My Swing (Wanzo)

[Wanzo]

19 hours ago, mvmac said:

Yes agree with this. This will help you with the downswing pieces you mentioned. If the tailbone is too far back to start it's going to be impossible to keep it "back" on the downswing.

Thanks Mike.  I think subconsciously I was getter my more and more on my heels at setup to try and get that feel through impact but like you said that is counterproductive. 

[Club Rat]

Looking good Matt, when you take your swing improvements to the course, you should enjoy your game much more.
I'm heading to Old H on Wed.

[Wanzo]

1 hour ago, Club Rat said:

Looking good Matt, when you take your swing improvements to the course, you should enjoy your game much more.
I'm heading to Old H on Wed.

have fun!  I wouldn't be able to sneak out that day, I'm hoping the weather holds through Friday and I'm going to try to get out there or at my course that afternoon.  The weekend doesn't look so good weather wise. 

[Wanzo]

 

Feeling ok and making some progress but it's gonna be the same priority for now, cleaning up the right foot and knee action. Trying to feel the hips going towards target and rotating and feeling the right foot bank towards target so the knee doesn't kick in so much towards the ball. Also tied to this is keeping upper body, especially the head, steady and not moving towards target on downswing. This will help maintain the secondary tilt and help with the foot and knee action I'm trying to change.  

On vacation now so taking a (forced) break from hitting balls daily but still getting in at least 5 minutes of mirror work or slow motion swings each day.  Today had a great view while I worked on it.

Excited to get back home to keep working on my swing. 

[Jack Watson]

The last video looks like you are getting some good solid fundamentals in.  Question on your finish in that...We're you trying to maintain the tipped spine angle through to finish?  Is that normal?

Very fundamentally solid action just looked to me like you could let yourself go a bit more in the finish by releasing the spine angle.  If there's no strain no worries.

I ask because for me if I finish like that it strains my lower back.  

 

 

[Wanzo]

9 hours ago, Jack Watson said:

We're you trying to maintain the tipped spine angle through to finish?

Not really, although the stuff I'm working on will probably lend itself to that some. I mean, trying to reduce a little early extension by keeping my butt on the imaginary wall behind me will give me more of that look.

 

9 hours ago, Jack Watson said:

Very fundamentally solid action just looked to me like you could let yourself go a bit more in the finish by releasing the spine angle.  If there's no strain no worries.

Yeah maybe so, just not really thinking about the finish right now just trying to focus on what I'm changing and I kind of end up where I end up if that makes sense. No strain right now. 

@iacas if I said anything there that isn't right let me know. 

[Wanzo]

The last couple of weeks I've been working on a drill from my evolvr instructor to feel my left arm pull down quickly from the top of the backswing.  Basically feel like I'm trying to get my hands ahead of my front leg and hitting the ball with a lot of shaft lean.  I have a small "flip" currently that we are trying to get rid of, along with trying to get the right elbow in front of my body on the downswing, instead of lagging behind. So I've been doing this slowly and then hitting some balls with the same feel.  It's kind of crazy how I can hit a  ball 80-90% of full distance with a shortened "punch" type of swing.  Sometimes even from a stopped position at the top of the backswing. 

Addressing....

flip:

Right elbow:

[iacas]

How's it been going?

[Wanzo]

On 7/3/2017 at 9:50 PM, iacas said:

 

How's it been going?

 

Thanks for asking. I've been practicing but not as much. I kind of took a break from the technical practice and just tried to play more the last few weeks. I got my first official handicap finally...8.4...and I'm hoping that will trend down this year. I'm also going to play in our club's member guest for the first time next week which is a 2 man best ball and we play 5-9 hole matches. Should be fun. I'm also going to try to play one or two stroke play events later this year to try and get some experience in that environment.  As far as the swing I think it's slowly improving. Right now when I do practice I'm working on trying to get the right elbow in front of me more on the downswing. Here's a couple full speed swings.  

 

 

[iacas]

22 hours ago, Wanzo said:

Thanks for asking. I've been practicing but not as much. I kind of took a break from the technical practice and just tried to play more the last few weeks. I got my first official handicap finally...8.4...and I'm hoping that will trend down this year.

Good! I know people can get addicted to and enjoy practice, but ultimately, what we do on the course is what "matters" the most (usually).

22 hours ago, Wanzo said:

I'm also going to play in our club's member guest for the first time next week which is a 2 man best ball and we play 5-9 hole matches. Should be fun.

Good! Tournaments. Nice.

22 hours ago, Wanzo said:

 

 

Looking good. Good head work, and some other pieces. Keep at it.

[Wanzo]

I'm getting back into a routine of working on my swing a little more. My focus right now is:

1. Feel right foot twist or corkscrew in the ground on the backswing to make sure pressure shifts back dynamically

2. Feel a squat in transition

3. Feel trail foot banking to keep lower body structure

A lot of mirror drills and slow mo swings.  We'll see if this cleans up a few other things related to key three. Trying to keep it simple      and focused. 

