My Swing (Antneye)

[Antneye]

Note to self: Never get giddy.

I got to my next work destination a little early and went to the course expecting to just hit a bucket, but ended up going out for another round instead since I had just enough daylight.  It was another rushed round but I played ok for the most part.  When it came to the driver though I was extremely inconsistent and just never could capture what I had going the last few sessions.  I think I know what was going on and just need to get out to the range to re-ground myself.  Everything just felt sloppy and rushed.  

Tomorrow is another day.

[Antneye]

So I got out today at a reasonable hour and was able to play at a measured pace.  No rushing.  Took my time around the greens.  Played the course and did not force my driver into holes where it did not belong.  Ended up having a nice day on the course but unfortunately the back 9 was played through a steady drizzel.  I'm not sure if that affected me or not.  I guess maybe on my putting because I really had the green speed down after having played it yesterday and as the rain continued they slowed down a bit and I didn't have quite the same touch that I did on the front (but that's really nitpicking).

All in all it was a mixed day.  My driver was not very good, nor was it horrible.  My irons went from great to bad by hole and my play around the greens was basically good with a couple really bad blow-up shots that ended up costing me multiple strokes.  Bottom line was a 47-49 96.  I definitely faded down the stretch. 

Now that my work road-trip is coming to an end I plan on getting back into my practice regimen.  3 days in a row is a lot of play for me and I could feel the swing getting away from me a bit with each passing day.  I wont get to even get to the range until next week so I am going to go back to my wall drills, mirror work, posture etc and see what the next range session brings.

I definitely feel like my game has improved from when I started my swing thread, but I have a long way to go.  The good news is that I have not carded >100 in a while and before I started this I was struggling to break 100.

[Antneye]

I definitely need to get some video up for some feedback on where I stand after all of the work that I have done.  I just have not been able to coordinate my son coming to film me.  My scores ( and handicap) are coming down and I now have 10 straight scores in the 90's but some of these rounds are just mind boggling.  Yesterday I played Providence Country Club in Charlotte and put up a great front 9 with a 45 going out.  The first sign of trouble was an errant drive on 9 that lead to a double bogey.  I get to 10 and lose a drive way right.  I got the driver to stabilize over the remaining holes but then, inexplicably I could not hit an iron straight to save my life.  Everything started going hard left and penalty strokes just started piling up.  I closed the 9 with 3 pars, 5 triples and 1 bogey.  How is that even possible? 45-53 split for a 98.

I hit the range over lunch and my irons were right back to normal (which means they were fairly accurate if not crisply at the flag).  Driver was about the same and much improved from where I started.  My biggest troubles right now are hitting my hybrid.  I removed my 4i for my hybrid but with how much I am struggling with it I am considering putting the 4i back in my bag temporarily.

 

I feel as if I have the main principles that I have been working on worked into my swing but clearly there is a lot of inconsistency.  Head is much more steady, posture is better, right leg is losing flex on the backswing, swing is on a much smoother plan.....or so I think.  NEED VIDEO!!!!

 

[Antneye]

It seems my back 9 from my last round has lingered. I have totally forgotten how to hit a golf ball. I played yesterday and lost my entire bag. Driver was my worst club. I. Was right back to hitting everything to the right with big slices. 55-48 for my first >100 in my last 11 rounds. 

I finally got so frustrated that I asked my son to film a drive. I did not look at it until I got home because I didn't want to add more noise to my head. When I finally looked I was horrified. Every thing that I was doing wrong on day 1 was back.... Most notably a ton of movement down and towards the ball with my head, and a huge move towards the ball with my hips. I have no idea how it all came back seemingly in the middle of my last round, but the proof is in the video below.... 

 

 

I am going back to basics and not even thinking about changing my priority pieces until this is cleaned up. 

[RandallT]

Don't get discouraged as we've all experienced the setbacks. You're doing the right things by getting a reset with a new video and focusing on the basics and your priority. 

The backsliding will happen unfortunately. It's tough for many of us to break through old (and bad) habits and to keep them from rearing their head again. 

What I've learned is that our brains start to think of the new swing differently. It slowly becomes a new mental image of how it is all supposed to work. It goes hand in hand with the physical practice, but until your brain can sort out how to get the new moves to go smoothly, reversion to the old is more likely.  

