My Swing (Hardspoon)

[Hardspoon]

On 5/21/2017 at 4:52 PM, Hardspoon said:

So - more of the same over the next few weeks.  Time to get to work.

Got started tonight with a good practice session. Slow, short, and focused. Full-swing work with a driver and 6-iron, and about 10 minutes working on pitching.

I noticed my grip creeping a little strong with the driver, so I got that sorted out.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Hardspoon

[Hardspoon]

I've had a tough few days.  I played my worst golf in months on Saturday...blowing one of my 2017 golf goals:

On ‎11‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 8:52 PM, Hardspoon said:

My performance-related goals (in increasing order of difficulty):

1.) Break 90

2.) No rounds over 100

3.) Average differential under 20

I couldn't hit shit.  Maybe it was the tweak to my grip, but every drive was right all day, and I couldn't hit an iron solidly to save my life.

So, back out to practice today, and I was floundering.  I struggled to find a feel that consistently got the results I'm looking for.

1.) I tried the "stabs"...

...and impact was OK:

 

2.) But any attempt to translate to a continuous swing (even slowly)...

...was weird and short-army:

 

3.) I think I had more success thinking about both the initial "stab" outward and making sure to continue that with my right arm.  It almost felt like I was trying for a lot of extension on the follow through...

...which seemed to have helped:

The follow-through seems weird to me, but this swing thought seemed to get the best results in terms of impact position and my priority piece, so I'm going to probably stick with it for a bit unless @iacas sees something problematic.

Separately, even though my progress is going to be incremental, I need to find a way to take even this small improvement on the course, so I can actually play competent golf even while working on this.

Any full-speed swing is still not good:

 

Blech. 

[chspeed]

18 hours ago, Hardspoon said:

So, back out to practice today, and I was floundering.  I struggled to find a feel that consistently got the results I'm looking for.

Do you have any down-the-line video?

[iacas]

So, ignore my texts the other day. Your head isn't moving too far forward.

I'm not sure if it's maybe just hitting off the mat (maybe it's a hard, firm mat?) or what, but the left elbow is bending early in these and you seemed to be hitting them off the toe quite often, so I'd hit some shorter punch length swings focusing on long arms and finding the center of the clubface.

That left arm is bending maybe to avoid what feels like a "thud" on the mat or something?

No DL video, but I doubt you're suddenly swinging well out to in or something like that.

[Hardspoon]

28 minutes ago, iacas said:

So, ignore my texts the other day.

I always do. 

29 minutes ago, iacas said:

That left arm is bending maybe to avoid what feels like a "thud" on the mat or something?

Maybe. I think it's really just "natural" for me to swing through like that...staying held off and sort of "steering" the club head around. Despite some intermittent successes, it's clearly been recurring since it was my priority in Erie (and obviously before).

31 minutes ago, iacas said:

so I'd hit some shorter punch length swings focusing on long arms and finding the center of the clubface

Makes sense. I'll see if I can make it work with short swings and then work up from there. I am going to see if a bit of focus on the follow-through helps with the "long-arm" feel.

It's funny how difficult it is to accomplish something so seemingly simple (I literally want my hands a few inches down and forward at impact).

54 minutes ago, chspeed said:

Do you have any down-the-line video?

 

40 minutes ago, iacas said:

No DL video, but I doubt you're suddenly swinging well out to in or something like that.

I didn't take any, since I was focused on the inline impact stuff. I'll take some as a check next time. Judging by my ball flight and hand depth at the top, I think I was OK (famous last words!)

[chspeed]

15 hours ago, Hardspoon said:

Makes sense. I'll see if I can make it work with short swings and then work up from there. I am going to see if a bit of focus on the follow-through helps with the "long-arm" feel.

It's funny how difficult it is to accomplish something so seemingly simple (I literally want my hands a few inches down and forward at impact).

Obviously, @iacas is guiding you, so you're doing the right things.

When I get stuck sometimes, I find that it's often a tenseness that happens when I'm trying to make a change, especially trying to pass through some position in the swing. Sometimes all it takes is a deep breath, going back to the feeling of rhythm and some relaxation in the swing, and then incorporating that into the change.

Anyway, good luck!

[Hardspoon]

3 hours ago, chspeed said:

When I get stuck sometimes, I find that it's often a tenseness that happens when I'm trying to make a change, especially trying to pass through some position in the swing. Sometimes all it takes is a deep breath, going back to the feeling of rhythm and some relaxation in the swing, and then incorporating that into the change.

Yes, definitely!!!  What happens with me is similar - if I'm trying to make a change on one portion of the swing, that "thought level" permeates throughout, so I start consciously noticing all of my positions, even those I'm not trying to change.  Then they start to feel weird to me, which screws me up.

[Hardspoon]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 4:43 PM, iacas said:

I'd hit some shorter punch length swings focusing on long arms and finding the center of the clubface.

The TL;DR version of the post I'm about to write is...  ^^^ this shit worked ^^^  

I've been working in front of a mirror the past couple days rehearsing the "long arms" feel.  I went out to the range today, with a total of two clubs, determined to be a complete stupid monkey.  As always, videos in the spoilers.

After a little warm-up, I took literally one "full-speed" swing with the long-arm feel from my mirror work, just to see if there was any improvement.

Spoiler

 

Impact was already better than before, although the hands are still not forward enough:

...and that was the last full-speed swing I took all evening.  The first time I tried the punch shot with the long-arm feel, I was able to get a great inline strike.

