My Swing (Grizvok)

[Grizvok]

On 8/26/2017 at 0:44 PM, billchao said:

@Grizvok, make sure your camera angles are good.

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

Yeah, that's definitely something I need to fix with how I shoot video. Essentially I think I just need to back up the camera a few feet so that the top of the backswing is more visible. That's the major thing but some of my angles especially with the face-on view are a little bit off for sure.

So I spent a little while today hitting into a net mainly with my irons as well as hitting around the yard with my 60* wedge which is a brand new club for me that I'm trying to introduce to my bag. Well to make a long story short I've definitely decided that working on my "hip slide" and the concept of a "ground up" downswing is going to be my next priority piece. I guess I can go ahead and call this proper sequencing. What I'm finding is that the hip slide and more importantly a properly timed hip slide is absolutely crucial to controlling the low point of my swing. I think the upside of nailing this down greatly outweighs the benefits of fixing my humping of the goat.

 

[Grizvok]

Played 18 today at this pretty demanding course I've been playing the past few weeks and had some ups and downs but I think it was a mostly positive round for me.

My driver was pretty decent but with a few off of the toe and heel that weren't struck drastically off center and still produced an okay'ish distance and direction. These are the kind of mishits I don't mind as much.

Surprisingly I think my irons were probably my weak point of the day. I'm not sure as to the cause but I seemed to be pushing quite a few iron shots. I believe the cause was that my new priority piece/today's swing thought of sliding the hips forward to begin the downswing was causing me to be even less open than normal at impact which had my club face and path both to the right causing a push. Even though I hear "slide don't rotate the hips" pretty often, I think for me both of these should be happening in tandem to both help get my weight forward while also being more open at impact. Both important things.

My wedge play was pretty good. I've been embracing the challenge of using the 60* wedge and it was a good club for me today. I think I'm getting a hang of using the bounce of the club and it is really making my pitching game more consistent.

Putting was bad but still a big improvement over last week. I've been trying a new thing out which is keeping my arms tighter into my body so it feels my biceps are pressing into my chest. This feeling seemed to promote a better pendulum like swing. Along with this on every putt I was trying to match up my backswing length to my follow through which actually had my speed much better. Distance control on putting is definitely better managed through backswing length than acceleration.

Sorry for being so verbose.

 

[Grizvok]

I'm going to be getting some new swing videos up in the next week or so, so that I can start really fleshing out what it is I need to prioritize this year. This is really my third year playing golf (previously I probably played one round a year and that was it) and I have some big expectations going into the season and hope I can improve as much as I think I can. I think things ended well last year when I feel my concept of the golf swing and its components became considerably more clear as I got feedback from the original set of videos I had taken. Those critiques led to my focusing on a centered turn with big regards to my hip sway to the right which was killing my ability to control the bottom of my swing. I still see a lot of merit in continuing to focus on the hips when it comes to my full swing so that's what I'm going to be doing. The specific piece I'm looking to improve is to have my hips and really my entire body be more open at impact which I think starts with the hips. I like the concept of the hip slide and it has helped my game tremendously but I think I need to not forget that with the slide needs to come an opening of the hips.

The other thing I will be working on is slowing down the backswing. This is actually another big piece of the puzzle for me. I potentially even see the upside of fixing this being greater than the correct hip movement I was discussing earlier. I have found that slowing down the backswing for me: increases consistency, increases power, increases feel. Basically all very VERY good things. I don't think it is something that everybody needs to do but given how fast and jerky my backswing is introducing some chill to it has proven effective.

[Grizvok]

 

Edited June 14, 2018 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

These are a few shots from the other day when I was entertaining my girlfriend's 12 year old brother at the driving range. I think he's already addicted to golf.

Anyhow: first shot is with an 8 iron and the second one with my 20 degree hybrid. I'm actually REALLY happy with my posture from this angle at the top of the backswing. I think I could still work on getting there a little more slowly, but all in all I'm liking my backswing currently. I will be getting some more video up soon with a face on view which will probably show a little more substance.

I'm not really happy with my ability to maintain spine angle right now. I think it has been a problem for a long time and with other things shaping up and looking better it is becoming a glaring fault in my swing. The other HUGE issue is that I think I'm swinging "over the top" way too much. I'm getting into a solid position at the top of the backswing but I just come down over the top which is really why my miss is a slice. I've been trying to swing from the inside-out more to produce a draw but I still need to put a lot of work in until I can attack the ball from the inside comfortably.

