My Swing (Lihu)

[bmartin461]

My practice recent practice rounds (last 3 months) have been only one ball at a time with only a couple exceptions. I get one chance to play the shot. If I play a second ball, the conditions are different and it doesn't help me improve my overall game.

Thanks for answering, again, I'm just being curious here.

Given what you wrote above, what is the difference in your mind between a practice and regular round, it does not look like you are doing anything different.

This article give some good examples of what someone would use a practice round for say, prior to a tournament.

http://www.juniorgolfscoreboard.com/ss_4_archive.asp?passsskID=69

[No Mulligans]

Thanks for answering, again, I'm just being curious here.

Given what you wrote above, what is the difference in your mind between a practice and regular round, it does not look like you are doing anything different.

This article give some good examples of what someone would use a practice round for say, prior to a tournament.

http://www.juniorgolfscoreboard.com/ss_4_archive.asp?passsskID=69

Thanks for posting that article.  That helps me understand a practice round.  It's mostly about learning about the course and the conditions... primarily applies to getting ready for a tournament on an unfamiliar course.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

My practice recent practice rounds (last 3 months) have been only one ball at a time with only a couple exceptions. I get one chance to play the shot. If I play a second ball, the conditions are different and it doesn't help me improve my overall game.

Thanks for answering, again, I'm just being curious here.

Given what you wrote above, what is the difference in your mind between a practice and regular round, it does not look like you are doing anything different.

This article give some good examples of what someone would use a practice round for say, prior to a tournament.

http://www.juniorgolfscoreboard.com/ss_4_archive.asp?passsskID=69

Practice rounds are focused on my swing and regular rounds are focused on score.

On practice rounds I use proper technique no matter what the result, and I do slow practice swings before every shot with possibly slower back swings. With putting, I focus on my form and tempo. Everything is focused on technique as best as I can.

The main difference is that my distances are longer with the new swing, and not as predictable yet. I can hit fat shots hooks or slices a lot farther and into more trouble. I'm not yet comfortable with my motion yet. It will probably take a few months for me to get used to it, assuming Mike doesn't give me a lot more to do next month.

So, the main reason I do so many practice rounds is so I can get used to my new swing without worrying about my score.

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look at it, and as @No Mulligans noted is probably a more advanced use of practice rounds than I am currently capable of effectively using.

[No Mulligans]

Practice rounds are focused on my swing and regular rounds are focused on score.

That makes sense

[iacas]

Practice rounds are focused on my swing and regular rounds are focused on score.

That's a really, really, really ineffective way to practice. You'd be 100x better off (maybe more) using even half the time it takes you to play a practice round actually practicing on the range, working the 5S Practice stuff, and changing the picture, building up your speed, having the Small Successes, etc.

On practice rounds I use proper technique no matter what the result, and I do slow practice swings before every shot with possibly slower back swings. With putting, I focus on my form and tempo. Everything is focused on technique as best as I can.

It's highly, highly unlikely you "use the proper technique." It's probably almost exactly the same as your "normal" swing.

If you want to get better at faster than a glacial rate, you play far too often.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Practice rounds are focused on my swing and regular rounds are focused on score.

That's a really, really, really ineffective way to practice. You'd be 100x better off (maybe more) using even half the time it takes you to play a practice round actually practicing on the range, working the 5S Practice stuff, and changing the picture, building up your speed, having the Small Successes, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

On practice rounds I use proper technique no matter what the result, and I do slow practice swings before every shot with possibly slower back swings. With putting, I focus on my form and tempo. Everything is focused on technique as best as I can.

It's highly, highly unlikely you "use the proper technique." It's probably almost exactly the same as your "normal" swing.

If you want to get better at faster than a glacial rate, you play far too often.

Actually, this is great advice.

Some weeks I go out and play, then as the week drags along my playing starts to really degenerate. I figured it was fatigue in the past, but now I don't get tired from swinging so it's definitely just from not practicing proper swings? I don't really need to know the reasons behind this effect, but I'll definitely take this advice starting this evening/week.

Thanks for the push to do the right thing. . .

[mvmac]

Actually, this is great advice.

Yep, good post @iacas

[Lihu]

5 minutes this morning of mirror work with my driver.

5 more minutes just an hour ago with PW and mirror. One slow swing that kind of took 5 minutes to do. Tiring for the legs!

