My Swing (b101)

[b101]

Thanks as ever @mvmac - will give that all a go and report back!

Turns out the one thing that was really missing in terms of a short term fix was moving the ball further away from my feet - this automatically stops me coming over the top and burying the wedge in the ground. Since then, ball-striking has been so much better, and recent rounds at 78 and 76 have been huge progress - today's was an 83 but with one horrible hole at +4, I can take that... I still find non-full swings the hardest to manage, particularly with wedges, but otherwise all has been good.

Today, I went back to the driver after a launch monitor session showed that I was launching anywhere between 6-9 degrees and any attempt to hit higher caused moon balls. After a chat with the pro, I had the following changes to my set-up:

1. Tilt shoulders away from the ball, bump hips forward.
2. Tee it off left heel (ever-so-slightly forward)
3. Club and hands neutral - way behind the ball (mine were always right behind the ball)
4. Swing out and right (this, I was doing)
5. Slightly closed stance to accentuate hitting in-to-out.

I practised this for a while at the range and it was a totally different ball flight - genuinely wonderful after all the low drives I've hit recently. I didn't manage to take it to the course (bar one lovely 305 yard strike on the 2nd), but I know what I need to do to make it stick. Numbers 1 and 3 are the toughest in terms of feeling, whilst I keep forgetting 5, but there were some stunners in those. I got a few videos as per and really happy with what I'm seeing - good to have some progress!

[b101]

Struggled much more to maintain this yesterday. The launch is much better but the slice was coming back into play, which I assume is the old over-the-top motion returning. Will hit the range this afternoon for a bit to try to work on it again. I also think I may have been overdoing the tilt yesterday, which could have added to the slice. I think a large part of it will be getting used to the new setup though.

[b101]

Struggled much more to maintain this yesterday. The launch is much better but the slice was coming back into play, which I assume is the old over-the-top motion returning. Will hit the range this afternoon for a bit to try to work on it again. I also think I may have been overdoing the tilt yesterday, which could have added to the slice. I think a large part of it will be getting used to the new setup though.

Bit more success today, and when it's right it's definitely a change for the better - I smashed my longest drive record with a 321 yard hit on the fourth today (see the link below for details). I do feel like I need to do absolutely everything right though and I really need to hit the in-to-out path or the high slice can come into play. I suspect that's partly due to changes in setup and once I get used to the balance I'll be alright. Really pleased with it generally today though - I had 261, 225 (poor shot off the crown), 321, 263 and a 267 uphill for nine holes. I was pulling my irons a bit though which is something to work out...

Silly hit: http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/235552?shot_id=15628903&hole;_id=15520665

[b101]

I had a very interesting 'lesson' fitting yesterday where I did some club gapping and got a chance to really look at my numbers with irons and driver. The below was the 6 iron:

I chose this as it demonstrates my issue with angle of attack the most clearly. By this point I'd been struggling a bit with the 7i and 8i already and this just made everything obvious. From what the fitter was saying, I need to get to around 3/4 down with irons by feeling like I'm hitting on the up - which makes sense. At the moment it's great when I hit the ball cleanly (3 and 5), but painfully hard to get consistent as I have a narrow margin for error.

So, drill for this week is:

"With the irons a good drill is to tee a ball up slightly and then try to pick it off the tee, hit down too much and it will have a weak strike off the top of angle of attack as this will not only help to get a better trajectory on your longer clubs but it will also give better consistency of distance, flight and more control when the ball lands. With the driver in particular try to lift the ball cleanly, sweeping upwards through impact to get as square a strike on the ball as possible through the line of the trajectory."

As ever, any thoughts will be much appreciated!

[b101]

I gave the drill a go today and really felt a lot of difference with it - videoed it as per usual with the main focus on limiting the leg/hip drive a bit, which causes the -8/9 degree AoA. I'm trying to be better with my practice in terms of the Simple, Specific, Slow, Short, and Success idea. I think the idea is simple and specific but I definitely found it tough to slow it down and make it short, given that I feel it's a whole swing thing. I will be practising the basic impact zone motion around the house though and hopefully that helps.

