The Julia Plan: A 5 Handicap in 5 Years

[boogielicious]

I had a lesson on Tuesday. Major changes: takeaway and back swing. I'll try to get a video up soon. Right now I need to practice it. The swing has an earlier wrist cock, and is closer with my right elbow. I have to get a good hip turn to protect my shoulder, and this means a right knee bend to the point of lifting my heel. Downswing plants the heel, rotates the hips and gains the torque in the core muscles generating that which I was trying to generate before with a lot of effort. This is easier. It requires a little timing, but that's not a problem. I'm a musician. I can count. One.... Two. That's it. The ball is gone. It feels comfortable, but now I have to get consistent with it. Don't think.... do.

I get as much distance as I was with my 7 iron with less effort. This is good.

I don't know how it will affect my driver because I haven't hit it yet. He doesn't want me hitting that club yet. Still working on up to 7 and shorter. We'll get there.

Remember the change is going to take time to be ingrained.  Focus on that only in your practice and practice slow as suggested above in earlier threads.

[DrvFrShow]

Update: I've recovered from my right forearm tendon injury and Thursday I went back to the range to hit balls for the first time since 11/15. For one thing it has been too cold. I'm not practicing in the 30s. Even I'm not that insane. Yes the range stalls are heated, but the balls become like hitting stones. I also ordered a Tourstriker Smart Ball. I saw Martin Kaymer using a tennis ball on a lanyard so I figured if it helped him, why not? It arrived in the mail on Saturday.

But here's my progress last week:

12/4: First day back. Couldn't hit a ball to save my life. It took 10 balls to even hit a knock down decently. Thins, skulls, fats. Nothing worked. Left in disgust after 100 balls. Bought a tripod mount for my cellphone so I can take videos with a steady camera and see WTF I'm doing wrong.

12/5: Glutton for punishment. I think I made it to 120 balls today. I was able to hit a knock down decently. Half-swings weren't too bad. Full swings were terrible. Nothing felt right. The mirror stations were occupied so I couldn't check things on the fly very well. The new swing isn't going to work. It is opening me up to way too many leaks to the right. Half-way through I switched back to what I was doing before and having moderate success - not what is in the video I posted. I've decided that I'm not going to try and swing like anyone. I will do what is working best for me. Note that this doesn't mean that I am throwing fundamentals out the window.

12/7: Seahawks are playing. The range will be vacant. Got a mirror station and used my Tourstriker Smart Ball. It really helped me on the takeaway for my knock downs and half-swings. You really have to try to screw up a takeaway. I was nailing them: on target without any curve. I got through full swings with my pitching wedge with no problems. Took off the SB. Then on my 8 iron I tried something. Off my half-swing I really added the gas with my left side and hit a solid fast lower flying full distance shot with a half-follow thru. Straight and on target. Nice. I can hit these every time. Go full swing with a full follow-thru and the ball goes the same distance except on a higher trajectory. But what I discovered is why my right arm was getting stuck.

I was not pulling hard enough or initiating (whatever you want to call it) with my left shoulder/arm/obliques muscle group to turn and get that part around in sequence so that my hip turn wouldn't win the race. This gets me more distance and more control. I did well with this up through my 6 iron. Also this helped me with the popping out of posture I had been doing. I need to take a video, but my tripod mount won't be here until Thursday.

I tried some shots with my driver - was another can of worms since I hadn't hit it for over a month. Probably should go to my 5 wood first just to get used to a longer club before hitting the longest.

[Abu3baid]

Dear Julia Please don't take this the wrong way, but it seems to me that there is something big missing on those sessions. At no point do you discuss what it is you are actually working on, sorry but hitting knockdowns isn't practice. What is the last thing you were working on with your coach? What is it you were trying to fix? You talk about how you went back to what you were doing before and you started having success again, which basically sounds like you have no idea what it is you are doing and why. I want to hear about your successes in the future, so please just start practicing with a purpose other Han just getting through 100 balls.. I'm not trying to be harsh, but unless you change the way you are thinking about this whole thing and start approaching things differently this thread is destined to go up in flames!

[DrvFrShow]

What I'd been working on is making solid contact with the ball. The coach gave me a drill of hitting knockdowns > half-swings > full-swings. After 3 weeks I felt I'd had decent success with this, and was hitting the ball fairly well. The number of mishits were going down. I'd been working on a one-piece takeaway and using this swing as my model. His coach has a different philosophy about the takeaway and swing.

At my last lesson, my entire swing was changed to this . I worked on this five days and suffered a tendon injury in my right forearm. I'm prone to tendonitis. This isn't going to work for me. I went back to what I was doing in paragraph 1.

