My Swing (Lihu)

[chris3putt]

Quote:

BTW, I was a definitely too vague. For the longest time, no one really posted in this thread so I was simply making mental notes to myself. Kind of like a golfing diary. Thanks for taking an interest.

You never know who might be reading!

Using the thread as a golfing diary is a great idea, I do the same thing with a notebook. The one thing I have to guard against is 'getting ahead of myself' - trying to implement new changes when I haven't even got the one priority thing nailed. That's why your list of three things to work on set off alarm bells.

The other danger for me is doing drills too fast. "It's not how fast you can do it, it's how slowly you can do it correctly"

[Golfingdad]

I'm going to entitle this phase of my swing "Going from worse to bad. . .", at least that's the hope.

Did some hip turn drills (in early morning) before this round. Here are my first attempts at turning the hips first (Lost my balance on the first couple tries). I did roughly quarter to half speed swings with this drill. I put an alignment rod on a bungee cord around my hip. The idea is to see that the rod is all the way to the right by the time I feel the impact. I did some pure hip turning to hit a ladder while trying to keep my head steady for about 15 minutes prior to these swings.

No comments on the actual swing - you and Mike know what you're working on, not me - but I can say with certainty that those are not "quarter to half speed swings" with that drill.  Those are probably closer to 98-99% swings.

You need to slow down.  Slow down the swings themselves, but more importantly than that, slow down the process.  You smacked 5 balls in 55 seconds doing your "drill."  That's not really doing a drill, that's just pounding balls while looking like a goofball with a bungee cord around your waist. You should be going way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay slower all around.  If your drill is about hip turning, then just do that slowly.  Get into the correct positions.

If you're really doing it right, then a 55 second video should probably have one one ball hit in it.  If you're a slacker like me, then there's probably 2 being hit.

As soon as you hit that first one and fall over, go back to doing it really slowly with better balance.

Or, just don't practice right after you've had 64 ounces of coffee.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris3putt

Quote:

BTW, I was a definitely too vague. For the longest time, no one really posted in this thread so I was simply making mental notes to myself. Kind of like a golfing diary. Thanks for taking an interest.

You never know who might be reading!

Using the thread as a golfing diary is a great idea, I do the same thing with a notebook. The one thing I have to guard against is 'getting ahead of myself' - trying to implement new changes when I haven't even got the one priority thing nailed. That's why your list of three things to work on set off alarm bells.

The other danger for me is doing drills too fast. "It's not how fast you can do it, it's how slowly you can do it correctly"

Definitely, one thing at a time. The list is in chronological order. To be honest, I'll be happy to even make any kind of progress this week. I was just hoping to get rid of the really crappy swing before seeing Mike next week.

[chris3putt]

Definitely, one thing at a time. The list is in chronological order. To be honest, I'll be happy to even make any kind of progress this week. I was just hoping to get rid of the really crappy swing before seeing Mike next week.

That's why you go to see him! Wish I had that option.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

I'm going to entitle this phase of my swing "Going from worse to bad. . .", at least that's the hope.

Did some hip turn drills (in early morning) before this round. Here are my first attempts at turning the hips first (Lost my balance on the first couple tries). I did roughly quarter to half speed swings with this drill. I put an alignment rod on a bungee cord around my hip. The idea is to see that the rod is all the way to the right by the time I feel the impact. I did some pure hip turning to hit a ladder while trying to keep my head steady for about 15 minutes prior to these swings.

No comments on the actual swing - you and Mike know what you're working on, not me - but I can say with certainty that those are not "quarter to half speed swings" with that drill.  Those are probably closer to 98-99% swings.

You need to slow down.  Slow down the swings themselves, but more importantly than that, slow down the process.  You smacked 5 balls in 55 seconds doing your "drill."  That's not really doing a drill, that's just pounding balls while looking like a goofball with a bungee cord around your waist.   You should be going way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay slower all around.  If your drill is about hip turning, then just do that slowly.  Get into the correct positions.

If you're really doing it right, then a 55 second video should probably have one one ball hit in it.  If you're a slacker like me, then there's probably 2 being hit.

As soon as you hit that first one and fall over, go back to doing it really slowly with better balance.

Or, just don't practice right after you've had 64 ounces of coffee.

Lucky guess.