Its hard to explain but I think it goes along with this idea: moving from conscious movements to unconscious movements: 

Just gotta keep at it until the priority you are working on becomes unconscious. Takes time.

[Antneye]

Me and my youngest got out to the range today to see if we could work on some things.  The entire focus of my work was stabilizing my head movement and getting the swing back under control.  I felt the results were very encouraging but I am very interested in any feedback you may have on what the video shows. IThanks in advance for any advice you may have!

 As an added bonus, I am including some footage of my son.  He is 15 and his game is starting to come together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now the boy.....

 

 

 

[iacas]

You have a pretty clear plan (from before) of what to do, @Antneye?

[Antneye]

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

You have a pretty clear plan (from before) of what to do, @Antneye?

I think so, but have I made any improvement? I know what I am working on, but I am not sure if I am going in the right direction. I'm not really sure what else to try to get where I need to go. 

[Antneye]

I won't get giddy, but I am seeing positive results from all of my swing work. Range sessions have been great and I played in a scramble this past weekend and had everything working. I even won the longest drive competition! 

I don't know when I will play a regular round at this point because my calendar is a mess, but I can't wait to get back out there. For now it is just regular off course practice to stay sharp. 

[Antneye]

I have been continuing to focus my work on posture, balance, and swing plane.  My scores are coming down (HCP 22.1 now) but I am wildly inconsistent with the driver (flipping between amazing off the tees to spraying it two ways on any given day).  My irons have been vastly improved and not prone to the inconsistency of my Driver.  I was doing some work with my son on the range and he filmed me for a swing thread check up.  I am posting a lot of swings so you can see the ones that had good results as well as bad.  I don't want to be mislead by feedback based on only my good swings.  

My personal assessment is that the swing is much improved but I still have work to do in this area.  My head has stabilized a lot but still moves a bit forward and down at the top of the downswing.  I still see some OTT in my swing but I have been struggling the last few days and suspect that when I have been striking the driver well this has not been the case.

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Antneye]

I am still working on the things I've been working on, but I am on the shelf with an injury.  With all the work I have been putting in I have developed a pretty serious pain on the bottom/side of my left heel.  I  am really hoping it is temporary but it has not improved in the week that I have been staying off of it.  The Dr. has me on anti-inflamation meds but it doesn't seem to be helping. The injury makes sense as it is the place I find a lot of my weight to be at the end of my swing (and I have been swinging a lot). The injury has me limping, but is not painful enough to stop me from playing if I want to try to push through it but I am going to try to give it another week to see if it improves.  If it doesn't I will likely have to go for some tests to see what the issue is.

I seem to have my head movement issue mostly solved and my primary focus right now is the transition from back to down swing.  I am still very quick at the top and I am working on slowing that down and staying on plane throughout the swing.  I will try to get some video up once I am back in action.  

[Antneye]

I haven't made an update in a few weeks and started venting in the bogey golfer thread about my driver.  I guess its best to get my thoughts down in here in case anyone has any good feedback.  First things first though:

Injury update:  It seems I have some sort of achilles issue.  Either a slight strain or tendinitis.  The pain can be pretty severe, but it subsides with rest and does not affect me on the golf course.  My guess is that it will not really heal until I take a good 4-6 weeks off and maybe a little longer.  Being that Fall is some of the best golf weather in Charlotte I am just gutting it out and playing regardless of how much I am limping the following day.  I am playing less to compensate for the needed rest and will totally shut it down in Jan/Feb to try to fully heal.

On to the swing: There's not much new to report.  I owe you guys some video to see if what I am feeling is what is really happening.  My irons are pretty solid right now.  I am hitting them better than ever.  The Driver?  Totally different story.  I am just falling apart with it.  The odd part about this is that I feel as if I am finally swinging on a much better plane and am not coming over the top.  My main focus of my swing and my practice work is still posture, steady head, and swing plane.  I have not really changed anything.  If anything, the one change I am working on, is trying to shorten my driver back-swing and to have more of a slower tempo with the swing but that isn't really a deviation from my main focal points.

