My Swing (freshmanUTA)

[freshmanUTA]

4 hours ago, iacas said:

FTFY.

I'm pretty sure that you can do it at 1 MPH. But not at 100. The trick is in finding the speed at which you can do it most of the time, and working there, and slowly raising that number.

Change the picture. Stop swinging full speed and expecting any meaningful change.

Most of my practice is under 50%. My evolvr coach recommended taking 4-5 7 iron full swings that go 50-60 yards(not sure exact distance, just the feel of a really slow swing) then a swing a little faster, then back to 4-5 slow swings. On top of that i take about 3 or for really slow motion practice swings working on the feelings.

My mind is going crazy thinking about any sort of thing that could be causing this. Setup, spine tilt, grip, anything. I understand changes take time but I would assume i could at least stop swinging miles left after a few hundred swings at a slow tempo.

The swings in those videos were #100 and 101 for the day. I planned on only hitting 100 but i figured one more couldn't hurt.

[boogielicious]

10 hours ago, iacas said:

FTFY.

I'm pretty sure that you can do it at 1 MPH. But not at 100. The trick is in finding the speed at which you can do it most of the time, and working there, and slowly raising that number.

Change the picture. Stop swinging full speed and expecting any meaningful change.

This is exactly what my Evolvr instructor has me doing @freshmanUTA. Film it too. What I do at the range is first a mapping drill to get the feel down (I film that). Then I start with full swings at slower speeds. I film those and see if it is working. Then I get progressively faster. There comes a point where I can't do it. I then back off and see on the video what is different. In most sessions, I only hit 3 or 4 full speed swings.

[iacas]

6 hours ago, freshmanUTA said:

Most of my practice is under 50%. My evolvr coach recommended taking 4-5 7 iron full swings that go 50-60 yards(not sure exact distance, just the feel of a really slow swing) then a swing a little faster, then back to 4-5 slow swings. On top of that i take about 3 or for really slow motion practice swings working on the feelings.

My mind is going crazy thinking about any sort of thing that could be causing this. Setup, spine tilt, grip, anything. I understand changes take time but I would assume i could at least stop swinging miles left after a few hundred swings at a slow tempo.

The swings in those videos were #100 and 101 for the day. I planned on only hitting 100 but i figured one more couldn't hurt.

My point was that you CAN do it at 1 MPH. Show us the swing with you doing it at the fastest speed you can do it. Maybe that's 30% max speed. Maybe it's 60.

[freshmanUTA]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

My point was that you CAN do it at 1 MPH. Show us the swing with you doing it at the fastest speed you can do it. Maybe that's 30% max speed. Maybe it's 60.

Maybe it's even less. I took some really slow swings today and played them back and I'm still swinging to the left...

To make it worse if I go any slower than that all I do is chunk everything, I hit the ground 3,4 maybe even 6 inches before the ball. 

I'm a mess.The Videos won't upload to YouTube so I'm gonna film more tomorrow and get them uploaded.

[amoline]

You are losing tilt at the top just FYI. 

Just from your still photo you are firing your lower body way too early. Going through this same issue myself. If you posed yourself as the still picture, your hips are in a finish position and your arms aren't even close to impact. So your only option is to flip at it or rake everything off to the left, or both. The only thing worse -- results and body wise--  than flipping at it is crashing into the ground which is where your 6 inches fat shots come from  

If you put yourself just standing at the ball like in the picture that you have, you have absolutely no room left for your arms. You need to feel like you are starting your arms way, way sooner. After having 'lead with the lower body' drilled into my skull for forever, I'm now trying to fix the ramifications of way overdoing that move for way too long. 

[freshmanUTA]

7 minutes ago, amoline said:

You are losing tilt at the top just FYI. 

Just from your still photo you are firing your lower body way too early. Going through this same issue myself. If you posed yourself as the still picture, your hips are in a finish position and your arms aren't even close to impact. So your only option is to flip at it or rake everything off to the left, or both. The only thing worse -- results and body wise--  than flipping at it is crashing into the ground which is where your 6 inches fat shots come from  

If you put yourself just standing at the ball like in the picture that you have, you have absolutely no room left for your arms. You need to feel like you are starting your arms way, way sooner. After having 'lead with the lower body' drilled into my skull for forever, I'm now trying to fix the ramifications of way overdoing that move for way too long. 

