My Swing (DaveP043)

[iacas]

20 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

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.  

That's a hook pattern, there, with that path and that exit.

But, you're still doing this the right way: get comfortable with your posture first. Maybe even stay with that until May 5-7.

Then I'll work with you a little in person as thanks for putting together the clinic(s) and golf, and we'll work on your next piece (which will help change this hook pattern quite a bit), and also help clean up contact a little. (Swinging left moves the low point forward, generally speaking.)

[DaveP043]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

But, you're still doing this the right way: get comfortable with your posture first. Maybe even stay with that until May 5-7.

Thanks for the validation, its felt like a struggle the past couple of weeks.  For the most part, I'm feeling more comfortable with my weight more on the balls of my feet and my knees a little straighter, but I have to think about the "eyes down" bit or I won't do that.  I'm sure the distance to the ball issue will sort itself out with more practice.  I've also felt like my body is stalling a little and I'm "hitting", which in my experience has caused hook issues for me.  That hasn't been a focus of my practice this spring, so I'm probably behind on it.  Reading back to your first post here, this will be part of the next steps, so I'll have to try to remain patient.

[iacas]

Yes, your arms flee your body and your body stops contributing mid-downswing.

The next step. Get comfortable with the setup.

[DaveP043]

I'm more and more comfortable with my weight more forward and standing a bit taller, but I needed to do something to decrease the bad hooks.  I know, I don't have an assignment to work on that, but I'm still playing golf every weekend, and that hook was nearly unplayable.  After the extremely clear illustration or my inside-out swing path from my last post, and not wanting to get into a mechanical fix of any kind, I simply decided to train myself into swing more along the intended line.  I put a club, aligned at my target, about two inches outside the ball, so that it was only a half-inch or so from the toe of the club.  Lo and behold, I was taking the club back a little further out, and coming through pretty parallel to the target line.  Much straighter ball flight!  I only nicked the alignment club once with an inside-out path.  After a couple of sessions, still concentrating on the set-up changes, but with the alignment guide, my most recent round was much improved.  No severe hooks, and the eyes-down feel seems to result in much more consistent contact.  

 

[iacas]

48 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I'm more and more comfortable with my weight more forward and standing a bit taller, but I needed to do something to decrease the bad hooks.  I know, I don't have an assignment to work on that, but I'm still playing golf every weekend, and that hook was nearly unplayable.  After the extremely clear illustration or my inside-out swing path from my last post, and not wanting to get into a mechanical fix of any kind, I simply decided to train myself into swing more along the intended line.  I put a club, aligned at my target, about two inches outside the ball, so that it was only a half-inch or so from the toe of the club.  Lo and behold, I was taking the club back a little further out, and coming through pretty parallel to the target line.  Much straighter ball flight!  I only nicked the alignment club once with an inside-out path.  After a couple of sessions, still concentrating on the set-up changes, but with the alignment guide, my most recent round was much improved.  No severe hooks, and the eyes-down feel seems to result in much more consistent contact.

That's okay.

I'd have not worried as much about the backswing, and was going to put an angled stick and have you swing under it on your follow-through.

Still probably will do something like that this coming weekend…

[lastings]

On 3/22/2017 at 11:57 AM, DaveP043 said:

 

 

Hey Dave, I have a question for you..   without trying to coach, because I have a lot more learning to do before I do that.     But, I did have very much the same set up issues as you last year.   (not a fun change to get comfortable with ).    I haven't completely resolved them.   But, one thing I think I notice (but can't quite tell).  in your set-up, especially the older one, is the toe of your club resting more on it's heel rather than flat?  

without being able to see yourself, it's tough to know exactly what you're doing, so I look for little visual cues that can tell me.   I, personally, found that if my club was on it's heel my knees were too bent, back to vertical, butt sitting in a bucket.   But, if I could get that club flat on the ground just by changing knees, butt, and back, my posture improved quite a bit.   

anyways, just a thought.  and maybe thats just something that helped me.   so maybe think about that before your next video.  and if you see it helps, then it becomes a little posture reminder that you get to take with you everywhere you go.  

 

 

[DaveP043]

24 minutes ago, lastings said:

 But, one thing I think I notice (but can't quite tell).  in your set-up, especially the older one, is the toe of your club resting more on it's heel rather than flat?  

without being able to see yourself, it's tough to know exactly what you're doing, so I look for little visual cues that can tell me.   I, personally, found that if my club was on it's heel my knees were too bent, back to vertical, butt sitting in a bucket.   But, if I could get that club flat on the ground just by changing knees, butt, and back, my posture improved quite a bit.   

Thanks for the thoughts.  I'm sure my club is a little toe-up at address, and may still be.  However, if you look at my more recent video (post 36), you'll see that my hands at impact are a little higher than at address, which puts the toe of the club back on the ground.  My personal keys have been feeling a little taller, feeling weight on the balls of my feet, and seeing the ball "through the center of my eye sockets".    So far so good, and now I have a couple of new things to work on.

