My Swing (b101)

[b101]

Not much of an update, as due to a lot of work in the run up to exams, I haven't actually hit the range much recently. I've also quite enjoyed taking a break from endless swing thoughts and just getting things feeling a bit more natural. The flight is now high, with a 7 iron flight looking more like what my pitching wedge used to look like. The shape is now usually right to left with the bad miss still when I get the face closed at impact. Distance is definitely better, too, with a 7 iron now carrying around 170 on a good hit - at least 10/15 yards longer than with that shorter swing I had around the turn of the year. I'm going to get on the range a bit more in the next few months and will start uploading some footage, but things are looking and feeling pretty good.

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, b101 said:

Not much of an update, as due to a lot of work in the run up to exams, I haven't actually hit the range much recently. I've also quite enjoyed taking a break from endless swing thoughts and just getting things feeling a bit more natural. The flight is now high, with a 7 iron flight looking more like what my pitching wedge used to look like. The shape is now usually right to left with the bad miss still when I get the face closed at impact. Distance is definitely better, too, with a 7 iron now carrying around 170 on a good hit - at least 10/15 yards longer than with that shorter swing I had around the turn of the year. I'm going to get on the range a bit more in the next few months and will start uploading some footage, but things are looking and feeling pretty good.

Sometimes it is good to take a break. You really don't lose your place in the progress you made either. 

[b101]

19 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Sometimes it is good to take a break. You really don't lose your place in the progress you made either. 

It's just feeling a little bit more natural than it used to and I'm not stepping on the course with 5 or more swing thoughts, which is nice! I don't think it'll take much work getting back to making progress and I'm definitely seeing that some of the changes I've made have stuck - ball flight is really high compared to what I'm used to and the ball turns right to left about 50% of the time and stays straight for 30%. It's the 20% of rubbish, either duck hooks or generally wayward tee shots that I want to clear up, which is going to be this morning's target on the range.

I didn't end up hitting the range yesterday - a mate texted to ask to play a round, so I went for that. What was obvious is that the little 9 hole course, where I don't need anything above a 4 iron, has been great for my iron play, but that the 3 wood, driver and course management need a bit of a refresher course. Shot an 86 with a ridiculous 7 penalty strokes (4 on one tough par 3), which says it all really as I don't normally take any! It is a tight track though and there is OB all over the place, but no excuse for the few 'head off' moments which prevented me scoring well. It was match play as well so I guess that's part of it...

In short summary:

Driving/3 wood - pretty poor and I'm just not comfortable over the ball with those clubs. On a longer course, I'd have struggled.

Long irons - good, bar that atrocity of a par 3, where I think I'll just aim way left next time and take the safe miss. Both of those were actually really nice strikes, but went dead straight rather than drawing like I had expected. Still, my fault entirely for aiming towards the trouble 

Mid-short irons - mostly pretty good actually. Put 6/14 approaches from outside 100 yards to (3/4 from within 100) inside 15 yards and bar two long bunker shots, the rest were manageable.

Putting - really pleased again; I probably only made one that I wouldn't have expected (birdie on 13), but there's a lot of break on the greens and I thought it was pretty decent for a first time out in a while.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/930037

Overall, pretty close to where I'd want it to be, but a better decision on 6, some better drives and a bit more luck on odd holes (like 16) and it'd have been a great round. I'd take that for the first time in ages. Should be able to post some video this afternoon.

[b101]

So, I managed to get my videos uploaded to evolvr and had a good reply from Brian. The next step is working on shallowing out the right shoulder through impact, but he was pleased with the increase in speed. I had one go at it on the range today without the camera, but here are the videos that I uploaded for him to look at. There are a few things I really like, notably the path on the way back and the backswing in the face-on view.

 

In terms of actually playing, I've had three really good rounds (9 over, 8 over and a 6 over (the last through 15)) recently at a local course - all games of match play. It's a relatively short course, so there's no real need for me to take driver or 3 wood off most tees. Things to work on as ever - GIR has been average for the number of short irons or wedges into greens, I'd want the driver to be better and my chipping should be saving me more shots than it has... Still, can't argue with the scores and things are looking up.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/950194

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/958766

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/967034

More video to come in the next few days, but it's looking quite good at the moment.

[b101]

Had a first attempt at changing the picture today and as usual, got nowhere close, so I won't upload much video other than some very nice driver swings that I got at the end. For the first time in ages, I was hitting the driver long, high and pretty straight and 7 of 8 would have hit my imaginary fairway at 250+, which I haven't had in a long while. Will head to the range tomorrow AM to work on the right shoulder though...

If I'm nitpicking, I don't much care for the shaft angle at the top of the backswing, I'd like to see more secondary axis tilt (when don't I?!) and the aforementioned right shoulder still gets too steep. Otherwise, it's pretty good!

