My Swing (KyleAnthony)

[KyleAnthony]

Seriously. Re-read Mike's post, which included this picture: He's being nice to you, but the subtext is that you shouldn't practice that way, nor worry about fading the ball. That is not how you practice. And maybe you weren't practicing that way, but decided to film a few full swings at the end. I'd rate that as unlikely, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Where's the video of you practicing your drills? Changing the picture? If you cannot achieve "success" (changing the picture, hitting out, making the ball push and draw back) 75% of the time, you are practicing improperly. If you need to make swings that send the ball 60 yards to achieve 75% success, DO THAT. When you get to 85% success, you can move to 75 yard shots. When that hits 85%, you move to 90-yard shots or whatever. I am trying to stop you now. You might fully understand your lesson. But it's going to take months to ingrain the lesson. Months of diligent work. You won't completely backtrack making a few swings when you play a round of golf, but you damn well will if you spend the bulk of your practice time doing this. This is not your "new" swing. It's your old swing, almost exactly, with a few little differences. They're important differences, but it's still very early in the process. Answer that question if you could, Kyle. It's only going to help you in the end. No, today, just play golf. Whatever shot shape you've got, play that all day. But you can't waste your time on the range. It's valuable, and each swing might only get you 0.0001% closer to fully ingraining it, but the last thing you want is to spend too many swings which take you any percentage in the opposite direction.

ya I only hit maybe 10 balls with a fade just to test myself to see if I could. I'll post a video tonight of my drills I was doing. Idk of the range balls were best up or what but during my drills and some full swings the ball would start right come back a little left then go straight. Any idea what's causing that? It was a little breezy left to right maybe 4-6 mph

[iacas]

ya I only hit maybe 10 balls with a fade just to test myself to see if I could.

The problem isn't necessarily "with a fade." It's more about how many swings you made where you failed to work at the proper speed and length of swing.

You're probably nowhere near just hitting balls at even 50% speed with a full length swing.

[mvmac]

yes sir. thank you so much

p.s. @mvmac in that thread @iacas is saying to hit a fade you aim left and hit a push fade right? just so i understand 100%

Yes that's a push fade, "pushed" in relation to the body alignment. Still starts left of the intended target but you're not "swinging left". You're still making your "standard" swing where you swing a few degrees OUTward but you've pre-set enough left path by aiming the body 8 degrees left at A1.

I had my first evolvr lesson about a month ago, and it was likely similar to your lesson with Mike. We probably both got a few fundamental things to work on, with specific drills to help ingrain those fundamentals. One month later, I am still working on just a few very simple things, and as I record myself, I'm not even happy that I'm ingraining those simple things yet.

You can go back a page or two and see Kyle making slow swings, that's how he made the significant path changes on the day we worked together. We see too many people practicing at full speed.

In case you haven't seen it

And read what @iacas said

If you cannot achieve "success" (changing the picture, hitting out, making the ball push and draw back) 75% of the time, you are practicing improperly.

If you need to make swings that send the ball 60 yards to achieve 75% success, DO THAT. When you get to 85% success, you can move to 75 yard shots. When that hits 85%, you move to 90-yard shots or whatever.

I am trying to stop you now. You might fully understand your lesson. But it's going to take months to ingrain the lesson. Months of diligent work.

You won't completely backtrack making a few swings when you play a round of golf, but you damn well will if you spend the bulk of your practice time doing this.

This is not your "new" swing. It's your old swing, almost exactly, with a few little differences. They're important differences, but it's still very early in the process.

[flopster]

drills are boring but results are awesome

[mvmac]

drills are boring but results are awesome

lol like anything else in life, nothing comes easy.

[RandallT]

You can go back a page or two and see Kyle making slow swings, that's how he made the significant path changes on the day we worked together. We see too many people practicing at full speed.

In case you haven't seen it

And read what @iacas said

...Changing the picture?

If you cannot achieve "success" (changing the picture, hitting out, making the ball push and draw back) 75% of the time, you are practicing improperly.

If you need to make swings that send the ball 60 yards to achieve 75% success, DO THAT. When you get to 85% success, you can move to 75 yard shots. When that hits 85%, you move to 90-yard shots or whatever.

I'll get to the range this week myself, and be more disciplined on the softer swings. My tendency is to either to slow motion without a ball, or do smooth and easy full swings with the ball. I rarely remember to make swings with a ball to deliberately shorter distances. Thanks for the timely reminder. Change the picture. Change the picture. Got it. Ok, Kyle, I won't hijack the thread any longer. Good luck with the journey.

[Golfingdad]

Question........you've been fighting a slice and are now, just recently working to learn and ingrain a draw.  Why in the world would you even think about trying to intentionally hit a fade and risk screwing up your recent hard work?!

Agreed, but I'd go even one step further ...

