My Swing (billchao)

[billchao]

1 hour ago, GolfLug said:

I think patience qualifies as mental game.

Playing golf and babysitting my kids while trying to play golf are two different things.

Unless you’re saying I need to practice babysitting for when I meet up with you in Sand Valley?

[GolfLug]

29 minutes ago, billchao said:

Playing golf and babysitting my kids while trying to play golf are two different things.

Unless you’re saying I need to practice babysitting for when I meet up with you in Sand Valley?

Sure, practice babysitting all you want but fair warning - you can't train/practice/prepare for what I will put through whoever will play a round with me at SV.  

Anyway, back to topic - you have a great swing!..😄

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by GolfLug

[billchao]

Note to self: firmer grip on short game shots. Something I figured out during my short game session at Chautauqua last year and apparently forgot.

[billchao]

 

Current state of swing - pretty good. Still working the same stuff, backswing slow and short with the weight left. Key element I need to add in is keeping the right elbow in front of me. I tend to pull it inside at the takeaway.

Current state of game - nonexistent. Literally. I can’t get a decent tee time anymore. I haven’t played in two weeks.

I went for a club fitting for a new 3W and hybrid last weekend. The fitter was honest with me and said he’d have trouble fitting my swing, so he comped the session and pointed me in the direction of Club Champion. I have that fitting on Saturday. He did suggest I look into a 4W 7W combo instead of what I play now which is 3W 2H.

[woodzie264]

Nice swing

[Double Mocha Man]

26 minutes ago, woodzie264 said:

Nice swing

Ditto.  Bill, you've got a scratch handicap swing but a sandbagger's index.  😄

[billchao]

17 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Bill, you've got a scratch handicap swing but a sandbagger's index.

That I can’t even play to. It’s a borderline vanity cap at this point.

[billchao]

 

Change in transition feel. Instead of right knee bend, it’s sit left. Pretty much as if I got up from a bar stool to my right and immediately wanted to sit back down on it again.

Went with this because I’m getting the right elbow behind me a little in transition and hitting blocks and pulls (no clubface control), and I’m tipping the club head under plane a bit. This move delays the hip rotation slightly so that my arms sync up better.

[Double Mocha Man]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Pretty much as if I got up from a bar stool...

Out here in WA state I don't know that feeling anymore.  All the barstools have been hidden away for over a year...

[billchao]

45 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Out here in WA state I don't know that feeling anymore.  All the barstools have been hidden away for over a year...

I have stools in my kitchen. It’s how I came up with the description of how the move feels.

[billchao]

On 5/7/2021 at 6:12 PM, billchao said:

 

Change in transition feel. Instead of right knee bend, it’s sit left. Pretty much as if I got up from a bar stool to my right and immediately wanted to sit back down on it again.

Went with this because I’m getting the right elbow behind me a little in transition and hitting blocks and pulls (no clubface control), and I’m tipping the club head under plane a bit. This move delays the hip rotation slightly so that my arms sync up better.

I think I’m onto something with this feel. I only hit two bad pulls all today (I hit another one but it was just a poor swing), but the biggest sign I’m on the right track is that I hit my 3W well each time I hit it. One resulted in a lost ball, but it turned out I was lined up right the whole time.

Didn’t hit any big draws that weren’t pulled, so the path was better.

[billchao]

 

Just trying to find my swing again. Hurt myself working out and hadn’t swung a club in three weeks. It took a couple of sessions, but I think this is back to where I was before.

Have to remember to pivot around my left leg. Left pivot, left sit. Everything is kind of left side dominated right now.

[billchao]

Wrapped up another great trip to Erie, which means as usual I have a lot of homework to do. There's a lot of stuff (unsurprisingly) that @iacas has told me in the past that I'm still struggling with, like needing to be more calm and focused before every shot.

Bear in mind if you do read this that these are my feels.

Putting

Erik checked my aim fairly early on. I do have an Edel putter, so the aim wasn't too bad. It was simply twisted slightly open at address. We also moved the ball back about half a ball and shifted my posture a little upright to get my eyes inside the ball.

We did make a mechanical change to my stroke, as I swung the putter with my chest, essentially rotating my trunk around. Erik showed me how to swing the putter by keeping my sternum relatively still and letting my arms swing more around my body.

The biggest change we implemented is putting with a purpose. As in, I wasn't really doing it. There were times on the course where my distance control was great and others when it was absolutely atrocious, with no real explanation. We figured out that I was basically spaced out and not really putting, just hitting the ball basically. We worked on some preshot stuff to feel the distance and for me to envision the hole as I make my stroke, to keep the target in focus the entire time.

Short Game

Mostly stuff I've already been taught. Softer arms in pitching, trust the pivot. I tend to use my arms too much and when I quiet them down, I don't allow myself to pivot fast enough because I'm worried I'll hit the ball too far so I end up hitting everything short. Trust the pivot.

Chipping is less wrist hinge, butt of club stays pointing to my belly button. Need to be more calm before the shot. I also need to learn to use different clubs to vary trajectory.

Full Swing

I'll write this in a separate post. It's getting late and I don't want to do this section injustice by writing something up quickly.