Going out and getting disgusted on the first day and not finishing my drills after 100 balls isn't "not having a purpose." It's having a bad day and saying "I'll come back tomorrow."

I'm not a linear person. I'll go out there with a set of drills. I may discover that the problem with execution is tempo, so I'll work on tempo during the drills. Or if the tempo is good, I may discover that my set up has drifted and the ball position isn't right, e.g. I may have put the ball a little too far back or too far forward. I use alignment sticks three of them so I can learn to be consistent with my center and direction.

So the purpose of my last session was to go back to the one-piece takeaway, and do the drills I was given in my first lesson. I have a target on the range. The range has "greens" with a flag on them at different distances. The flag was 125 yds. The front of the green was 112, and the back 135. My full shots needed to be in line with the flag. My half-swings also needed to be in line with the flag. I warmed up with some knock downs, then went to half-swings, then to full swings. The half-swings were more accurate than the full-swings until my 8 iron.

Then on my 8 iron during my half-swing drill, I really cranked my left side, kept the ball low, and hit the full distance. But my right elbow came around. I tried it again on my full swing, and that was what was missing. I wasn't pulling enough with my left side, and that was leading to be blocking shots. So I practiced engaging my left side more so that my right elbow wouldn't get trapped, and it worked. I count that as a success.

So don't say I don't go out with a purpose. I always practice with a purpose.

[Lihu]

What I'd been working on is making solid contact with the ball. The coach gave me a drill of hitting knockdowns > half-swings > full-swings. After 3 weeks I felt I'd had decent success with this, and was hitting the ball fairly well. The number of mishits were going down. I'd been working on a one-piece takeaway and using this swing as my model. His coach has a different philosophy about the takeaway and swing.

So, I guess this knockdown drill was to keep the elbows together after impact?

Keeping them together is one of my current priority pieces. I'm about to add an impact bag to make sure my shoulders are better aligned at and just after impact as well.

[14ledo81]

What I'd been working on is making solid contact with the ball. The coach gave me a drill of hitting knockdowns > half-swings > full-swings. After 3 weeks I felt I'd had decent success with this, and was hitting the ball fairly well. The number of mishits were going down. I'd been working on a one-piece takeaway and using this swing as my model. His coach has a different philosophy about the takeaway and swing.

At my last lesson, my entire swing was changed to this. I worked on this five days and suffered a tendon injury in my right forearm. I'm prone to tendonitis. This isn't going to work for me. I went back to what I was doing in paragraph 1.

Going out and getting disgusted on the first day and not finishing my drills after 100 balls isn't "not having a purpose." It's having a bad day and saying "I'll come back tomorrow."

I'm not a linear person. I'll go out there with a set of drills. I may discover that the problem with execution is tempo, so I'll work on tempo during the drills. Or if the tempo is good, I may discover that my set up has drifted and the ball position isn't right, e.g. I may have put the ball a little too far back or too far forward. I use alignment sticks three of them so I can learn to be consistent with my center and direction.

So the purpose of my last session was to go back to the one-piece takeaway, and do the drills I was given in my first lesson. I have a target on the range. The range has "greens" with a flag on them at different distances. The flag was 125 yds. The front of the green was 112, and the back 135. My full shots needed to be in line with the flag. My half-swings also needed to be in line with the flag. I warmed up with some knock downs, then went to half-swings, then to full swings. The half-swings were more accurate than the full-swings until my 8 iron.

Then on my 8 iron during my half-swing drill, I really cranked my left side, kept the ball low, and hit the full distance. But my right elbow came around. I tried it again on my full swing, and that was what was missing. I wasn't pulling enough with my left side, and that was leading to be blocking shots. So I practiced engaging my left side more so that my right elbow wouldn't get trapped, and it worked. I count that as a success.

So don't say I don't go out with a purpose. I always practice with a purpose.

I don't think this is what he was saying.  I think he was saying that it would be more beneficial if your purpose was more specific.

We all practice with the "purpose" of getting better.

[DrvFrShow]

So, I guess this knockdown drill was to keep the elbows together after impact?

Keeping them together is one of my current priority pieces. I'm about to add an impact bag to make sure my shoulders are better aligned at and just after impact as well.

That was one purpose, and the other purpose was to make sure my wrists, shoulders, and hip were in proper position at impact like this:

When it's like that, the shots feel like nothing. They feel effortless. There is no shock at all transmitted to the hands. This position needs to be ground into my muscle memory so that I can repeat it on every shot without even thinking.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

So, I guess this knockdown drill was to keep the elbows together after impact?

Keeping them together is one of my current priority pieces. I'm about to add an impact bag to make sure my shoulders are better aligned at and just after impact as well.

That was one purpose, and the other purpose was to make sure my wrists, shoulders, and hip were in proper position at impact like this:

. . .

