My Swing (DeadMan)

[DeadMan]

And now for something completely different ... my almost 3 year old's swing:

Like his key 3, and his key 1 isn't bad after transition. Key 2 definitely needs some work, too. Biggest problem is that he's a lefty while swinging a golf club.

I have actually bought him a set of real clubs that was on sale a while ago. They're lefty clubs, supposed to be okay for his height, haha. They were a little heavy for him last summer, but I'm going to take him to the range when it gets warmer. I'm hoping I can get him to get the ball in this air this summer. Probably ambitious for a 3 and a half year old, but we'll see.

[Wanzo]

That’s great!  Love the smile at the camera before the swing.  

[DeadMan]

New videos:

 

 

Really, really pleased with this. I think this is the best my swing has looked. There aren't huge changes from the last video I posted, no, but I can see some incremental change that looks quite different to me.

Ironically, the thing I struggle with changing the most is closing my shoulders at address. Here, they look basically square at address, but I'm trying to get them a bit more closed. This feels like my shoulders are pointed like 45 degrees right of my target, haha. It's something I'm probably going to have to keep working on for a long time.

[iacas]

Noticeably different/better than at the Newport Cup in 2017!

[DeadMan]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

Noticeably different/better than at the Newport Cup in 2017!

Still got the pimp step though! 😛

[DeadMan]

Game Golf strokes: gained analysis for my rounds so far this year:

The OTT and Approach numbers (approach numbers are even better in recent rounds):

Need to work on my short game and putting, though (shocker! :laughing: ). With the winter we had, it was really tough to practice either of those because we had a lot of snow. From now on, at least 50% of my practice time will be on short game and putting. Distance control is my biggest problem with both putting and short game. I have made some progress in putting recently, but I need to keep working on it. Short game - I think I have the tools, more just honing them with practice, and adapting my approach for different situations. Honestly, I need to get on the course a bit more, too. There's only so much I can do on a practice chipping green.

[DeadMan]

Looking at some stuff on GameGolf that surprised me. These are all stats from my rounds this year vs. scratch.

Pretty happy with those long game numbers. Not happy with short game or putting, but they have gotten better since last time I looked at this. Anyway, that's not what's interesting. Look at the areas for improvement:

Short game isn't a surprise. Short putts is. I've felt like a pretty good short putter for a while, but apparently not. Approaches from 100-125 yards really surprised me. I need to work more on partial wedges, and really just wedges in general, apparently. Half a shot per round lost from that distance is pretty bad. That's my SW-GW range, so I should be doing better than that. Along those lines:

Hitting the green only 2/3s of the time from inside 100 yards is pretty bad. 101-150 yards isn't that great either. But look at that number from outside of 150. Not bad. Apparently, I'm the rare golfer who is comparatively better the further away from the hole I am. 

Anyways, the point of all of this is that I need to spend some time with my wedges. And then some time working on my short putts, apparently. 

[mdl]

I need to get GameGolf...

[trainsmokegolf]

one of the better swings i have seen all day, looks like you may benefit from generating more lean "smash" at impact

[DeadMan]

So I just want to rant a little bit. Bear with me.

Started the year really well, and was thinking I was going to get my game to the next level (i.e., bust through that 5.0 barrier and into the low single digits). Since mid-May, I've been playing some really mediocre golf. My long game cooled off a bit, even though my swing still looks pretty solid (and improving in some years). Despite working pretty hard on my short game and putting, I've seen zero improvement there. And now I'm in a rut, and I'm getting frustrated and angry every time I play golf. It's to the point where I'm not looking forward to my competitive rounds, and I'm only neutral when I'm playing for fun.

Case in point: hit 8 GIR on Saturday, still shot a +14 85. Only took one penalty, too, so it's not like I blew a drive or two OB or something like that. I did everything else wrong: some dumb decisions, some stupid putts, and some really bad short game shots. The last month of rounds I've played I think I've literally shot the highest score I could have each time, considering where my long game was.

I hate playing golf like this. I cannot salvage any sort of round. If I'm not hitting greens, I'm making bogey at best. I make the stupidest double bogeys, where I have a nGIR, and still take 4 shots to get it in the hole.

I feel like I need a 9 iron straight to the side of my skull.

Anyways, rant over ...

[DeadMan]

Figured I'd post an update here:

These videos are from about a month ago, but I haven't really had a chance to work on my swing since then. My priority piece over the winter is going to be shallowing out my downswing a bit more than it is right now. 

There's a lot of good with my swing, but I haven't made a ton of improvement to my golf game for a couple of years. I need to improve my short game more than anything. This summary from game golf is pretty much dead-on:

(That's my strokes gained data from all my rounds this year.)

