My Swing (Grizvok)

[Grizvok]

Hello fellow golf enthusiasts. I'm Trevor, a relatively new golfer who has become addicted to this great sport, and I've been working really hard the past few months to improve my game and become more technically sound in all aspects. I'll be updating this thread along the way as I journey toward becoming a better golfer. In the past week I've just recently switched from a 10 finger baseball grip to a more conventional overlap and I love it so far. I think I'm starting to get the hands working together as a unit and as a result I think my mis-hit numbers have been falling pretty quickly.

This shot was from a par 4 where I decided to tee up with my 3w that I'm in love with (especially when compared to my decade+ old driver with almost no grip left which will soon be replaced).

So here's a video from earlier today with the 3 wood off of the tee. I've been hitting the range a lot and I think it is showing?

Here's what I'm noticing: firstly, my grip doesn't look great but I think a big part of it is how incredibly far in front of my stance the ball is and in response how I address the ball. To that effect I think my back angle at the start of the stroke isn't great since I'm leaning forward pretty heavily which I believe starts a lot of the weight on the front foot. This probably inhibits good weight transfer. I will probably start having the ball slightly farther back in my stance.

Thank you very much for any comments/critiques and happy golfing!

 

I've been Playing Golf for: a few months
My current handicap index or average score is: low 100's
My typical ball flight is: high / fade
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: a weird one where with my driver I actually hit the ground like a full foot before the ball.

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Videos: 

 

[Maddmaxx63]

Can you do another swing video from behind so we can see your swing arch 

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, Maddmaxx63 said:

Can you do another swing video from behind so we can see your swing arch 

Will do. My number one focus right now on each and every swing is actually to really be swinging around my body more which has been amazing for my overall contact and distance.

I really enjoyed iacas thread about swing thoughts and this has been mine for a few weeks.

I should've had more views/angles up prior to starting the thread but I decided to get it started anyway and add content as I get more and more video of my strokes.

[Grizvok]

 

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

So the first two videos are of me using the 3w on a tee and the next 3 are of a 5 iron also tee'd up.

One thing I'm noticing is that I certainly think that my turn (a word I've heard to describe the moment in the swing when it reaches the apex of the back swing and becomes the down swing) is much too fast. I'm not trying to be Matsuyama, but I think I should slow up the turn which I think will provide some added consistency. Besides that, I'm not really sure what to look for when it comes to problems from this view. I think I could be getting into a better position with my back/hips prior to the swing, and I think I may have issues maintaining a proper spine angle through the entirety of the stroke.

 

Thanks for any comments!

[Maddmaxx63]

Noticed your trailing foot does not turn till shot is complete?   Thinking it should be more fluid.   You might look at a Ben hogan swing video. But if it's a straight shot and distance is good then don't fix what ain't broken. Have you had a lesson yet? Getting a pro to observe you is very helpful. I know at my club the pro will watch you hit a bucket of balls for 20 bucks. Just to see where to start with you.   I'm having my session next week. ?

[RandallT]

Looks a nice swing for someone shooting those scores. That was my first thought.

First- have you seen this?

There are lots of links, including stuff on camera angles. You definitely want to get both face on and down the line. Each shows critical things that instructors (I'm not one) will look for. 

As for DTL, that view shows posture, club position at the top, how "steep" you get coming down, etc. 

I agree that you seem a tad rushed in the swing, bit to my eye, I saw a lack of engagement of the hips. 

On the link above you'll see 5 keys to a sound swing- one of them is weight forward with the hips. 

Again, I'm no instructor, but your goal should be to find the priority for your practice and it will likely be something fundamental that you see in that thread above.

Then set about fixing that one thing until the next thing becomes more of a priority. Not easy for us to spot ourselves so this thread will hopefully help as you keep posting and solicit ideas. 

Be patient and join other discussions and you'll likely attract more people here over time to help you out. Good luck!!

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, Maddmaxx63 said:

Noticed your trailing foot does not turn till shot is complete?   Thinking it should be more fluid.   You might look at a Ben hogan swing video. But if it's a straight shot and distance is good then don't fix what ain't broken. Have you had a lesson yet? Getting a pro to observe you is very helpful. I know at my club the pro will watch you hit a bucket of balls for 20 bucks. Just to see where to start with you.   I'm having my session next week. ?

Yeah I think the bit about my trailing foot not turning really starts with what RandallT mentioned about the lack of engagement with my hips. I think my lower body in general needs a lot of work, and it starts with a good concept of what should be happening with the hips/pelvis which I'm just not sure about. I haven't had any kind of lessons but that's absolutely something I want to do in the near future.

