My Swing (RFKFREAK)

[RFKFREAK]

1 minute ago, boogielicious said:

This was the hardest thing for me to learn, practicing with slower swings. It took a couple of years to really be disciplined and do it. I still sometimes fall into the trap at the range of just swinging fast and wasting a session. To make the changes stick, slow it down, map the swing by going to a position and stop, etc. 

For the feel in the shorter swing, try pressing down lightly on your left thumb with your right palm at set up. That keeps the right arm from collapsing. Then slowly (like a 5 count) go to A4 and do a slight transition to A4.5 with that feel. Don’t even hit balls at first. Go up, transition, repeat. After maybe ten reps, go down to A5 or 6 then punch a shot at 60% and stop at A9 with arms extended. Repeat. Slowly up and transition, stop, then to A6 and punch at 60%. Remember to rotate your hips as you normally would. And don’t care about contact that much.

I did this drill all winter as a warmup and by March, it stuck. Film the drill and post it here.
 

Will do.  Thanks! 👍

Planning on playing today and using the swing I've been practicing all week with irons and the one I've been using with the driver except I'm going to try and be more controlled with it.

Hopefully I see some good results.

[boogielicious]

3 minutes ago, RFKFREAK said:

Will do.  Thanks! 👍

Planning on playing today and using the swing I've been practicing all week with irons and the one I've been using with the driver except I'm going to try and be more controlled with it.

Hopefully I see some good results.

Cool. If I go to the range before a round, I use this as a warm up for 5 minutes.

[RFKFREAK]

2 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Cool. If I go to the range before a round, I use this as a warm up for 5 minutes.

Unfortunately no range at this course. First shot is an iron of the tee so we'll see how it goes.  I'll give it a few holes and then adjust if needed.

[RFKFREAK]

13 hours ago, RFKFREAK said:

Planning on playing today and using the swing I've been practicing all week with irons and the one I've been using with the driver except I'm going to try and be more controlled with it.

Hopefully I see some good results.

I did not see good results.  Tried it for the first five holes and was hitting pretty much all my irons thin.  

[RFKFREAK]

Ok, @boogielicious, I did the drill that you suggested and filmed it.  Only did about 10 balls because it took longer than I expected.  Curious how many balls or for how long, given an unlimited amount of time, you suggest doing per practice session.  I also think doing 10 reps may be too many as I feel I lost my concentration at about the 5th rep.  Thoughts?

 

 

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, RFKFREAK said:

Ok, @boogielicious, I did the drill that you suggested and filmed it.  Only did about 10 balls because it took longer than I expected.  Curious how many balls or for how long, given an unlimited amount of time, you suggest doing per practice session.  I also think doing 10 reps may be too many as I feel I lost my concentration at about the 5th rep.  Thoughts?

 

 

Those look pretty good. Now that you have the feel you can cut down the reps and maybe do two or three even slower. Remember when you do the pump to start the shot at A6 to keep the shaft staying shallow (club head to the left of your hands). I would do that too, pump, get the shaft steep then go a bit over the top. Erik had a COVID drill about where the head should be at A6.

[RFKFREAK]

22 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Those look pretty good. Now that you have the feel you can cut down the reps and maybe do two or three even slower. Remember when you do the pump to start the shot at A6 to keep the shaft staying shallow (club head to the left of your hands). I would do that too, pump, get the shaft steep then go a bit over the top. Erik had a COVID drill about where the head should be at A6.

Yeah, 2-3 reps per swing will allow me to get more swings in and help me keep my concentration more.

So you're saying go do the transition from A4 to A5, stop, go to A6 stop and then do the swing at 60% or so to shaft parallel at the other side?

I'll check through the vids but I also think it's probably ITT:

 

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, RFKFREAK said:

Yeah, 2-3 reps per swing will allow me to get more swings in and help me keep my concentration more.

So you're saying go do the transition from A4 to A5, stop, go to A6 stop and then do the swing at 60% or so to shaft parallel at the other side?

I'll check through the vids but I also think it's probably ITT:

 

Yes. The Day 5 COVID drill is the last part of this. @billchao does the transition part a lot to get the feel down

[billchao]

22 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Yes. The Day 5 COVID drill is the last part of this. @billchao does the transition part a lot to get the feel down

I like to practice the top of my backswing to A5 to keep things more dynamic, yea. Helps with a couple of things I’m working on.

