My Swing (billchao)

[billchao]

3 minutes ago, chspeed said:

Your swing looks better than some tour pros (I played with one last weekend). Why are you a 12?

If it looks good it's because most of the time I post a swing it's after I've been practicing something for over an hour, found the right feels to get myself doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and weeded out the garbage swings. I don't have that luxury when I go out and play, so I'm out there playing with mostly the garbage swings and no way to adjust my feels because I don't have the video feedback.

That's part of what I'm trying to do lately is figure out what piece does what if I do too much/too little of in my swing, so if I go out and play and top the shit out of the ball every other shot, I'll have an idea of why that's happening. So far I've figured out that if I overdo the knee thing I'll hit really poor shots, but today I figured out that if I only do the arm thing, I can hit the ball solidly. Would have been nice to know on Sunday when I played and I kept trying to tweak the knee move to disastrous effect when I could have just did only the arm thing and probably played better.

11 minutes ago, chspeed said:

Are you working on the wrong thing?

God, I hope not. It's only been a month since my last lesson. If I start getting sidetracked already, @iacas might kill me.

[iacas]

The knee stuff was good there.

2 hours ago, billchao said:

God, I hope not. It's only been a month since my last lesson. If I start getting sidetracked already, @iacas might kill me.

You're still on the right thing(s).

[billchao]

5 minutes ago, iacas said:

The knee stuff was good there.

You're still on the right thing(s).

Good to know. Thanks.

[billchao]

I fed the mosquitoes today. I didn't want to get bored just standing there, so I decided to hit some golf balls.

 

These are all the pieces together. Honestly I kind of stopped thinking about the left shoulder/hip back piece, and I haven't worked on it in a while. I think that was the easiest piece to incorporate. Still doing the laid off shaft move via transition. Doing that simultaneously with the right knee bend move. Invoking my inner Justin Thomas.

Need to make sure I don't feel the arms lift in my backswing because they lift enough on their own. When I feel them lift, the hands get too high, and when the hands get too high, they sometimes don't come down enough and I top the shit out of the ball.

I think these swings are good. Need to keep the little details in check. Right now it's small stuff that's making a big difference in how I strike the ball. Don't lift the arms. Knee bend instead of squatting. Looks like the club is tipping out a little bit. Explains why I'm hitting cuts. If I keep the hips moving the hands won't roll over and I won't hit hooks. I'm perfectly happy with that.

[boogielicious]

They look really good Bill.

[chspeed]

Please take any advice with grain of hacker salt. But looks like you're rotating too much with shoulders vs with chest? Chest looks good, but shoulders should be more closed here?

Maybe just camera angle?

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, chspeed said:

Please take any advice with grain of hacker salt. But looks like you're rotating too much with shoulders vs with chest? Chest looks good, but shoulders should be more closed here?

PGA Tour average at impact is like 15 degrees open with the shoulders and 25 degrees open with the chest.

Hips are 40-ish.

[billchao]

43 minutes ago, chspeed said:

Please take any advice with grain of hacker salt. But looks like you're rotating too much with shoulders vs with chest? Chest looks good, but shoulders should be more closed here?

Maybe just camera angle?

I always appreciate it when other people take a look at my swing, regardless of hacker status 

As @iacas mentioned, tour average for the chest is 15° at impact. I used to be open with the hips and square with my chest. I should probably be even more open than in this picture, but that's a little due to my right elbow being slightly stuck behind me.

---

I did some mirror work yesterday with the feedback from Erik on the last set of swings. The tropical storm prevented me from practicing it while hitting balls, but I'll be able to get some work done this morning.

[dennyjones]

Your golf work ethic is impressive.  It shows in your swing.    

[billchao]

36 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Your golf work ethic is impressive.  It shows in your swing.    

Thanks, though I'm not sure work ethic is the right term. More like obsession. It consumes my soul as if it bit off my leg 

[billchao]

Swings from this morning:

 

Based on some feedback from @iacas, I was trying to get the arms down a little faster, swing less across the ball, and fall forward earlier in the swing. While I somehow managed to get my arms to lift more than I wanted to, failing to get them down faster, I did seem to swing less across the ball and get forward earlier, though not necessarily via a falling move. I do seem to extend better by staying left more, but something looks off about the lower body action here. Too much stilt legs stuff going on.

Feels were more weight in the left side (pressure in the ball of front foot) in the backswing, lazy almost passive feeling upper body, let the club fall down from the top into impact. Super lazy feeling.

[iacas]

Yeah, that's better, but you're right: you can still do a "little" bit of the "chest down" "eat the ball" "knee compression" move. Ties to the "fall" move.

To others: Bill should know what those all mean. They're not necessarily something you (the "others") have to worry about.

[billchao]

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, that's better, but you're right: you can still do a "little" bit of the "chest down" "eat the ball" "knee compression" move. Ties to the "fall" move.

To others: Bill should know what those all mean. They're not necessarily something you (the "others") have to worry about.

Yup. It means I need to watch more George Gankas videos 

[GolfLug]

I also think bit more 🍕 at A4-A4.5 transition can't hurt.

FWIW, I need bunch more 🍕 at transition myself. 

[billchao]

On 7/11/2020 at 7:48 PM, iacas said:

Yeah, that's better, but you're right: you can still do a "little" bit of the "chest down" "eat the ball" "knee compression" move. Ties to the "fall" move.

To others: Bill should know what those all mean. They're not necessarily something you (the "others") have to worry about.

Something clicked in my head when I read this. I forgot about the chest down part (we didn't focus on it much in Erie because I kept dipping too low), but I thought about it now and put everything together and realized what I'm trying to do is a hip hinge like I would do when weightlifting. So I started practicing a hip hinge as my transition move. I played on Sunday with that feel and hit the ball pretty solidly, but had some clubface control issues. I practiced today to refine everything:

 

I think these swings are probably the best ones so far. I learned today that my clubface issues come from the arms lifting too much in the backswing. If I get them too high, the club tips out and I hit too much across the ball with the face open. Big push-fades. Need to keep feeling the left arm stays lower in the backswing, almost too flat - Ben Hogan pane of glass feel.

[ShaftFarmer]

You have a very nice looking swing. Wish I could give you some advice but it looks like you have a pretty good idea of what you need to do! 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, ShaftFarmer said:

You have a very nice looking swing.

Thanks.

 

[ShaftFarmer]

2 hours ago, billchao said:

Thanks.

 

I really like your shoulder turn and the stillness of your hips/knees. Do you do any stretches to help with that?