 

45 minutes ago, RandallT said:

Looks a nice swing for someone shooting those scores. That was my first thought.

First- have you seen this?

There are lots of links, including stuff on camera angles. You definitely want to get both face on and down the line. Each shows critical things that instructors (I'm not one) will look for. 

As for DTL, that view shows posture, club position at the top, how "steep" you get coming down, etc. 

I agree that you seem a tad rushed in the swing, bit to my eye, I saw a lack of engagement of the hips. 

On the link above you'll see 5 keys to a sound swing- one of them is weight forward with the hips. 

Again, I'm no instructor, but your goal should be to find the priority for your practice and it will likely be something fundamental that you see in that thread above.

Then set about fixing that one thing until the next thing becomes more of a priority. Not easy for us to spot ourselves so this thread will hopefully help as you keep posting and solicit ideas. 

Be patient and join other discussions and you'll likely attract more people here over time to help you out. Good luck!!

Thanks for the comment about my swing! I think my really big issue scoring wise is the short game. I liked iacas' thread about practice ratios and have been predominantly working on the full swing mechanics, but I'm thinking with how many strokes I gain right around and on the green I should probably skew those ratios a bit more in favor of practicing my chipping in particular which is honestly a shot that I NEVER hit. By that I mean if I'm right on the fringe around the green I guess given the definitions of pitching vs chipping I'm pretty much always pitching it and going for a high lofted shot where I get into tons of trouble because I aim way too close to the pin and end up with a good 20-30 feet of roll which puts me into a tough spot. This is a very recent realization (like in the last 24 hours) though, and I'm going to be much more cognizant about the chip shot as an option which I believe will shave a few strokes off of my score.

The hips and the lower body in general are absolutely my next priority along with general weight transfer and moving in the direction of the shot which all sort of tie together.

Thanks for the link. I will give that a good read.

[Grizvok]

So I took an absolute ton of swing video the other day at a range session with my new (for me) Titleist AP2 710's. My priority piece the past few weeks has been "swing around the body more with a centered turn"  both of which I think sort of go hand in hand. After all the work I've done regarding that I'm actually really happy right now with my swing plane. That's probably the thing I feel best about in my swing.

During this range session my real focus was the hips and the lower body in general. Randall mentioned a lack of engagement in the hips (which is something I've heard before) and I completely agreed. I think this is going to be my priority piece for the next few months with the goal to be to get my weight transferring significantly more forward than I currently am.  With that said I do believe I have a problem maintaining spine angle and would love to find a few drills or something to fix that issue. I think the down the line video clearly shows me pulling up too quickly which I'm sure leads to thin and topped shots.

As always thanks for checking out my swing thread and happy golfing!

Side view:

Down the line:

 

[saevel25]

You have way too much lateral shift with your body. 

I would check out these threads. 

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by saevel25

[Grizvok]

9 hours ago, saevel25 said:

You have way too much lateral shift with your body. 

I would check out these threads. 

 

You are absolutely right. I think this is just starting to happen because these videos represent some of my first attempts at actually utilizing the hips. I'm swaying quite a bit to be sure.

Do you notice anything in the down the line view? I've self-diagnosed an issue with maintaining spine angle and early extension of the spine and just wanted confirmation that that was also an issue.

[Grizvok]

On 7/31/2017 at 10:42 PM, saevel25 said:

 

 

 

I'm also quickly wondering aloud to anybody really: is this a huge over swing? I never really thought about myself having this issue before but after reading a bit more and doing some analysis of my stroke I'm thinking this is absolutely an over swing which is probably tying into the lateral shift.

[saevel25]

2 hours ago, Grizvok said:

I'm also quickly wondering aloud to anybody really: is this a huge over swing? I never really thought about myself having this issue before but after reading a bit more and doing some analysis of my stroke I'm thinking this is absolutely an over swing which is probably tying into the lateral shift.

Not really. 

[b101]

Agree with @saevel25 entirely. I had similar at the start of my lessons and the best thing is to focus on keeping your head 'steady' (but not still). The guy who runs this site counts it as one of the five key pieces that you need to master your golf swing and has done quite a few videos on it:

If you're anything like how I was, the first thing to do will be to keep recording swings (start at about 30% and work up) and try to keep your head within an imaginary box - similar to the lines @saevel25 drew on the freeze frame. To do this, you'll want to feel that your head moves forward in the backswing and up in the downswing... Feel isn't real is a common mantra you'll hear on here. You'll find it difficult to start with and hit all sorts of horrible shots (I shanked and topped loads), but within 4 range sessions of doing it properly, you'll really start to see the difference. This'll be what's causing a load of the issues with the driver as you're finding it hard to control where the bottom of the swing is.