[Grizvok]

 

[Grizvok]

These are some face on shots from a few hours ago. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for when it comes to this view besides the hip sway and keeping my head still. I remember when I was originally reading some of the GOLFTEC articles/studies about the characteristics of scratch golfers swings vs high handicappers and that scratch golfers tended to overall get much more rotation of the hips. I think I need to "keep cranking the hips" so to speak. I think this could actually be an important thing in getting on a more inside-out path as well as simply getting more power.

[Grizvok]

After a lot more dissecting of these videos there is a lot I’m really not happy with. I think I might be over exaggerating the piece where my left leg gains flex. After some practice swings in the living room I think I’m having issues where instead of the hips rotating enough my left knee is simply gaining more and more flex and is caving in. Maybe I’m off base with the assessment that it is too much flex but I believe I’m at least somewhat on point with the notion that my rotation of the hips is off and the way that I’m attempting to rotate them is just wrong.

I’m also not getting nearly enough weight forward and that’s painfully apparent. It’s a hell of a lot better than the reverse pivot I had last year so no complaints there but I know things can be much better on that front.

[iacas]

You can't really go "forward" during the downswing because you do a bit too much during the backswing.

[Grizvok]

47 minutes ago, iacas said:

You can't really go "forward" during the downswing because you do a bit too much during the backswing.

Gotcha. This was something I had thought might be creeping into the backswing but I wasn’t really sure about. I’ve been scared of doing the opposite (backwards sway) and I might’ve gotten a little extreme in the opposite direction. It’s crazy (but not really that surprising) how many of my issues take me back to the 5 Simple Keys. I know a centered backswing isn’t specifically one but some of the others definitely set you up to be performing that type of unit turn.

@iacasI’m going to be pm’ing you about your availability over the next few weeks. I’m still super interested in heading to Erie from the Pittsburgh area to get some coaching. It’ll be the first real golf instruction I’ve received so I look forward to it and the impact it’ll have on my game. Making my turn more centered will definitely be on the agenda for the next week or so which will probably be my priority piece until I can head up there.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

I'm wondering now if maybe I'm slightly off line and maybe a little bit vertical? I was doing a couple of practice swings, and I'm noticing that when I get SLIGHTLY more horizontal with my swing it's allowing me to attack from the inside considerably easier. On top of that when you witness most professionals move from the back swing to the down swing you tend to see a shallowing of the club in the beginning phases of the down swing. That's just not happening with me. I'm thinking maybe its simply easier to shallow my swing a little bit than work on an entirely new piece of the swing.

I'm also noticing my posture is too bent over and could be a huge reason why I lose spine angle. I HAVE to to compensate for how bent over I am. If I don't jerk up to lose spine angle I probably chunk the ball considerably more often. It's a chain reaction that I think I'm seeing.

Edit: who know's if another part of the puzzle is properly fitted clubs. I'm tall at 6'2 but my ape index is roughly even therefore slightly longer shafts might make sense for me. Impossible to tell until I can get a fitting down but just some musing.

Edited June 17, 2018 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

Went to the local course today and only practiced putting as well as really short chipping. I'm starting to employ more of a putting stroke when it comes to my chipping with varying levels of wrist hinge and other factors to account for how much run I have, how much rough before the green, etc. I'm having difficulty finding that thread for some reason so if anyone has it handy, I'd love to give it a re-read.

I've been doing a lot of mental work on my swing lately and practicing specific pieces in the living room to try and "change the picture." I probably tend to ping-pong between certain priority pieces a bit too much, but I'm getting better at recognizing my swing flaws and some of the most glaring ones seem like the last to become apparent to me for whatever reason. Anyhow I last talked about a swing-plane that was potentially a little too vertical and I'm still feeling that that is the case and here's undoubtedly why this is occurring: disconnect in the backswing. When I'm making real swings the backswing is definitely initiated by my arms which simply creates a more vertical path for me. However, when I'm visualizing the butt of the club pointing at my stomach/torso area for a longer period of time as they both rotate, I'm naturally taking the club on a better (slightly flatter) swing plane that is producing straighter shots by allowing me to swing from inside-out slightly more. 