I've never even considered this because nobody has brought it up. I can try to start arms sooner. Maybe that's why I have such an issue shallowing, because my hips already start to open before the club drops? Thanks for pointing that out!

[amoline]

It is going to be tough because it will feel entirely wrong like you are just throwing your arms at it. But you want your arms speeding up in front of everything. 

As the favorite instructor of mine for earlier says, there is no other sport than golf that we are taught to keep our arms passive. 

The feel that has been working well at least for me has been to feel like I am not rotating at all from the top but my arms are the first things to go over my left shoulder. The feel that I was given at my last lesson is to feel like I am throwing a frisbee or doing a tennis left hand backhand over my left shoulder to start the swing. 

It it is very weird. But not having your arms lag behind like that is crucial. 

[freshmanUTA]

So, i shot a +33 104. And I'm actually happy about it. Towards the end I was starting to hit draws, and hitting my irons farther than usual(is my distance back??) I stuck with trying to shallow my club more and in the beginning took two really slow swings emphasizing the shallowing of my club, and then went up and hit. I usually score in the 80s but I'm proud of this score because I was starting to hit, and consistently hitting good draws off the tee, on the fairway, everywhere. My drives were mostly straight draws, whit the exception of a push-draw on the 18th. I also don't have the actual tags yet so theres a couple shots that were screwed up(238 yard Pitching Wedge). Like normal, there were a few chunks, shanks, tops, etc. But I can chalk that down to still working on my swing during the round.

EDIT: Oh, another thing. I'm happy with all the three putts i had because when i was three putting the 3rd putt was usually a couple inches or so. there were a couple from around 3-4 feet, but for the most part it was <6inches away for my third putt.

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/mattkaminski15/round/1069675

 

Also, @iacas I completely forgot to take a video of my swing today. I'll try to hit a few later tonight and get a video. I'm just happy I think I'm finally starting to get the club more shallow. Every club but my 4 iron was hitting straight draws. My 4 iron was pushing a lot.

As of right now I'm going to remove my handicap from my profile and use the one GG gives me when I get enough rounds in. I dont like having my old rounds still in my handicap while trying to change my swing. My past few rounds have been high 90's so 11.9 doesn't really make sense.

Edited July 25, 2016 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

Next lesson from evolvr came in. 

He wants me to have a slightly stringer grip with my right hand, and have my head move less towards the target in the downswing, and to have the clubface stay more parallel to my spine in the backswing.

 

[freshmanUTA]

So, this is a weird question. Could the wrong swing weight cause an over the top swing? When i was fit for clubs i was fit to swing weight D4. I ordered my clubs directly from cobra because it was $900.00 cheaper. I ask this because I can draw my irons from 7-PW/GW and my numbered wedges. But as soon as i hit the 6 iron down all i hit is fades, then 4 iron, 5 wood, 3 wood, driver all slice.

Before I leave the question at that, could it be because of my ball positioning? I tend to play 7i-Wedges in the middle of my stance, but the longer clubs are forward of middle.

 

I'm not sure, but I was just thinking of some things. Anyway, loving the evolvr lessons. Making miles of improvement in 15 days!!

[iacas]

3 hours ago, freshmanUTA said:

So, this is a weird question. Could the wrong swing weight cause an over the top swing? When i was fit for clubs i was fit to swing weight D4. I ordered my clubs directly from cobra because it was $900.00 cheaper. I ask this because I can draw my irons from 7-PW/GW and my numbered wedges. But as soon as i hit the 6 iron down all i hit is fades, then 4 iron, 5 wood, 3 wood, driver all slice.

They would have the same swing weight… no?

[freshmanUTA]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

They would have the same swing weight… no?