I get kinda nervous not being able to hit a fade since it's what im so used to. I only hit a few balls with a fade just to see if I could but since mike mentioned hitting fades a different way I'll probably just hold off for a bit

no I haven't mastered anything at all haha I often get ahead of myself and take on too much which kinda sucks at times. I'll probably hold off on hitting any fades for awhile. Today during my round I'm going to focus in ball flight so that I can start working toward a consistent and predictable shot

Not only should you not be trying to hit fades, you shouldn't be trying to hit draws either.  When you are practicing, you shouldn't be doing anything except working on ... whatever Mike and Dana told you to work on.  I am willing to bet it wasn't "try and hit draws."  ;)  It was probably something a lot more specific, to do with your feet, your elbows, your arm, whatever.  This is why I think we do better practicing in front of a mirror or window or even a net, instead of on the range where we can watch what our ball does, and thus become overly encouraged or discouraged by it.  (I only know this because I do it too :))

I can't stress it enough.  When practicing, focus only on whatever is your priority piece.  Nothing else!!

[KyleAnthony]

Agreed, but I'd go even one step further ...

Not only should you not be trying to hit fades, you shouldn't be trying to hit draws either.  When you are practicing, you shouldn't be doing anything except working on ... whatever Mike and Dana told you to work on.  I am willing to bet it wasn't "try and hit draws."  ;)  It was probably something a lot more specific, to do with your feet, your elbows, your arm, whatever.  This is why I think we do better practicing in front of a mirror or window or even a net, instead of on the range where we can watch what our ball does, and thus become overly encouraged or discouraged by it.  (I only know this because I do it too :))

I can't stress it enough.  When practicing, focus only on whatever is your priority piece.  Nothing else!!

very true. ya all in all the things they told me to fix are: feet (bowed more), more knee flex, stronger grip, elbows close, left wrist, and rotate more. haha the grip, feet, and knee flex i've got, but man the left wrist, elbows, and rotate are killing me lol.

today i played a round and it was pretty entertaining. half my tee shots drew a little to land right on line and the other half i pushed, with the exception of one i hooked. I'm taking tomorrow off and will hit the range thursday to practice on drills.

[iacas]

today i played a round and it was pretty entertaining. half my tee shots drew a little to land right on line and the other half i pushed, with the exception of one i hooked. I'm taking tomorrow off and will hit the range thursday to practice on drills.

Film them. Post them.

[flopster]

Kyle you do not have the knee flex down at all, its not going to become natural for a while without purposely thinking about it. It took a few Weeks for me to quit locking out my right leg so you should expect the same, going on the course is even tougher to implement these changes, fastest way is work the drills though, the day some man invents fun drills is when we have scratch players everywhere.

[Golfingdad]

Kyle you do not have the knee flex down at all, its not going to become natural for a while without purposely thinking about it. It took a few Weeks for me to quit locking out my right leg so you should expect the same, going on the course is even tougher to implement these changes, fastest way is work the drills though, the day some man invents fun drills is when we have scratch players everywhere.

Agreed. I've been working with these guys for (I think) about 18 months, and the only thing they've given me that I'd say I've got "down" 100% is the foot flares. :). Everything else is in varying degrees of accomplishment, but nothing is "solved." This game is hard. ;)

[KyleAnthony]

I think for me the hardest thing is to get rotation, face angle, and swing path all good haha it seems like i can get one out of the three but not all 3 at once. i had a few maybe 6 or 7 shots where i was very happy with them (2 driver,3 iron lay up, 8 iron lay up, 4 iron tee shot, 8 iron approach, 4 iron approach) those are all the shots i remember that i was very happy with and were full shots. I'm just happy to hit at least 2 shots where i was very happy with them. so I'm hoping that increases here and there lol

[iacas]

I think for me the hardest thing is to get rotation, face angle, and swing path all good haha it seems like i can get one out of the three but not all 3 at once. i had a few maybe 6 or 7 shots where i was very happy with them (2 driver,3 iron lay up, 8 iron lay up, 4 iron tee shot, 8 iron approach, 4 iron approach) those are all the shots i remember that i was very happy with and were full shots. I'm just happy to hit at least 2 shots where i was very happy with them. so I'm hoping that increases here and there lol

Stop judging what your swing was probably like by the results you get on the golf course.

Judge your progress - and what your swing is actually doing - by how much success you have and at the speeds and swing lengths you have that success - on the range.

On the course you're probably still easily 95-99% "your old swing." Which is as it should be, as the course is not where you "work" on stuff. In other words, it's not like 34 of the full swings you made were "your old swing" and two or three of them were "your new swing." They were probably all very similar and very close to "your old swing" because it will take months of diligent work to truly ingrain the changes you're making.

