My Swing (billchao)

[billchao]

  On 6/21/2016 at 1:10 AM, iacas said:

Watch that the left arm isn't too deep at 5 and 6.

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Will do, thanks.

[billchao]

  On 6/21/2016 at 1:10 AM, iacas said:

Watch that the left arm isn't too deep at 5 and 6.

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Would you mind elaborating? BoC relative to trail foot?

[iacas]

  On 6/21/2016 at 8:32 PM, billchao said:

Would you mind elaborating? BoC relative to trail foot?

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I'm not sure what to elaborate on… the left arm is too deep at A5.  Should be roughly two inches farther "out."

[billchao]

  On 6/27/2016 at 1:16 AM, iacas said:

I'm not sure what to elaborate on… the left arm is too deep at A5.  Should be roughly two inches farther "out."

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That should be good. I just don't want to start worrying about being too deep and then slowly overdo it and work my way into being too shallow.

[billchao]

Played around with a feel yesterday and this was the result. Kind of hard to describe the thought process that went into this, but basically trying to rotate without moving my upper CoR. Brought the club back slower than I usually do and kind of felt like falls from the top instead of me actively pulling it down, then I just rotate to the finish.

Was kind of trying to emulate Gary Woodland's swing, how he brings the right elbow to his right hip and then just keeps turning his body through the swing. I think the image of the right elbow with the right hip helps me keep everything more in sync as opposed to the hips pulling the shoulders or trying to throw the arms around faster or something. I don't know, but these shots felt great. When I sped it up, I kept the backswing the same as the partial shots and then just turned on the gas at A4.

[boogielicious]

  On 7/16/2016 at 2:34 AM, billchao said:

Played around with a feel yesterday and this was the result. Kind of hard to describe the thought process that went into this, but basically trying to rotate without moving my upper CoR. Brought the club back slower than I usually do and kind of felt like falls from the top instead of me actively pulling it down, then I just rotate to the finish.

Was kind of trying to emulate Gary Woodland's swing, how he brings the right elbow to his right hip and then just keeps turning his body through the swing. I think the image of the right elbow with the right hip helps me keep everything more in sync as opposed to the hips pulling the shoulders or trying to throw the arms around faster or something. I don't know, but these shots felt great. When I sped it up, I kept the backswing the same as the partial shots and then just turned on the gas at A4.

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Have you tried this feel on the course?

[billchao]

  On 7/16/2016 at 11:20 AM, boogielicious said:

Have you tried this feel on the course?

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No, just started doing it Thursday. I get bored when I can't play and I like to try different things and see how they look on camera.

Not sure it is course-ready anyway. It takes conscious thought to do, which is probably where that pause at A4 is from.

[b101]

  On 7/16/2016 at 11:42 AM, billchao said:

No, just started doing it Thursday. I get bored when I can't play and I like to try different things and see how they look on camera.

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I seem to recall you're on evolvr... is this what your instructor has suggested? Not trying to criticise, but you seem to jump from feel to feel a lot - I just wonder whether you'd progress quicker if you went with one focus and really concentrated all your attentions on it.

Like I say, really not meant as a criticism - the swing looks lovely!

[billchao]

  On 7/16/2016 at 12:15 PM, b101 said:

I seem to recall you're on evolvr... is this what your instructor has suggested?

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No, I'm not on evolvr.

  On 7/16/2016 at 12:15 PM, b101 said:

Not trying to criticise, but you seem to jump from feel to feel a lot - I just wonder whether you'd progress quicker if you went with one focus and really concentrated all your attentions on it.

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Sometimes I like to try things and film them to learn how certain body movements affect the swing, developing kinesthetic awareness and all that. So if an instructor tells me to get my hands deeper, for example, it's fairly simple to do since I already have a feel for it. It's all part of how I learn.

I need an image of what I'm trying to achieve instead of one tiny movement at a time because I have a tendency to overdo everything I work on. I don't think the feel jumping matters because I'm still working on making the same changes, just trying different feels to see how they affect things.

  On 7/16/2016 at 12:15 PM, b101 said:

Like I say, really not meant as a criticism - the swing looks lovely!

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I appreciate criticism though. I think everything I do is right so if no one says otherwise, I stay the course. Thanks for the feedback.

[billchao]

Swing update:

 

Made a little change to my setup because I've been standing with very little axis tilt lately with my head and spine almost vertical over the ball, then adding tilt dynamically by moving the head away from the target in the backswing and keeping it there (or sometimes moving it back forward) in the downswing. Setting up this way allows me to eliminate most if not all of the unnecessary movement. That exaggerated bit of neck tilt to my right (away from the target) as I address the ball serves just as a reminder to keep my head back behind the ball a little and tilted with my spine; the extra bit of tilt is gone once I wiggle myself into my set position.

The other thing I'm changing is my transition. I'm focusing on shifting the pressure to the ball of my left foot and feeling like I'm keeping it there because I have a tendency slide and rotate my hips too quickly, getting my arms stuck behind me and causing the occasional block.

This should hopefully eliminate my two major misses: thins and blocks. I have a tendency to miss it out on the toe, too, but I hit the ball really well practicing this move today so I'm hoping that cleans itself up a little as well. Club still gets across the line at A4 causing me to bring it down steep before I shallow it out but I think I do well enough with the path for now and I want to get these changes cemented in first.