The following are my attempts at my drill swings, the attempt was to do them slower than my normal swings. IDK, but these were all relaxed swings.

Although I still have a long way to go, I did feel this was more productive than playing the course this morning.

[Lihu]

Going to focus more on opening the hips at impact. They were much more closed at impact than with my previous session.

[Lihu]

Kind of the same thing. I was hoping that my shoulders were more closed relative to my hips, also noticed that I prematurely looked up as well. Crap. Going to do a lot of slow drill swings tonight.

[iacas]

Going to focus more on opening the hips at impact. They were much more closed at impact than with my previous session.

Why?

That's not your priority piece right now is it?

[Ernest Jones]

@Lihu You suffer from the same affliction as me. No, not your hips, no, not your shoulder turn. You're over educated on the swing. You film yourself working on your priority piece, see something else that's not quite perfect and then work on that instead of your priority piece. You're thinking (I presume) that if you just clean that little bit up then you can get back to your priority piece. But that's completely missing the "priority" part of "priority piece". It doesn't matter what else is happening in your swing, those are ALL NON-PRIORITIES. They are "later on at some future point" pieces. I'm trying to ween myself off of the camera a little bit. Just work my piece and film a swing or two at the end off practice instead of filming and reviewing every swing. Keeps me from picking out little irrelevancies and keying in on them instead of my priority piece. It's hard sometimes, but ya gotta do it! Focus man, focus!

[Lihu]

@Lihu You suffer from the same affliction as me. No, not your hips, no, not your shoulder turn. You're over educated on the swing. You film yourself working on your priority piece, see something else that's not quite perfect and then work on that instead of your priority piece. You're thinking (I presume) that if you just clean that little bit up then you can get back to your priority piece. But that's completely missing the "priority" part of "priority piece". It doesn't matter what else is happening in your swing, those are ALL NON-PRIORITIES. They are "later on at some future point" pieces. I'm trying to ween myself off of the camera a little bit. Just work my piece and film a swing or two at the end off practice instead of filming and reviewing every swing. Keeps me from picking out little irrelevancies and keying in on them instead of my priority piece. It's hard sometimes, but ya gotta do it! Focus man, focus!

It sounds like a Monty Python skit I suppose. . .thanks for the insight. :-)

[Lihu]

10 drill swings in front of a mirror then played 18 holes.

Trying to retain the wrist load from my priority drill swings  (post 534,548), and it feels like I am "pressing down" on the handle just before impact when the club is parallel. Cool feeling. . .

Seems like that last drill swing I was given to work on is still teaching me new things?

My drives were not synchronized optimally, but I still had pretty decent drives and it "felt" like my wrist was doing something. The drill swings are starting to sink in, maybe?

[Lihu]

This video is more comprehensive as it is the possibly the last one I can do for a week as I will be traveling to China again. It's a helpful reminder for me to get my swing back into a groove again once I do get back from business travel.

The noise is the gardeners were doing some work in my yard. . .

[mvmac]

@Lihu , I think those drill swings are really great for you, the shaft tips out less on the downswing. Few comments.

- Better with the pacing of the backswing, you're "rushing" it less.

- Arm swing needs to shorten up. So would like to see the backswing stop closer to here

Than here. Just going to make things much simpler. Can also see how the longer swing starts to change your shoulder and hip alignments, they start to level out. This causes you to try and "cover" it more with your upper body and leads to problems with swinging too far across it.

[Lihu]

@Lihu , I think those drill swings are really great for you, the shaft tips out less on the downswing. Few comments. - Better with the pacing of the backswing, you're "rushing" it less. - Arm swing needs to shorten up. So would like to see the backswing stop closer to here [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/123712/] [/URL] Than here. Just going to make things much simpler. Can also see how the longer swing starts to change your shoulder and hip alignments, they start to level out. This causes you to try and "cover" it more with your upper body and leads to problems with swinging too far across it. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/123711/] [/URL]

Thanks for the comments. That's a pretty major flaw, and I was wondering about it. That explains my tendency to pull/shank some of my shots. I'll do a lot more mirror work in China to develop some "feel" to stop earlier. As always, I appreciate the observation.

[Lihu]

Played the tips from a relatively short 6600 yard course and improved by 5 strokes over the last time I played it from the 6100 yard tees with rental clubs and all. Shorter backswing= more accurate and no loss in power. Putting was pretty decent at 32 and 8 GIR (about average for me as of lately).