[lastings]

On 5/9/2017 at 11:43 AM, DaveP043 said:

My personal keys have been feeling a little taller, feeling weight on the balls of my feet, and seeing the ball "through the center of my eye sockets".    So far so good, and now I have a couple of new things to work on.

yeah..   Balls of your feet is certainly a good one.   When I first started making this change, I almost felt like I was going to fall over forward in my swing.   

I have video of my swing on my phone now which I'm gonna post later today.  you'll see what I am now calling progress in this same change.  you'll have to just imagine how much I was sitting in a bucket a year ago. unfortunately there is no existing video evidence to prove it.

[DaveP043]

Time for me to write a bit here.  I haven't had much chance to actually practice with the weather recently, but this week looks great.  Tonight is Men's League, more fun golf than serious, and Wednesday and Friday will be practice days.  .  One thing I'll definitely be doing is working on slope feels with the new digital level.  I enjoyed the Aimpoint clinic, and think it can really help, but it all depends on getting a reasonably good read of the slope.

While @iacas was here, he worked with me for a while on my next priorities.  I'm listing them here both to remind myself, and make sure I've got the right goals.  First, I'll need to increase my shoulder turn in the backswing, getting my left shoulder further under my chin.  I've done a little mirror work at home, and need to continue that.  The other piece is to improve my hip rotation through the ball.  The drill we worked on was to move from about A6 to A8, without allowing the wrist angle to change, but feeling that my left hip was pulling the handle.  My left hip should move away from the ball and upward (I've said this somewhere else, its simple geometry, but not so simple trying to make the change), my left leg should extend as the hip moves up, and I should finish with my arms extended towards the target, belt buckle facing the target.  I've done some of this on the range warming up for rounds, and I can feel a bit of a change in my actual swings, but I need to get video to really see how its going.

[TN94z]

3 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

My left hip should move away from the ball and upward (I've said this somewhere else, its simple geometry, but not so simple trying to make the change), my left leg should extend as the hip moves up, and I should finish with my arms extended towards the target, belt buckle facing the target.  I've done some of this on the range warming up for rounds, and I can feel a bit of a change in my actual swings, but I need to get video to really see how its going.

I am pretty much working on the same thing here. The only difference being I have early extension. I was actually surprised at how quickly my picture is changing. Good luck on the changes. I will be following in case I can grab some tips on the hip turn.

I have got to get around to taking some Aimpoint classes...

[DaveP043]

So my last post was 4 weeks back, and still no video.  Its been a busy time, with some kind of competition every weekend, either a club tournament or interclub matches.  I also spent two weeks on a construction site, with no real time for after-work range time.  Even so, I've been doing the drills I outlined, while warming up before playing, and even between swings on the course.  I'm not sure I've made much progress toward increasing my turn going back, but I do think I'm making a gradual change in the forward swing, getting my hips rotating better, as opposed to sliding and stalling as before.  In addition to finishing with my belt buckle more toward the target, I'm also feeling a slight "crunch" in my right side as my right shoulder comes under my chin through and after impact.  I played well on the weekend, 73 (interclub match) Saturday and 75 Sunday.  The Aimpoint is definitely paying off, and that was a part of the good play.

Tonight is men's league again, but tomorrow I plan to do some actual practice, and get some actual video.  I hope the video shows progress, otherwise I'm just fooling myself.  

[iacas]

Sounds good, Dave. The follow through stuff should really help keep the curve on those draws down a little, so they're "draws" and not "hooks," which you sometimes fight (even with the very open stance), and provide a bit more height and possibly distance to your shots.

[billchao]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Sounds good, Dave. The follow through stuff should really help keep the curve on those draws down a little, so they're "draws" and not "hooks," which you sometimes fight (even with the very open stance), and provide a bit more height and possibly distance to your shots.

If he starts hitting the ball farther, he's going to have to find a new club to play at 

[DaveP043]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

Sounds good, Dave. The follow through stuff should really help keep the curve on those draws down a little, so they're "draws" and not "hooks," which you sometimes fight (even with the very open stance), and provide a bit more height and possibly distance to your shots.

Thanks, I do believe its going the right way, although I had a hard time finding any changes in video from Wednesday.  Today, however, I practiced that "move" as my practice swing on nearly every shot, and hit a whole lot of straight to tiny-draw shots.  I think that procedure needs to be my plan for my next practice session, more slow-mo of the "hip linked to handle move", and then a full swing with the same feel.

3 hours ago, billchao said:

If he starts hitting the ball farther, he's going to have to find a new club to play at 

Next time you come down, we'll play the back tees, there's plenty of room to hit it longer.

[billchao]

4 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Next time you come down, we'll play the back tees, there's plenty of room to hit it longer.

I played pretty poorly from the blues. Your course doesn't like to reward errant tee shots for some reason 

[DaveP043]

1 minute ago, billchao said:

I played pretty poorly from the blues. Your course doesn't like to reward errant tee shots for some reason 

There are a couple of holes where it doesn't even reward GOOD shots!

[iacas]

9 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

There are a couple of holes where it doesn't even reward GOOD shots!

Only a couple??

[DaveP043]

Didn't someone famous say that golf is a test of character as much as it is a test of skill.  Stoneleigh takes that to the extreme.