My Swing (Fairway_CY)

[Fairway_CY]

I've been Playing Golf for: Almost 23 Years

My current handicap index or average score is: 16.8 Handicap - 93(ish) Average Score

My typical ball flight is: Fade

The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Pull

So... I figured I should probably start somewhere, and since this coming weekend is the last tournament I'll be playing until February, I wanted to start a My Swing thread.  As mentioned above, my typical ball flight is a fade with most clubs.  The miss that's killing me is a pull.  I feel like I've been over-swinging on the tee in an attempt to gain distance.  Unfortunately, it has been resulting in a handful of smashed drives, and a handful of balls pulled either into woods where I need to recover, or into trouble that is causing me penalty strokes.  

The videos below are from a range session on Friday night.  I don't have anything that I'm working on other than trying to slow my swing a bit in an attempt to control the ball and maintain my balance after my follow through.  

Any help and/or feedback would be appreciated.

 

CY

[saevel25]

I would check out this thread.
http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/76114-how-to-make-a-centered-hip-turn/

You shift a lot laterally in the backswing. 



Also the grip look off. I kinda like to see the hands a tad more forward. Draw a straight line from your left shoulder to the ball. Also your left hand looks fine, but your right hand is super weak. 

http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/75436-how-to-grip-a-golf-club-commonalities-of-a-functional-golf-grip/

 

[Fairway_CY]

Geez... that was quick!  I'll definitely be doing some reading when I get back!  

I definitely sway.  I've only ever had my swing 'looked at' by 1 professional, for 1 session that my wife got me years ago and he pointed out the same thing, but because it was a single session, I never really got any further input.  That thread will help.

When you say my right hand looks weak, I never really understood when people would say strong or weak in relation to the grip.  Would weak indicate that the 'V' in my right hand is pointing towards my forward shoulder instead of more towards my trail shoulder?  

Thanks for responding so quickly... I kinda put this up here figuring it'd be a few days.  Awesome turn-around time!

CY

[golfaddict1]

Yeah your grip is gonna be causing you all kind of issues. Both hands look weak to me - it looks like you need to hold more in the base of your fingers in left hand and feel your right hand is way more 'underneath' rather than 'on top' of the club. That'll help close the club face down at impact, which with your current swing path will result in massive pulls/pull hook at first, but you'll see and feel this and your body will quickly adjust your path accordingly to sort out your ball direction i.e. making you hit more in to out. I think right now you have to swing left and fade the ball because if you didnt you'd just hit it way right because of your grip.

[mvmac]

I would check out this thread.
http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/76114-how-to-make-a-centered-hip-turn/

You shift a lot laterally in the backswing. 



Also the grip look off. I kinda like to see the hands a tad more forward. Draw a straight line from your left shoulder to the ball. Also your left hand looks fine, but your right hand is super weak. 

http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/75436-how-to-grip-a-golf-club-commonalities-of-a-functional-golf-grip/

 

Agree, good post.

[iacas]

Are you looking to begin posting here again, @Fairway_CY? You should…

[Fairway_CY]

On 2/3/2017 at 10:33 PM, iacas said:

Are you looking to begin posting here again, @Fairway_CY? You should…

I promise to do my best next week to take some time and video my swing again.  I absolutely need all the help I can get. 

I FEEL like a lot of what I was doing in the videos above has changed, but... the last time I looked at my swing on video was about a year ago and... well... I'll post a video within the next week.  

Thanks for the push!

CY

[Fairway_CY]

Okay... so, this is the best I could get today.  It's poorly lit and taken in my garage, but... I'm posting it anyway.  I hope to play tomorrow morning.  Providing I do get out and I have enough time, I'm going to try and get video on the course as well.  

For now... here's what I've got.  Let me know what you guys see.  It's a work in progress, for sure.  I still don't like seeing my swing on video, but... I suppose that's the best way for me to see what it is I'm doing incorrectly to fix it.  

Both of these swings were with a 6 iron and 'Almost Golf' balls.

 

CY

Edited February 6, 2017 by RandallT
Fixed embed

[RandallT]

24 minutes ago, Fairway_CY said:

 I still don't like seeing my swing on video, but... I suppose that's the best way for me to see what it is I'm doing incorrectly to fix it.  

Ok, now you're in the club. Once we get past that- then the progress starts. 

Edit: just fixed the embeds in the last two vids and compared your backswings - looks like you've made some progress there from original videos. So your progress has definitely started already.  I think you're down several strokes based on GG, right?

[iacas]

The videos are fine. Slow motion would be a bit better.

40 minutes ago, Fairway_CY said:

For now... here's what I've got.  Let me know what you guys see.  It's a work in progress, for sure.  I still don't like seeing my swing on video, but... I suppose that's the best way for me to see what it is I'm doing incorrectly to fix it.  

What are you working on right now?

Something?

Cuz if you are, we can help you decide whether to keep at it or to start to work on something else.

If you're not, we can help you determine what to work on first.