Spoiler

 

If anything, it's almost too exaggerated:

A8 looks good for a drill...nice and "stretched":

And, it works with the driver.

Spoiler

 

A7:

A8:

I did take some DTL video, and a bit of a problem...I was definitely coming over-the-top a bit when using this feel instead of the "stab" feel.

Spoiler

 

OTT at A6:

After noticing this, I tried taking a couple swings combining the stab feel and long-arm feel, and it helped the path.

Spoiler

 

Better at A6:

It's definitely stretching to work on both at the same time, but for now I'm prioritizing the "long-arms" to get better impact and I'll work in a little of the in-to-out thought as I can.  It's not like my OTT move is massive or anything.

I'm encouraged to find a drill that lets me get a good inline impact, with a feel that I can replicate at higher speed and at least see some improvement.  Now I just need to keep extending from punch shots back to full backswings while getting the piece right.  #golfishard

 

PS - Bonus points to me tonight for the stellar coordination of my shoelaces and t-shirt color!  

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Hardspoon

[saevel25]

The only thing I would say is, keep the turn rates up from A5 to A7. Sometimes when working on arm / hand feels a person can forget to turn. It looks like you stall a tad. I think keeping the turn rates up will help you swing more outward because your turn will fling the club head out towards the ball. 

[Hardspoon]

1 minute ago, saevel25 said:

The only thing I would say is, keep the turn rates up from A5 to A7. Sometimes when working on arm / hand feels a person can forget to turn.

Thanks.  Yeah, I definitely do some weird stuff with my lower body/hips when working on elbow and hand pieces - I'll keep an eye on this next time out for sure.

[Hardspoon]

Well, I've been playing a bit (and playing OK - differentials right around 20) but haven't really been able to practice much lately.

I actually shot a 42-48 (90) yesterday, setting a personal-best for both 9 holes and 18, but it was a very easy course so I wasn't playing particularly well.

The thing that pleases me most is that I'm finally completing my backswing on every swing, getting that piece down pat. It's helped my distance; my solid drives are all over 240 on GG these days.

I'm hoping to get out to the range this week and get some work in.

 

[Hardspoon]

Got out to practice and take some video tonight.

Drills:

 

 

75% Swings (immediately after drills):

 

 

I think I'm doing pretty well getting my hands forward and getting closer to inline impact (this photo is from the "full" swing):

Not as good on the "outward" part:

Edited July 25, 2017 by Hardspoon

[iacas]

12 hours ago, Hardspoon said:

Not as good on the "outward" part:

That's pretty damn good really. You don't want the clubhead WAY inside the hands, either.

[Hardspoon]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

That's pretty damn good really. You don't want the clubhead WAY inside the hands, either.

Thanks.

OK - so, more of the same. This still feels uncomfortable and inconsistent at full speed, so my practice and drills will be dedicated to this for a bit.

[Hardspoon]

I've been playing quite a bit of golf lately.  Scoring has been OK; had one awful round but also a 90 and a personal-best 89 in the past couple weeks.

I'm still working on bringing the "stab" piece to my on-course swing.  When I get it right, my contact is much more solid, leading to increased distance and improved ball flight.  However...if I lose focus on that piece (still happens way too often...if I have a funky lie, or a shot I'm not exactly comfortable with, or a shot I need to hit over/around an obstacle) I end up with a lot of topped shots.

Even in my practice sessions, I'll get quite a few videos where I do the old short-arm thing.  At the same time, I'm encouraged by my progress - it's getting more and more regular.

Some full (100%) swings from today's practice:

6-iron:

 

 

Driver:

 

Impact positions and in-to-out stuff were both pretty good on these (I had some swings were they weren't, of course).

My current priorities for full-swing practice sessions:

• Focus on the stab-outward piece, getting better at inline impact.
• Give some thought to a full turn on the backswing; I'll catch myself "shorting" it once in a while.
• Make sure I get enough wrist-cock at the top of the backswing; I'm doing the held-off thing again on some swings.
• My miss now is a push-fade or straight-push, so I'll make a few swings thinking of the reverse-rev feel to square up the face.  This isn't a priority yet until I ingrain the stuff above.

My goal is to feel comfortable with these pieces by the end of the "serious" golf season (around October), so that I can make another trip to Erie and refocus for winter practice.

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Hardspoon

[Hardspoon]

On 8/13/2017 at 2:30 PM, Hardspoon said:

• My miss now is a push-fade or straight-push, so I'll make a few swings thinking of the reverse-rev feel to square up the face.  This isn't a priority yet until I ingrain the stuff above.

Based on the way I've been hitting, I need to focus on this a bit more.  Everything is starting right.  It's killing my distance with the driver.  Irons are a bit better, but still far too many balls that start right of my target.

[Hardspoon]

On 9/2/2017 at 7:07 PM, Hardspoon said:

Based on the way I've been hitting, I need to focus on this a bit more.  Everything is starting right.  It's killing my distance with the driver.  Irons are a bit better, but still far too many balls that start right of my target.

I've worked on this the past couple times at the range, and it's been helping.  I'm hitting the ball well right now.

My last 5 rounds in Game Golf:

So...I hate practicing putting.  It's boring and annoying.  But...I'm going to need to suck it up and just work on this over the winter, because now it's pissing me off.

During my front-nine today, I hit 4/9 GIR and three-putted all four of them.  

[iacas]

I know some dude with a SAM PuttLab. And a nice big putting green.