My Swing (Grizvok)

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, Grizvok said:

bit ago I had started messing around with a feel that had helped with shallowing the club which was feeling like my right elbow almost drives into my right hip on the downswing.

I would take the feel farther forward. For me, I want the elbow to feel like it’s driving to the ball and in front of my right hip. My bad habit was swinging down at the ball. I would get steep and swing OTT.
 

I used to think that the arm pits had to stay connected to the body. It probably came from some tip I read somewhere. If we overdo that feel, the right elbow can get stuck behind our sides on the downswing. In reality, they will stay connected if we flatten to A5 and swing around with our torso and arms in sequence. My Evolvr instructor wants to see the shaft steep at A3 and shallow at A5. I rehearse that feel a lot.

[Grizvok]

8 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I would take the feel farther forward. For me, I want the elbow to feel like it’s driving to the ball and in front of my right hip. My bad habit was swinging down at the ball. I would get steep and swing OTT.
 

I used to think that the arm pits had to stay connected to the body. It probably came from some tip I read somewhere. If we overdo that feel, the right elbow can get stuck behind our sides on the downswing. In reality, they will stay connected if we flatten to A5 and swing around with our torso and arms in sequence. My Evolvr instructor wants to see the shaft steep at A3 and shallow at A5. I rehearse that feel a lot.

I really like the idea of getting steep at A3. That should help me not get across the line at A4. I’ll incorporate keeping track of that as I continue to work and keep an eye on the takeaway/backswing stuff.

On a side note, during my round today I took a few practice iron swings while waiting to be able to play my next shot and messed around with the “driving the elbow to the ball feel”. They weren’t at a ball or anything, but it felt pretty good.

[Grizvok]

This post will be a summary of my lesson at TheSandTrap outing in Chautauqua, NY.

The lower body has been inactive for such a long time. I feel like I'm moving much more "into the ground" which creates a feeling of being much more connected to the ground. Feel like my feet are almost claw-like and are digging while rotating into the turf...gaining purchase into the ground. Feel like the left knee points more towards the ball (this should happen even more). Feel like I'm rotating more and that the hands get higher. Right hip and right knee are higher which creates more of this downward slant that allows me to work "downhill" early on in the downswing. Work on having the trail hip even higher which should result in slightly less flex in the trail knee.

 

Feel like the lead knee is softer early on in the downswing and starts with a small bump forward. This is a bit exaggerated with the soft knee and bump, but is in the right direction for sure. This helps with my feeling of "falling" or "landing" into the lead ankle which further assists in working downhill.

 

Very passive on the left, but much more aggressive and athletic swing on the right. Left knee now has the chance to really extend and shoot upwards which helps kick the hips back and around as well as to help kick the club down into impact and out of the ground.

MORE of all of the above is the goal for now.

And a small note on tension: I think Erik could see the tension present in my body and mentioned it a few times during fullswing work and a few times during pitching/flop shot work as well. I need to minimize this and feel more "loose".

Lastly, I've been intrigued quite a bit by the more physical/tissue changes that @mvmac has been working on. I want to take that idea and run with it in terms of the kind of things I can potentially do to help work on hip mobility/flexibility.

[Grizvok]

I think this is one of my best strikes in quite some time. I just need to continue to work on changing the picture when it comes to how the lower body is functioning especially during the downswing. That is going to entail a LOT of really slow swings to change those motor patterns. The upper body doesn’t have the just behind the ball look you want to see, but I think this is mostly because of the relatively poor lower body sequencing.

I’ll continue to work on my takeaways to A3 whenever I have a few free minutes.

[Grizvok]

New practice setup: starting getting an alignment stick between my legs to constantly be cognizant of ball position. I think I've been hiding behind the crutch of a back ball position for a little bit of time especially when I get on the course. I want to be forced to get more weight and pressure forward. The one ball on the left of the alignment stick is a rough reference point for an appropriate lateral shift away from the target (1-2 inches). The two balls on the right are a rough reference point for appropriate lateral shift towards the target (4 inches or so). These are mainly reference points to give a bit more data when doing video analysis.