[RFKFREAK]

So, hit some balls after the gym keeping on with the drill.  Not sure if I'm coming too inside on the backswing and I also feel like I'm going to have to get more reps in with my right arm not as flexed as I think I revert back to bending my elbow too much.  I think the A5 drill is good except I pump too much and that may lead to my finish being too high.

Also filmed it in slow-mo because I didn't know which is better for analysis purposes.

 

[RFKFREAK]

Today I forewent video taping and just set up my net at a local park like I've done the last few days and did the same drill. Backswing is definitely feeling more natural and I feel like it's coming along well.  The drill from A6 to arms parallel on the other side felt good but I have a linger question is I'm opening up my chest enough.  Hit about 15 balls doing the drill and then 5 doing a full swing.  First 2-3 i tried to whip around as quick as I could from A4 to A10 and was off balance with terrible strikes,  Then with the last couple of swings I did a controlled swing at what felt like 70%-80% and strike was better.

I think tomorrow I will do more of the drill A4 to A5 transition but will also do them with the driver and see how that goes compared my current driver swing which, in my opinion, is a better swing than my iron swing.  Recordings to follow.

[RFKFREAK]

Ok, after some good and bad this weekend while playing, I'm back to drills and incorporated the driver.  This weekend I tried to incorporate the feel when I played of arms staying straight and outside of hitting it on the hosel on more than one occasion and "trying too hard" on a few others, I think it worked quite well.  Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I think as I play more, it'll show up in the scores (and potentially fewer penalty strokes). 

On to the drills.  I think the irons are getting better.  With the driver, what I noticed with the drills is that my backswing is super long - I mean, longer than @saevel25's and that's saying something because that dude's backswing is long AF.  Anyway, I cut out the parts where I'm setting up and just uploaded the swings.

I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow so may not be able to get some outdoor practice in but if I do manage to get some in, I think I'm going to do some recording of the full swing, with both the irons and driver with these feels and see how it's going (with the mindset of shortening the backswing with the driver).  Anywhere, here are the vids.

 

 

[Antneye]

It looks to me like you are bending your right arm to less than 90 degrees and that is what is making the backswing look extra long. As always take my advice with a grain of salt. 

[ncates00]

1 hour ago, RFKFREAK said:

Ok, after some good and bad this weekend while playing, I'm back to drills and incorporated the driver.  This weekend I tried to incorporate the feel when I played of arms staying straight and outside of hitting it on the hosel on more than one occasion and "trying too hard" on a few others, I think it worked quite well.  Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I think as I play more, it'll show up in the scores (and potentially fewer penalty strokes). 

On to the drills.  I think the irons are getting better.  With the driver, what I noticed with the drills is that my backswing is super long - I mean, longer than @saevel25's and that's saying something because that dude's backswing is long AF.  Anyway, I cut out the parts where I'm setting up and just uploaded the swings.

I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow so may not be able to get some outdoor practice in but if I do manage to get some in, I think I'm going to do some recording of the full swing, with both the irons and driver with these feels and see how it's going (with the mindset of shortening the backswing with the driver).  Anywhere, here are the vids.

 

 

Looks like my old swing that I struggled with and had to rebuild. 

First, you've got a flat backswing and you have no choice but to steepen it coming down.  You can do rehearsal drills til the cows come home, but most of us will never be able to swing flat like that going back without rerouting it on the way down.  I would get the club to hinge up more and get it tracking up higher on the elbow plane or even above it slightly.  Not Furyk land, but that would probably feel like it.  Then on the downswing, you can actually get the club head to swing down through the ball more, i.e., feel the club head track down the hula hoop and continue down even after hitting the ball.  Hard to do from such a position.  You look like you could put some serious speed on the ball, but you're not putting yourself in a position in which to put a good lash down on the ball.  

Additionally, you set up with very little forward shaft lean at address.  Some players do this, but I like a good forward lean as a preset to impact.  You can pretty much set it, leave, and slam down on the ball this way.  It also helps you see what you're supposed to do--hit down on the ball with some lean.  Maybe try pointing the butt end of the club toward your front hip area and get the face square to 0*.  From there, you can let the club head hinge up what feels like your nose as you turn, and then slam through the ball downward.  

