My Swing (GolfLug)

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Didn't capture a video since dark outside so can't say for sure if it's a fact or just what I'm feeling but it seems that if the hands don't gather depth by A2, it gets much harder to gain depth later (unless you are Rory). 

Conversely once you get the hands even slightly deeper at A2 than address (no club rolling) it gets easier to gain depth further. I practiced this with my shoulder plumb line to floor for check at A2. The ball compression with my 18 deg iron felt really really good. Swing felt shorter with a faster tempo.

So...., low hands with arms unified with torso skate slightly inside of shoulder plumb line when they arrive at A2. Clubhead should sweep but not roll maintaining forearm to shaft angle. 

Letting my left arm fully rise to chin after this seemed to make it really easy to transition and honestly to an awesome impact.

Practice was fun today.

Erik had me draw a line on my video where my hands were at set up. Then from there to A2, my hands should go back. Mine were going out a bit. I then could do the same thing with MirrorVision. It didn’t take too long to dial it in. I check it every session I film.

[GolfLug]

4 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Erik had me draw a line on my video where my hands were at set up. Then from there to A2, my hands should go back. Mine were going out a bit. I then could do the same thing with MirrorVision. It didn’t take too long to dial it in. I check it every session I film.

Thanks.. that's good to know. 

[GolfLug]

Trying to counter floppy arms at A4 with this drill. It seems that it is hard to fake width and turn to get to this position if tilt is maintained. I also like this drill as ground up left side activation (Knee, hips, torso) and left arm structure.

But most importantly, 8-10 intermittent fast and slow reps gets my fat butt sweating..😄

[GolfLug]

Driver swing feeling good. Hit nine fairways today. Lost a couple on the back nine but was able to punch them back in for bogeys. 

It's full on winter golf though. Lot of ego bruising. Hitting irons off of wet, dead winter grass is like hitting of bare ground. Even with LCP in effect, have to pick them clean for sufficient air. Bunkers are packed. Switched to a low bounce wedge after butchering easy outs on no. 4 and 6 with a Ping Glide. It literally bounced on to the ball. So last two rounds haven't been pretty at all.

It's a travesty that we gotta post shitty winter rounds here in Virginia. Heh. 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by GolfLug

[GolfLug]

10 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Driver swing feeling good. Hit nine fairways today.

Swing thought - Arms go vertical, body goes around. I am hoping this is the missing link to me breaking the habit of me  pulling my right elbow behind me. Have spent a lifetime powering torso rotation to hit objects. Similar to a tennis forehand. I am sure it a perfectly good feel for some but I need to actively counter it  It seems like the shoulder/torso unit nothing but a dynamic fulcrum to windmill vertical arm swing. Gotta let the arms/hands fall instead of triggering a hit with my torso right at transition.

Edited February 27, 2023 by GolfLug

[boogielicious]

4 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Swing thought - Arms go vertical, body goes around. I am hoping this is the missing link to me breaking the habit of me  pulling my right elbow behind me. Have spent a lifetime powering torso rotation to hit objects. Similar to a tennis forehand. I am sure it a perfectly good feel for some but I need to actively counter it  It seems like the shoulder/torso unit nothing but a dynamic fulcrum to windmill vertical arm swing. Gotta let the arms/hands fall instead of triggering a hit with my torso right at transition.

I use the feel of my right shoulder going up and leading the turn. That seems to set things in the right place in the backswing.

[GolfLug]

On 2/27/2023 at 7:30 AM, GolfLug said:

Swing thought - Arms go vertical, body goes around. 

Both need to happen. It seems as long as I continue smashing my lead arm into my chest at A4, I will continue to tip out at transition. Need that space between the two. 

[GolfLug]

Finding more useful feels. Maintaining lead arm to shaft  'L' back and through seems to make gaining hand depth easier without early rolling or swaying. Clubhead seems to move through impact with more fluidity. 

Feeling bit more balanced on feet at finish too. All good things I suppose. 