Keep us posted on your progress and pop videos up for checking and to keep a log of your progress.

[Grizvok]

4 hours ago, b101 said:

Agree with @saevel25 entirely. I had similar at the start of my lessons and the best thing is to focus on keeping your head 'steady' (but not still). The guy who runs this site counts it as one of the five key pieces that you need to master your golf swing and has done quite a few videos on it:

If you're anything like how I was, the first thing to do will be to keep recording swings (start at about 30% and work up) and try to keep your head within an imaginary box - similar to the lines @saevel25 drew on the freeze frame. To do this, you'll want to feel that your head moves forward in the backswing and up in the downswing... Feel isn't real is a common mantra you'll hear on here. You'll find it difficult to start with and hit all sorts of horrible shots (I shanked and topped loads), but within 4 range sessions of doing it properly, you'll really start to see the difference. This'll be what's causing a load of the issues with the driver as you're finding it hard to control where the bottom of the swing is.

Keep us posted on your progress and pop videos up for checking and to keep a log of your progress.

Good stuff man. I actually had a range session today before work where I did exactly what you described and really focused on keeping the head steady and having the hips not shift backwards laterally as @saevel25mentioned to good effect.

I've read the 5 keys to good practice and I know specific is one of them (something I completely agree with) but the "hip slide" forward on the downswing is also something I was trying to incorporate and honestly it was incredible in terms of contact and general shifting of weight forward(which is where I believe the better contact is coming from). I'm wondering if this is just too much to tackle at once or if my priority piece and focus should be ironing out the issues with my backswing before attempting to fix the downswing.

I was also flaring out my feet considerably more and boy are@iacas and @mvmac right when they say flaring out your feet at address makes golf easier.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

So, I wanted to post some more video now that I've been working on controlling the lateral shifting of my body. All in all I think my iron contact is by far the best it has ever been (scratch that...my contact with every club) and I thank you @saevel25 for giving me that great bit of feedback. My plan for the next few months is as follows: first to continue working on creating a centered turn at least for the next few weeks. After that I think it is imperative that I tackle the issue of early spine extension or "humping the goat" as it is so eloquently called. After that I really want to work on the concept of "sliding the hips" which is something I've been playing around with a little bit and it seems like a powerful concept and mechanic for really getting my weight forward.

I'm actually amazed at how much more forward my weight is getting with these shots in particular simply because I've drastically reduced the lateral shift backwards. More weight is forward by default and its been fantastic for my contact.

Here are a few shots from this morning. I have a round set up for early tomorrow at a course I've never played at that I've heard is gorgeous so I'm super pumped. Yay golf!!

 

 

 

[Grizvok]

No new video to show unfortunately, but I've been working diligently for close to 3 weeks now on the centered turn that @saevel25 was talking about and it has done wonders for my contact especially with my irons from the deck. After the first few sessions of working on this I found that I was in fact now probably swaying too much in the opposite direction (forward) on the backswing which wasn't necessarily bad as it sort of got me used to that feeling and then allowed me to find a good middle ground.

Now I've been really focused on centered coupled with proper hip / shoulder rotation which have me striking irons very well compared to my handicap. Even my driver has gotten substantially better as a result of this work. In the 18 holes I played today I can only really remember one horrendous drive which was a shank and a half off of the heel.

All in all I was pretty psyched with how I struck the ball except for the short game (especially putting). I was attempting some new things with the putter that overall seemed detrimental, but I began feeling a bit better about putting as the round got further along because I had reverted to my normal putting grip as well as made a few minor changes to stance width and trying to get the club to be more in line with my arms in general which really helped the pendulum feeling. Putting is obviously a HUGEEEEEE weakness of mine. The range right near me simply doesn't have a spot to chip and putt at so my practice on those skills has been pretty much zero which needs to be remedied.

Right now the main decision is what my next priority piece should be. My two real contenders as of this moment are either a focus on the "ground up" sequencing of the down swing with exceptional levels of focus going towards sliding the hips forward or working on maintaining my spine angle through the stroke so that I'm not humping the goat and causing thin or topped shots (a miss that has been pretty rare for me).

 

[billchao]

@Grizvok, make sure your camera angles are good.

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