My Swing (klineka)

[klineka]

Played a round Saturday morning, course was soaked. Drives were all over the place, felt really uncomfortable standing over the ball with driver for some reason. Not really sure why. Short game and putting were solid, chipped in for a birdie from a really tough, downhill, short-side spot, and was an inch or two from making a bunker shot too.

Practiced yesterday, didn't actively think about anything different, yet driver felt normal and flight was really consistent with no major slices.

Continued to work on hand path with irons, discovered that even though my hand path is mostly better, my axis tilt was starting to creep forward again, so focused on that, making sure my spine angle is titled away from the target at A4. Strike immediately improved when I did it properly.

 

Played the 18 holes game with the long putts again (30-50 ft putts), focusing on not accelerating through the stroke, this time I made one, two-putted 15 times, and three-putted twice for a score of +1

[klineka]

Decided to start back up with Evolvr again and just submitted my first set of videos.

I made great strides in just a couple months when I was working with a coach through there previously, so I'm excited to see where I can take my swing over the next few months.

Edited May 13, 2019 by klineka

[klineka]

Got my first Evolvr lesson back and have two primary pieces to work on.

1. Strengthen my left hand grip so I see two knuckles and the "V" between my thumb and index finger is pointing towards my right shoulder.

2. My right elbow gets too high in the backswing and doesnt contribute enough on the downswing. 

Worked on both of these at the range last night, and can already see and feel improvements. The grip felt weird, but wasn't hard to actually change. 

When my elbow/arm was in the proper position, the results were immediate. I hit quite a few balls that felt perfect out of the dead middle of the clubface and they seemed to be going much higher than usual. 

When I did the correct motion, the club was way shallower through the impact zone, and I didnt hit any shots fat. When I watched my swing back on video, I could see some changes, but not nearly as much as it felt. 

At home after the range, I was practicing with a golf glove under my right armpit and that put me in the proper position, so the next time I practice I will hit balls with the glove under my arm.

[DeadMan]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

When I watched my swing back on video, I could see some changes, but not nearly as much as it felt. 

Haha, I know this all too well. Feel ain't real.

[klineka]

Feel like I am making some solid progress here. Practiced for a bit with the glove under my armpit, which helped the top of the backswing position, but still wasn't quite getting the downswing piece. Without the glove, I tuck the shirtsleeve in, which helps create the feeling I want and is something I can take onto the course which I like.

 For the downswing piece, I slowed the motion way down and over exaggerated until I could do it right, and the feeling that helps me get to how it looks in the video below is feeling like my right elbow is actually touching/brushing my stomach on the way through. 

I like how this looks

 

Edited May 17, 2019 by klineka

[iacas]

You're probably bending over too much. The handle is a bit too low there.

[klineka]

49 minutes ago, iacas said:

You're probably bending over too much. The handle is a bit too low there.

Yeah I see what you mean. I'll watch that, thanks.

I probably had the turf piece too close to the wood I was standing on. I really need to build a platform 

[DeadMan]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

I probably had the turf piece too close to the wood I was standing on. I really need to build a platform  

A bigger mat might be something that makes this simpler. I have this mat, or at least one very similar to it, and it works really well:

https://www.amazon.com/PGM3660-Emerald-Par-Golf-Mat/dp/B0058DECVC

[klineka]

4 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

A bigger mat might be something that makes this simpler. I have this mat, or at least one very similar to it, and it works really well:

https://www.amazon.com/PGM3660-Emerald-Par-Golf-Mat/dp/B0058DECVC

The one I have is the "Real Feel" 10" x 30" hitting strip, I chose it because it was thicker and supposed to simulate grass better than most, but I didnt quite realize how thick it would be. 

I probably should get one of those matts. Thanks for the link!

[boogielicious]

20 hours ago, klineka said:

The one I have is the "Real Feel" 10" x 30" hitting strip, I chose it because it was thicker and supposed to simulate grass better than most, but I didnt quite realize how thick it would be. 

I probably should get one of those matts. Thanks for the link!

I have that mat. It is holding up well with a lot of practice on it. Building a platform to integrate the mat is pretty straight forward. And you have a flat surface. I have photos of it somewhere on the site.

[klineka]

Irons have responded really well to the priority pieces during my range sessions over the weekend. I am hitting more balls flush and less fats/thins as percentages of my shots than I ever have.

Every swing I tuck some of my right shirt sleeve under my armpit to remind me to keep my right arm/elbow low. 

I have been hitting some straight pulls now, not huge pulls, still in play if I was approaching a green, but a little time working on making my club path more neutral should fix that.

I am getting more used to the proper feeling on the way back, I am slowly starting to think about the right arm on the downswing, but I really want to make sure I consistently get into the right position on the backswing before focusing on the downswing.

 

Driver has been hit or miss. Not fully confident with it at the moment, but having the feeling of hitting more level through the ball has helped with accuracy, and I don't know this for sure, but my AoA is still probably slightly positive on those (I was already 4-6 up previously, so those "level" feeling hits are probably 1-2 up). A slightly slower feeling tempo has helped too. In reality it probably doesnt look much different on camera, but the results so far seem to be much better. 