I'm not getting discouraged. I am staying with the program, but it is very frustrating seeing this club go from solid to un-hittable seemingly for no reason at all.  Some days it is hole to hole, others it can be full rounds.  I'm at a total loss to explain it.

All is not lost though as my absolute worst rounds these days are about what my average round was before I started this journey.  My handicap is down to 21.6, but I don't see it moving lower (and it might go up) if I don't solve my driver dilemma.

 

[RandallT]

I'll just chime in that on your driver, it appears to me that:

- from the top your hands drop down steeply, rather than move around horizontally toward the ball. 

- this causes the club to tip up and get steep

At a6, the club is on the wrong side of your hands and you must compensate from there. That leads to inconsistency. I know!

search for my thread on "stubborn steepness"- I'm on my phone now and short of time.   Tons of good ideas there. Caveat: there could be other priorities for you- but that whole thread is very relevant. 

[Antneye]

2 hours ago, RandallT said:

I'll just chime in that on your driver, it appears to me that:

- from the top your hands drop down steeply, rather than move around horizontally toward the ball. 

- this causes the club to tip up and get steep

At a6, the club is on the wrong side of your hands and you must compensate from there. That leads to inconsistency. I know!

search for my thread on "stubborn steepness"- I'm on my phone now and short of time.   Tons of good ideas there. Caveat: there could be other priorities for you- but that whole thread is very relevant. 

I found it and will definitely be reading it.  Thanks!  (I was going to ask some q's about your feedback, but I will see if the thread clarifies first)

[RandallT]

12 minutes ago, Antneye said:

I found it and will definitely be reading it.  Thanks!  (I was going to ask some q's about your feedback, but I will see if the thread clarifies first)

Good luck! Avoid the stuff that almost derailed the thread by PumaAttack. He got a bit confused, I think, but the thread got back on track. Here's the link for others, if interested:

 

[Antneye]

15 hours ago, RandallT said:

Good luck! Avoid the stuff that almost derailed the thread by PumaAttack. He got a bit confused, I think, but the thread got back on track. Here's the link for others, if interested:

 

So I read through the thread (and agree that it is a great thread) and feel as if I am already working on this to some degree. It may even be a primary item for me at this point in order to eliminate my remaining OTT.  I think this is likely the primary reason for my driver inconsistency.   I need to go back and really digest some of the videos in the thread.

I used to watch a lot of Paul Wilson videos, and he is a big proponent of keeping the arms out of the swing.  I think this topic is one of the primary reasons he preaches that.  When I do this properly my feel is one of "leaving my arms behind" and not really feeling like I am engaging them until I get down to about A6.  Some of my best drives ever were struck with that feeling, but I struggle to make it repeatable.  

My primary swing thoughts as I work on my driver are steady head, slight hip bump, and then starting the downswing from the ground up.  It's amazing how I can have these thoughts and then end up crushing a ball to the left with a swing that is all arms and coming from OTT,  or totally give up on the swing and end up with a push fade that flies off into the woods on the right.  

I need some video footage to see if my feels of what I am doing (especially in relation to the improvement I feel I have on posture and steady head) are real or not.

 

[Antneye]

I had a buddy film a few drives during my round yesterday.  I am still diving down towards the ball with my head.  No idea why this is still happening, but it does not feel as if it is happening while I am swinging.  Plane seems a little better, but still very erratic.

I got the first one off the toe. Started right and stayed right.  The second one was better contact but pulled left.

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Antneye

[Antneye]

I think I may have figured something out for why my swing looks better but is very prone to those big pulls.  At the range today, I was making good contact but pulling everything hard left or duck-hooking it.  I decided to adjust my grip slightly to a less strong grip and when I did it I realized that it was the grip I had always used.  Somewhere along the line, while tinkering with my swing, I had moved to a very strong grip without realizing it.  I think this may explain where my left-tendency has come from.

When I went with the slightly weaker grip I was still a little bit up the left side, but nowhere near as bad as before.  Ironically, the occasional push/fade right that I hit was the exact same as always and seems to be more about my body getting in front of my arms and less to do with the grip.

I need to have a few more range sessions before I come to any conclusions, but it felt good out there on the range today.