Seriously, yeah I need to slow down. Those are what "felt" like 1/4 to 1/2 speed swings. Or maybe I should be swinging only as fast as the previous posts, which I though are also slower than what I swing on the course.

Good thoughts, the plan was to do a lot more hip turn drills again tonight (only the stick and the ladder) and make sure I stay in balance of course.

[Lihu]

Hoping I'm at stage 2 of 4.

Did a lot of 9-3 drills (A3-A6), that Mike and Dana gave me 8 months ago. Keeping the elbow tucked is more natural if I have more hip bend. Dana told me to bend a bit more 8 months ago, and I am only beginning to understand why.

My club head appears to be behind my hands again, but the video is blurry as indoor lighting is not bright enough to capture without too much blur. I'll take it again one of these mornings when it's not raining.

Hip turn (just adequate, I'll let Mike and Dana decide), and I have the elbow tucked from 9-3. It is separated from my body at the top of the swing, then connects with my body.

Weight shift is next.

[Lihu]

I went to the golf store last night.

So, it turns out I have a decently fast swing speed and long carry with the "Maltby fitting 6i / R300". The pro at the shop told me that all I need to do is to figure out how to swing the woods the same way as that iron.

Played a 9 hole practice round this morning. Not that great. I had 6 near greens and the rest were pretty bad. At first, I kept hitting my approaches fat in the muddy fairways. I even took relief from the puddles. Ended up in 2 bunkers. If I kept score, I think it would be roughly the same or worse than yesterday. My shot of the day was getting on the fringe with a 3i on the 443 yard 18th hole. It felt solid and sweet. I was consciously relaxing all my muscles and trying to swing "relaxed". Seemed to work.

My drives were better than last week. Even with the colder weather, my drives went maybe 10 yards further on average? I also need to work on my swing timing.

I feel like I am making forward progress, and plan to take some videos tomorrow morning weather permitting.

[No Mulligans]

My shot of the day was getting on the fringe with a 3i on the 443 yard 18th hole. It felt solid and sweet. I was consciously relaxing all my muscles and trying to swing "relaxed". Seemed to work.

When I previously said your swing looked a bit 'abrupt'.  Maybe that is a better way to put it, perhaps it's just relaxing more that solves that look.

Cheers

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

My shot of the day was getting on the fringe with a 3i on the 443 yard 18th hole. It felt solid and sweet. I was consciously relaxing all my muscles and trying to swing "relaxed". Seemed to work.

When I previously said your swing looked a bit 'abrupt'.  Maybe that is a better way to put it, perhaps it's just relaxing more that solves that look.

Cheers

Thanks and this was very probably what you saw as the "abrupt" motion.

I might mentally be thinking that I should be trying to add that extra "snap" at impact which is really bad for my swing/score/health? This might be a mental thing due to seeing the target 180+ yards away?

The reason why I swung more relaxed today is that there was a man getting off the green on the other side, and I figured I might "layup" or something. Instead of coming up short, the ball ended up right on the fringe, and, unfortunately, in the time the ball was in flight he turned around and walked back down the green. I yelled fore, and apologized when I saw him in the parking lot, and he told me it was fine. The net outcome is that the relaxed and 1/2 to 1/4 "effort" swing hits balls further than what I had been experiencing this and last week in my "playing golf again after a 3 week layoff phase".

This might also be why I hit farther and with less effort when my shoulder was injured. The injury forced me to relax the tension in the muscles or I would feel excruciating pain. I remember hitting balls a lot more cleanly just before my "golf vacation".

Video is hoped for tomorrow.

I will bring this up with Mike during our lesson, because I want to figure out how to hit the ball this way every shot. Maybe I can fix my woods too?

[Lihu]

Shot better today on the 6000 yard course. I hit all but two near greens with 6 GIR. I got 2 more but didn't count them because I placed the ball back on the fairway because I didn't want to get mud all over myself. Putting was pretty horrendous, and my "score" was 42/43 with 2 lift and place events so I could avoid the mud. I could see a rooster tail of water on the ball on most of the putts, and they all fell short. It was kind of cool hearing the hissing sound from the balls again even though my irons didn't go nearly as far as my summer distances. I'm going to stick with the shorter course and even play the 5800 yard white tees for a while.