On 12/14/2018 at 3:39 PM, DeadMan said:

I have three main goals for the year, these are more results-oriented:

• Get my handicap under 5 and keep it under 5.
• Win a gross event at my club.
• Get selected for the 2019 Newport Cup, assuming one happens.

These were my goals from this year. I didn't accomplish any of them (to be fair, no Newport Cup happened, so that goal wasn't possible). It was a bit of frustrating year. I worked more on my short game and putting, and it didn't really pay off. I didn't really get worse as a golf - maybe slightly - but not by much. I was very consistent, just consistently average. I shot right around 80 every time out. I didn't have many bad rounds - I had only a few rounds over 85. That's a big improvement for me. And you can see that my strokes: gained from 2018 is pretty similar to 2019:

What I didn't have was many rounds where I broke 78. All of my rounds tended to be in that 78-84 range, which is somewhat boring. What's frustrating is that I shot a 73 in April and then didn't get close to that against until September, when I shot 73 combining 2 9-hole rounds in one day. The other frustrating thing is that I felt like I practiced pretty well. I went to the range and worked on my priority piece the vast majority of the time. I had a 6 month streak of 5 minutes daily practice. I spent about half of my time working on my short game and putting. 

It would be great if I could say, new year, new focus on specific aspects of golf. But, I have a second kid due by the end of January, so golf next year is going to be sparse. I'm not really sure what it's going to look like with a second kid. I'm going to try to get some easy stuff done. I have 3 things I want to take care of in the new year:

1. Speed training with Super Speed golf. Started this on Sunday, and I think it will be perfect for me. Just need 5-10 minutes 3 times a week. If I can pick up 5 mph on my driver swing speed, that will be big.
2. Edel putter fitting. Been putting this off for a long time, but it's time for me to get fitted for a putter.
3. Upgrade my driver. My driver is about 5 years old, and I think it's time for a replacement. I think I'll get an Epic Flash when Callaway releases their next line of clubs. 

Besides that, I'm not sure what the new year will bring for golf for me. I'm only setting one goal this year: have fun when I play. I will be playing less often, and I probably won't have much time to practice. I want to just enjoy it when I can get out. Anything else is a bonus. And, hey, I improved about 4 strokes in my handicap when I had my first kid, so anything is possible. 

(I don't mean this to read like I'm moping about having another kid at the expense of my golf time. I'm actually really excited. And, right now at least, I'm looking forward to being a little more relaxed about golf in 2020.)

Anyways, may not be updating this thread for a while. Not sure there will be any substantive swing updates for a while.

[iacas]

You should be close to scratch with that action. You can get there. Be smart about when and what you practice, and your glaring weaknesses.

[DeadMan]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

You should be close to scratch with that action. You can get there. Be smart about when and what you practice, and your glaring weaknesses.

What glaring weaknesses? 

[iacas]

16 hours ago, DeadMan said:

What glaring weaknesses? 

The larger bars. Especially when they're supposed to be < 20% of the strokes.

[DeadMan]

A very important announcement:

[dennyjones]

1 hour ago, DeadMan said:

A very important announcement:

I like your optimism but that was over 25 years ago.   Are you really "Arnold" and meant to say, "I'll be back"?

Anyway,  I'm glad the doctor cleared you.   Congrats on a full recovery. 

[DeadMan]

First swings in about 3.5 months:

Finger didn't really bug me. No pain when the ball makes contact, even when I bury the club into the ground. Which I did a few times in this session, haha. I didn't hit one super thin yet, so I don't know what that will feel like. It feels weird just to grip a club, but I'll get over it quickly. 

By the way, that cloud in the background of my face on view is smoke from one of the fires in Colorado right now. It is not a good situation, but we have snow in the forecast over the weekend, so that will help.

[DeadMan]

Recent swings:

Currently working on improving key 3 (inline impact). My evolvr instructor has me doing some drills to really exaggerate the feel of having my wrists inline with the club at impact. The drill is almost like hitting a bump and run, because I'm really trying to keep the inline impact position intact well after impact. I'll post a video of the drill next time I do it so you can see. I can do the drill fairly well, but getting it into the full swing will be the tricky part. A lot of slow practice swings trying to exaggerate that feel at the moment.

Really, though, I think the swing looks pretty good. I think I can shoot some good scores with this swing. 

I've also been doing SuperSpeed protocols since January. I think I've gained a little bit of club head speed, but I haven't gone and measured it recently. 

Anyways, here's hoping the weather cooperates and I can play and practice a decent amount the next month and a half.