My Swing (LL91)

[LL91]

After three weeks of constant rain and snow the sky finally cleared up and I headed to the range. I filmed some shots with a 5 iron:

What I was working on was trying to shorten my back swing and add some wrist hinge, but this time trying to lay off the club slightly. I've always been across the line at the top of my back swing making it difficult to turn through and I've had to make all kinds of compensations using my hands, especially causing the shaft angle to steepen on the down swing. I'm still taking the club way inside at the start of the back swing, but some progress can be seen (granted, I'm comparing a 7 iron to a 5 iron, but still):

Not across the line anymore. I also managed to keep my left arm more in line with my shoulders. A4 looking much better also from face on:

This lead to a better A5 (shaft angle pointing slightly outside the ball):

All in all, after looking at the footage I think I made some solid progress. The only problem is, I was hitting the ball all over the place, with contact being very inconsistent. I guess that's to be expected though when making some drastic changes to the swing plane. I believe contact will come back more solid than ever if I just trust the process. Club face control was also all over the place, but I guess that too will get better.

I did again hit some drivers but I don't seem to have any control over it. Although in the state my game is at the moment I don't see that as a priority. Length wise I can hit every GIR by carrying nothing longer than a 4 iron, and I believe control over the longer clubs will come if get better with irons. Or what do you think? Is there something I'm missing with my swing? I'm by no means an expert and appreciate every comment. Thanks!

[mvmac]

Or what do you think? Is there something I'm missing with my swing? I'm by no means an expert and appreciate every comment. Thanks!

Think you've made some great changes, nice work!

[iacas]

Think you've made some great changes, nice work!

Ditto!

[LL91]

Think you've made some great changes, nice work!

Ditto!

Thanks guys. Anything in particular I should keep an eye on?

[LL91]

Small progress update. Finally decided to really tackle @mvmac 's old advice from September: [quote name="mvmac" url="/t/77256/my-swing-ll91#post_1059287"] You want to try and do the opposite, have the swing go from "steep to shallow". Just talking about the way the shaft loads, not the hand path. You'll feel more "Rickie Fowler" with how the club head and hands work on the takeaway. [/quote] Results were pretty good, latest session compared to the very old swing, A3: A5: The shaft angle now is right where I want it, from slightly inside the ball to slightly outside. Difference to the old swing is drastic, and I'm hitting the ball better than ever. The feeling for me is to draw a huge circle with the club from out to in during the back swing, with Ryan Moore's back swing being the inspiration. No full video yet as I want to keep working on it first to get comfortable with the new feels.

[mvmac]

Great to hear. Try to get a face-on view next time you film or feel comfortable posting.

[LL91]

Had to ditch the idea of looping the club around. Back swing got very handsy and consistency was lost. I'm working on something slightly different and I hope to have new videos up soon.

On another note, I decided to start sharing my rounds here just to go through them myself to know what to work on, and also to have something to play for because I know I'll share the results . Played my 3rd round of the season today. Conditions were alright, just a bit cold and windy. The score, however, is not so alright:

Text is in Finnish and distances in meters, but I think you get the point. So, I shot a 100, but it's not all bad. I thought I had my long game pretty much in control for the first time ever. Just one tee shot into a hazard and no big mistakes overall. I was teeing off a lot with my 4 iron, which seems to have been a good idea. What was bad is the same thing that's always been bad for me, short game. Then again, I've yet to practice any form of short game this season. Here are some examples of extra shots left on the course:

Hole 1, had to pitch/chip 4 times to get on the green from 30 yards. Then 3 putted. Not a great start.

Hole 2, 3 putted.

Hole 5, 2 tries to get out of a bunker, chip over the green, put back from the fringe, 3 putted from around 4 feet. Yeah.

Hole 9, 2 putted after a brilliant chip to around 2 feet.

Hole 12, pitched/chipped 3 times from 20 yards, 2 putted.

Hole 14, 3 putted.

Hole 18, 3 putted from just the fringe form around 15 feet.

If I would have made it to the green from around it in one try and then 2 putted every time, I would have shot a 90. If on top of that every three put would have been a two put and I would have made everything inside 2 feet, I would have shot an 86. That with using the driver 5 times. My goal is to break 80 this season, and short game is what I need to start practicing. I think I'm on the right track.

[LL91]

Played another round today:

GIR: 4, Putts: 35

A lot better than last time, but still way too many disaster holes. Interestingly this time they usually weren't because of bad short game but because of long game mistakes. Examples:

Hole 7: drive short right to a hazard, third shot after penalty topped a 5 iron to the same hazard.

Hole 10: drive over dog leg fairway to a hazard. The only drive with draw all day, of course could not anticipate that. Walked away with a bogey though.

Hole 12: sliced my approach 30 yards right of the green.