When i ordered directly from cobra i couldn't choose the swing weight. I asked golfsmith to check a few of the clubs swingweights and the long irons aren't D4.. I forget what they were, something like D1 and 2 maybe? I don't remember. The PW, 8 and 7 all measured D4, and the 4,5,6 were all different. I don't understand swing weight too much, but if this wouldn't cause anything overly negative, then dismiss what I'm asking. 

 

In terms of My Swing, I hit about 45 balls today using pretty much only the 7 iron and teed up the ball so i could really exaggerate the slow swing. Felt good at first bit started feeling strange so i took one full swing and saw that I was returning to pushes, so I spent the rest of my practice session taking backswings then reaaaaally slow downswings and all the balls were drawing before they fell after about 20 yards. Gonna go back tomorrow and work on faster tempo and see if i can get it then. 

Still slicing the 4 iron.

[freshmanUTA]

Amazing practice session today. Consistently drawing my 7 iron, and feeling reaaly good even when swinging close to full speed. Haven't touched my driver but my 4 iron is still slicing, though not as bad as before. The new grip probably helped to square up the clubface better.

It was raining, so didn't bother taking a video. The go pro has a water proof case but for 400$ I'm not taking the chance.

[freshmanUTA]

Not so great practice today. Used the 6 iron instead of the 7 iron today. I'm pushing my 6 iron, every once in a while i hit a huge hook, and sometimes a shot that starts straight and goes left.

Swing DTL:

 

Swing Face On: This is where I am having the most problems. Even when I work in a mirror, it looks to me like my head is staying still but it moves forward every time. I had my dad hold an alignment stick to my head when I was swinging and even then i was pushing forward so hard that I was bending the alignment stick and couldn't stop from moving forward.

 

Grip is now more "strong", as compared to my really weak grip previously. Working on trying to prevent my head from sliding too far forward in the downswing, and still trying to shallow the club in the downswing.

 

The last instructor I saw used to tell me i needed to "release" the club, so it felt like i was casting a fishing pole into the ball.. I think thats where my early extension/flipping came from.

Edited July 30, 2016 by freshmanUTA

[freshmanUTA]

Mediocre practice today. Hit a few draws, some pushes, some hooks. Used only 6 iron. I'm getting really concerned about my flipping at the ball. Am i freaking out over something that will fix itself as i keep taking evolvr lessons, or is this something i should try to fix now? Anyone know what could be causing it? 

I see good improvement, but I'm concerned about this flipping thing because now that I saw it, it's in the back of my head all the time.

[freshmanUTA]

Played 9 this morning. I wanted to go in depth with this round because looking back I'm not too upset with how it turned out. 14 over after 9, but it happens. And as i said in the handicap indexes thread: 

Quote

I removed mine from my profile because it's just plain not right. Since I started working on my swing my handicap has fluctuated from 11-13 and down again but now that I'm really going the "cold turkey" style of not reverting to the old for the sake of better scores, I want somewhere to actually look at for progress. I have 3 rounds (albeit terrible, still rounds) in game golf and want to use the number that gives me as my starting handicap. ATM it says 31.9. Rough considering I used to score in the low 80's while following the rules(no mulligans, etc. But hey, if at the end of this I start hitting consistent shots I won't mind being a 31.9 for a while.

Hole 1: Par 4 300 yards.

So the first thing you guys should know is this course is short. I've been playing it recently because I don't have any of my distance I used to have(except my 7 iron, I bomb that thing) and it makes holes usually driver-wedge or driver-9/8iron. Just helps me work on my swing and not worry about hitting 4 irons into greens.

Anyway; I hit a pretty nice drive, pushed it right but it drew back into the sand around a 215 yard carry(again, I'm not putting power in I'm still working on my swing). The second shot was a topped 56* because I tried to muscle it out of the sand from 85 yards out. I then hit right under the ball from about 60 out and sent the ball about 40 yards, then chipped on and 2 putted from 13 feet.

The takeaway from this hole is to: A. Not muscle a club out of the sand, especially a shot you've never practiced before. B. Check the length of the rough you're hitting out of so you dont send a wedge right under the ball.

