My Swing (FooFader)

[FooFader]

Been practicing quite a bit in the last two days and i've actually been making progress on hinging my wrists more quickly and just more in the backswing. Been using the drill where you hinge the wrists before you swing and make a backswing in a "prehinge" which is actually i good feel.  I was hitting balls with this drill and actually hit these better than any other shot.

Unfortunately, no progress on the hands working outwards from A4. The feels in my practice swing are not working to produce the change i want. I was achieving hands out by steepening the shoulders on the way down and basically swinging OTT, need to do some work in front of a mirror and get some better feels to take to the range tomorrow. I really wish my range had mirrors behind he stalls but sadly not. Video of these feels to follow tomorrow (will either show where i'm struggling and throwing my hands way out OTT or not changing at all)

[FooFader]

Just seen a  Mark Crossfield video addressing swinging too much to the right (as i am, and this is what the hands out piece is correcting to some degree i believe). Anyway he was saying to try thinking about exiting the ball and impact to the left of target to try which if achieved COULD help with the problems in the downswing.

I shall think about his whilst in front of a mirror later because the swings he was making demonstrating the faults and the fix did look a lot like my current swing with the hands dropping too vertically and not outwards enough in the transition and downswing.

[Abu3baid]

As much as I like mark I really would be careful of taking any drills from others unless it is from your teacher now.. I stopped watching YouTube vids because I am scared I will be tempted to do a drill from somewhere and then regress on my progress.. Just my opinion though since I haven't really read any comments on this issue from anyone here yet on TST.. I think your swing is looking better from the above posting as far as I can see.. Keep it up my friend!

[FooFader]

As much as I like mark I really would be careful of taking any drills from others unless it is from your teacher now.. I stopped watching YouTube vids because I am scared I will be tempted to do a drill from somewhere and then regress on my progress.. Just my opinion though since I haven't really read any comments on this issue from anyone here yet on TST.. I think your swing is looking better from the above posting as far as I can see.. Keep it up my friend!

I know that i should be careful and i haven't actually done the drill he talked about but i did as he mentioned put an alignment stick parallel to the target line next to ball and it did highlight that i was setting up with the clubface very open so definitely going to use the alignment sticks on my ball as well as outside the ball together at the range to check alignment again in the future.

As for my practice and getting it on video, i did this but my internet is too slow to upload at the moment so pictures will do but they actually show my work from today rather well.

I was working on hinging the wrists more quickly on the takeaway and trying to keep the club more "on plane" in the backswing. The below comparison is actually only from 2 days apart so really happy with this. The swing on the left felt alien but i really really like the change and hopefully can shift it even more. (Sorry for the confusing image, before on the right, after on the left)

Also this change is making my hands out piece better so i shall concentrate on this for the coming week because i feel at the moment my backswing is making it really hard to get my hands out enough to where Brian wants them.

[FooFader]

More practice again this morning, working on both the backswing and downswing pieces. Below video is actually of me practicing now, hopefully to show i am doing so practice not just beating balls

Played 9 holes yesterday and was not hitting it well but i wont worry about that as long as i can see improvements in my swing during practice for the moment.

[FooFader]

Played this morning shooting my best score of this year, a +14 88 with 4 GIR and 31 putts. Pleased with the score and hit some good shots on the back nine, i thought my pieces were good.

However, this afternoon when practicing was disappointed with progress on video. Despite a good hour of practicing slowly punching balls at 50% as soon as i try to hit the ball more than 50% it all disappears and my swing looks identical to a month ago. Just can't seem to get over this hurdle. I really don't know how i shot the score i did this morning because my swing looked all over the place this afternoon.

EDIT: despite the negative thoughts on the practice i should be glad that i at least have feels that can change the picture in slow motion as this is more than i had a few days ago. Wanted to tag this on to remind myself that things are heading forwards.

[Abu3baid]

Very nice! I can't wait to break 90 myself.. What were the shots that you left on the course the most? Was it directional or contact issues?

[FooFader]

I woul say I really only left two shots out there. First shot was on the 1st hole and I miss judged a short chip and didn't even hit the green. The second lost shot was due to the 3 putt on the last hole. I also had 1 ball OB and 3 stone cold tops (the kind that go 10yrds max.) But I am not deluded enough to count those as shots I left out there because that's all down to my mechanics not being where I want them and nothing else. But hopefully such contact issues will with time and hard work sport themselves out. And @Abu3baid I have no doubts you'll be breaking 90 in the coming months, you're doing awesome work with your swing and I would say you have a better swing than myself. :-)

[Abu3baid]

I hope to do that very soon :) I meant exactly what you don't want to count.. That's why I specifically asked about contact issues vs directional ball flight ones.. If I can get to the point that I always get good contact then I can really worry about was it a fade vs a draw vs did it even go in the direction I want.. However if I'm topping or chunking then I'm going to attribute it to keys 1 - 3 but mainly key 1.. And concentrate more on those.. I'm starting to think about how to properly evaluate my swing and game so that I can improve especially since having a live instructor is just not an option! I think those shots you said you left out there are going to be the last thing you think about in a month I am sure of it! Are you in the east coast by any chance?

[FooFader]

I hope to do that very soon :)

I meant exactly what you don't want to count..

That's why I specifically asked about contact issues vs directional ball flight ones.. If I can get to the point that I always get good contact then I can really worry about was it a fade vs a draw vs did it even go in the direction I want.. However if I'm topping or chunking then I'm going to attribute it to keys 1 - 3 but mainly key 1.. And concentrate more on those.. I'm starting to think about how to properly evaluate my swing and game so that I can improve especially since having a live instructor is just not an option!