The drill is trying to hit a 7 iron off a relatively high tee (1 inch or so) to groove the feeling of picking the ball more. I tried to do that quite a bit with a lot of slow practice swings - the ones you see are about 70%. The ball is currently fading more than I'd like, but I was advised that would be normal at the start. The one at the end was my 7 iron from a month ago or so.

In terms of comparison, I think there is some improvement from a month ago - see the photo below. I caught the second photo a touch later than the first, but the hands and left leg haven't pushed forward in the left hand image like in the right hand one. Of course, I could just be imagining things!

[b101]

3. You swing the handle down and left. From the top of the backswing, fire the arms down as you keep the head steady and push the hips forward.

Good drill for you to exaggerate the feel.

Hi, @mvmac - just wondered if I could check something. At the moment, I've been told my AoA (-8 degrees) needs to be shallowed out a bit and that keeping the lower body a bit quieter whilst trying to pick at the ball would sort that out (my club face and path are ok - can post numbers from trackman if it helps). Would this drill still cause me to hit down on the ball more, or would you change it at all based on my AoA issues?

Thanks, I'm keen to give it a go but don't want to make my swing worse by getting it wrong!

Ben

[iacas]

Hi, @mvmac - just wondered if I could check something. At the moment, I've been told my AoA (-8 degrees) needs to be shallowed out a bit and that keeping the lower body a bit quieter whilst trying to pick at the ball would sort that out (my club face and path are ok - can post numbers from trackman if it helps). Would this drill still cause me to hit down on the ball more, or would you change it at all based on my AoA issues?

Thanks, I'm keen to give it a go but don't want to make my swing worse by getting it wrong!

Ben

Down and left = steep AoA.

Hips forward shallows the AoA - it creates secondary axis tilt.

Think about it…

[b101]

Down and left = steep AoA. Hips forward shallows the AoA - it creates secondary axis tilt. Think about it…

Right, so my problem is more staying on plane? Is there such a thing as getting hips too far forward or de lofting the club too much? Down and left creating shallow AoA totally makes sense, as does secondary axis tilt helping. I think what I may be doing is driving the hips and my upper body forward before turning, meaning that there's no actual tilt ... I guess that would go against Key 1, now I think about it. I'm beginning to get very confused as to what I should be doing with my lower body! Many thanks for your input, I really appreciate it! P.s. I think I will be signing up for evolvr this afternoon - the small hints of advice I'm getting seem to be really good :-)

[iacas]

Right, so my problem is more staying on plane? Is there such a thing as getting hips too far forward or de lofting the club too much? Down and left creating shallow AoA totally makes sense, as does secondary axis tilt helping. I think what I may be doing is driving the hips and my upper body forward before turning, meaning that there's no actual tilt ... I guess that would go against Key 1, now I think about it. I'm beginning to get very confused as to what I should be doing with my lower body! Many thanks for your input, I really appreciate it!

P.s. I think I will be signing up for evolvr this afternoon - the small hints of advice I'm getting seem to be really good

Down and left = steep AoA.

But I think you just made a typo, since you seem to get the rest of it. Definitely sign up for evolvr if you can.

[b101]

Down and left = steep AoA.

But I think you just made a typo, since you seem to get the rest of it. Definitely sign up for evolvr if you can.

Whoops, yep - that's the one!

[mvmac]

Down and left = steep AoA.

Hips forward shallows the AoA - it creates secondary axis tilt.

Think about it…

Yep, thanks @iacas .

[b101]

Definitely sign up for evolvr if you can.

And done - will try to pop the first video up some point this week. Excited to see what comes of it all

[b101]

First video analysis came back about a week ago and it was fantastic. Brian was really good and once he pointed out that my head was dropping massively in the downswing, it seemed so obvious! So, I've been trying to work on that with the thought of moving my head up and right on the downswing. It's really tough, but having benefits already and something I'm going to continue to work on. Had my first ever competition round today and went round bang on handicap at +12, which is really pleasing considering the changes I'm trying to work in. It's really nice to see the driver so much more consistent and actually getting quite a high flight even with the low irons.