I've been down this road and it ain't pretty.  That flat backswing is nothing but trouble.  I had it for years and I'm glad I got rid of it.

29 minutes ago, Antneye said:

It looks to me like you are bending your right arm to less than 90 degrees and that is what is making the backswing look extra long. As always take my advice with a grain of salt. 

Maybe to some extent, but I think the bigger issue is that flat backswing and the right arm sucking behind him.  Those things make the club wrap around him and he will struggle to get to the ball properly.  Your recent swing video, on the other hand, arcs up nicely and frees you up to attack down on the ball.  He can't get there from this flat and trapped position like he has here.

[boogielicious]

11 hours ago, ncates00 said:

First, you've got a flat backswing and you have no choice but to steepen it coming down.  You can do rehearsal drills til the cows come home, but most of us will never be able to swing flat like that going back without rerouting it on the way down.

I would agree with this. @RFKFREAK, try getting your hands higher at A4. It is easier to get your right elbow in front on the downswing with higher hands because it’s not as close to the torso. I have practiced the Furyk feel and filmed it and it doesn’t look anything like him. Instead, my hands are a bit higher at A4, above my shoulders, and my transition shallows the shaft. Your swing right now looks a bit like Kuchar.

Looks at Erik’s hand position at A4 here.

 

[ncates00]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

I would agree with this. @RFKFREAK, try getting your hands higher at A4. It is easier to get your right elbow in front on the downswing with higher hands because it’s not as close to the torso. I have practiced the Furyk feel and filmed it and it doesn’t look anything like him. Instead, my hands are a bit higher at A4, above my shoulders, and my transition shallows the shaft. Your swing right now looks a bit like Kuchar.

Looks at Erik’s hand position at A4 here.

 

Thanks. I will point out though that, to me, you can have higher hands and still have a flat backswing if the club stays flat. I’m suggesting that he allow the club to hinge up more—not just raise his hands more. To me, the clubhead is too inside and does not track the elbow plane hula hoop properly. A feeling that worked for was to get the head to hinge up, what felt like since it was so new, like it was going to hit me in the nose. That’ll get the club to arc up higher. Perhaps, having higher hands can achieve that, as you suggest, but I think he’s trying to stay “wooden” and connected too much to the point that the club stays flat, his arms get trapped, and then he comes over it. He has to. I don’t see any benefits of a flat backswing for most people. Gotta get that club to go up so you can hit down with some force. 

[RFKFREAK]

Thanks for the feedback, @Antneye, @ncates00, and @boogielicious.

I took at look at a Robert Rock swing and I believe i understand how to get the swing more upright.  From what I gathered, I can start the swing as I have been but when I get to A2 then start to make it more upright so that my hands end up roughly above my shoulders.  I did a few slow practice swings in the mirror and it felt more "natural" and an easier turn.   I have a bunch of work to do today so not sure if I'll be able to get to the range today to get some video as it's supposed to rain but I think it's something I can easily transition to.

13 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

Thanks. I will point out though that, to me, you can have higher hands and still have a flat backswing if the club stays flat. I’m suggesting that he allow the club to hinge up more—not just raise his hands more. To me, the clubhead is too inside and does not track the elbow plane hula hoop properly. A feeling that worked for was to get the head to hinge up, what felt like since it was so new, like it was going to hit me in the nose. That’ll get the club to arc up higher. Perhaps, having higher hands can achieve that, as you suggest, but I think he’s trying to stay “wooden” and connected too much to the point that the club stays flat, his arms get trapped, and then he comes over it. He has to. I don’t see any benefits of a flat backswing for most people. Gotta get that club to go up so you can hit down with some force. 

I used to hinge the club to start the backswing but @iacas advised that I take the club back rather than hinge to start the swing.  Are you suggesting hinge more at A2?  If I'm not mistake, from the DTL view I ideally want to the clubhead to bisect my hands on the backswing so whereas in those swings I'm coming a bit inside, I don't think it's too far inside.

[iacas]

I’ll write up a bit more on this later Christian. Like this evening. We’ve been without power since 3:30 yesterday. Still out.