Got on the Foresight simulator last night and hit my MP-32 6i (34 degree club) KBS Xstiff [149 carry], Bio Cell driver PX6.0 [222 carry], 3H (19 degree) KBS Hybrid Xstiff [166 carry] and a Ping i25 hybrid stock S shaft [176 carry]. The Xstiff shafts are definitely holding back my distances by a club or two.

Going to try some stock clubs tonight. Looked at the TM MC Tour preferred club, and it feels really nice. I get that tiny amount of "shaft kick" at impact. The only issue is I know I hit them thin and they still went pretty far.

I would say that my swing looks better than the last video, but does not feel as natural and fast as a month ago. Maybe I just remember it wrong, and have some unrealistic expectations?

[Lihu]

Now, I remember the feeling, I hope.

Just after lunch I tried some swings with a bare shaft using the swing feel I've been using for the past couple weeks.

The swish sounded kind of dull.

Then I tried spin around like a top "feel".

The swish sounded a little sharper

Then I added "weight shift" (pressure shift from foot to foot) to the spinning like a top feel.

The swish sound was much sharper than the previous two. Then I tried hitting some foam balls with a 6i and it felt way more solid than with the previous two swings.

The last "feeling" is what I remember my swing feeling like a month ago. Not exactly quantitative analysis, but I'm going back to the simulator with these three "feels" to see if they give me different carry distances.

Guessing my simulator carry baseline is going to be 222 (like last night). Hoping the other two are 10 and 20 yards further. If I get a desired baseline of 232 (hoped goal of 242 average) with my Cobra club, I will test out the R15 and G30 clubs.

Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board.

Side Note: I took videos of my on the course swings this morning, but refuse to post them because they looked pretty lackluster. I also hit them on the heel and ended up slicing some of my drives again. Luckily, they only sliced 20 yards, hit trees or netting barriers. I also took some videos of me hitting my 3i and Apex UT fat about 120-150 yards. They're pretty terrible, so I'll take more tomorrow with my hoped to be "revised" swing.

[Lihu]

So the radar unit measured my club head up to 7mph faster 3' ahead of impact. My sequence is screwed up again. That's why I lost all my distance and need to turn my body faster for any kind of decent distance. I'm looking for my lag device to find the correct body sequence again.

[chris3putt]

Now, I remember the feeling, I hope.

Just after lunch I tried some swings with a bare shaft using the swing feel I've been using for the past couple weeks.

The swish sounded kind of dull.

Then I tried spin around like a top "feel".

The swish sounded a little sharper

Then I added "weight shift" (pressure shift from foot to foot) to the spinning like a top feel.

The swish sound was much sharper than the previous two. Then I tried hitting some foam balls with a 6i and it felt way more solid than with the previous two swings.

The last "feeling" is what I remember my swing feeling like a month ago. Not exactly quantitative analysis, but I'm going back to the simulator with these three "feels" to see if they give me different carry distances.

I like the sequence you have going here, Each new "feel" building on top of the previous one.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Now, I remember the feeling, I hope.

Just after lunch I tried some swings with a bare shaft using the swing feel I've been using for the past couple weeks.

The swish sounded kind of dull.

Then I tried spin around like a top "feel".

The swish sounded a little sharper

Then I added "weight shift" (pressure shift from foot to foot) to the spinning like a top feel.

The swish sound was much sharper than the previous two. Then I tried hitting some foam balls with a 6i and it felt way more solid than with the previous two swings.

The last "feeling" is what I remember my swing feeling like a month ago. Not exactly quantitative analysis, but I'm going back to the simulator with these three "feels" to see if they give me different carry distances.

I like the sequence you have going here, Each new "feel" building on top of the previous one.

Thanks. But the answer really lies in maintaining the lead armpit pressure through and feeling the double pendulum whip action through impact. This is the feeling I have been desparately looking for the last two and a half weeks.

Blah round 6000 yards 41/48, but at least I figured out what was going on with my swing. Just starting to reassemble it.

Made a tap in birdie on a 418 yard par 4.

To qualify on the round I made 2 three putts in the front, and shot 2 triples on the back 9 from over hitting the green a couple times. Double tapped a chip (penalty). Couple doubles from 3/4 putting. Made 5 GIR, and about 9 near greens.

Was happy with my recovery from a tree shot drive. Hit my driving iron out of the woods about 200 yards to the 150 yard mark and a 7i to 15 feet of the pin.