[GolfLug]

On 3/28/2023 at 7:23 AM, GolfLug said:

Maintaining lead arm to shaft  'L' back and through

Few notes for myself: 

Extremely important to have a soft/hanging left arm and a de-coupled feeling between the left arm and the entire club. Have played three evening 4-hole loops this week after work and feeling more confident in the driver swing. Have lost only one drive completely to the right. 

I continue searching for root cause of this odd high-block-slice-miss root cause, but I believe it has to do with pelvis swaying back moving toward the ball when approaching impact, aka early extension. This in line with my priority from last year's visit to Erie. 

Must maintain that flex/springy/ bouncy feeling in the pelvis and left knee throughout the swing and consistent suspension location of left shoulder in relation to the ball/ground through the swing. I am sure it is a feel but it does help in establishing and maintaining a structural suspension point (fulcrum) for the entire swing.     

Dynamically, all I think about is 'Swing with patience'. 

[GolfLug]

Note to self: keep hand path vertical (relatively speaking) and close to body throughout the swing. This is to ensure co-ordinated turn rates between hips, torso and hands. 

Notes from GE visit:

Don't sit on heels. 

Push chair straight back (behind) with right butt cheek during back swing.

Drop arms.

Push chair straight back (behind) hard with left butt cheek during downswing.

Edited June 11, 2023 by GolfLug

[iacas]

24 minutes ago, GolfLug said:

Note to self: keep hand path vertical (relatively speaking) and close to body throughout the swing. This is to ensure co-ordinated turn rates between hips, torso and hands. 

Notes from GE visit:

Don't sit on heels. 

Push chair straight back (behind) with right butt cheek during back swing.

Drop arms.

Push chair straight back (behind) hard with left butt cheek during downswing.

👍🏼

[GolfLug]

I do not believe a better 'mental game' will make me a better player, but that is not to say that a poor response to a shitty shot or an 'unfair' bad bounce will not affect composure and subsequent shots. 

So the official term of what happened on last Saturday is the dreaded 'CHOKE'. Thinking back I want to capture some 'learnin from the burnin' if there is any. Mental game stuff which I typically pooh-pooh (I think all bad shots are simply 'mechanical failures' from normal shot zone variation). 

I have been playing better last few months than I have since 2015, thanks to a fairly steady driver and better chipping. On Saturday I was a career best +1 for the round walking up to 15th tee (13 pars and one bogey), with the only blemish on the short par 3 6th hole (pulled tee shot and failed to get up and down from the bunker). Couldn't miss a drive and had hit 11 GIRs until then. 

Then it happened. Tagged another clean drive on a dog leg left par 15th exactly where I should have. Cool, I thought. Fairway runs out at about 245 yards, light rough runs out at about 280 yards, then running into the range. I have not driven a ball 280 ever in my life an I know I didn't this time either. But, never found the ball as there are usually 20-30 range balls sprinkled at the edge of the hole in this direction. Again, there is no way I drove 280+ all the way to the range so the ball had to be in plain sight but nothing I could do. It was a gut punch as had to drop a ball in the fairway under MLR for a two shot penalty and hit a shitty wedge to take a triple bogey.

So now all flustered and +4 going into the difficult 195 yard par 3 16th. Promptly pulled the 4 iron OB left in the houses. Double bogey. 

+6 going into 17th, where I stopped myself, took a minute to just sit for a moment, gather myself and then finished par-par with two good drives and irons for a +6 = 76. Ok, stopped the bleeding and finished well after falling off the wagon on 15th and 16th. But the 5 shot loss over two holes stung. 

My previous best is a 75 (two weeks ago) and this had another low written all over it. But doesn't this story sound familiar to that of countless fellow wide-eyed golfers on the verge of a historic round only to fall off the cliff with the victory flag within grasp? 😊  

So is there a choke here? Well, yes actually. Sorta, but one I feel I can handle next time around. 

The tee shot on 15th have not been my fault or a 'fault' at all, but the ensuing shitty wedge and the pulled OB next on 16th were both unforced, so I'm going to say yes, it was a version of a choke for sure. It seemed that standing on 16th tee, it felt completely different than the previous 15 holes. I had inexplicably and accidentally entered the neighbor's house and hard time getting my head wrapped around why the 'furniture' suddenly seemed different. A secret mental circuit (was it the fight or flight circuit??) took control of me for a few minutes. I lost my feels at set up and hit a completely unprepared shot I never felt comfortable over and paid a heavy price. 

