My Swing (b101)

[b101]

So, starting to make progress with this piece! It's taken two weeks of lots of practising in the mirror, but I'm finally starting to see the picture change in the full swing. That said, there's loads of work still to do with path and low point. I've sent some of this to Preston in an upload to evolvr, so looking forward to his take and working on making things even better. 

Thoughts and feels are currently: 

- left knee barely moving in takeaway, but slightly down and to the right
- coiling into right hip
- keeping left arm completely straight

I was initially swaying quite a lot off the ball, so I'm happy that's starting to go away. Next step will be to work on path again, but should get easier as this piece gets more solid. There's doubtless a couple of tweaks that Preston will make, but I'm getting closer to his sample swings he recorded for me.

Heading to the course tomorrow for 9 holes, range time and some short game work, which I'm looking forward to! I've got a couple of nice rounds coming up in a few weeks, so I'm hoping to at least be able to get around the course, even if I don't have my A game 

[b101]

So, a few updates with what I've been working on over the last couple of weeks and how the game is looking generally. In terms of the swing, we're still working on the lower body movement, limiting left knee motion away from the target (FO view) in the backswing and trying to get more of a 'coil' into the trail leg. As Preston kindly compared and highlighted, the changes since last April are looking good:

The work now is to stop that fall toward the target, shallow the club more in transition and also engage the core more. Preston says this is pretty normal as a side-effect of working on lower-body structure, but it's impacting my ability to get my left wrist flat at impact (compare to sample on left), which hasn't been an issue before:

So, practice is currently consisting of the following:

• Ribcage sized swings with medicine ball and then with a 7 iron, trying to maintain that feel of the core being engaged. The other focus is feeling like I'm staying taller, rather than crunching in and downwards. This is immediately leading to better swings and the draw I feel comfortable with rather than the 5-10 yard fade/push that I have been seeing.
• Lots of slow motion mirror work with the left knee piece. It took about two weeks to really get the movement that I was after and I still keep going back to check on it.
• When on the range, lots of half swings (ribcage) then mixing in full swing shots to try to get the feels to match up. On my last few range sessions, I've been having a lot more success with a 90% iron swing rather than going full out at it, when my head dips more, body crunches and contact becomes abysmal!

---

It's also half-term this week, meaning I've actually had the chance to play some golf! I have one more nice round tomorrow (Swinley Forest), before a month ahead of my next little trip to play Prince's and Open host Royal St George's. My wife's 30th present for me was rounds at Le Touquet (La Mer) and L'Hardelot (Les Pins). Played ok round both - better on L'Hardelot, whereas my iron contact was pretty poor at Le Touquet. Both courses had issues with winter greens, so the putting shouldn't really be taken into account that much - basically anything outside of 5 feet was a lottery. L'Hardelot's were seriously slow, whereas Le Touquet had just hollow-tined theirs. As a summary of the rounds:

Like I say, I played miles better at L'Hardelot, but the fairways at Le Touquet were absurdly generous, which meant I was never going to be far away from a GIR. Insights:

My assessment would be:

Off the Tee - can still do better. Some poor tee shots made the approaches much tougher than they needed to be. The driver has been pretty reliable, but again, this is masked by how generous Le Touquet was. L'Hardelot was much tighter and I generally drove better.

Approach - poor. I need to make sure that I'm always greenside with my iron shots in and far too often I'm fatting them at the moment. Additionally, I can get better with partial wedges - I've been saying this for a while, but I'm still working on consistency of contact with them.

Short Game - yep, this is good. Main improvement has been bunker play due to the more stable lower body.

Putting - interesting. I don't feel I'm putting well or holing anything, so this surprises me!

---

Finally, enjoy a few tee shots from L'Hardelot (Les Pins), which is just a stunning course. 

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2010581

For info, first tee shot was hole 2, second was hole 5 (pitched a foot left of the pin), third was hole 4 and the last is hole 18, which was probably my best of the day.

Edited February 15, 2018 by b101

[iacas]

Do you have a good slow-mo DL and FO video of your 6-iron that you could post here?

[b101]

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you have a good slow-mo DL and FO video of your 6-iron that you could post here?

Yep - give me 5 minutes to upload.

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you have a good slow-mo DL and FO video of your 6-iron that you could post here?

 

Here you go - don't be too mean!

Edit: this is from two weeks ago for my last evolvr upload, so there has been a bit of work put in since then, with Preston's main points listed above.

Edited February 15, 2018 by b101

[b101]

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2013307

Ugh. And this is what happens when things get ugly. Didn't get time for a warm up before the round, it was utterly freezing and I just could not put two good shots together. Wasn't hitting my driver well at all (had one good strike with it on 16 and that was it. It was a deceptively long course, particularly with the weather and lots of holes requiring uphill approaches. Stunningly beautiful, but it was a rough day. On top of that, I started to doubt my swing and tweak things which led to some shots that I just never hit - never good when you regularly have 200 yard approaches in... My long approaches are comfortably the weakest part of my game and it really showed. 