Hole 13: topped my second shot so baldy it went about 40 yards.

Hole 14: tee shot didn't fade but went straight to some trees, left no line to approach.

Hole 15: hit a horrible tee shot way right, barely got second shot up from the ground.

Hole 16: chunked my tee shot, completely topped second shot.

I didn't get up and down very many times, so short game also needs some work. Putting was alright today, but definitely not great. The biggest issue is I keep missing full shots both left and right. I need to keep selecting my club so neither miss totally ruins the hole. Basically that means teeing off with less club and sometimes laying up even if distance wise I could hit the green. And I need to get to the range to eliminate one of the misses, and keep grinding so the recent changes really stick. Today I noticed for example that I had started to slide my hips back like I used to before, and started hitting better shots immediately when I concentrated not to. All in all going in the right direction in my quest to brake 80 this season!

[LL91]

New swing video. It's a 7 iron again:

I decided to start working on my early extension and tendency to shift my weight towards the toes during the down swing. I set up with my weight more towards my heels and tried to keep it there during the swing. I also decided to stand slightly more upright and a bit closer to the ball.

Results were not bad. I was actually hitting some of the best shots I've ever hit, which felt good after the bad shots yesterday at the course. Some key discoveries I made:

First, impact looking a lot better from DTL compared to my one month old swing:

I especially like how my right heel is rolling towards the target, instead of shooting up. I also have some flex in my right knee, and hips seem to be slightly more open, although still not as open as I'd want them to be.

I'm better on plane than a couple weeks ago (plane drawn from tip of the shaft through my right elbow):

The left pics are from when I tried to be over the plane on the back swing, then under coming down. Now I'm back to being under on the back swing, but I seem to find the right plane better from there. It's not ideal, and definitely something I need to address some day again. Also, hips were sliding back slightly more than a couple weeks ago, which caused my spine to point more up and less to the right at A4 from face on:

Gotta keep feeling like I slide my hips forward and my head back during the back swing. Any thoughts on the swing? I feel like I'm going in the right direction, but any comments are highly appreciated. I don't want to be missing something crucial here.

[LL91]

Played again today at the same course: Front 9 was good. Back 9 not so much. At least I can pinpoint the moment when things started going wrong. On the 10th, a par 5, I hit a solid drive to the middle of the fairway. I decided to hit my hybrid on the second to about 70 yards off the green. Due to some terrible misjudgement I hit it to a hazard on the right, even though the shot itself was very good. I just somehow didn't even think the hazard would be in play, but that's where the shot ended up. After that I started missing every putt and driving the ball all over. I guess I just completely lost my focus after that stupid mistake. Have to work on evaluating every shot more carefully before hitting. Shooting 40 on the front 9 is positive, even though I missed a 3 foot birdie putt and had a double bogie. I feel like I'm progressing.

[LL91]

Another round:

GIR: 5, Putts: 29 (!!)

Mostly more of the same, so many disaster holes.. Putting got better though, had ten 1 putt greens. And those last four holes, three birdies! I don't think I've ever had three in one round, let alone in the span of four holes. Felt good.

I played with two near scratch juniors. They played from the back tees, and I decided to play from there too for the first time ever. I think that got in my head for the first couple of holes, as I hit the worst three tee shots I've hit all season. Oh well, live and learn. Apart from that I didn't have any difficulties playing from the back tees, even though that adds about 400 meters to the course.

That 10th hole is driving me mad. Last time I hit my second shot to the hazard on the right, today I hit my second, third (=4th) and fourth (=5th) shot in there. I don't understand what makes it so difficult to stay out of it. Here's the layout of the hole:

I drove to about the second line, middle of the fairway. I guess it's too tempting to aim for the flag from there even though you're not going for the green in two, bringing the hazard into play. Next time I'll aim for the bunkers on the left, and maybe take less club to make the chances of hitting a bad shot smaller.

Here's another hole I always have difficulties on. Today I snap hooked my drive OOB left, and pushed my third from the tee way right. Still made bogey with the second ball, so really a triple. It's the hardest hole on the course. I don't think I've ever had anything better than a double here:

Starting from slightly earlier than the the line drawn to the image, it's way uphill all the way to the green, and sloping from right left. It gets super narrow, OOB is dangerously close on the left and the trees on the right block any chances of approaching if your tee shot leaks even a little to the right. Shaping from left to right on the approach is hard because the fairway slopes from right to left. The forest on the right is so thick even chipping back to the fairway is often very difficult.

The ideal play is to hit your tee shot as close to the left edge of the fairway as possible, but that means seriously flirting with OOB. I usually end up somewhere on the right side and have no line to the green. Then I go for the hero shot that either flies across the fairway to OOB or to the trees on the right.

I'd like some input here, how would you play the hole?

