My Swing (101101)

[101101]

I've been Playing Golf for: 3 months recently,  about 10 years ago I played maybe 3-4 rounds a year. 
My current handicap index or average score is: 21.7 officially,  23.9 with recent single rounds in . 
My typical ball flight is:   Fairly straight with good height on solid contacts,  low stingers on thing / fat. 
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is:  Fat shots / thin shots.  Struggle with getting my low point in the right spot. 

A little bit of background me / golf game:

- run a lot, cycle some and play tennis as well

- can get on the range 1 - 2x a week,  been averaging 2 rounds per month (play during the week)

- been to 3 coaches,  first two just sat on the range and would say you're doing x wrong,  but not given any sort of drills, etc to ensure I get the motion down or even practice suggestions.  I'd hit one good one and they'd be like "there ya go".  Third one is a time issue with my work schedule.  Found ya'll and signed up for evolvr and am stoked about it. 

- I learn well by understanding what's wrong, then working to fix it to see the results (thus I enjoy mirror drills and working where I can see the results).  Just endlessly hitting into nets doesn't really do it for me.  Same way I've always been. 

- Clubs are a hodge-podge of mix and match handme downs and cheapo gets:

• Driver: Taylor Made R9 / 10.5 / 460 cc / shortened shaft
• Hybrid:  Adams 21 degree DHY Pro 
• Irons: Adams Blue 5 - GW
• Wedges:  Super old mix and match
• Putter: Random putter that was in a starter set my neighbor was giving away for free at a yard sale

- A top fitter's near me so I do have a fitting schedule later this month,  it'd be helpful to know as I start to actually fill out the bag, what's ideal.  I have some issues depending on who I'm playing with and course design between the Irons being too short and the driver being too long.   

- Struggle with consistency, making sure I'm aligned to where I want the ball to go and getting the low point where I want it. 

- Goal is to get to consistent bogey golf. 

---

Videos: 

Back View:  7 Iron, second swing was rough and a mega fat shot.  Other ones were pretty good. 

 

Side View:  7 Iron,  fairly good hits and went where I aimed (not necessarily where I wanted it to go). 

It was a decent day of ball striking, 70%ish where solid.   Noticed that staying on the ball of my right foot helped keep things way more balanced.   Tried to keep the backswing more in check as well. 

Edited July 6, 2016 by 101101

[iacas]

The club goes shallow, steep, stays steep, and goes shallow during the downswing (or tries).

You should perhaps work on standing the shaft up a bit more on the backswing, so it doesn't have to keep trying to adjust to get on the plane during the backswing and downswing.

But that's based on full-speed video. I'd imagine there's some Key #2 work needed, too. Key #1 looks decent.

[101101]

@iacas - Thanks for the feedback!    I'd want to move the red line in the attachment closer to the yellow line which should make the staff steeper and keep me longer on plane, correct?

Looking at the video in slow motion, noticed that my club face goes in somewhat shut which isn't surprising because everything going left.  

Played a full 18 this week and turned in a 97 on a par 71 that played as a 70.5/134 so it'll knock a few tenths off the handicap.   Course was short enough (6,000) that I should have just hit 5 iron off the tee and landed about 200 yards in the middle of the fairway and I would have saved off about 10 strokes (OOB drives that added +2).    

https://www.gamegolf.com/player/101101A/round/1026984

[iacas]

On July 9, 2016 at 3:07 PM, 101101 said:

@iacas - Thanks for the feedback!    I'd want to move the red line in the attachment closer to the yellow line which should make the staff steeper and keep me longer on plane, correct?

In the backswing, yes.

[101101]

Feedback from Evolvr on the initial swings were that I needed to work on grip, arm looseness, and some quarter turns so I've spent the past two weeks or so focusing in there.

Decided it was time to upload another round for feedback, mainly b/c the grip's coming around and I'm going further back that in the sample videos and wanted to make sure that was okay.

Nothing fancy,  halfswings with a 7 iron:

 

 Things I notice when doing the drills,  if I get back past the wrist hinge,  I hit the ball pretty darn straight, consistently, and not too far off when I rear back on the full swings.    Going back with straight arms gets me all out of whack and I top the ever mess out of the ball, will be curious to hear coach's thoughts on that. 

Spending a bit of time also focusing on @iacas comment of steeping the shaft with some mirror work, it's moving ever so slightly in the right direction on the drills. 

Full Swing's a different story:  balls are still going about 15 degrees left and straight.    Trying to swing out to right just gives me a monster slice.       Looks like I'm going above the plane and then my hitch at the top of the swing just puts me ontop of the plane and I can't shallow it out.  