Video of latest progress below.

[mvmac]

Good hear things are going well, Brian is a great instructor.

[LL91]

Enjoyed reading through your thread, definitely making some solid progress. Keep up the good work!

[b101]

Good hear things are going well, Brian is a great instructor.

Lots of hard work left, I'm sure! I really liked how he explained that this was the priority piece which would help a lot of other things fall into place.

Enjoyed reading through your thread, definitely making some solid progress. Keep up the good work!

Thanks - slowly getting there, I think! Handicap is down to 11.8 after yesterday's round and I had a shocker of a front nine, which is definitely a good sign

[b101]

A couple of weeks on and still working on that priority piece has really helped consistency. As a result, I've also started taking 10% off the driver, which has resulted in more fairways hit - even if I still have occasionally poor contact with irons as my body adapts to where my head is! I did actually trial a couple of other drivers (Titleist 915, Ping G30 LS) at the range the other day and came to the conclusion that whilst I really like my current head (X2 Hot), the shaft at 46' is too long to control properly at full tilt. Probably nothing enough to change yet, but food for thought when I eventually do.

As ever, writing this really helps me figure things out, so here's some Game Golf info over the last few weeks' play:

Driver - pretty good when on form. Last round, I had 4 of 9 fairways hit with it, but with 4 of the 8 in the first cut. Average drive was 265 yards with a 297 and 293 thrown in for good measure and just the one poor drive on 18.

3 wood/hybrid - Interestingly, not as good as they should be off the tee. I tend to go for them as a safe option, but can either put too lazy a swing on them or try too hard. 30% of fairways hit over the last 5 rounds with my 3 wood is poor at best. Definitely need to improve my safe option!

3 iron - Also interesting is that two of the three times I've pulled 3 iron off the tee, I've found the fairway at around 240, with the other being fairway at 190 (uphill tee shot and a poor strike). Again, some food for thought.

Long Iron Club performances - For distance, 4 iron and 5 iron have exactly the same, so I'll probably drop the 4 iron

Approaches with mid-irons. 7 iron gets 47% within 15 yards, but 33% short compared to 0% long, 8 iron has 60% within 15 yards, whilst I also tend to go shorter than I think with my 9 iron.

Wedges - PW is very good (70%), but AW is awful (44%) - I tend to use this for knock-down shots, which clearly I need to practise more! LW and SW are both very good but don't really track due to being used mostly in and around the green.

Putting - Getting better, but I still think I can be improved. Number of putts per round in the last 10 have been: 29, 34, 30, 32, 34, 30, 30, 37, 29, 32 - average 31.7. I know I need to improve distance control in particular and will be working on that lots over the next few weeks. Basically, I don't tend to hole much outside of 5 feet, which has to change.

Last five rounds (most recent first): +8, +3 (9 holes), +10 (away course), +12 (competition), +12. Definitely room to cut some shots!

So, targets:

1 - Get a solid "safe" tee shot that works under pressure with both the hybrid and 3 wood

2 - improve knock-downs (specifically with GW) and be better with distance control from 10 yard increments

3 - take more club into most greens with mid-irons

4 - work on putting, notably distance control. I'm throwing money at the issue a bit with an AimPoint class and will be getting a SeeMore on Monday as well, as I'd like to get into the mindset where I look forward to putting without having anything to blame but myself.

5 - keep working on the full swing and that priority piece :)

[b101]

Had another great video review from Brian and the next step is to work on Key 4 by getting my left arm to start the downswing by moving more downwards. Again, brilliantly explained and makes perfect sense now as to why I just can't hit a draw. Simply put, there's no way for my hands to go through the impact zone but left, meaning a lot of perfect timing or, more commonly, a power fade/slice. Great to have something new to work on and I'm really excited to start sorting it out!

Again, for anyone considering taking the plunge who happens to be reading this, give Evolvr a go - it's been great so far!