Swing setup: slightly wider. This felt good. I also need to be getting into a more neutral spine position. I have a little bit of a forward press that I'm not a huge fan of. This should help with my upper body lateral shift towards the target being a little less extreme. A little bit of focus on that with these new swings but not too much.

The main piece and feel I was working on here was the lead foot pressure spike that is beginning to serve as my swing trigger. This seems to be a popular swing trigger, and I can see why. Other than that, I was also working on the look/loading of the trail hip. I wasn't a fan of how my right leg looked at the top of the backswing in my last video (didn't seem to lose much flex), and I think I did a bit of a better job with that here. It looks much more in line with a few low handicapper/pro swings I've taken a look at.

 

[iacas]

The upper body should re-center but not continue forward past that. Yours continues forward.

Be careful. It will leave your hips back and hit the ball too low.

[Grizvok]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

The upper body should re-center but not continue forward past that. Yours continues forward.

Be careful. It will leave your hips back and hit the ball too low.

Yeah, that’s why I mentioned trying to get into a more neutral spine position at address because I start horizontally shifted too far to the target with the upper center. That won’t be enough to get it to where it needs to be but hopefully it is a start. I think I’ve suffered from this flaw for a while to be honest. I’m not really sure what it was about the Chautauqua swing that made the upper center be in a better spot compared to these. These swings were done at much less than maximum effort (and less effort than the Chautauqua swings), so I’m not sure if that somehow played a part. The other thing I can think of is that the backswing sway here was a bit too extreme (possible) which made my momentum forward too much for the upper center to handle. The final thought and maybe the one I have the most conviction in, is that out of these swings (Chautauqua included) I worked down towards the ball more during the outing which essentially replaced some of the movement that happens horizontally with vertical movement.

[boogielicious]

Is your set up area level? My old set up was slightly down hill and I tended to sway more. I then went full Dr. Emmet Brown and built a perfectly flat stand. I’m OCD that way!

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

Is your set up area level? My old set up was slightly down hill and I tended to sway more. I then went full Dr. Emmet Brown and built a perfectly flat stand. I’m OCD that way!

Yeah, this area is sloped from front to back so that could be something. These are also some of my first attempts at adding flow and feeling the lead foot pressure spike trigger so I think it's more likely I'm just overdoing it a bit. I do really like how the trail hip is loading and how it looks at A4 in these swings so I'm glad I devoted even a little bit of time to it. I think working a little bit on flow pairs well with the lesson at the outing in that it is crucial towards developing a more aggressive and athletic swing.

I'm going to get another net session in today and get back to the soft lead knee feeling/bump in transition. This was my key feel from my lesson, so it's really no surprise that it's what I need to be focusing on. I think the softer lead knee + the bump is precisely what allowed me to work down to the ball a bit more. I just need to reign myself in a bit and focus on what the golf professional, @iacas, taught me. Hmmmm, who would've thought...

In the near future I'm looking at a few purchases, which are: Evolvr subscription (will probably do this in the next week or so), SuperSpeed set, and potentially a Mevo. 

 

[iacas]

If/when you do sign up for Evolvr just mention me in your first post so I can start with you.

[boogielicious]

3 hours ago, Grizvok said:

Yeah, this area is sloped from front to back so that could be something. These are also some of my first attempts at adding flow and feeling the lead foot pressure spike trigger so I think it's more likely I'm just overdoing it a bit. I do really like how the trail hip is loading and how it looks at A4 in these swings so I'm glad I devoted even a little bit of time to it. I think working a little bit on flow pairs well with the lesson at the outing in that it is crucial towards developing a more aggressive and athletic swing.

I'm going to get another net session in today and get back to the soft lead knee feeling/bump in transition. This was my key feel from my lesson, so it's really no surprise that it's what I need to be focusing on. I think the softer lead knee + the bump is precisely what allowed me to work down to the ball a bit more. I just need to reign myself in a bit and focus on what the golf professional, @iacas, taught me. Hmmmm, who would've thought...

In the near future I'm looking at a few purchases, which are: Evolvr subscription (will probably do this in the next week or so), SuperSpeed set, and potentially a Mevo. 