 

Going to work on feeling like I'm taking half-swings to get more control at the top and try to avoid that hitch and move downwards.   Even with that controlled feeling swing, I can get good distance and around a course.  Playing this weekend and will see how that goes.

I've lost my ability to hit the driver (aka not even getting solid contact); something's off there but it'll line up once I get the swing fixed.   
    

[mchepp]

Take your time getting to full swings. You can swing in a full manor but you should do so at reduced speeds. So start at 50% and swing at that speed until you can do it right. Then go to 60%, then go to 70% etc. You need to fight the urge to go faster until you are happy with how your swings looks at lower speeds on camera. 

It takes time. Be patient and enjoy the process of working on the repetitions at lower speeds.

[101101]

17 hours ago, mchepp said:

Take your time getting to full swings. You can swing in a full manor but you should do so at reduced speeds. So start at 50% and swing at that speed until you can do it right. Then go to 60%, then go to 70% etc. You need to fight the urge to go faster until you are happy with how your swings looks at lower speeds on camera. 

It takes time. Be patient and enjoy the process of working on the repetitions at lower speeds.

Thanks for the feedback!  I know I've got slow it down the practice and have patience with the drills I'm getting as well as with making the correct swings. 

Swings going to have to be built properly and each bit that changes should get me closer to where I want to be.   

[101101]

Sidenote:

As mentioned above, I had a preschedule fitting today.  While I full believe that it's the shooter and not the arrow that's the root of my problems, I've been playing with a mixed bag of handme downs, yard sale finds and clubs other folks wanted to get rid of cheap.     B/C I'm making the time investment to get my swing right long term, I wanted to at least make sure I started with a bag of clubs that made sense for me. 

Current bag is a set of Adams Blue SGI Irons,  handme down wedges and an R9 460 driver. 

Few practice swings and registered out with:

5 iron speed was: 88.3 mph
Driver: 102 mph

Immediate feedback is that I swing way too fast for my current set of irons. 5 iron speed was: 

The fitter noticed a few key things everyone picks up on,  over the top and that aggressive stabbing move.  I was stopping my follow through which I've been known to do. 

The difference being with my irons current, I've figured out some sort of move to counteract it so everything goes straight 15 degress left as I hit them.  Drivers the opposite where it goes 15degrees off to the right immediately and stays straight. 

Fitter pretty much said agreed once I can get things cleaned up and not need whatever move I'm throwing in as compensation, I'll be in good shape (shocking, I know ).

We landed on a good feeling shaft, grip that worked well (made it a bit less left) which is so much more comfortable swinging through than my current set.   This would be a comfort (feel) purchase an square me a way for a long time with a 4 - PW.   Prices are comparable to those out there and I recoup fitting fee if purchase through him. 

Driver we got a bit more distance by raising the loft but again, swing fix will be the big help there.  My AOA was pretty much 0 or negative on all of them so just fixing might negate the loft.  Consensus on the driver was worry about it later since I'll hit it not too often.

In a couple of months (probably at the end of the year),  he wants me to come back and redo the driver and wood fitting with hopefully a more in to out swing plane. 

All in all, it was a good experience especially for a data nerd like me,  he does flight scope gapping sessions so that might be a fun adventure  once I get things squared away as well. 

 

 

 

 

[101101]

Life,  funny how it gets in the way of golf sometimes :)

Played a couple of rounds over the last two months but pretty much no practice.  If I can sneak out for to go hit,  might as well play 9 or 18.  The range that I'd be frequenting (and is the only thing within 15 miles) is on it's way out so hours have been spotty. 

Switched up clubs and went to Ping G30's with CFS stiff, got a killer deal on one of the used sites.   Having issues with the 4 iron and 5 iron at the moment but I think I just need more time swinging those with the new length and weight. With the other clubs, lost a bunch of balls initially to the right but as I get used to the clubs I'm finding the distances tend be more consistent as does where they go.   Still can lose one if I get sloppy but that'd happen no matter what I was swinging.

Few videos from today:

- still have a hitch in my transition gets me above the plane on the downswing. 

- posture still needs some work, bringing back that right shoulder will help line the hips, knees, ankles up with my toes. Not as bad as it was but in the video you can see how my setup is a bit leftish.

 

[101101]

Another day, another dollar and another month with little golf. 

Nothing major to report sans I sent the Pings back and there was a warranty claim on the Blues so I've ended up with a set of Aeroburners so the club changing is complete.   Focus is solely on the swing for the next couple of months as I should be able to get to range fairly frequently now that some health issue and work craziness has worked through the backlog. 

Played 18 this AM,  fewer shanks but didn't hit much that well and noticed I was shifting my weight backwards a lot more that I used to.   

Time for a lot of daily mirror work.