[freshmanUTA]

To anyone who may be able to do it, TST froze on my computer while i was typing and didnt finish the rest of my post:

Played 9 this morning. I wanted to go in depth with this round because looking back I'm not too upset with how it turned out. 14 over after 9, but it happens. And as i said in the handicap indexes thread: 

Quote

I removed mine from my profile because it's just plain not right. Since I started working on my swing my handicap has fluctuated from 11-13 and down again but now that I'm really going the "cold turkey" style of not reverting to the old for the sake of better scores, I want somewhere to actually look at for progress. I have 3 rounds (albeit terrible, still rounds) in game golf and want to use the number that gives me as my starting handicap. ATM it says 31.9. Rough considering I used to score in the low 80's while following the rules(no mulligans, etc. But hey, if at the end of this I start hitting consistent shots I won't mind being a 31.9 for a while.

Hole 1: Par 4 300 yards. (Double Bogey)

So the first thing you guys should know is this course is short. I've been playing it recently because I don't have any of my distance I used to have(except my 7 iron, I bomb that thing) and it makes holes usually driver-wedge or driver-9/8iron. Just helps me work on my swing and not worry about hitting 4 irons into greens.

Anyway; I hit a pretty nice drive, pushed it right but it drew back into the sand around a 215 yard carry(again, I'm not putting power in I'm still working on my swing). The second shot was a topped 56* because I tried to muscle it out of the sand from 85 yards out. I then hit right under the ball from about 60 out and sent the ball about 40 yards, then chipped on and 2 putted from 13 feet.

The takeaway from this hole is to: A. Not muscle a club out of the sand, especially a shot you've never practiced before. B. Check the length of the rough you're hitting out of so you dont send a wedge right under the ball.

Hole 2: 160 yards. (Bogey)

Not sure why game golf says i took 6 iron, but i took 8 iron and thinned it short of the bunker, pretty shallow inside-out swing and pushed it right toward the bunker, not too much to say.

Hit thin wedge shot that hit the lip of the bunker and just barely got over, then two putted from off the green, about 30 feet away.

Hole 3: Par 3 130 yards. (Double Bogey)

Shanked my pitching wedge right into the water. Took a 56* from the drop zone about 40 yards and I honestly dont know how, but i took what felt, and my dad can confirm, was only a 1/3rd swing, and flew the green by about 30 yards. Caught it really clean and out of the middle i guess? Then chipped about 5 feet onto the back of the green and the ball wouldn't stop rolling. Ball off the green short sided. Chipped to about 2 inches and while i was walking to get my putter the ball started rolling again and went in....... Im not complaining ;)

Hole 4: Par 4 370 Yards. (Bogey)

Pushed a drive about 220-225 into heavy rough. Thinned an 8 iron about 154 yards, luckily it stopped on the green. 

The green here wasn't done before we got there so it was full of dew and it was like putting in a pool. 3 Putt from 20 feet because i severely underestimated how slow the putt would be with water.

Not really a takeaway here, just need to take a risk and hit harder when the green is wet.

Hole 5: Par 4 330 Yards. (Bogey)

Pushed driver straight into a tree. Thinned an 8 iron about 125-130 yards. 56* from about 60 yards and blocked it about 5 yards right of the pin. 2 putt from 25 feet. The first putt was one of the best lag putts i had the whole day.

Hole 6: Par 3 120 yards. (Par)

Took gap wedge and stuck it to about 15 feet. Two putted. No complaints, but my gap wedge swing felt over-the-top so i played a second ball and hit almost the exact same spot, but hit a draw this time.

Hole 7: Par 4 290 Yards. (Double Bogey)

Normally i could drive this hole every day of the week, which is pretty discouraging. Anyway,  Low-flighted Hooked drive into a tree about 180 yards. 8 iron from behind the tree trying to hit a high shot over to get back into the fairway, aaaand hit the tree branch. then just punched a 4 iron about 60 yards forward to get back into the fairway. 56* to about 15 feet then 2 putted.

Hole 8: Par 3 Tournament tee position, 180 yards.(Normally 160) (Par)

Took 7 iron cause I've been blasting this club. Push-draw that started over the sand and finished about 5 yards right of the flag. Two putted for par, misread the first putt and missed on the low side.