Still, that's the last 'nice' round for a while (as in, a round that I care about on a nice course) and I'll properly commit to this swing rebuild over the next couple of months. I've got a few rounds with friends that I'd like to play well at the end of March, but otherwise, just working towards summer.

Edited February 17, 2018 by b101

[b101]

More practice work today going through medicine ball swings, ribcage sized swings in relatively slow motion, then ribcage swings with a ball. I took a few full swing videos at the end as well and the slow motion ribcage swing feels are definitely transitioning to the full swing and slowly changing the picture. Need to get more comfortable with the feels and work on the path still, but there's lots in here I'm happy with. The backswing on the penultimate swing looks the best it ever has, I can get some soft draws going (final swing), but not yet consistently and the head movement is certainly limiting when I focus on it.

 

[b101]

Another couple of rounds played last weekend and starting to put some good scores together:

Day One: (+6): https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2058186

Day Two: (+5): https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2058190

It was a relatively generous course off the tee, provided you weren't too far offline, meaning I could take driver relatively frequently. There are still a few shots that I really want to cut out - notably a horrible top with hybrid or 3 wood off the deck, thin/fat wedges from 70 yards and in and a horrible necky driver shot that I get every once in a while that just goes nowhere. What made the difference over this weekend though was my contact with irons being much improved - I learnt my lesson from the last time I had played at Swinley Forest, where I had too many thoughts and just went to play golf rather than find a perfect swing. Putting was actually pretty good, but I can do better with three-putt avoidance. I simply don't practice long putts enough, so this will be a target.

Hopefully playing again tomorrow (weather-dependent - we've had lots of rain and crazy amounts of snow recently), but will then start really working at grinding and developing the swing ahead of the summer months. I feel like I'm good enough for a single figure handicap and just need to get more qualifying rounds in!

[b101]

So the big news is that I have finally got my handicap down to 10.0, having been cut 1.2 after my last round.

To be honest, using the word 'finally' isn't quite right - I don't play many rounds for a card (and when I have done, I've tended to blow up somewhere along the way). There are a number of reasons for this: I work Saturdays during term time, which is competition day, so it's tougher to do. If I do go out on a Sunday, I go early and tend to play on my own (I play a course about an hour away), working on something or other. Additionally, as a teacher, term times are really hectic, so I often will get to holiday time having a swing that is very rusty - I'll spend a fair amount of time working on it and then it'll be time to get back to work. I do mean to get more rounds in, as I think my game is probably representative of about a 6 or 7 handicap and I can go pretty low - GameGolf would tend to agree. I can also really get in my own way and shoot 86 when I'm not comfortable or over-thinking my swing.

---

This round was a couple of days after the excellent scores at Prince's, so I have been on good form. The main takeaways would be that I'm really starting to score when I put myself in position - 3 birdies is nice and I had a lot more chances. I do need to keep working on my putting though (not an excuse, but it's winter and I just haven't been on the practice greens as the course is an hour away) and I've totally lost my ability to hit a hybrid or 3 wood off the floor. Short irons and driver were good, though and that made a huge difference.

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2062278

---

In terms of the swing, Preston and I are still working on cleaning up my lower body motion and it's starting to translate into more swing speed and better contact. I'll do some more work with the Mevo tomorrow (weather permitting), and am hoping to submit some putting videos and full swing work to evolvr shortly.

[b101]

Had a really good practice session this morning - spent 1 hr 45 minutes on 60 balls, which is pretty good going for me! Lots of slow-motion work and practice on the priority piece for the first hour and then spent the last 45 minutes or so on partial wedge yardages. I've submitted a putting video and a full swing one to Preston on evolvr, just to check in with how I'm practising and keep an eye on the setup. I've been topping the 3 wood quite a bit recently, so I thought I'd video that as well. The driver has been a real strength recently, so you'll see a couple of videos of that (the second was a little bit of a pull draw but it's a good flight - the camera angle makes it look like it's going miles left!

Secondly, a short video of my practice routine at the moment, as well as probably the best backswing I think I've ever put on camera - I'm really pleased with the way it's starting to look, but there's lots more left to work on (notably head movement, causing me to crunch too much through impact and shallowing of the club in transition):

---

Finally, the partial wedge work is below. I didn't video the swings, but it would leave me with some pretty good yardage gaps:

I may need to tweak slightly based on the range balls I was using. From the Mevo:

[Pepsivanilla93]

Thought I'd drop by your thread to see your progress and wow! It looks really nice. In fact I could see your finish on a book cover haha. I'm happy to hear evolvr is working for you. How long do you usually practice every day?