 

[billchao]

I forgot to post my full swing stuff. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on it now. Cliffs Notes version is I need to get my right elbow more in front of me during the downswing and I lead too much with the hips (especially on the course).

@iacas broke it down for me into two pieces: a little right arm IR feel in the backswing with soft shoulders, and downswing fees like the hands extend away from the target towards the DTL camera or even slightly behind me with the right elbow feeling like it’s straightening early.

I kind of struggled with the first piece, both in Erie and back at home. I do have a joint issue in my right shoulder that I didn’t think anything of at the time but may be a contributing factor.

Anyways, I shifted focus to the second piece. The elbow being more in front is, after all, the end goal. I played around with  a couple of feels and found that I can do the second piece and get the elbow more in front if I keep my left arm at shoulder level at A4. I’m not entirely sure how it got so high in the first place, tbh.

Here are the swings from today:

 

I think it looks good, so I hope I’m not off base by moving away from the first piece. If quality of contact is any indication, I’ve been hitting the ball great all week.

[billchao]

Just a reminder to myself that my backswing needs to pivot around my left leg.

[billchao]

 

Practiced today. Just focused on the right elbow ER/getting it more in front in the downswing, then added in some flow work later in the session.

I was happy with that so I started to focus on quality of contact towards the end and I found it was pretty consistently solid around 70% speed. Or 70% effort? It felt like 70%, but it’s probably just as fast as my “full speed” swing.

I hit five shots on that tape.

Swing easier, hit the center of the face. Now I just need to remember this on the course.

[Big Lex]

I remember people telling me I had a "great swing" almost from the first year I started playing. I always thought "ok, good, I just need to figure out how to score." 

Then I saw my swing on a recording and saw how bad it was. So why did I get compliments? Because maybe people would see the beginning, the tempo (I have a "smooth" tempo), and the finish position, and of course miss what happened in between all that. If I happened to make good contact and hit a good shot, they would compliment the swing. 

But on the video, I saw that my move was unathletic in many ways. Not nearly enough weight forward at impact, hips stalling while the upper body sort of shoves the club into the ball, and club path problems (too flat back, too steep forward), re-routes, etc. All of this escapes the notice of non-expert golfers.

This is NOT the case with you, billchao. You get compliments on your swing, and they are deserved because you really do have a great swing. You have so many swings posted here, in slow motion, which lay your action absolutely bare, and I can't see how you don't hit solid shots most every time with this action. I can see you changing some aspects of the swing between different videos, and I am sure that there are reasons for the changes. But you seem to get your weight quite well to your left side, ;your hips slide and rotate well and are open at impact more than the shoulders; your head remains steady; the club goes back to a beautiful position and starts straight down....yadda yadda yadda. FWIW (which may be very little, since I am not a golf pro) I think you have the swing of a plus handicap golfer IMO; at the very least a low single-digit. 

 

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Big Lex said:

I remember people telling me I had a "great swing" almost from the first year I started playing. I always thought "ok, good, I just need to figure out how to score." 

Then I saw my swing on a recording and saw how bad it was. So why did I get compliments? Because maybe people would see the beginning, the tempo (I have a "smooth" tempo), and the finish position, and of course miss what happened in between all that. If I happened to make good contact and hit a good shot, they would compliment the swing. 

But on the video, I saw that my move was unathletic in many ways. Not nearly enough weight forward at impact, hips stalling while the upper body sort of shoves the club into the ball, and club path problems (too flat back, too steep forward), re-routes, etc. All of this escapes the notice of non-expert golfers.

This is NOT the case with you, billchao. You get compliments on your swing, and they are deserved because you really do have a great swing. You have so many swings posted here, in slow motion, which lay your action absolutely bare, and I can't see how you don't hit solid shots most every time with this action. I can see you changing some aspects of the swing between different videos, and I am sure that there are reasons for the changes. But you seem to get your weight quite well to your left side, ;your hips slide and rotate well and are open at impact more than the shoulders; your head remains steady; the club goes back to a beautiful position and starts straight down....yadda yadda yadda. FWIW (which may be very little, since I am not a golf pro) I think you have the swing of a plus handicap golfer IMO; at the very least a low single-digit. 

 

Thank you for the compliment. I have no idea why I don’t play as well as my swing would indicate. I mean I have some theories, but that’s neither here nor there.

The only thing say for certain is that I’ve always stuck with the idea that I wanted to build a good golf swing and the scoring would follow. And while my scores have improved over the years, they’re not where I’d like them to be.

I’m starting to change that of late and trying to focus less on mechanical changes and more on results. Learning to make golf shots instead of golf swings, if you will. It’s easier said than done seeing as the majority of my practice is done in my yard into a net.

It’s almost the opposite approach most people take to the game. They take whatever swing they have and learn to play with it. I’ve changed my swing so much over the years, I couldn’t tell you which direction my ball is going to turn until I hit it. Even now I could warm up on the range before the round and hit nothing but draws only to find I’m fading the ball on the course. It’s hard to aim if you don’t know if the ball is going to draw or fade.