I think those shots you said you left out there are going to be the last thing you think about in a month I am sure of it!

Are you in the east coast by any chance?

Ok if i'm counting shots i don't want to count i probably left 6 shots out there but i figure if i can save 1 more shot ever 3 months or so then that will be fantastic progress but as long as the swing is progressing in the right direction the scores should follow at some point.

And i live in the UK

[FooFader]

This last week has been really fun for me! I have played everyday and made some good scores and some very bad scores. I am pleased to say that i think I am on the cusp of "owning" my hands out

piece and my wrist hinge piece. I am consistently doing it very well and without having to think about it now and my ballstriking is much improved for it.

Uploaded to Brian and he agrees that im ready to introduce something new and said my swing was looking much better than 3 months ago, picture he send below!

In the most recent upload Brian also asked me to be more specific in my goals moving forward and what my misses are currently, i wasn't into much detail as i was expecting him to basically say carry on with my pieces. Anyway, i have reuploaded with swing from my range session yesterday. I have been hitting the ball well but with an overfade (aka slice) more and more as i've got better with my hands out piece so priority now is getting the ball drawing again.

Whilst i can see a number of faults i don't immediately know what my next piece will be to get to where i want to be, so i shall take a day off from practice and wait to hear back from Brian. He really is just an awesome awesome instructor, the difference between those A5 positions is huge, my GIR has gone from 1/18 for last year to 5/18 for the last month and i couldn't have done any of this without his help

[Abu3baid]

That is so great to see that kind of improvement and the picture changing! Nice work there!

[mvmac]

Nice work!

[FooFader]

Latest pieces from Brian are pretty small but hopefully they should lead me towards playing a slight draw.

1. My backswing has regressed slightly in terms of letting my arms run too far back and up. Should be fairly easy to get the overswinging back under control, i pretty much had it a few months ago when it was my priority piece and it is by no means back to square one rather i just to do a bit more of the same. The feeling on this one will be to keep my left arm level with my pecs at A4.
2. Second piece is trying to get the clubhead more inside of my hands at A6. My my old handpath a had to get the clubhead outside my hands to get it any where near the ball and not to toe shank it, so now with a better hand path a get get the clubhead more inline and slightly inside the hands to promote an outward swing path. (This compensation of clubhead outside hands was causing my fades). So i shall be working on this hitting 50yrd punch shots and feeling the right wrist pulling towards my body. If i do this properly i should see a draw on the ball even hitting 50 yard punches.

Off to practice these two pieces now and i shall get some swings up as i make changes to the picture

[Abu3baid]

Getting the club head inside my hands at A6 is my pain at the moment.. I'm working on getting the shaft to lay down up to that point to get the club traveling out.. I'll be interested to see how it goes with you as it sounds we are trying to do te same thing for now! Good luck!

[FooFader]

Some good and some bad news from the past week in terms of my golf.

The good = i have played a lot of golf this past week. Played pretty well the first few rounds, shot a new low score 85. Slipping back into old habits no doubt because truth be told i haven't practiced much but that will be clear when i state the bad...oh and i joined a golf club. Only £55 until september for a student for unlimited golf . Pretty much stumbled across the deal but its awesome, at a very nice country club.

The bad = I am back at university and no chance of hitting a single ball, not even one, until august. So i shall still be doing mirror work etc to keep things in order and hopefully come back strong to play a lot and practice every day for the 3 weeks i have off in August. Hence, why i did a lot of playing last week, i wanted to make the most of my new membership and play whilst i could. Due to the lack time in the coming two months and the student loan running out i have cancelled my Evolvr membership for the time being.

Hopefully though August will come around quickly and i can play some golf again and consider Evolvr again. Would just like to say to that i can't thank Brian at evolvr for his help, my swing is looking and performing better than ever and thats down to him. I hope that come August, i can start posting a lot more scores in the 80s and now i'm a member at a club i shall get an offical handicap which hopefully i can get moving towards the target i set for 2014 of getting to a 14.

[mvmac]

Some good and some bad news from the past week in terms of my golf.

The good = i have played a lot of golf this past week. Played pretty well the first few rounds, shot a new low score 85. Slipping back into old habits no doubt because truth be told i haven't practiced much but that will be clear when i state the bad...oh and i joined a golf club. Only £55 until september for a student for unlimited golf . Pretty much stumbled across the deal but its awesome, at a very nice country club.

The bad = I am back at university and no chance of hitting a single ball, not even one, until august. So i shall still be doing mirror work etc to keep things in order and hopefully come back strong to play a lot and practice every day for the 3 weeks i have off in August. Hence, why i did a lot of playing last week, i wanted to make the most of my new membership and play whilst i could. Due to the lack time in the coming two months and the student loan running out i have cancelled my Evolvr membership for the time being.

Good luck with school. I like how you wrote down and kept track of what you're working on so when you get back into it you'll have a good idea of what to work on. If you have anything new you're working on or a feel that is working, write it down and be very specific.

[FooFader]

Good luck with school. I like how you wrote down and kept track of what you're working on so when you get back into it you'll have a good idea of what to work on. If you have anything new you're working on or a feel that is working, write it down and be very specific.

Thanks Mike, I am hoping I should be good to pick up where I left off when I get back into it. My two pieces are pretty simple feels and as I said I shall still be making swings every day in my room.