[Grizvok]

I played my first actual round today in about 3 weeks. I was in a very minor car accident a few weeks ago and while the impact and damage were extremely minor I did have to slam on the brakes and slide out a decent amount which apparently was enough to cause some whiplash. Over the next few days my neck stiffened up considerably, but I'm back to feeling great. I'm going to be getting a check for around $1000 which I'm totally not spending on my car. The damage is so minor but to totally fix does require some paint and dent removal work.

I'm doing something I should've done from the get-go and going to spend $250 for some 712 AP1's 4-PW, AW from globalgolf. Right now I'm playing the 710 AP2's and I just need to deal with me not being good enough to hit them given that I score from the low 90's to low 100's on harder courses like Champion Lake. The AP2's are fricken sweet when I make perfect contact, but mishits are pretty damn bad. Iron play is definitely not my biggest weakness and compared to the rest of my game probably a strength (though I feel this depends on the day). I'm going to get them in the next week or two and a few weeks after that I want to write a review which is something I've been wanting to get into. I'll have the AP2's to compare them to so it'll be some type of comparison review between the two models (I know they are from different years but I don't think that's as big of a deal). Anyhow, I look forward to getting these bad boys and writing a review!

Some new swing video should be up this weekend.

[Grizvok]

So I think a few weeks ago I was incredibly naive when I made specific comments about how I didn’t shallow the golf club during the beginning of the downswing and that maybe I should just attempt to flatten out my backswing since the shallowing of the club didn’t happen at all.

These were just dumb comments made out of ignorance of the incredible importance of that piece. I watched a good bit of educational content sort of proving that to some extent the shallowing of the club happens automatically when you have proper sequencing on the downswing and the videos I shot today definitely are in line with thos findings.

I think I was correct in that post saying that perhaps I was a touch vertical in my swing plane and was certainly correct in saying that a big reason that happened was because of disconnect between my arms and shoulders/chest at the beginning of the backswing.

So a few things I have queued up are : firstly making sure I’m not going too far forward on the backswing. This is a pretty simply fix for me and not too much to talk about there.

Piece 2 is me then working on keeping the handle of the club pointing at my belly for a bit longer as I start my backswing by focusing on initiating the backswing with more hip turn and less arms. The arms come into play still of course but a bit later on which I think is getting me more on line.

Piece 3 is the big change. This is where I’m focusing on starting from the ground up on the downswing getting MUCH more rotation of the hips to start the swing which is naturally shallowing the club a bit and is letting me attack from the inside which should increase lag and create a straight ball flight if not a draw. I’m actually really excited about the prospect of this change.

[Grizvok]

 

[Grizvok]

I had an excellent range session today in the heat. I think I’ve successfully gotten back to the point where my pivot is centered and I’m not moving too far forward during the backswing. I’d like to see my hips cranking a little bit more around to eek out some more power but that will come in time. I think piece 2 I mentioned in my last post (initiating the backswing with my hips instead of the arms) will help in achieving that.

I think over the past few weeks I’ve gotten better at maintaining spine angle through the swing but what I’m working on heavily right now (piece 3 I previously mentioned) throws another big factor into that equation. Even though I don’t look too open at all compared to good players it is a hell of a lot better than where I was. I’m super freaking excited too because of the distance gains that I’ve gotten from even this amount of rotation and initiation of the downswing with the hips. I think getting the hips and weight overall forward has slightly suffered as a result of this new piece but that’s something I will continue to work on as I learn to both slide and rotate the hips.

From the look of things this piece hasn’t really done a ton yet to shallow the club but I do think it’s done something to allow me to attack from the inside a bit more easily and when I was hitting some driver my typical slice miss became more like a semi-acceptable fade. Driver distance was fantastic too. I think the driver is quickly becoming one of my best clubs.

Once again, I’m super excited about some of the stuff I’m working on right now. It’s hard work but I see huge upside to nailing down piece 3. I think this is really my beginning to nailing down key 3 I think which is inline impact.

[iacas]

Swings looked good.

Work on Key #2 now?

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Swings looked good.

Work on Key #2 now?

Definitely. That whole piece you demonstrate with your hip pushing the office chair away just isn’t present in my swing. I really like that drill though and the way you show it is perfect. I like drills such as this that I can easily incorporate throughout the day.