The lesson I learnt? Simple - take a few moments if you suddenly find yourself on a death spiral, while a only a few minutes ago you were on cruise control. Dig deep and recall the feels and  thoughts of the round thus far. Acknowledge what happened. Roll with the punches. Reset. Go again. 

May not always work but I am nothing if not a climber, especially when I fall off the trail. It's fun, this Golf thing we do..   

[iacas]

I just wanted to let you know that I read that. No other comment, though.

[GolfLug]

Yeah bit of first world problems self-therapy there.. lol!

[GolfLug]

Nothing much new. Playing good golf. It would be nice if I could putt but whatever. 

Swing wise am finally having much better success gaining hand depth from A1 to A2 and then after that a vertical arm lead arm swing (no lead forearm rotation feel until A1.5ish) with hip rotation back and through per my Erie pieces. Letting my lead heel unplant and replant too a bit. Steady head helps with tempo and getting overly handsy. 

It seems like I finally understand the principle of unstacked joints (not using the wrist joint as a 'piston' to push the grip, not using elbow to 'piston' the wrist joint, etc) in a golf swing. Essentially each parent joint should pull the subsequent distal joint until they reach max range of forward motion.  Never deliberately push. I think it is what the fancy folks call a kinematic chain. But then it is also critical to position the joints properly throughout the swing for the chain to work dynamically. For eg. hands get too far from the body in the impact zone and you are not going to hit a golf shot.

Of course, as in all things golf theoretical understanding only gets you a start. And then you are always risking completely misleading yourself. But it's fun being being a student of the golf swing. I think I am sincerely ego free in my pursuit so I forgive myself whenever I go off on a tangent. Finding and maintaining feels and visual cues to suit the theory is where the money's at and it's nice when things start working out. I am going to cautiously say that they just might be at the moment..😊

Edited August 28, 2023 by GolfLug

[GolfLug]

Got fitted by the Titleist van guy at the CC in a TSR2 yesterday. Gave me a Tensie X-link Blue 55 g Reg shaft. I'm a bit hesitant to say how many yards I picked up over my F9 Cobra on the Trackman as it seems almost too good to be true. 

I instantly felt the flip at impact (you want this type of kick/flip) and flight difference was stark compared to the previous 3 shafts. Dispersion still rock solid on all non-shitty swings. Did not turn over two toe hits with not much distance loss. These would have been hard hooks with the F9.

I will report after a few rounds. Arrives in two weeks.

Edited October 27, 2023 by GolfLug

[klineka]

33 minutes ago, GolfLug said:

I instantly felt the flip at impact (you want this type of kick/flip) and flight difference was stark compared to the previous 3 shafts. Dispersion still rock solid on all non-shitty swings. Did not turn over two toe hits with not much distance loss. These would have been hard hooks with the F9.

 

I experienced something similar when I went through my first ever driver fitting about a month ago. 

I ended up with a shaft that weighed the same as my previous one but due to how the weight is distributed it felt significantly lighter in my hand and effortless to square the clubface and make centered contact. 

I gained around 20 yards of carry distance primarily from optimizing launch and spin, basically my old total distance became my new carry distance. It transferred immediately onto the course, my "poor" drives with the new shaft were going as far as my average drives was with the old shaft.

[Darkfrog]

3 hours ago, GolfLug said:

Got fitted by the Titleist van guy at the CC in a TSR2 yesterday.

I am really happy with my TSR2 driver. Similar experience coming from a Cobra RADSpeed.

Shotscope tells me I have significantly improved driver distance after the change (27 yards). I believe the shotscope data somewhat skews to favor the TSR2 because the Cobra data comes from rounds during winter and spring in the midst of one of the wettest rainy seasons ever in CA, but my course is perpetually moist, even in the driest times, so I don't think firm vs. soft conditions account for all of the difference.

I don't think my maximum distance potential changed, but I hit way more quality drives with the TSR2.