[LL91]

Best round of the season, also tied for my all time best:

GIR: 4, Putts: 36

First six holes on the back nine were probably some of the best golf I've ever played. I was striking it solid and most importantly, controlling my misses. I was missing quite a lot to the left first couple of holes and decided to play for a fade the rest of the round. That seemed to pay off. Also not a single penalty the whole round, as a comparison my last round had seven.

Chipping and pitching were fine, nothing spectacular. Got pretty much everything inside reasonable holing distance. The putter wasn't working though. 36 putts not including about 4 or 5 that were just outside the green. Five 3 putt greens. Last round had 29 putts. Oh well, gotta get on that practice green.

All in all, getting consistently better. Breaking 80 should be within my grasp.

[LL91]

Shot a 91 with 38 putts and 3 penalties.. Yeah. With the amount of greens I'm hitting (around 4-6) I have so many tries at getting up and down I should be averaging less than 30 putts. I need to figure it out, as it is now my putting doesn't make any sense. Swing wise I've been learning about Moe Norman lately and decided just for the fun of it adopt a setup more like him. Mainly I have my hands higher more towards where they end up at impact anyway, and I stand slightly further from the ball. So far results are good. My contact is better, divots are shallower, ball flight is straight and I've gained some distance. Driver is not good though, need to keep working at it. I'll take some video next week to show where I'm at now.

[LL91]

Sadly I seem to have regressed lately. I think I lost my swing for a while. Couldn't hit a good shot for the life of me. I've been trying to work on way too many things at once. Shot a couple rounds in the 100s. Then I decided to stop trying to make my swing look a certain way (at least for a while) and focus on swinging with feel, in a way that has worked for me in the past. I think the best way for me to make changes is by trying to make the ball do certain things, and letting my body and swing adjust automatically. Right now I'm focusing on hitting with a lower trajectory, which makes my release more stable and I have more shaft lean at impact. Here's where I'm now:

It's not pretty, but for now it's functional. Shaft is still working inside at takeaway, I'm going from shallow to steep instead of the opposite, my hips and shoulders are nowhere near as open at impact as I'd like, right knee is not working towards the ball on the down swing etc etc, but my down swing is on plane and I'm making decent contact. Ball flight is sometimes turning to an over draw, but I suspect that's club face control more than anything.

Scores are getting better, so for now I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Driver is still a mess, and I think I'll devote most of my range time towards fixing it. We'll see how it goes.

[mvmac]

If I had to guess I would say the swing is probably looking more like the right swing, work on getting it more like the left one.

Like this one.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/77256/my-swing-ll91/18#post_1124444

Also weight looks like it's back on your heels at address.

[LL91]

Thanks, @mvmac . I definitely have a tendency to get stacked on my left side at the top. I guess the feel for me should be to move my head back, or at least to stay behind the ball, to make sure it doesn't move forward at the end of the back swing?

For the weight being on my heels, it's something I started doing recently. I think it helps getting my weight to my left heel at impact, which I think is better than having it on the left toes where it usually ends up if I'm not paying attention. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

I think I'll start working on moving my left shoulder more towards the ball on the back swing, my shoulder plane looks really flat here:

I think this makes it impossible for me to swing under my torso and forces to go around it, as evidenced by tracked right shoulder movement from A4 to A7:

My shoulder is barely moving, where Dustin has a huge vertical drop before starting to go around. Dropping the shoulder down would allow my right arm to stay bent and my spine to have more lateral bend, which I think would make it easier to keep swing path along target line instead of across it. But for the right shoulder to be able to go down it must first go up, and for that to happen the left shoulder needs to go down. This would explain my inconsistent driving, as I'm sure my shoulder plane is even flatter with longer clubs, which causes my path to be the more left the more I tee the ball forward. Or am I completely on the wrong tracks here?

[iacas]

For the weight being on my heels, it's something I started doing recently. I think it helps getting my weight to my left heel at impact, which I think is better than having it on the left toes where it usually ends up if I'm not paying attention. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

You're wrong here. :)

It doesn't help you do that - and your weight into your left heel probably isn't the priority right now. What it does make you do is rise up to give yourself room that you're robbing yourself of by being too close to the ball.

If you're unbalanced to start, you're either going to stay unbalanced during the swing (bad) or regain balance mid-swing (good, except that it involves moving your body around toward/away from the golf ball and requires compensations to match in order to hit the ball solidly).

[mvmac]

I think I'll start working on moving my left shoulder more towards the ball on the back swing, my shoulder plane looks really flat here:

You want to see the shoulders turn about 90 degrees to your address inclination, which is what you do or it's darn close enough not to worry about it. Be careful with how you go about measuring your swing against the pros, can't just compare static position against static position. Also I agree with @iacas with the left heel stuff.