[b101]

On 4/4/2018 at 8:11 PM, Pepsivanilla93 said:

Thought I'd drop by your thread to see your progress and wow! It looks really nice. In fact I could see your finish on a book cover haha. I'm happy to hear evolvr is working for you. How long do you usually practice every day?

Thanks! The finish has always looked kinda nice, but it's getting to look even better the more that Brian and Preston have done to tweak things. 

I've tried to follow the 5 minutes thread as much as I possibly can, but my practice is really on and off, in all honesty. I put a lot of time in during my holiday periods (which I get a lot of - 10 weeks for summer, 3 for Easter, 3 for Christmas and three 1 week half term breaks), but during term time, that dips massively. In holidays, if the weather is good, I'll try to head to the range pretty much every day and play two rounds a week where possible. I'll also usually have the putting mat out in the basement for odd 5 minute spells. In term time, I'm lucky if I get one range session a week and that's usually just to remember where the ball is! When I first re-started playing golf five years back, I took about four weeks off and just couldn't make solid contact for about two weeks afterwards - it's not that bad now, but I need little and often.

Thanks for commenting and hopefully I can keep the work up! 9.9 is tantalisingly close!

[b101]

Another one for @RandallT 

Just had my last round of an amazing few weeks - I recently turned 30 and so arranged to play a few nice courses (on top of l'Hardelot and le Touquet, I've just played Prince's, Swinley Forest and finished up today with Royal St George's). It helps that, bar Swinley, I played them all pretty well for me, with the highlight the round at St George's today, where I shot 74 (+4) with two birdies. First up, the pictures/videos, then I'll do a little bit of reflection on where my game is currently and the plan from here on into summer:

Swinley:

Prince's:

St George's (bad day for photography...):

Hardest up and down attempt I've had in a long while (you can see the ball on the left) - didn't quite manage it.

---

Round at St George's: www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2080294

This is what happens when I'm feeling comfortable in a round (and the rough is kind!) - I went round by myself, didn't overthink things and just played solid golf. Drove relatively well, but nowhere near as well as I can, approach play was ok, but still had a couple of really poor strikes, putted pretty well and wedge game was fine, if unspectacular. What I am appreciating about my game at the moment is that it's predictable. I'm playing more of a fade than I'd like and it's clear from the videos that I'm cutting across the ball way too much, but it's repeatable and I'm very able to just aim up the left and watch the ball curve back to safety. The main improvements recently have been hitting the 3 wood or hybrid well off the deck and three putt avoidance. Ironically, my two best shots with 3 wood and hybrid both ended up in trouble - the hybrid led to that ridiculous short-sided pitch as it just stayed bullet straight when I thought it would turn and my 3 wood on the 13th found a green-side bunker as it just found the run-off on the green. But, these are shots I was topping about a week and a half ago, so it's nice to have found something...

Putting-wise, it's been the change in tempo and really committing to that on the course that has made the difference. The feel of extra long backstroke and slow through impact has helped slow the stroke down and get rid of those jabby sort of motions that are costing me. Still not holing as much as I'd like inside of 10 feet, but I think that will come the more I become accustomed to a change in setup.

Game Golf - comparison with 5 handicap:

Shows that I'm not as far off as I think I am and, oddly, that the one area of my game that I think is weakest (approach play) is actually a strength. I think this may be skewed slightly by my driver play, as I often have wedges into holes, but I'm really not hitting 8 iron - hybrid well at the moment. I do want to make my play from 150-175 yards a real focus when I'm on the range, as I think this is where I am giving up shots - I know my GIR % is good, but it could be excellent if I hit more from around 150 or at least always put myself in nGIR situations.

[b101]

Really hard yards at the moment - I've had a finger injury that means I haven't played in about a month before yesterday, hence why I've stayed off here (if I can't play, the last thing I want to do is think about golf in any form!). I think it's something called Trigger Finger, which is to do with the tendon being swollen - basically, I can't bend my left index finger the whole way, it randomly sends me jarring pains if it hits the wrong angle and is really stiff for the most part of the day. It shouldn't be that bad (golf-wise, it isn't), but I've been getting more and more frustrated as I can't play my guitar at all, which is my other main hobby. So, I've not touched golf or guitar for the best part of 6 weeks and no change... I've got a round booked for tomorrow with some friends and after that, it's off to the doctors we go in a couple of days.

I did play yesterday and understandably, it's all a bit scrappy. Having a feel of hitting a fade worked nicely for a while on the range, but it's not something I trust and therefore fell to pieces more on the course. Scrambled and putted pretty well, but the three birdies (two of which were very fortuitous) kind of hides how poorly I was playing. Couldn't get the driver working at all for a long time - when you add the front nine being into wind to a poor ballstriking day, it was just difficult. Hoping for better tomorrow...