When it's like that, the shots feel like nothing. They feel effortless. There is no shock at all transmitted to the hands. This position needs to be ground into my muscle memory so that I can repeat it on every shot without even thinking.

I feel the same way. It feels like the ball is making a "poof" feeling off the surface of the club when struck well.

[14ledo81]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

So, I guess this knockdown drill was to keep the elbows together after impact?

Keeping them together is one of my current priority pieces. I'm about to add an impact bag to make sure my shoulders are better aligned at and just after impact as well.

That was one purpose, and the other purpose was to make sure my wrists, shoulders, and hip were in proper position at impact like this:

When it's like that, the shots feel like nothing. They feel effortless. There is no shock at all transmitted to the hands. This position needs to be ground into my muscle memory so that I can repeat it on every shot without even thinking.

Can you specifically describe how you were working on this?

To me, the bolded statement is fairly generic.  "What" were you working on to make sure your impact position was correct?

[DrvFrShow]

What was I doing? I was using the mirror for practice swings stopping at impact position, then hitting the balls. When I'd mess up I'd make practice swings with the mirror again. Also that was the purpose of the knock down shot drill. It's an impact position drill. It's also the purpose of the half-swing drill. There's less movement and thus less to go wrong. Repetition gives muscle memory. Sometimes there's no mirror available and you have just look, and hope you got it right. Then go by feel.

I took some video today hitting an 8 iron. The DTL came out well, but the front was unfortunately cut off by the rail on the divider. I need to put the camera back more. I'm editing it now cutting out the extraneous ball set ups and making some slow motion stuff. I saw some good things, and things that need work. I'll post those in the other thread in a couple of days.

[Abu3baid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

Going out and getting disgusted on the first day and not finishing my drills after 100 balls isn't "not having a purpose." It's having a bad day and saying "I'll come back tomorrow."

You can have a bad day playing.. we all do.  However, when you say you are having a bad day doing drills this is a red flag that you are not practicing with a purpose.  The purpose of doing drills is to work on "changing" the picture.  If you have time to go through the below thread I think it will describe what it is I mean.

If you are doing drills and you are worried about where the ball is going, hitting the ball pure or any other purpose than "changing" the picture then IMO you are practicing without a purpose ( by purpose I mean a long term objective of changing the picture)

I'm not a linear person. I'll go out there with a set of drills. I may discover that the problem with execution is tempo, so I'll work on tempo during the drills. Or if the tempo is good, I may discover that my set up has drifted and the ball position isn't right, e.g. I may have put the ball a little too far back or too far forward. I use alignment sticks three of them so I can learn to be consistent with my center and direction.

My only real comment about what you just mentioned is that you "proved my point".. Hitting knock downs, half swing , 3/4 swings are not drills that you go to the range with.  Now you have introduced a new thing to work on "tempo" so you are working on "hitting" knock down shots and then tempo as well and most likely you will end up working on neither.  Then your set up and ball position..  So, you end up working on everything.  This is what I meant without a purpose.

I'm not the greatest of examples and it took Erik & Mike & others almost 6 months of dropping hints and eventually Erik resorted to calling me Kyle like (sorry Erik, just trying to prove a point here) until I realized I need to just drop all the baggage and listen to what is being said and just become a stupid monkey (you can find it below) and till this day I am glad things worked out that way.

So, right now when I go to the range to do drills (I am currently working on my Driver only) I am working on my lateral head movement in the downswing as I need to keep it centered and gain secondary axis tilt.  How am I doing it?  I am putting a long stick that goes right next to my head and I am working on taking half / 3/4 swings trying while making sure that my head doesn't go through the stick.  I am hitting a lot of bad shots, but it doesn't matter.. if I am able to be patient and get through the bucket doing it I consider it a good day of practice, because eventually the picture will change and I will be able to mimic this swing in my real swing, and be better for it in the long run.  That's it, that is the only thing I am working on, I don't care about the direction of the ball, I don't care about contact, all that matters is that I am doing the drill my coach gave me.  In fact, just the other day I sent a video to my instructor of some work I am doing at home so that he can take a look at the way I am practicing at home and see if I can improve it to speed up the process of changing the picture.

So the purpose of my last session was to go back to the one-piece takeaway, and do the drills I was given in my first lesson. I have a target on the range. The range has "greens" with a flag on them at different distances. The flag was 125 yds. The front of the green was 112, and the back 135. My full shots needed to be in line with the flag. My half-swings also needed to be in line with the flag. I warmed up with some knock downs, then went to half-swings, then to full swings. The half-swings were more accurate than the full-swings until my 8 iron.