 

Putting has been really solid, getting more and more used to not accelerating through the stroke. Spent some time on 6 foot putts, and managed to make 22/25 6 footers including like 14 or 15 in a row.

[klineka]

Just submitted some videos for a checkpoint with my evolvr coach. 

Grip feels fine in the slightly strengthened position, and I am getting more and more comfortable with the elbow position on the backswing.

This doesnt look like a huge change with the right elbow, but in the right picture, that feels to me like my right elbow is pressed up against my side and hasnt move off of my side at all.

The elbow movement on the downswing is where I am struggling at the moment, even slowing the swing way down I just dont have a good swing thought of how the right elbow is supposed to move from the top of the backswing down through impact.

[klineka]

Have continued to work with my Evolvr coach, making some good progress. 

The grip and backswing pieces are better, occasionally my left arm gets too steep compared to my shoulder angle, but most of the time it is on the same line and my right elbow is lower and tighter to my body. 

Still working on getting my right elbow working in front of my body on the downswing. My ball striking with my irons has already improved quite a bit even though my elbow isnt where it needs to be yet. 

The main swing thought that has worked for me is at the top of the backswing, the first thing I do is feel like I have right lateral bend, then I rotate. That move helps bring my elbow more in front, and has made it easier to control the low point.

Last night I mapped out my wedge distances, so now I have a swing length feel for pretty much every distance from 60-135yds. I already had a pretty good feel on the 90-110 yd shots, but this should help a lot from 50-90 yds. I realized on those shots I was taking the same length backswing and would decelerate on shorter shots instead of letting the backswing length determine how far the ball goes.

Here is my chart 

Edited June 18, 2019 by klineka

[klineka]

Took some time to look at my recent GameGolf stats and wow, my short game has been atrocious lately. 

In my last 5 rounds my scrambling is only 18%, which is only slightly better than what GameGolf has for their baseline for 15 hcps.

Compared to a 5 handicap, I am losing 2.5 strokes on my short game. 

In my last 5 rounds, I have had 17 times inside of 40 yds (most of those were inside 25 yds) where I have missed the green completely and had to chip again. That is terrible and obviously wasting a lot of strokes. And I'm not playing super tough PGA tour level courses with US Open length rough and 13 stimp greens either.

I am comfortable with bump and runs from fringe/fairway, but I have really inconsistent contact and poor results when I have to get the ball up in the air around the green, especially coming out of the rough. 

I struggle with determining what is the right shot to hit based on my lie, how much green I have to work with, etc. Any tips or insight for how you determine what club to hit and what trajectory you choose is greatly appreciated!

[klineka]

As a brief update to my last post, I have made some adjustments to my short game and it has drastically improved.

I have my feet much narrower (heels only an inch or two apart) and am standing much closer to the ball with a more vertical shaft angle. The difference has been night and day. Contact is so much more consistent and predictable, and the strokes gained numbers reflect my improvement.

Previously I had lost 2.5 strokes compared to a 5 hcp on short game, over my last 2 rounds since making the changes, (18 hole and a 9 hole) I am only losing 1.15 strokes compared to a 5 hcp, so it's trending in the right direction.

This week has been about prepping for a small tournament on Sunday, so mainly just working on getting a good swing thought for my irons (thought is related to my main priority piece from Evolvr) which is to tuck my right shirt sleeve under my armpit before I swing, which helps keep my right elbow connected and closer to my body.

Driver/3 iron off the tee have both felt pretty solid lately.

I am getting more comfortable with my new putting grip from my Evolvr coach, and will probably head to the tournament course on Saturday to hit balls and chip/putt on their green to help try and dial in my speed control, as that has been my biggest issue with putting lately.

[klineka]

Well... That tournament sucked. Way too many penalty shots(5 on the first 4 holes), terrible contact with the irons, and when I did make solid contact, the ball flew a good 10-20 yds further than I was expecting due to the temperature/humidity. 

I did have a couple positives though, putting was fairly solid compared to how it has been, speed control was fine, no issues there.

Pitching was good too, had a number of pitches from 30-60 yds and pretty sure I got them all within 20 feet of the hole. 

Sent some swing videos in for my Evolvr coach, I am going to hold off on some tournaments for a bit, I really need to start making better contact with my irons, I have been missing way too many GIR for someone with my handicap level and distance that I can hit the ball on the types of courses I play.

[klineka]

Realize I haven't updated this in a few months.

About a month ago I decided to try some in person lessons with a local coach and stopped Evolvr. Nothing against Evolvr, I just decided I wanted a more real time/in person experience. 

I've been practicing quite a bit and really committing to practicing the right way with slow reps and can definitely see the changes starting to come with my irons, but driver still needs some work. I'm happy with the progress so far.

 

[iacas]

Not a fan of the shaft laying down that much late in the backswing, because then it just reverses "over" quickly on the downswing.