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2188296

[b101]

Good news is that I won my competition yesterday - first ever golf win of any type! 

It was a society Presidents' Day, with 36 holes of foursomes - different partner before and after lunch and mixing high and low handicappers as much as possible. I ended up finishing with 70 points over the 36 holes - drove well, didn't put in any really poor approach shots or wedge shots and whilst I wouldn't have gained any strokes putting, I wouldn't have lost that many either. All in all, pretty pleased! There's still work to be done and I'm going to look at spending time with the driver and working on the consistency of strike, as I can hit some out to 280, but it can drop off massively when I don't catch it. On the course, I'm also still not confident hitting up on the ball as much as I need to. It'll come and I'll keep working on the putting and pitching as well.

Still annoyed with the finger issue, but it doesn't seem to be harming my golf game for now.

[b101]

Last couple of days of holiday have seen a fair bit of practice and a quick nine holes this morning. I've been working on a few things (the same as the last few months), most notably:

• setup with irons, having forward shaft lean and hips bumped slightly forward
• keeping lower body more stable (loading into right hip) in backswing
• consistent tempo and length of swing with partial wedges
• raising launch angle with driver
• putting setup more neutral, more bent over than stood up and focusing on controlling pace with length of stroke rather than tempo

Played 9 today and drove the ball really poorly on a tight track (this is the short course which is seriously tight in places and has tiny greens. Iron play was actually really good, as I started taking a little off them - that turned into a slight pull, hence a few missed greens. I felt confident over my putts and left three short right in the centre. Two birdies was really nice though and I certainly feel I'm capable of that. It's just the driver that I really need to sort at the moment as that cost most of my shots...

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2197501

After that round I spent a good 2 hours split pretty evenly between range, practice bunkers and putting greens. I don't think my bunker play is bad, but I don't practise the shots enough - changing a few feels to ensure that I keep height on downswing ensures that I'm shallower through the sand and made a lot of things easier. Putting is getting there: I spent my time working on one grip length back and through strokes (roughly 18 feet), two grips (36 feet) and three (54 feet). Then spent 20 minutes on a range of putts inside of 10 feet and just trying to get comfortable feeling that I will make them. Change of setup working well here. Last 30 minutes was on the range with those setup feels, which are making a world of difference as I remind myself of them. Would like to see my flight higher still, but pretty happy otherwise. 

A short video from yesterday (before all of this) - swing looks a little ropey after the time off, but some bits are still there:

 

[b101]

Just hit the summer holidays and have finally looked at my swing on camera for the first time in ages after the battery died. There's a lot of work to be done...! Club path was getting as bad as 4 degrees out to in, which was causing a lot of horrible pulls and slices - I've just about been able to get them back to target, but it's been low and not pretty. I worked on it all a lot on the range today and started just with chipping strokes for half an hour, which really helped. The good thing is that, having worked with online instruction over the last three years, I can pretty much identify my usual pieces to check up on. So, I focused on those for a couple of hours to get the old feelings back, got the higher flight and by the end had a nice straight draw with everything bar driver. Checklist on the range is currently:

1) Takeaway feels more hands inside, club outside
2) Feel like I stop at shoulder height, with right arm feeling dead straight at A4
3) Then really engage core on the way through, whilst feeling like hands are exiting above the belt buckle.

Now where have I heard all of this before...?! Good news though and I'm looking forward to getting back to the grind,

[b101]

Played today and shot +6 at a course that isn't that difficult. The good news is that the iron and wedge play is much more solid than a fortnight ago. Bad news is that the driver is atrocious and was pretty much left in the bag all round because of that. Just can't get it sorted and needs some serious work. As a result, I felt I played a lot more conservatively, which is ok on a short track where I can scab a 6 iron off the tee and get away with a crap shot, but I will really struggle at my home course playing like this...

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2272810

[b101]

Probably played my best round ever so far yesterday with +2 round Liphook, a tough heathland course to win our match 3&2. I had thirty minutes on the range to find my swing and got the feels I needed, then stuck to them. Played in the morning and really found my rhythm with the driver and just couldn't miss with wedge in my hand. The stuff that I've been doing to get the distance control going has been invaluable and it felt like I was hitting my number every time. Lots that @iacaswould be happy seeing me do - aimed at the middle of pretty much every green and was comfortable hitting the nice baby fade with the driver and with the fiery fairways (we haven't had rain in about 2 months...), it was just rocketing down there.

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/benpage101/round/2275874

I'm intending to head out for a range session tomorrow to work with the camera properly, then hopefully get a morning on the course on Thursday to work on continuing to translate those range feels to the course. Really pleased with this though and a great start to the summer - maybe it's not as far off as I had thought!