist the wrong way right at the top of the backswing. I think my shoulders stop their turn, but my arms/hands keep going up and my wrist cups a bit. 

So while I'm trying to be honest in what I'm seeing, I'll let the instructor tell me what he thinks. (but comments welcome, of course)

The overall thought is that I feel quite a bit more "tense" over the ball outside than I feel in my foyer. It's hard to explain, as "tense" is not the right word. I think one answer is to take some video of my practice inside to ensure that what I'm doing is what I FEEL I'm doing. But the feels are quite different (home vs range). 

In fact, the whole idea of getting a feel for a specific part of the swing and moving that feel from one environment to another seems interesting. I don't even know if it's a phony idea, frankly. Perhaps I do the EXACT same thing in both places, but they sure "feel" different. I have dropped in on other swing threads to discuss similar ideas- so maybe it's just something that resonates with a bunch of us.

Tomorrow, I'll try to play a round- just to get out and have fun. Enjoy the weather. Take a break from dedicated practice and back to enjoying golf and the guys I play with. Probably warm up with a small bucket so the first tee isn't my first shot, but I'll try to let my unconscious swing go and see what happens.

Then it's back to work as I'll probably get feedback from my instructor from the vids above.

 

[RandallT]

Played a round today. Had a great time.

Scoring didn't happen, as there were temp greens in place, so it didn't really feel legit. One green on a par 5 was a barely mown area about 120yds short of the real green. That made scoring feel meaningless.

But regarding the iron swing, I'll give myself low marks for moving the changes onto the course on my irons. I felt my left wrist cup near impact, and even worse, that feeling returned that I NEEDED to cup the wrist to get the club face square! Ack! That's been my natural swing through my life, and I know now through instruction and slow motion work that cupping the wrist at impact will make the ball go right. Guess what I hit a lot of today on approaches: weak right push slices. Too many fat shots in the soggy turf too.

That was for my irons primarily. My driver was solid, interestingly. I hit a lot of fairways, and I was hitting some pretty decent trajectory shots. The wind was really whipping and the fairways were totally soggy, so the distances weren't great.  (downwind, I did put together my best back-to-back shots on one par 5- reached the green on a 480yd hole in 2). Very encouraging. 

 

 

[JonMA1]

  On 1/12/2017 at 11:37 PM, RandallT said:

Too many fat shots in the soggy turf too.

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There's something about playing on wet turf that really messes with my swing. I think it might be as simple as having slightly worse footing.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll get what you've been practicing to show up on the course before long. Glad to hear the driver was working well.

The practice videos look really good btw.

[GolfLug]

  On 1/11/2017 at 5:40 PM, RandallT said:

The overall thought is that I feel quite a bit more "tense" over the ball outside than I feel in my foyer. It's hard to explain, as "tense" is not the right word. I think one answer is to take some video of my practice inside to ensure that what I'm doing is what I FEEL I'm doing. But the feels are quite different (home vs range). 

In fact, the whole idea of getting a feel for a specific part of the swing and moving that feel from one environment to another seems interesting. I don't even know if it's a phony idea, frankly. Perhaps I do the EXACT same thing in both places, but they sure "feel" different. I have dropped in on other swing threads to discuss similar ideas- so maybe it's just something that resonates with a bunch of us.

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@RandallT, yes this afflicts just about everybody. Whether it is environment, anxiousness, temperature.. I dunno, n number of things. The answer is the same IMO. You can't do much about it. Be simply 'aware' of it and over time you will execute a mechanically similar swing that you execute in your foyer (The Dalai Lama told me this over dinner last night.. ).    

(BTW, I am sure your instructor will address it but I think hard to maintain a left flat wrist at impact if your right wrist wants to fight it (i.e. wants to straighten out)).    

[RandallT]

Thanks, V. Yah I'm hoping I can get to the bottom of why my wrist action is so undisciplined. I feel like I "rev" the wrong way at the top unconsciously, and it gets kind of floppy on the downswing- almost as if my mind thinks a cupped wrist is a good way to square the club- despite what I consciously think. I think it is improved a bit, but I'll keep at it!