My Swing (Antneye)

[Antneye]

It has been a while since I updated this.  I never got any decent equipment to take a decent video so I stopped updating since it was tough to truly capture my swing properly.  It's been a heck of a grind but I finally have my handicap under 20 for the first time in my life.  Sitting at 19.5 and feel really good about most aspects of my game.  My irons are really strong right now and I saw immediate improvement by removing my hybrid and going back to my 4 iron which I hit far more consistently than the hybrid.

My primary struggle is still with my Driver but I have kept working on the tips you all gave me and things seem really cleaned up.  It seems my biggest issue is just trying to kill the driver.  When I do everything I was told and try to take an easy 80% swing I can get it out their just fine.  When I try to cook it (without thinking really) I end up with big snap hooks or worm burner rolls.  Even my bad driver days keep me in play now where it used to be OB left and right consistently.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback and hopefully I can get a video up soon even if it is not expert.

 

Antneye

[Antneye]

Hey guys, it's been a while. I had made steady improvement and kind of checked out a bit as life got in the way. After getting down to an 18 I'm now at a 20 and going backwards. I'm back to working on my original issues and rereading this thread has been helpful. I'll try to post some video even though I still don't have the perfect equipment to film. (I really need to do this)

[Antneye]

I rigged a setup in the garage (hitting a foam ball) to try to get the lines right. My primary focus right now is trying to get my swing more on plane. Key pieces are head not going down and trying to get to key 2 properly. My driver struggles are well documented but much improved. My main struggle right now is low ball flight so I went back and watched some of the 5SK videos and am working on the drills for key 2 that talk about how to fix that. I do a few slow mapping swings and then three strikes. The first is horrible and one of the misses I'm prone to making. I thought the next two were better but still need work. I'm only showing DTL since I can't get a good FV in the garage. 

 

Edit: for the observant ones out there, yes I've lost 60 pounds. I should mention that I've lost a ton of distance and I'm not sure if that is the reason or just failing mechanics. 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2020 by Antneye

[Grizvok]

Your takeaway is very far inside which causes the exaggerated over the top move. You are getting into a position that is almost impossible to recover from.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Grizvok

[Antneye]

1 minute ago, Grizvok said:

Your takeaway is very far inside which causes the exaggerated over the top move. You are getting into a position that is almost impossible to recover from.

Thanks. Are you referring to the initial takeaway of the club or my overall shoulder angle of rotation. I want to make sure I'm zeroing in on the proper piece. I suspect you are referring to the initial (poor one piece takeaway)

[Grizvok]

Just now, Antneye said:

Thanks. Are you referring to the initial takeaway of the club or my overall shoulder angle of rotation. I want to make sure I'm zeroing in on the proper piece. I suspect you are referring to the initial (poor one piece takeaway)

You aren’t super flat with your shoulder turn, so that isn’t something I’d work on.

The cause of the poor takeaway is how much you are working your left arm across your chest. This is a huge spot where low handicappers and high handicaps have extremely different numbers. The high handicap works their arm across the chest wayyy too much. I made a short video for another member that might explain it, plus a picture from Athletic Motion Golf. Forgive my annoying voice/terrible public speaking skills.

Pro on the left and amateur on the right.

Corresponding video I made:

 

[Antneye]

1 minute ago, Grizvok said:

You aren’t super flat with your shoulder turn, so that isn’t something I’d work on.

The cause of the poor takeaway is how much you are working your left arm across your chest. This is a huge spot where low handicappers and high handicaps have extremely different numbers. The high handicap works their arm across the chest wayyy too much. I made a short video for another member that might explain it, plus a picture from Athletic Motion Golf. Forgive my annoying voice/terrible public speaking skills.

Pro on the left and amateur on the right.

Corresponding video I made:

 

Thanks. I'll dig into this and try to apply it. 

[Grizvok]

1 minute ago, Antneye said:

Thanks. I'll dig into this and try to apply it. 

It should help your inside takeaway significantly, but there may be other things that are influencing that such as what the wrists and forearms are doing. Ideally you want the club head to bisect the hands at A2 (shaft parallel in the backswing).

Day 1-5 of the COVID practice plan will be invaluable. I can’t recommend these enough to you.

 

[Antneye]

35 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

It should help your inside takeaway significantly, but there may be other things that are influencing that such as what the wrists and forearms are doing. Ideally you want the club head to bisect the hands at A2 (shaft parallel in the backswing).

Day 1-5 of the COVID practice plan will be invaluable. I can’t recommend these enough to you.

 

Yes. That was great stuff and where I've been staying. As tempted as I was to do all 30 days (I viewed it all) I am trying to focus on the drills that effect my primary piece. 

[Grizvok]

I'd also strongly advise getting your camera angles totally correct. It's possible the camera angle is making the inside takeaway look even worse than it is. I'm sure you've seen this before but just to reiterate I'll link it again.

 

[Antneye]

I played today with a bunch of college buddies. My short irons and wedges were dialed in but I really struggled with the long clubs. Lots of topping the ball and very low drives. My buddy sent me this random video he took (the lines are all off) and I liked a lot of what I saw. This one I struck well but hit a bit of a push fade on a dogleg left which made the hole longer than it need be but it was in play. 

Although the lines are off I noticed that my head is coming way up on the downswing leading me to think that I'm not getting enough secondary axis tilt (it feels like I am) and likely the reason I was topping a lot of my longer clubs. 

Am I thinking about this properly?  I feel like the work I've been doing has been paying off but I may need to focus on this aspect more. 

 

The video is far away but you can see the head rise pretty clearly. Zoom in if you can't. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Antneye]

I’m really trying to focus my practice on getting rid of that OTT and keeping my head from darting down towards the ball on the downswing. I have no idea if I am wasting my time with this approach (hoping for feedback) but I think I’m on the right track. I’m doing 3 slow swings and then 1 full one. It feels improved (although this video had some of my worst hits of the day) but I am still repeating my mistakes on the actual swing. Still, it feels improved. (I also see that I have a tendency to get lazy and rush the slow swings and not really get in the proper position. I need to fix that)
 

I still only have DTL in the garage but I feel good that I have it lined up fairly well. 
 

 

[Grizvok]

You will never be able to fix the over the top move unless you focus on the source: the inside takeaway.

[Antneye]

11 hours ago, Grizvok said:

You will never be able to fix the over the top move unless you focus on the source: the inside takeaway.

Lol. I felt like that had improved. I’ll keep working on it though. 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Antneye

[Grizvok]

I don’t even think this is quite to P2 yet and look at how far inside you are.

[Antneye]

Yeah. You are correct. I’m going to focus on day 1 of Covid challenge today. I have to fix things incrementally. Thanks!!’

[iacas]

Look at how little your torso has turned there.

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Look at how little your torso has turned there.

Yep. I was suffering from this not too long ago. It seems like this is often coupled with an overly bent right arm very early on in the backswing.

@Antneye compare Rory’s club head to where I drew yours (slightly outside of the hands like Rors has here is more than fine). And the much more turned torso plus the angle of the right arm. I think the right arm is very telling; I know it was for me. After I realized this I began to feel just how much I was using the right bicep to almost “curl” the club into position super early on.

Edit: backswing, backswing, backswing, backswing. The old “impact is all that matters” mantra is pure BS. Get this backswing into a solid position (heck even the first few feet of the backswing) and you’ll see results.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Grizvok