Then on my 8 iron during my half-swing drill, I really cranked my left side, kept the ball low, and hit the full distance. But my right elbow came around. I tried it again on my full swing, and that was what was missing. I wasn't pulling enough with my left side, and that was leading to be blocking shots. So I practiced engaging my left side more so that my right elbow wouldn't get trapped, and it worked. I count that as a success.

So don't say I don't go out with a purpose. I always practice with a purpose.

Just in that paragraph alone you worked on the following things in one session:

one-piece takeaway

hitting different targets with different clubs & different types of shots

engaging left side more

What you will find is that every day it will be different because you are not working on changing the picture, rather you are trying to find a fix to get the ball to do what it is you want it to do.  Trust me I have been there before, it is a dead end I promise!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

I don't think this is what he was saying.  I think he was saying that it would be more beneficial if your purpose was more specific.

We all practice with the "purpose" of getting better.

Exactly

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

That was one purpose, and the other purpose was to make sure my wrists, shoulders, and hip were in proper position at impact like this:

When it's like that, the shots feel like nothing. They feel effortless. There is no shock at all transmitted to the hands. This position needs to be ground into my muscle memory so that I can repeat it on every shot without even thinking.

That is not working on a drill with a purpose.. That is your goal, to look like that at impact position.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

Can you specifically describe how you were working on this?

To me, the bolded statement is fairly generic.  "What" were you working on to make sure your impact position was correct?

Good Question.

Originally Posted by DrvFrShow

What was I doing? I was using the mirror for practice swings stopping at impact position, then hitting the balls. When I'd mess up I'd make practice swings with the mirror again. Also that was the purpose of the knock down shot drill. It's an impact position drill. It's also the purpose of the half-swing drill. There's less movement and thus less to go wrong. Repetition gives muscle memory. Sometimes there's no mirror available and you have just look, and hope you got it right. Then go by feel.

I took some video today hitting an 8 iron. The DTL came out well, but the front was unfortunately cut off by the rail on the divider. I need to put the camera back more. I'm editing it now cutting out the extraneous ball set ups and making some slow motion stuff. I saw some good things, and things that need work. I'll post those in the other thread in a couple of days.

Incremental change is long lasting change.  My advice is for you to leave your current coach and just sign up with Evolvr if you really want to start changing the picture & making long lasting improvement.

p.s. please don't take any of the above personally.. I'm only trying to help!

[Abu3baid]

I just wanted to reiterate that the above is only tough love because I want to see you improve and succeed with your goals. If you'd rather I stay away please feel free to let me know!

[Lihu]

What was I doing? I was using the mirror for practice swings stopping at impact position, then hitting the balls. When I'd mess up I'd make practice swings with the mirror again. Also that was the purpose of the knock down shot drill. It's an impact position drill. It's also the purpose of the half-swing drill. There's less movement and thus less to go wrong. Repetition gives muscle memory. Sometimes there's no mirror available and you have just look, and hope you got it right. Then go by feel.

I took some video today hitting an 8 iron. The DTL came out well, but the front was unfortunately cut off by the rail on the divider. I need to put the camera back more. I'm editing it now cutting out the extraneous ball set ups and making some slow motion stuff. I saw some good things, and things that need work. I'll post those in the other thread in a couple of days.

This seems reasonable. I'm also working on similar things.

[iacas]

Julia, your dedication is nice to see. I posted (and Scott did too IIRC) in your My Swing thread . Check that out when you get a chance.

[jajwrigh]

never give up!

[RFKFREAK]

Good luck!

[DrvFrShow]

Set back. Internal Oblique injury. I have no idea how it happened. I was getting my clubs out of the car on Friday, and I noticed it hurt when I got into the house.

I'm done for three weeks. One week total rest on it. Then back to the gym to strengthen the muscles. Then we'll see how it goes in mid-Jan. I'll try to see if I can work into an easy small bucket then eventually work into a full practice session by mid-February. These injuries are nasty. I had one when I was 19 and it took three months.

My expectations for next year just dropped. I'm hoping to shave maybe 6 strokes off the HC next year now and play around 90.

What is going to keep me from success in the plan is injuries.

[RFKFREAK]

Set back. Internal Oblique injury. I have no idea how it happened. I was getting my clubs out of the car on Friday, and I noticed it hurt when I got into the house.

I'm done for three weeks. One week total rest on it. Then back to the gym to strengthen the muscles. Then we'll see how it goes in mid-Jan. I'll try to see if I can work into an easy small bucket then eventually work into a full practice session by mid-February. These injuries are nasty. I had one when I was 19 and it took three months.

My expectations for next year just dropped. I'm hoping to shave maybe 6 strokes off the HC next year now and play around 90.

What is going to keep me from success in the plan is injuries.

That sucks.  Hopefully you make a full recovery in a short amount of time.