The main thing is I am getting the feel of my "nice" swing back again. It will probably take me another week or two to really get it back where it was. Hoping the lesson will improve even more things. At least I have something to work on in the meantime.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Brookside Course 1 Blues (6700 yards 72.7/130): 88 (43/45)

5 doubles, 6 bogeys, 7 par, 11 fairways, 4 greens, 34 putts. Par5 +1, Par 4 +9, Par 3 +6.

My swing is coming back, it's starting to look a lot better. My ball striking is kind of lackluster, but since my drives were longer it was okay.

They should make quad copters illegal over golf courses. Someone was hovering one over one of the doubles.

Good for my handicap that I didn't score during my really terrible round phase (They were mostly practice rounds until last Friday and Sunday). Amazed that I shot to my handicap today as I was still working out my swing.

I'll just wait till my lesson to get videos.

Despite the lackluster score, I am starting to get my swing back. I looked at some videos from the latter half of last week, and it looks like the club head is behind my hands at this point at least on my drives.

I still don't feel like there is any real "whipping power". I am getting a light whip at impact some of the time, but not as much as I remember?

In any case, I seem to be getting around 230 yards average with my drives (minimal roll 3-8 yards? I can see the trails in the morning dew). As my driver is still set for 9 degrees, I get these low penetrating drives. I'm too afraid to change the setting at this point, but the drives are far enough and reasonably dependable.

Going to wait till my lesson with Mike to take some slow motion videos and let him determine what needs fixing. At this point, I can hit at least half of my shots as well as I was at my peak. Hopefully by my lesson next week (delayed by Mike from this week), I'll be at my previous peak performance most of my shots.

I tested the Titleist 915 D3-9.5 Diamana 70gm white shaft, with pretty nice results. I carry consistently 10-15 yards farther on the simulator with this club. Wish I could borrow one for a field test.

[Lihu]

I need to qualify this with "I know I'll never putt like this again." 27 putts!

Brookside Course 1 (6700 yards): 80 (42/38)

1 triple, 1 double, 6 bogey, 7 par, 3 birdies. 10 fairways, 5 GIR, 27 putts, Par 3 +3, Par 4 +5, Par 5 E.

I reiterate "I don't think I'll ever score this low again."

The one time I decide to go for it on hole 10, I nail a hybrid about 6 feet from the pin. Then I magically make this 6 footer for the birdie of my life.

Two things changed my swing dramatically: 2 weeks of hard work, and the epiphany I made at lunch yesterday at the store. Keep my neck straight. This freed up my swing to allow me to turn without cranking my head back. Today was probably the best ball striking I ever did. I did hit a few fat/thin shots, but for the most part they did not cost me that much. On hole 7 I hit a thin shot that rolled right to 10 feet of the pin. My drive of the day was on hole 5, where I drove within 30 yards of the green.

I would be perfectly content if I can keep up 32 putts and shoot in the mid-80s under all putting conditions.

I tried to capture some video of my swings, but was rushing a bit to finish my round. The ones I got are too dark as it was only 6:30am. After this it was a rush to get to hole 9 so that the starter would not put too many people on the back 9 so that I could still move quickly. I dumped on in the water on 8 for a double because I was rushing my tee shot.

In any case, I will take some videos of my "neck straight" swing. My back is still in the comfortable "C" position, but I just straightened out my neck a little so it does not have to crane backwards at the top of the back swing. Much more freedom of movement this way.

[Golfingdad]

Really not a fan of the attitude there Lihu.  "I know I'll never putt like this again" and "I don't think I'll ever score this low again."

I hope that is just you being modest and/or self-depricating because if not ... WTF???

Don't be afraid of being good!  If you're capable of doing in once, then you're capable of doing it again, so ... and I say this with love ... shut you're damn mouth and keep at it.

That said ... congratulations!!

[Lihu]

Really not a fan of the attitude there Lihu.  "I know I'll never putt like this again" and "I don't think I'll ever score this low again."

I hope that is just you being modest and/or self-depricating because if not ... WTF???

Don't be afraid of being good!  If you're capable of doing in once, then you're capable of doing it again, so ... and I say this with love ... shut you're damn mouth and keep at it.

That said ... congratulations!!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but no, it's not self deprecating. I watched three of my putts just magically go off line along a break I didn't see right into the hole. It was luck, pure and simple.

However, if I could just get down to 30-32 putts, and make more a couple more greens, I can say I would be very happy.