My Swing (DeadMan)

[DeadMan]

Some progress:

I'm working on some downswing stuff right now - a little bit of hand and club path stuff so I'm coming a bit more shallow in on the ball. I can explain a little more if anyone is really curious.

Overall, pretty pleased with how things are looking. I've made some changes that I think are fairly small but also important. I've also been well disciplined with my range sessions - really working on changes with block practice. 

The struggle I'm having right now is finding time to play and practice. It's been a bad winter, so I've barely done anything outside of a half-dozen range sessions. Probably will only place once in April, too. So, it will be a slow start to the season. Plus, I need time practicing putting and short game, which is hard in the winter. And both have been rusty when I've been able to play. Expected but annoying for sure. A little frustrated about all that given that I think the swing is looking pretty damn good for April. But, this happens every year, so I will deal with it. 

[mchepp]

Most likely not a priority piece, so keep focused on that, but something I notice, I guess because it is a big fault in my own swing, is the right shoulder position at P6. His shoulder and rear arm are much more in front of his body. Whereas you and I are sort of stuck behind ourselves. His back is so much more rounded near the neck than ours.

I think it kinda causes a "tip out" of sorts to get the club down to the ball. At the very least a ton of right arm straightening. 

Again, just a thought. And I want to reinforce this is not a critique as I have the same problem, actually even worse than you because I have rate of closure issues thrown in as well. Your exit is high but your face isn't closing anywhere near as fast as mine. 

Maybe someone smarter than me will chime in.

 

[DeadMan]

8 minutes ago, mchepp said:

Most likely not a priority piece, so keep focused on that, but something I notice, I guess because it is a big fault in my own swing, is the right shoulder position at P6. His shoulder and rear arm are much more in front of his body. Whereas you and I are sort of stuck behind ourselves. His back is so much more rounded near the neck than ours.

I think what I'm working on in the downswing should help with this. I'm working on bringing the club more from outside my body in the downswing. I'm guessing that might help what you're pointing out.

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

I think what I'm working on in the downswing should help with this. I'm working on bringing the club more from outside my body in the downswing. I'm guessing that might help what you're pointing out.

It will. Also those camera angles aren’t the same and a more open chest “cures” a lot of those visual things.

[DeadMan]

Been a while since I updated this thread. Wanted to post a current swing video and some updates. Right now, I’m working on cleaning things up in the backswing. Trying to get wrist hinge earlier, less closed face at A2, and get the club slightly more vertical late in the backswing. 
 

I’ve been playing pretty good, consistent golf all summer. I’m averaging nearly 9 GIR. Had a time in June where I was having driver issues, but that has been a lot better recently. Averaging under 80, and I’ve been under 80 in all my competitive rounds but one this summer. Trying to clean up a few things in the swing and clean up putting, and I should be getting even lower. Frustrating part is that I don’t play a lot - about once every 2 weeks - and I feel like I need more rounds to improve. But I have a bunch of golf coming up this month, so hopefully that will help. 

[DeadMan]

Been a while, so here's my swing currently:

I am working on downswing stuff - trying to get the hands down faster for a better inline impact in the end. This is better than it's ever been, but still a lot of hard work needed to make this better. The picture is changing, though, so that's good. The feel I'm using is for my hands to feel really outside of my body at the beginning of the downswing. Going to work on some knee flexion, too, with this, but my primary focus right now is still on making progress with my hands getting down faster.

I still need to keep my posture and grip in mind, too. Grip is feeling better and more natural, so that's great. Posture is more bent than in the past, and that's good, too.

Liking my progress, but this is really just the start on these changes. If I can keep making incremental progress on this until the spring, I will be really happy.

[DeadMan]

Progress!

 

Really, really pleased with how my swing looks right now. It's definitely not perfect, but I think this is as good as it's ever been. Some notable improvements:

• The backswing looks really good, and I don't have to think about it anymore. It's automatic. That is an excellent development, because I had been working on that piece for years. I think grip and posture changes had made the backswing a lot easier. 
• Posture is improved - more knee bend, and I'm not so far back on my heels at set up.
• Impact position - this is as good as it's ever been. Still could use some improvement, but I've pretty much eliminated the little flip I previously had at impact. 

Currently, I'm trying to get more hip rotation during the downswing to open up my chest. Trying to do this by pushing into the ground with my front foot. It feels like I'm sort of jumping into the ground with my front foot. I also need to be more careful with my grip and actually have it straight across my fingers instead of diagonal. That's just a matter of being careful and practicing to make sure I know what it feels like.

At some point, I think I need to improve my hand path on the downswing, too. If I can get the hands to come down a bit at the beginning of the downswing instead of working across my body, my ball flight will be more consistent. This isn't my priority piece, so I'm ignoring it for now. I swear! My contact can be a little off the toe as well, but I'm not really worried about that. My contact improves with more practice/range time every year. Right now, just trying to get that hip rotating more to get the impact position even better.

Excited for golf season to start!

[billchao]

10 hours ago, DeadMan said:

Currently, I'm trying to get more hip rotation during the downswing to open up my chest. Trying to do this by pushing into the ground with my front foot. It feels like I'm sort of jumping into the ground with my front foot.

Have you seen this?

Sounds related to what you're working on.

[DeadMan]

Thanks, @billchao. I was aware of that thread, but I haven't read it or watched the videos. I will check it out.

[DeadMan]

I played 45 holes over the past week, which is a lot of golf for me, and had some notes to add to this thread:

• My good is very good right now. I hit 11 GIRs in my last round. My average proximity was 24 feet on those shots. My closest approach was 12 feet, so it's not like that average is skewed by close shots. A well struck drive is going 310 at the moment. When it's good, I look like scratch golfer (or better!) out there.
• On the other hand, my bad is pretty bad right now. Some lowlights include laying the sod over a few 100 yard wedge shots, thinning a 9 iron 20 yards over a green, having no idea what to do on shots between 60 and 80 yards (seriously, it's bad), and some atrocious lag putts. That round where I hit 11 GIR, I still shot 81 because of some of these bad shots. 
• Putting is what I need to spend a lot of time on. I need practice on all types of putts. The one positive is that my bead seems to be pretty good. The ball is starting where I want it. The bad news is that my reads aren't great and my speed is bad. I need to work on AimPoint. I also need to be a little more careful when preparing to putt. Twice I missed that a putt was downhill around the hole because I just didn't look at the end of the putt beyond a glance. Even though I need to work on everything, my priority has to be within 15 feet. Shot Scope data back this up - my make %s are the most off from the average from 6-20 feet. 
• Long game - I think this just a practice thing. I'm hitting short clubs pretty straight. I have a bit of a push fade going with the driver, but that is getting better. I need to work on shots under 150 yards. I have a glaring weakness there. This is basically all wedges. I think this is basically all a product of winter work. I do a lot of work on making my swing look better instead of working on where my ball is going. In the winter, I tend to only hit mid irons or driver and don't work on anything else. That's fine, and it's helped me make changes. But as I transition to playing more, I need to do more sessions where I'm working on where the ball is going rather than what my swing looks like on video. Additionally, I need to work with shorter clubs. I mostly have approaches within 150 yards, and I need to actually practice that.

This is a tough time of year for practice. The weather is unpredictable, and I don't have a ton of time to get out and practice. Late April/May is where I'll get more time. I will need to use that time well. In the meantime, going to keep working on my priority piece and get the swing looking better. I am hopeful; my good is very good right now. If I can make my bad shots into okay ones, I'm going to be in really good shape.