[billchao]

Just wanted to get an interim assessment of my game now that the summer is winding down:

• Driver is crap. Though I did switch back to 8° from 11° for today's round and the results are marginally better. I never had a launch issue with the driver, unlike my irons, and the lower loft causes me to have less spin. I've been feeling lately that my best drives lately haven't been carrying as far as they used to and I suspect the spin rate is the culprit. Small sample, but the longest drive I've had in the last 5 rounds was from today's round and I even hit two misses that ended up being better than some of my good shots at 11°.
• 3w is crap, too. I almost never hit the club and when I do it usually isn't struck very well. I'm not even sure why I carry the darn thing.
• Hybrids are decent. Can miss with them, but for the most part yield good results. Definitely better than their long iron alternatives.
• Irons are good. Other than the long irons (3 & 4), I hit them well for the most part. My favorite clubs in the bag. Started teeing off with more irons, will get to that more in a bit.
• Wedges aren't as good as the irons. Short game is decent, but every now and then I'll hit a 3/4 wedge my full swing distance or otherwise pull or cut it away from my target. No issues flighting them down in terms of trajectory.
• Putting sucks. Need a new putter. In the meantime I need to see if I can alter my current putter so that I aim it properly.

I mentioned that I've been teeing off with my irons more. This is partially to reduce errant shots from my driver and 3h, but partially because I've been noticing a trend lately that shows there's a gap in my accuracy from 100-125 yards that I need to avoid like the plague. I don't drive the ball well enough to get within 100 yards for my approach without significantly increasing the strokes I can potentially lose off the tee, so the smarter play for me is to actually dial it further back and tee off with something like a 6i instead of my 3h because setting up the right distance on the second shot is important. It seems completely counter-intuitive to everything that I've learned, but the numbers don't lie. The 7i is my best approach club based on my last 5 rounds, but anywhere in the 6i-8i range is better than the 9i-GW range. Go figure.

I've been really busy lately so I've almost had no time to practice, but that isn't changing anytime soon so I'm just trying to get the most out of the game I have.

[billchao]

 

Backswing work all summer finally solid. Feels weird to do it the old way now. Added a squeezing the elbows feel to keep the right elbow from sliding behind me in transition. Still gets unnecessarily long and sloppy into A4.

I have an issue with low point of the arc though, as in it isn't low enough. I barely scuff the turf on a good hit, even sometimes picking it clean from tight fairway lies. Thin shots are the typical miss and the odd top happens, so I'm experimenting with adding a squat to lower everything a bit.

 

 

[billchao]

We had a warm spell last week so I got to hit some balls into my net. First videos are just my current swings after a lengthy warm-up:

 

Towards the end of the year I started to struggle with starting the ball too far right at random times with every club in the bag, so I really focused on just hitting my start line and pretty much the center of my net which I set up inline with my ball.

What I've been working on ever since was bringing the clubhead through impact in a more stable position as opposed to throwing it and rotating my right arm hard. Hasn't stuck but I got to practice it for a little bit here:

 

There are a couple of ways to describe the feel, but generally it's keeping the right arm passive and holding the clubface open while rotating. Feels like I'm going to hit a big push but I don't. Which is kind of funny because one would think rolling the right arm over and closing the face would make me hit pulls but that's when I'm prone to push the ball.

[boogielicious]

  On 1/20/2017 at 3:13 AM, billchao said:

We had a warm spell last week so I got to hit some balls into my net. First videos are just my current swings after a lengthy warm-up:

 

Towards the end of the year I started to struggle with starting the ball too far right at random times with every club in the bag, so I really focused on just hitting my start line and pretty much the center of my net which I set up inline with my ball.

What I've been working on ever since was bringing the clubhead through impact in a more stable position as opposed to throwing it and rotating my right arm hard. Hasn't stuck but I got to practice it for a little bit here:

 

There are a couple of ways to describe the feel, but generally it's keeping the right arm passive and holding the clubface open while rotating. Feels like I'm going to hit a big push but I don't. Which is kind of funny because one would think rolling the right arm over and closing the face would make me hit pulls but that's when I'm prone to push the ball.

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Your swing looks good to me! How did your neck feel?

[billchao]

  On 1/20/2017 at 11:30 AM, boogielicious said:

Your swing looks good to me! How did your neck feel?

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Thanks. Neck felt fine despite the constant discomfort I feel. Even at full speed the swing didn't seem to have a negative impact.

I think I've narrowed down the source to be chronic overuse rather than a single trauma like swinging a club and striking the ground. Though I did hurt myself on a swing back in November, my left shoulder has healed but my neck has not (specifically speaking, my left trapezius).

It's most likely from hauling my tool bag around all day which I almost exclusively do with my left hand. Going to put my bag on a cart for good now, especially considering the possibility of 30-40 more years of doing this.

[boogielicious]

  On 1/20/2017 at 4:01 PM, billchao said:

Thanks. Neck felt fine despite the constant discomfort I feel. Even at full speed the swing didn't seem to have a negative impact.

I think I've narrowed down the source to be chronic overuse rather than a single trauma like swinging a club and striking the ground. Though I did hurt myself on a swing back in November, my left shoulder has healed but my neck has not (specifically speaking, my left trapezius).

It's most likely from hauling my tool bag around all day which I almost exclusively do with my left hand. Going to put my bag on a cart for good now, especially considering the possibility of 30-40 more years of doing this.

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Good idea.

[billchao]

Nice weather today, wanted to check out the 240fps of my new Samsung Galaxy S7. Good stuff.

Went full Zach Johnson with the swing.

[JDP]

  On 2/19/2017 at 1:25 AM, billchao said:

Nice weather today, wanted to check out the 240fps of my new Samsung Galaxy S7. Good stuff.

Went full Zach Johnson with the swing.

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I think your swing is looking great, but what do you mean by you went full ZJ?