[Fairway_CY]

32 minutes ago, RandallT said:

Ok, now you're in the club. Once we get past that- then the progress starts. 

Edit: just fixed the embeds in the last two vids and compared your backswings - looks like you've made some progress there from original videos. So your progress has definitely started already.  I think you're down several strokes based on GG, right?

Thanks for fixing that. I rushed and didn't realize I hadn't embedded them.

Since I posted this thread, my index is about 2.5 strokes lower. While making some of the changes suggested above (grip first and foremost), I ballooned to about a 17.8 index, so... since then, I've come down close to 4 strokes.

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

The videos are fine. Slow motion would be a bit better.

What are you working on right now?

Something?

Cuz if you are, we can help you decide whether to keep at it or to start to work on something else.

If you're not, we can help you determine what to work on first.

The only thing I've been working on is trying to keep my weight forward. That has been a 2+ month long thought process and it's pretty close to being ingrained but every so often, I find myself swaying (especially with wedges) and I'll hit some fat shots before catching what I'm doing. I cut the first video a little short, but you can kinda see at the finish that my weight I'd almost too forward and I sometimes fall towards my target in my follow through. 

I don't have anything else specific I'm working on at the moment so... guidance and suggestions are welcome and appreciated. 

Thanks again for the push. I have a camera that shoots 120FPS (I believe) that I've used for slow-mo video in the past. I'll bring that with me tomorrow.

CY

[RandallT]

19 minutes ago, Fairway_CY said:

I rushed and didn't realize I hadn't embedded them.

Sometimes embedding just doesn't work and the link just sits there- not sure I've figured out what those conditions are. It does seem to be related to when the person is in a rush though 

I'm no swing expert, as you know, but since we worked on the stats analysis thing on the blog, I'll go ahead and guess that you've got some work ahead that starts at the backswing. Perhaps setup and grip too- I still don't have an eye for spotting that, except in extreme cases.

I see as a reasonable place to start may be your shallow-to-steep pattern, but we'll see what feedback you get. I'm definitely learning that if you go up steep and come back down more shallow, that is a more repeatable and powerful movement. From what I gather, the club face tends to square with the ball using the natural angular forces involved also- so there are fewer compensations/manipulations needed to square the club near impact.

So I'll stay tuned to see what you priority piece is. I usually make my guess silently!

For what it's worth, I've been working on my backswing for a while (on things generally related to this), and I am extremely happy that it's paying off. It is possible to change this pattern, and I can say that it does yield benefits to make the change from shallow-steep to steep-shallow. Plus, the knowledge I've gained in the daily struggle with various epiphanies has been very helpful to know my own swing better. The fact that an expert has pinpointed the priority every few weeks when I make a submission (I use Evolvr) is key though, or else I'd have just been guessing what to practice. My awareness of how I swing is higher than it's ever been (I hope that's good! lol).

Anyway, good luck!

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Fairway_CY said:

Thanks again for the push. I have a camera that shoots 120FPS (I believe) that I've used for slow-mo video in the past. I'll bring that with me tomorrow.

If you have an iPhone or a recent Android phone they shoot 240, many of them.

19 minutes ago, RandallT said:

Sometimes embedding just doesn't work and the link just sits there- not sure I've figured out what those conditions are. It does seem to be related to when the person is in a rush though 

If it's pasted as styled text it sometimes fails. I click "remove formatting" and it then will auto-embed.

---

I'll look at your next videos to see if I have any suggestions on what to work on, @Fairway_CY.

[Fairway_CY]

47 minutes ago, RandallT said:

I see as a reasonable place to start may be your shallow-to-steep pattern, but we'll see what feedback you get. I'm definitely learning that if you go up steep and come back down more shallow, that is a more repeatable and powerful movement

Yeah... I've got to get that part of my swing figured out.  The only swing analysis I ever had, the guy pointed out my grip (which was worse and far weaker than in the original videos I posted) and how steep my swing was.  It's become less steep, but... I don't know where to even start to shallow it out.  

I'm looking forward to seeing what's suggested.  

30 minutes ago, iacas said:

If you have an iPhone or a recent Android phone they shoot 240, many of them.

If it's pasted as styled text it sometimes fails. I click "remove formatting" and it then will auto-embed.

---

I'll look at your next videos to see if I have any suggestions on what to work on, @Fairway_CY.

I've had my phone for nearly 2 years and never thought to see if it was capable of slow motion video.  Nice surprise.  

Thanks man.  I'll post some tomorrow either from the course or from the range in the morning.  

CY

[Fairway_CY]

So... I went out today to try my game in some wind.  Below are a pair of swings from the day, both with 7 irons.  One from a tee and one from the fairway.  I believe the angle from behind is off a bit, so... I'll try to get another shot next time I'm out alone like that.

The tee shot was a good shot.  The shot from the fairway was flared right and got caught up in a 25 MPH wind so it finished well short, also.

As always, tips and suggested drills are welcome and appreciated.
 

 

CY

[iacas]

The angles and your relative (small) size in the frame make this difficult to analyze, as you suspected.