[Wanzo]

I'm going to get back in the routine of working on my swing now that we are getting into the winter here in Missouri.  I signed back up for evolvr and looking forward to working hard especially the next few months to get ready for the spring.  Here's a summary of my first analysis and my focus for now, 3 small items:

1. At address, right knee out to match foot flare.

2. Hand path inward right away in the back swing.

3. Punch shots, no roll of face, in the follow through.

[Wanzo]

Going to keep working what I've been working on along with:

-feel the right hip crank back a little more towards target in the backswing

-Head steady in the downswing

-Torso will be in more flexion to help swing more in to out

[Wanzo]

I had the opportunity to visit @iacas in Erie and spend some time working on my game so I wanted to document my notes here for reference.  I'm not going to put them all here, because there is a lot, but these are the main ideas.

First of all, thank you Erik for your hospitality, I think we made a lot of progress and I have a good understanding of my swing now and the things I need to work on to get my scores down in the future. Here's my takeaways:

• Practice slower
  • My tendency is to swing too fast when I'm trying to incorporate changes.  Erik would tell me to swing at 50%, I'd try the move, and we both would agree that was probably more like 90%.
  • So from now on, I really need to focus my practice sessions on working slowly to do the move right.
• Jason Dufner is my spirit animal
  • Or he should at least be the swing picture I'm working towards, especially when referencing how compact his swing is and how his right elbow works

The first day we spent most of the time working on my takeaway, getting the club to work more up...and then working on my right elbow starting down by moving towards the ball (not just down) and in front of me, in order to get the shaft to lay down. A lot of drills, slo-mo swings with a few training aids, etc..

Here is me exaggerating the feel on the takeaway:

A before and after showing the right elbow concept

As we were working on these two items, a couple of other issues started to clear up some without addressing them directly.  I was keeping my head more steady as I started the downswing and I was retaining more secondary axis tilt.  Also, my hands weren't rolling over so fast in the forward swing after impact.

Here is where I'm hoping to get to in the backswing:

We also spent some time working on my pitching the first day.  I got a better feeling for the concepts from the instructional thread about pitching on the site.  Practiced feeling the club fan open and under the plane a little and feeling gravity do a lot of the work to let the club fall back on the ball.  Also touched on setup for these short shots.

Day two we added in a couple setup tweaks:

Also added a feel of keeping the chest pointed at the ground.  This is me exaggerating but shows the feel of not retracting the right shoulder, this also helped shorten the swing and keep the right elbow in check.

 

We made a couple of tweaks to the setup with the driver too.  I was a little too tall and had the ball too far back in my stance.

Later we worked on my putting and I thought this part was really cool.  I seemed to do ok aiming my current putter, we made a small tweak but the main objective was to create a little overspin.  Also, I had a tendency to have the putter accelerate slightly after impact.  We worked on having the putter rise a little through impact with a little more forward press/shaft lean feel or "float loady" feel. 

I am glad I was able to make the trip and now more motivated than ever to try and make the changes necessary to improve. 

 

[iacas]

18 minutes ago, Wanzo said:

• Jason Dufner is my spirit animal

Indeed, but to be clear, you'll never really get those elbow positions… they're just the exaggerations that you should keep in mind as you work toward your goal of making it better. 

18 minutes ago, Wanzo said:

As we were working on these two items, a couple of other issues started to clear up some without addressing them directly.  I was keeping my head more steady as I started the downswing and I was retaining more secondary axis tilt.  Also, my hands weren't rolling over so fast in the forward swing after impact.

Particularly when you do it slowly (for now).  Work at the proper speed.

18 minutes ago, Wanzo said:

Also added a feel of keeping the chest pointed at the ground.  This is me exaggerating but shows the feel of not retracting the right shoulder, this also helped shorten the swing and keep the right elbow in check.

With most people, we'd have worked the other way, but most people aren't here for eight hours one day, and six hours the next day. So, we spent more time on the elbow stuff, because it was the tougher piece, and I wanted to make sure more time was spent there.

[Wanzo]

Posting goals in this thread too for easy reference and accountability.  I'll get a fresh video in here soon.

2018 Goals

• Sub 4 handicap (Currently 7.6).  I posted 14 scores last year, so didn't get to play a lot.
  • Commit to evolvr for the year and practice the right way
  • Swing Speed training 3x per week
  • Practice my evolvr priority 3x per week
  • Short game practice 2x per week
  • Play 20 or more rounds for handicap (and get to the course more often to squeeze in a few holes)
  • Play 2-3 tournaments where I play my own ball
  • Track my stats

[Wanzo]

Working on a lot of the same pieces but trying to keep the idea simple in practice sessions.  One drill right for now, slow backswing like I worked on when in Erie, slow down to A-6 with right elbow leading, small pump and finish to abbreviated, punch shot type finish.  Going to do this daily for a while and keep working hard hitting indoors while the weather stinks outside. 

[iacas]

3 hours ago, Wanzo said:

Working on a lot of the same pieces but trying to keep the idea simple in practice sessions.  One drill right for now, slow backswing like I worked on when in Erie, slow down to A-6 with right elbow leading, small pump and finish to abbreviated, punch shot type finish.  Going to do this daily for a while and keep working hard hitting indoors while the weather stinks outside. 

Yeah, good, KISS.  Check the finish with the belt forward, knees (left especially) extended, still in your tilts with good arm and club angles. You'll get it quickly.