My Swing (DaveP043)

[DaveP043]

Just now, iacas said:

Okay.

I'll help you with phase 2 in May if you're able to get through phase 1 by then.

As long as the weather works with me, I'll make progress.  Honestly, I was encouraged by the contact I was making, and not bothered by erratic direction.  Proper practice will reduce that variability, I'm sure.  Its not like I'm going to stop playing in order to only work on my swing, I don't have that in me.  I'm planning to get another range session in this week, before our opening tournament on Saturday, a 3-club 3-person scramble.  

[iacas]

11 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

As long as the weather works with me, I'll make progress.  Honestly, I was encouraged by the contact I was making, and not bothered by erratic direction.  Proper practice will reduce that variability, I'm sure.  Its not like I'm going to stop playing in order to only work on my swing, I don't have that in me.  I'm planning to get another range session in this week, before our opening tournament on Saturday, a 3-club 3-person scramble.  

When you play, just play.

And don't under-rate the quality of the practice you can get in a mirror at home, or in your yard.

[DaveP043]

I couldn't make my videos work, but I WAS able to waste some time with a graphic editor and put these two shots together for comparison.  I tried to get the angle at the knee in the same spots as @iacas drew it previously, and the new one is (upside down) about 151 ^{o.  .}

That's going the right direction, I think.

Edited March 22, 2017 by DaveP043

[iacas]

Yeah, looks better.

Note a few things, though, that could be better:

• I like the way your back is a little more relaxed and rounded on the left.
• I'd like to see your chin down a little more. Try to look directly at the golf ball out of the center of your eye sockets. This will help with the first thing, too.
• Your weight is still a bit toward the heels. Probably not as much as it looks with the slanted picture, but I doubt I'm alone in seeing your weight a bit too far into the heels. Feel like it's on the balls of your feet just to get it closer to the middle of your feet.

Otherwise, good! I toldja your knees would probably feel almost straight. And 151° is nothing…

(It's quite a bit of a change for you, to be clear. Just saying that 151° is still a good amount of knee bend. )

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, looks better.

Note a few things, though, that could be better:

• I like the way your back is a little more relaxed and rounded on the left.
• I'd like to see your chin down a little more. Try to look directly at the golf ball out of the center of your eye sockets. This will help with the first thing, too.
• Your weight is still a bit toward the heels. Probably not as much as it looks with the slanted picture, but I doubt I'm alone in seeing your weight a bit too far into the heels. Feel like it's on the balls of your feet just to get it closer to the middle of your feet.

Will do.  I think the "straighter" back was a result of my desire to bend from the hips, as opposed to from the waist/lower back, I'll try to relax a bit more.  The chin down, will do.  The weight, I gotta say, my feeling was that I was about to tip over forward, but that's because this is a change. I'll keep pushing towards my toes until I DO tip over.  Then I can back off a little.

I gotta say, this one experience has made me an immediate believer in video.  Being able to get nearly immediate visual feedback helped me keep doing something that felt pretty uncomfortable from the first.  

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Will do.  I think the "straighter" back was a result of my desire to bend from the hips, as opposed to from the waist/lower back, I'll try to relax a bit more.  The chin down, will do.

Yeah. Just round over a little more because you have to reach for the ball a little, as opposed to when your knees are bent at 90°.

5 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

The weight, I gotta say, my feeling was that I was about to tip over forward, but that's because this is a change. I'll keep pushing towards my toes until I DO tip over.  Then I can back off a little.

Yeah. That's the spirit. Film it.

5 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I gotta say, this one experience has made me an immediate believer in video.  Being able to get nearly immediate visual feedback helped me keep doing something that felt pretty uncomfortable from the first.  

Right on!

I often point out to instructors that the video is often more for the student than it is for me their instructor.

[DaveP043]

A quick report, with more to follow.  Friday was a practice day.  I worked on the things listed above, straighter knees, bend from the hips, weight more toward my toes, with a more rounded/relaxed back, and chin down so I was looking at the ball straighter.  A lot of little bits, but all happening before the swing.  Video showed that I was making the desired changes, I'll post something later.  Contact was inconsistent, but I think the set-up changes WERE somewhat consistent, and that was my job.  Also, a little less fatigue, I'm guessing because the more rounded/relaxed back puts less strain than the straighter back I had during the very first practice.

Saturday and Sunday were golf days, not practice, but I did try to continue with the "revised" set-up.  Its starting to feel a little less uncomfortable, but I'm pretty sure that I wasn't doing it as consistently or "extremely" (I know its not extreme, but it feels that way at times) as I did during true practice.  However, contact was reasonably good, a lot of solid shots.  I did get the video shot for my Newport Cup application, but haven't done anything with it.  I doubt that it will be really useful for evaluation, because the angles weren't right.  Hopefully, I'll get a couple of practice sessions during the week, and continue to reinforce the revised address.

[DaveP043]

OK, a follow-up from yesterday's post.  First, a comparison photo, I think I'm a little better with a more rounded back and chin down.

Second, the video.  As noted, I felt much more on my toes.  The extra ball and club were there to give consistent distance from feet to ball, something I probably wasn't consistent with in my first attempt.

I'm doing my best to avoid analyzing myself (its not easy, never thought it would be), other than the couple of specific instructions I've been given, so I'm going to stop typing here and wait for feedback.