Edited June 18, 2016 by b101

[b101]

Bit more work on the swing this morning and I made a bit of slow progress with the right shoulder - I figured I'd post a bit of video of exactly how I practised, mostly just to keep myself honest. I absolutely love the position at the end and the height of my hands at the top of the follow through, which is good proof that I'm not exiting low and left as per usual. Great encouragement to keep doing it!

At the end of my session, I hit a few different clubs in a row to see how I'd fare on the course (admittedly with a perfect lie and some alignment guides (although, I've cut out a couple of shots at the start before I realised that the mat points in a weird direction!). Mostly really good, the five iron turned a bit more than I'd have wanted and would have been 10 yards left of where I aimed, but everything else was pretty awesome in all honesty... The shoulder is obviously still dipping, but perhaps not quite as much given the improved height with driver and three wood :). Worth knowing how much of a poor cut my 3/4 wedge swing can be as well - this is about as poor as it gets, but it did fade back onto target at least! Just been a while since I posted anything other than driver or 7 iron, so I thought we'd get some variety.

 

[b101]

Haven't been able to practise nearly as much as I'd have liked recently due to back pain - which I'm sure is in part aggravated by my swing and what I'm working on at the moment with reducing the spine tilt. I did get out a little last week and did a bit of work on this, but still not getting the results I'd really want to see. Video below shows some improvement (but not enough) in the slower swings and as expected, no change in the full swing. It always takes a bit of time and the full swing shot was good, but I'd want to see better from myself.

And a still of the spine tilt issues. Not great when you pause it... At least the slower swing is getting better, and if I saw that in the full swing, I wouldn't be too disappointed.

I'll get more video when the back clears, but with my trip to Scotland just three weeks away, I'm not going to go into full-on Tiger mode and throw everything at it. Playing 18 today and then a few days off.

[Alx]

I find that whenever Im getting fatigued I start putting more pressure on the spine and hips by not being able to fully control slowing rotation. Have you done/considered supplementing your swing changes with core work at the gym?

[b101]

On 06/07/2016 at 10:20 AM, Alx said:

I find that whenever Im getting fatigued I start putting more pressure on the spine and hips by not being able to fully control slowing rotation. Have you done/considered supplementing your swing changes with core work at the gym?

To be honest, I haven't as my core has always been strong - it's where all my power actually comes from and I've always had a solid base with fairly chunky legs! What I will start doing is stretching more than just my upper body before I do play. I'm also changing the swing (Brian's latest update was reducing my spine tilt) and I think the two together will make the difference, to be honest. Will consider it, for sure, I just don't have a huge amount of time on my hands!

[b101]

So my back's still playing up a bit and I’m trying to look on the bright side; it means that all I can really do is work on half swings, which is what I need to do. I might head to the nearby 9 hole course for some short game work this evening, but full swings are pretty much a no-go area for the next few days. I’ve re-watched Brian’s video a couple of times to try to really get what he wants from me and I headed out to the range yesterday to have a go. I think I’m getting there slowly, but combining both the shoulder move and keeping the path right is tough! For now, the right shoulder is my first priority and I’ll keep working on the path as I go – basically, my way of getting the path right was to make my right shoulder dive down to drop the club on the inside.

Here was yesterday's attempt:

For me, there are a few things to note:

• Hands fly way too far right in that very first downswing. I hope it's an anomaly, but worth keeping an eye on.
• I'm losing the low point of my swing a bit, particularly in the slow-mo swings where I barely ever touch the grass - not totally surprising, I guess.
• The camera slipped a bit for the final take, but I liked the swing, so I kept it. I'd still like to see the hands a bit deeper and closer to me on the downswing though.

This morning brought some attempts at indoor swing work - I don't have much space so the video's a bit odd. Mostly, I'm trying to take advantage of being near the laptop to check against Brian's notes as much as possible.

I did have one round recently and it went ok considering all the issues. I really started hurting on the 16th so 16/17/18 were a struggle (particularly the tee shot on 18, which was so tired), but it was noticeable that I was losing power way before that - PW on 14 would normally go 145 and went 129 - strike was excellent, too. Overall, I'd break my game down as follows:

- Off the tee: One of my better days - the driver was behaving itself, but two abysmal tee shots (unexpected pushes on 10 and 11) cost me a shot. 

- Approaches: Ugly. Didn't really hit many greens and it was basically due to a lack of clean strikes with irons and not being 100% sure that the ball would draw or fade. This is really where I lost my shots, IMO.

- Short Game: With a few exceptions, this really kept me going. Some awesome wedges and putts on 6, 7, 8, 9. A couple of the later holes look bad, but I was playing match play and got overly aggressive with a few chips, thinking that I needed to hole them. The one really poor shot was on 3, where I had a rubbish lie and went under the first pitch.