When you play golf, just play golf. Your shot shapes will change, but you could very well be hitting a pull draw now because your grip is a bit stronger. Good. Go with it. Then be diligent and work your ass off on the range. The harder you work, the sooner you'll see results.

[KyleAnthony]

Stop judging what your swing was probably like by the results you get on the golf course.

Judge your progress - and what your swing is actually doing - by how much success you have and at the speeds and swing lengths you have that success - on the range.

On the course you're probably still easily 95-99% "your old swing." Which is as it should be, as the course is not where you "work" on stuff. In other words, it's not like 34 of the full swings you made were "your old swing" and two or three of them were "your new swing." They were probably all very similar and very close to "your old swing" because it will take months of diligent work to truly ingrain the changes you're making.

When you play golf, just play golf. Your shot shapes will change, but you could very well be hitting a pull draw now because your grip is a bit stronger. Good. Go with it. Then be diligent and work your ass off on the range. The harder you work, the sooner you'll see results.

ya i think since i took the lesson with mike and dana I'm really headed in the right path so i need to do more range time. i've honestly slacked in that area before the lesson. I'm taking today off because walking diamond valley killed me lol but i will post up a video of drills tomorrow. @iacas i do have a question. when i practice at the range i only use my 6 iron just so I'm focusing more on the swing and such instead of using all clubs. is this a good idea or should i practice with all clubs?

[iacas]

ya i think since i took the lesson with mike and dana I'm really headed in the right path so i need to do more range time. i've honestly slacked in that area before the lesson. I'm taking today off because walking diamond valley killed me lol but i will post up a video of drills tomorrow. @iacas i do have a question. when i practice at the range i only use my 6 iron just so I'm focusing more on the swing and such instead of using all clubs. is this a good idea or should i practice with all clubs?

No reason to practice with all the clubs. Just hit a lot of 5, 6, 7-irons. We use those clubs because they're "in the middle" and thus you get a pretty good feel for things, without being as hard to hit as a 3-iron, or as easy to get away with as a 9-iron.

You're going to succeed faster if you can find a way to enjoy practicing methodically, @KyleAnthony . If you truly want to get better, that's almost a must. If you just want to play golf and have fun, that's cool too. But you can't have your cake (getting better) and eat it too (just bashing balls). You gotta pick one or the other.

[Golfingdad]

@iacas i do have a question. when i practice at the range i only use my 6 iron just so I'm focusing more on the swing and such instead of using all clubs.

Erik already answered you, but for kicks I thought I'd throw in my routine.  I never meant to have such a consistent routine, but I sort of do anyway.  It goes like this (always with a medium bag of 60 or so balls):

• One or two pitches and then full swings with my sand wedge just to loosen up.
• 6 or 7 iron, 30-35 balls, usually with slow swings and/or drills in between.
• Driver, 10-15 balls, same routine.
• Depending on the conditions, now I grab my 150 club (it's frequently a downwind range, so sometimes this is a wedge, usually a 9 iron) and start trying to knock down the 150 pole for about 10 balls or so.
• If there are any left, sometimes I just pull out my wedge and try to knock down the 100 pole, or I grab any random club and goof around for 3 or 4 shots - like try to slice a 4 iron around an imaginary tree and under some branches.  Or try to break the imaginary glass as if I'm on the Big Break .
• Pack up, go grab some Carl's Jr. or El Pollo Loco and head back to the office.

So basically, 60-70% of every session is just two clubs and all I'm doing is working on my priority.  Which, right now, is to get my legs straighter at impact.

[KyleAnthony]

No reason to practice with all the clubs. Just hit a lot of 5, 6, 7-irons. We use those clubs because they're "in the middle" and thus you get a pretty good feel for things, without being as hard to hit as a 3-iron, or as easy to get away with as a 9-iron. You're going to succeed faster if you can find a way to enjoy practicing methodically, @KyleAnthony . If you truly want to get better, that's almost a must. If you just want to play golf and have fun, that's cool too. But you can't have your cake (getting better) and eat it too (just bashing balls). You gotta pick one or the other.

The thing that makes drills and practice fun for me is the results. I like completing the drills successfully. I know I don't do them successfully more than 2% but I like working for more and more good results

[mdl]

On the course you're probably still easily 95-99% "your old swing."

Ain't that the truth.  Been working pretty obsessively on the swing recently, 4-5 practice sessions a week.  And all my practice sessions end up just being 15-25 balls, warm up, video a couple swings, look at the video, assess, take some (often slow) dry swings, maybe hit a ball or three, then video another two swings, then repeat.

Played for the first time in a couple weeks on Sunday, put together a back nine that I was pretty happy with, at least off the green.  Then had another practice session yesterday and I'd regressed significantly towards my "old swing" by being out on the course concentrating on getting decent results, only considering a couple major swing thoughts.  Hadn't fully regressed at least...