 

If it’s your permanent practice area, think about leveling it somehow. You can always remove the stand if you want to practice shots on uneven lies.

[Grizvok]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

If it’s your permanent practice area, think about leveling it somehow. You can always remove the stand if you want to practice shots on uneven lies.

So, my girlfriend and I were at this small park the other day that is like half a mile away from me and during the walk I came to the conclusion that if they allowed golf there that it would be a perfect practice spot. Fast forward to today and I called the borough office and spoke to the very cool Borough Manager and explained my golf setup with the massive net and turf hitting mat (he ended up being a golfer too, haha) and I got the green light to practice there whenever I wanted. The only thing I need now is a nice board/platform that is mobile and feels good to rotate on. When I just had a piece of composite board, it didn’t feel like I was getting the same “digging into” the ground feels with my feet but that could’ve been a result of the uneven ground. I should be able to think of something.

[Grizvok]

Some swings from today’s session. I know I mentioned getting back to the softer lead knee feel + bump, but I wanted to do a shorter session and focus mostly on setting up a bit differently. Swings 1 and 2 were done with the more neutral spine setup and 3 was the older more forward spine setup. I do like this change. I also reigned in the sway a bit.

Swing 2 was messing around with an old feel I used for a little in 2018 which was trying to rotate onto the trail big toe as quickly as possible. I wanted to see what kind of result this produced particularly because I haven’t been liking how my knees are getting far apart in transition. I liked how that feel allowed my trail hip to work under my lead hip which has also seemed like a problem.

Tomorrow’s session will absolutely be back to the soft lead knee + bump to start transition. Tonight I’m going to do a bit of work on @ShaftFarmer‘s prior recommendation by doing some takeaways to A3 before bed.

Overall, I’m very bullish on this lower body work.

 

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, Grizvok said:

Some swings from today’s session. I know I mentioned getting back to the softer lead knee feel + bump, but I wanted to do a shorter session and focus mostly on setting up a bit differently. Swings 1 and 2 were done with the more neutral spine setup and 3 was the older more forward spine setup. I do like this change. I also reigned in the sway a bit.

Swing 2 was messing around with an old feel I used for a little in 2018 which was trying to rotate onto the trail big toe as quickly as possible. I wanted to see what kind of result this produced particularly because I haven’t been liking how my knees are getting far apart in transition. I liked how that feel allowed my trail hip to work under my lead hip which has also seemed like a problem.

Tomorrow’s session will absolutely be back to the soft lead knee + bump to start transition. Tonight I’m going to do a bit of work on @ShaftFarmer‘s prior recommendation by doing some takeaways to A3 before bed.

Overall, I’m very bullish on this lower body work.

 

These look better. Your upper center is not shifting as much forward from A4. Good job!

[Grizvok]

Setup: get back to the 60/40 weight distribution feel at address. Helps reign in the pressure shift. More neutral spine position (touched on this before). Hands more forward to increase shaft lean a bit at address which was decreased due to shifting the spine to be more neutral.

Going to get away from the lateral move off of the ball for now. The new more active lower body seems like it is doing some stuff to that affect without me even trying.

I need to be getting weight and pressure back to the lead side so much earlier. My recentering and shift back to the lead side is happening at the top of the backswing...not good. I’d love to get a session on a SwingCatalyst, because besides what I *think* I see in video I’m clueless as to where and when my pressure is shifting.

[Grizvok]

I spent the past two weeks not recording my swing and instead working on developing a feel that I can take to the course to bind together the two priority pieces. What I came up with is a mantra. The mantra is pretty simple and goes "set and stomp".  The "set" part refers to the actions of the wrists in the backswing to try and get my hinging done relatively early, and the "stomp" refers to what I do in transition to the lead foot. I don't think it is a coincidence that my work on this produced one of my better rounds so far this season, which was an 85 (including an awful 38 putts) on a relatively difficult 6700 yard course. Clean up the putting a bit (especially the 3-putts) and I could've had a 70's round in the making.

Ball flight has been changing towards a slight draw, which I was able to calibrate nicely by doing alignment work these past two weeks.

I'll be getting back to some more technical work this week by videoing my swing and taking stock of what exactly the picture is with the new mantra.