- Putting: Decent. Made a few on the front nine but not much went my way on the back nine. To be honest, I didn't give myself many looks at decent birdie/par putts, so can't complain. One frustrating moment on 14 when the ball jumped offline on a 3 footer...

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/1027888

Not bad really given all the various issues! Will keep working on the swing and see how we can do.

[b101]

A bit more work on the swing today and the back is getting there . I've uploaded these drill attempts to Brian for his feedback on how I'm practising as well as what positions I'm hitting or missing. I think I have my own ideas, but I'd rather not rely too much on guesswork!

Anyway, it's getting a bit better but still taking time. I only made about 5 full swings today and spent the rest of the time with these chipped 8 irons. 

Full drill work (with a bonus shank!):

DTL with slow-mo:

FO slow-mo:

The main thing that I'm still finding tricky is getting the hand path going in-to-out when I rotate the shoulders more level. This needs much more work to groove the feel and just make sure that it happens consistently, but it's getting there slowly. Again, the major thing that I've noticed has been increased height, which seems to be happening with every change that I make. There's a few more bits that I could note, but we'll wait to see what Brian comes back with. In the meantime, I'll keep working .

[b101]

A bit more work over the last few days whilst I wait for Brian's response - most of which was me asking for practice guidelines. Today I started trying to address the path issues as well as the shoulder work and I think I've started making inroads. A large part of it is how steep I get the shaft on the backswing - if I can get my left arm as close to being across the line of my shoulders as I can, I tend to pull off a decent swing. The trouble comes when my left arm is a fair bit higher than the line of my shoulders and I struggle to lay the shaft down again.

Today, I was really strict with myself (as @RandallT had reminded me in his thread) and watched every single swing after recording it as well as trying to build up to a full swing, even if at slower speed. Below are two similar-ish swings, but ones that I class as 'good' and 'bad'. Granted, one is much shorter than the other, but proof that even if I do get it my arms and shoulders lined up at the top of the backswing (see second swing in the video below), my hands can still tend to chase out quicker than I'd like, causing the cut across. I really like the first swing though - I know my shoulder plane could be better, but it's definitely an improvement!

I like a few of the positions in this sequence:

And an example of how I'm trying to shallow the plane on the downswing. This is still quite hit and miss, but my bad shots are considerably better than they used to be.

More work still to do though and will keep going with the shoulders and hand path stuff. It's getting there, I think!

 

[b101]

Played 18 this morning and shot a personal best of 75 (par 69). Not a long course, but when the driver behaves as it did for much of the round, I tend to have wedges into most holes. 4 penalty shots in two holes were infuriating - there's OB right on the 16th and I took on a 3W when I probably shouldn't have on the 15th. In my defence, I had to wait 5 minutes for a very slow three-ball (who never once tried to call us through) before my approach on the 15th and guess I just lost concentration. Otherwise, the swing was good, I chipped and putted well and generally made pretty good decisions and executed well. Utterly delighted, but it could have easily been better still. 

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/1044688

To work on:

- Driving, still... No penalty shots is the aim and I want more of the excellent (280+) drives rather than the scabby 250s

- Partial wedge distances are still off - particularly 70-100 yards. Weirdly, I really dislike the feel of my SW and need to stop avoiding it. I suspect the club is a poor fit, but I will persevere until I get a full wedge overhaul later in the year - Christmas present, perhaps...

- GIR needs to improve, still - 39% is better than it has been, but I know I'm capable of more.

Still, woop 

[b101]

Had a really useful response this week from Brian, who pointed out that when I slow down, I can overdo the arm stuff so much that I forget about my body rotation and get out of sync, which led to the shank in one of the previous videos. I'm starting to get the feel of what I want to do, but speeding it up and putting a ball in front of me is proving a real obstacle. I worked on things a bit today, but it was so hot that I definitely started to lose concentration towards the end of it. 

A few thoughts:

• For me, the first flow swing is too mechanical still and I want to get to more feel-based work (which is Brian's advice at this stage) which sews the positions together more. It's also the perfect example of what he said not to do in that everything is horribly closed at around the 'impact' time (0.04 or so).
• Second one is good, but too quick. The one immediately after starts with arms too high and I need to keep watching out for this as it steepens everything up.
• The final swing - the one with the ball actually in it - is ok. For me, the hand path is alright. Rather, it will be, but I need to get used to laying the shaft down a bit more in transition. Sort that, and I think everything else falls into place.