Hole 9: Par 4 310 Yards. (Quadruple Bogey)

Aaand here's where i screwed up my round. This is a much tighter fairway than the GPS shows. The rough is REALLY long, so you don't want to miss the fairway, and the water/trees on the right screw you up big time, while the houses on the left have fences that take up a good portion of the hole. Pushed my first drive, absolutely clobbered it, easily 250+ carry..... into the trees. Woops. Hooked my second drive, started right of the fairway, and just took a 90* turn left. Finally hit a good drawing drive into the left side rough just short of the bunker about 100 out. Took my 56* to try to get out and hit it thin about 60 yards. Then sorta did the same thing on the next shot, but with a pitching wedge and it was more of a bottom-groove shot not thin, from about 35ish out, so it actually didn't turn out horrible. Then I missed my 15 foot putt, by about 15 feet, and made the return putt.

The takeaway on this hole is: Practice more with your driver. When you try to speed up you lose the proper form. Also remember to not hit under the ball out of the rough!!

Feels nice to finally hit draws.

[freshmanUTA]

So I know this will be tough, but I've made a goal to myself that I want to have a handicap low enough to be able to enter the US Open Qualifying tournament next year. Will I enter? Probably not, but the maximum handicap is 4.9 and I think it's a really good goal to shoot for. 

To prepare I need to work on a few major things.

Strokes gained off the tee:

I know i only have 3 rounds entered, but compared to a 5HCP golfer I lose 7.24 strokes off the tee. Ideally I'd like to lower this, but driving has always been one of my weakest parts. 

Strokes gained during approach shots:

Compared to a 5HCP i gain 5.35 strokes on my approach shots. Ideally I'd like to focus most on these, as I want approach shots to be one of the stronger parts of my game. 

Short game and putting:

I combined these two as I'd like to spend a lot more time on these two. My short game is sitting at 8.68 and my putting is sitting at 7.68. I desperately need to work on my short game. I need to get used to not just using 1 club for every shot.

 

Now, I can say I'd like to fix these all I want, but what difference will it make if I don't have a plan of what to work on?

 

15 Minutes will be spent warming up: Slow swings hitting positions, and just generally getting the feel for hitting a ball.

Strokes gained off the tee:

I'd like to spend about 45 minutes of my practice time working on my driver and fairway woods. Ideally, by the end of 2016 I'll have my woods under control, but for now 45 minutes each time will do fine.

Strokes gained during approach shots:

Here's where it's difficult. Approach shots vary from wedges to long irons or woods. I want to spend a half hour hitting shots with all my irons, working on accuracy. Not worried about distance at the moment, only accuracy. I plan to continue working hard with my evolvr instructor, and hope I can make lightyears of improvement.

I want to have my game golf show that with my 7,8,9,PW,GW,56, that a majority of my shots land within 30 feet of the pin. That sounds like a tough goal, but I think I can do it.

Short game and putting:

Since recently I've been two putting almost every hole, even when I'm inside 10 feet, I want to spend about 30 minutes on my putting. I want to work on hitting the center of my putter face, so I'll use the tee drill, and practice rolling putts about 10-15 feet away. I don't miss too many 3-4 footers, so i shouldn't be worried about those.(Just like LSW says)

I want to dedicate about 20 minutes to wedge shots under half swings, so chipping/pitching. I want to try to get at least 8 of my 10 balls within 5 feet from anywhere off the green.

I want to dedicate 10 minutes to bunker shots, trying to have my balls stop within 3 feet.

 

That's 2.5 hours on the range every day(hopefully, I'm not made of money you know.)

 

I realize this is a big goal, but I want to work for it. It would be the most amazing feeling to be able to go golfing with my dad and shoot par, or better. Hell, it would be great to break 80 again! Recently my scores have gone up a lot from going from a lateral sway to a centered turn, and now they're starting to go back down. I get frustrated, and there might be a lot of rant mode posts in this thread, but bear with me I wan't to be good at this sport. :D