[mchepp]

What's all this practicing going on here? None of this is good for us who wear red in October. Our only hope is you tire yourself out with all this practicing.

[Pretzel]

4 hours ago, mchepp said:

What's all this practicing going on here? None of this is good for us who wear red in October. Our only hope is you tire yourself out with all this practicing.

It's ok, I got in 50 holes of practice yesterday to try and keep up.

It looks like you're making good progress with moving your weight further to your toes! The posture, at least to my untrained eye, looks much better at address. How does it feel after working with it for a couple of sessions? Do you still feel like you're falling over or have you been able to adjust to it?

Edited March 29, 2017 by Pretzel

[iacas]

6 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

OK, a follow-up from yesterday's post.  First, a comparison photo, I think I'm a little better with a more rounded back and chin down.

Second, the video.  As noted, I felt much more on my toes.  The extra ball and club were there to give consistent distance from feet to ball, something I probably wasn't consistent with in my first attempt.

I'm doing my best to avoid analyzing myself (its not easy, never thought it would be), other than the couple of specific instructions I've been given, so I'm going to stop typing here and wait for feedback.

Just a small tweak.

No need to bend over so much. You're below 45°. It's probably comfortable, because you're used to having low hands, but stand up taller and let your neck relax a bit so you can look at the ball directly.

[CarlSpackler]

31 minutes ago, iacas said:

Just a small tweak.

No need to bend over so much. You're below 45°. It's probably comfortable, because you're used to having low hands, but stand up taller and let your neck relax a bit so you can look at the ball directly.

I have the same problem @DaveP043. If you figure out how to fix this, please let me know. 

[DaveP043]

11 hours ago, Pretzel said:

It's ok, I got in 50 holes of practice yesterday to try and keep up.

It looks like you're making good progress with moving your weight further to your toes! The posture, at least to my untrained eye, looks much better at address. How does it feel after working with it for a couple of sessions? Do you still feel like you're falling over or have you been able to adjust to it?

Thanks.  I still feel a little uncomfortable with my weight toe-ward, but not so bad.  A sign of progress, I was at the club yesterday, talking to a friend about what I was working on, and tried to demonstrate the set-up I'd used previously, and THAT was extremely uncomfortable.

10 hours ago, iacas said:

Just a small tweak.

No need to bend over so much. You're below 45°. It's probably comfortable, because you're used to having low hands, but stand up taller and let your neck relax a bit so you can look at the ball directly.

10-4

10 hours ago, CarlSpackler said:

I have the same problem @DaveP043. If you figure out how to fix this, please let me know. 

For the next few days, I'll be taking a golf stance every time I stand up from my desk.  I'll be checking the stance in a mirror every time I go past one, looking for straighter knees, more vertical but comfortably rounded back, and head down to face the ball.  On the range, I'll check with video regularly to verify that I'm making the changes suggested.  So far, that general procedure is taking me in the desired direction.  

[DaveP043]

A couple of Slo-Mo videos from yesterday.  It looks to me that my back is more vertical, but I think I need to lower my chin a little more still.  I may have regressed a tiny bit with the knee flex, but my weight is still more toe-ward than it was initially. This is the first FO vid I've taken for a bit, since the set-up changes were best viewed from DTL, and I didn't want to confuse myself.  I'm surprised at how far back the ball is in my stance, I thought it was just a couple inches behind my left heel, instead its actually closer to my right.

The weekend is for playing, not practicing, but while I warm up I can be more aware of my head position (chin lower) and ball position (further left than it "feels" like it should be).

[DaveP043]

On 3/31/2017 at 1:57 PM, DaveP043 said:

The weekend is for playing, not practicing, but while I warm up I can be more aware of my head position (chin lower) and ball position (further left than it "feels" like it should be).

A couple of notes from non-practice.  Saturday I shot 81 (72.0/135) on a chilly breezy day on a very wet course.  Contact was generally decent, but not great.  I think part of it is getting used to a slightly different set-up, and not always getting it right.  Still, not awful.  Sunday, a nice 74.  More consistent contact, and the worst shots were in decent shape.  From a "technical" standpoint, I'm becoming much more comfortable moving the weight towards the balls of my feet, although I still have to think about it on most shots.  I probably regressed on the knee flex  a bit, something to work on when I get to the range again.  

[iacas]

Keep going. Looking better.

[DaveP043]

Thanks, hopefully I'll get to practice a couple times this week, if the rains hold off.

[DaveP043]

After a couple of weeks of playing and practice, its time to post another video.  Not a proper camera angle, I was aiming further left, I really wasn't as open as it looks.  My analysis, my knee flex looks similar to the previous improvements, my back may be a little more vertical,.my head could still be tilted forward more.  I've noticed that a thought that works for me isn't so much "chin down" as "eyes down", getting the feeling that I'm looking at the ball through the center of my eyes, if that makes any sense.  I tend to make MUCH improved contact when I remember that.  It looks to me that my head moves away from the ball through the downswing.

Over the Pinehurst weekend, I hit a lot of good shots, but a fair number of poor ones.  Lots of hooks with the driver.  I feel like I'm working through some adjustments regarding distance to the ball, perhaps as part of the set-up change.