I'm a week away from my Scotland trip now - by this time next week I will have played Turnberry and will be resting up ahead of Western Gailes. I don't want to change too much big stuff now and so I guess I'm not really committing to this at this point in time. Perhaps I should, as I know it's the right thing to do, but I'm scared of mucking anything up when I know I'm playing the best I ever have done right about now and I know I've suffered dips in form whenever I've worked on things before. I'm going to keep doing odd bits like this, but I'm not going at it 100%, more trying to ensure that I know my flight and keep my short game sharp. Once I'm back from the break, I'll go at it all guns blazing as I really don't think things are far off where I'd want them to be. 

[b101]

Again, I did a little more work today, but just feel-based stuff. I'm now just making my full swings with the simple thought of keeping my right shoulder higher, which has immediately reduced the angle of attack launching the ball higher and seemingly more effortlessly. I'm deliberately not going to record my full swing as I don't want to get caught up on position things at this time.

A bit impromptu, but I decided to record some pitches, as I wanted to check how it looked - I've duffed a couple recently and I found a very good feel today. When I last looked at it, the two main pointers were to reduce lower body movement and try to get the hand path more up and right through impact.

First video is last time, second is today:

 

• Hands move less inwards, although path could be better still. Really noticeable for me that my right shoulder movement is better - less of a crunch down toward the ball and it looks smoother. I also like where my hands finish now more than in the previous video.
• I felt like I was really limiting my lower body movement, but maybe not enough... Will check the thread below again and really look over it in detail. First things that stand out are that I could move feet slightly further apart and that my ball position is too far back.

Still, these were all landing within 2 yards of each other and even if I get no better, I'm pretty happy with it.

[iacas]

Pitches look good. Maybe softer arms on the downswing, a bit more focus on the pivot to build the momentum a bit.

[b101]

A couple of videos and pictures from Turnberry yesterday - didn't play brilliantly, but managed +12 in serious wind, particularly on the front nine. Putting was hard with the new greens and I three putted twice on the front nine for the first time in ages. I also found it very hard in the wind and kept trying to fight it, overthinking things rather than sticking to what I was comfortable with. As a result, I only really found my game with a few holes to play. Highlights were a birdie on the par 5 eighth, an awesome drive on the 10th, which I got on camera, and making the Tom Watson 2009 up and down, having gone over the back as well from near the plaque . The course itself was incredible - the greens haven't yet fully settled in and so there are different speeds all over the place, but it's such a good test. If you don't find the fairway, you can't score.

 

Very short swings due to crazy amount of wind!

Fourth green - with the wind, you have to start the ball off the left of it, pretty much on the ocean...:

Second shot into the 7th green. Didn't make the putt (story of the day!):

View from the new championship tee for the 9th:

Panoramic view from the 10th green. Arguably the most scenic par five anywhere:

My Tom Watson 2009 moment captured (sort of - plaque, tee shot and where my 6 iron over the back finished up):

Not worth the money, I don't think - hard for it to ever be the case at the price, but I loved every minute of it. It's a great course and deserves to have the Open back soon. Western Gailes today and hopefully my swing is on better form!

[b101]

Played better at Western Gailes yesterday and loved the course - very welcoming and had me thinking much more than Turnberry did as the greens were smaller with danger pretty much everywhere. The main thing I've taken away from this trip though is that I need to control my driver in the wind better. A lot of times, it was definitely the play and my second shot was excellent, but I lost too many going with the wind, which probably wouldn't have been too bad without it. Partial wedges were really good again and approach play was generally alright. I started out brilliantly, playing the first 4 in -1, but then turned into the wind - into and off the right - and immediately lost a ball playing for too much wind on the hardest hole, which I'd have bogeyed anyway. Putting again wasn't as good as it has been and I just haven't felt like I'm going to hole anything outside of 6 feet. Highlights were the first four holes, particularly feeling like DJ or Rory on the 4th, a good par on 7 (see below) and a good last four holes - bar another lost ball on 18... 

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/1072354

My par on the 7th - only swing I recorded was a really nice punch 5 iron from 170 into a strong breeze:

3rd tee:

'Secret' 6th green:

Looking back on the 13th green:

I get a few days' rest now before my last couple of rounds, both at Machrihanish Dunes. I've learnt a lot about my game playing these two rounds that I hadn't known beforehand. I find it really hard when I don't know the line and have to guess and commit to the shot far less. If I can see it though, it's generally fine. I need to sort the driving in the wind out as there's just no room for error - a slight mishit and a ball that would be safe is gone. Additionally, particularly at Turnberry, I need to stop overthinking things. Occasionally I'd find myself trying to hit a 7 iron with the ball miles back in my stance to deloft it, aiming way left to compensate and just should have hit what I felt comfortable with and taken the hit with the wind. My putting has to get better as well, particularly from range. So much fun though and I will definitely play Western Gailes again (probably more of a certainty than Turnberry) - I loved the course and the welcome you get was amazing.