My Swing (Grizvok)

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

Need bifocals now?😜 I can’t see it in either orientation. Plus YouTube seems to have problems with portrait, so I do landscape.

Forward press will lead to a more in to out swing. Is you start line right? I have this habit and have to aim my feet left of target, otherwise I hook. You have a nice looking swing.

You are absolutely right. Almost prophetic even. That tree line that is close behind me continues down the fairway pretty much all the way until the hole. When I have a hazard on the left like this, I have the same habit and grossly exaggerate the aiming of my feet to the right, which just doesn't make sense when my typical shape is a fade. The result of this drive was a pretty poor shot that did end up duck hooking into the woods. Fortunately, the provisional ball I played ended up being a decent push-draw. Regardless of the better second result, your point is right on.

[ShaftFarmer]

Something I noticed in your recent driver video, once you get to A3 (I think) in the backswing, it seems like you begin to lose the depth you created from the takeaway. I think this is due to you starting to bend your left elbow. Is that something you've ever addressed?

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, ShaftFarmer said:

Something I noticed in your recent driver video, once you get to A3 (I think) in the backswing, it seems like you begin to lose the depth you created from the takeaway. I think this is due to you starting to bend your left elbow. Is that something you've ever addressed?

Yeah, so I've been doing a bunch of takeaway work over the past week or so to A2 to try and fix the overly bent RIGHT arm that occurs very early on in the backswing. You'll notice this in my somewhat recent video with the sand wedge. I'm 99% sure what is going on there is that my chest and arms are disconnected and instead of turning a good bit with the chest/torso I'm really pulling the club back with like 95% arms. I compared this view at A2 to a bunch of professionals and nobody had anywhere near the amount of flex I did with the right arm at this point. As you noted before, I do get a pretty good turn, but I think it happens somewhat later than it should.

To tie this in with what you mentioned, when a disconnect like that exists you essentially don't give your left arm the space it needs to continue to freely turn and instead the bicep of that arm ends up pressing into the left pectoral area which causes the breakdown of the left elbow. I think continuing to work on my takeaway to A2 (I might actually start focusing on taking these practice takeaways to A3) and working on the connection between the torso and arms early on is exactly what I need to remedy this.

Thanks for the input. It really helps me affirm that I'm working on the right things (along with my work on not early extending).

Edited July 6, 2020 by Grizvok

[Grizvok]

In the daily practice thread I mentioned lead arm adduction angle and wanted to share this picture from an AMG Pros vs Ams segment. I’m absolutely doing what the amateur on the right is and having my lead arm get pulled way across my chest. This is why the breakdown of the left arm happens as @ShaftFarmer pointed out. That arm has no place to go so it bends.

Swing feel that is being used to remedy this: feel like this angle does not change at all on the backswing.

 

[ShaftFarmer]

10 hours ago, Grizvok said:

In the daily practice thread I mentioned lead arm adduction angle and wanted to share this picture from an AMG Pros vs Ams segment. I’m absolutely doing what the amateur on the right is and having my lead arm get pulled way across my chest. This is why the breakdown of the left arm happens as @ShaftFarmer pointed out. That arm has no place to go so it bends.

Swing feel that is being used to remedy this: feel like this angle does not change at all on the backswing.

 

That makes a lot of sense! A few swing thoughts that I use sometimes that may help ya out.

1. Keep hands as far from body as I can on the backswing

2. Try to keep both arms as straight as I can for as long as I can in the backswing

[Grizvok]

On 7/9/2020 at 9:56 AM, ShaftFarmer said:

That makes a lot of sense! A few swing thoughts that I use sometimes that may help ya out.

1. Keep hands as far from body as I can on the backswing

2. Try to keep both arms as straight as I can for as long as I can in the backswing

I’m currently at the range working on this and feel #2 seems like a much better feel for me compared to what I was doing earlier. It’s just much less technical and seems like a feel that will transfer much more easily when I take it to the course.

[ShaftFarmer]

21 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

I’m currently at the range working on this and feel #2 seems like a much better feel for me compared to what I was doing earlier. It’s just much less technical and seems like a feel that will transfer much more easily when I take it to the course.

Good to hear! Yeah that swing thought helped me out a lot years back when my takeaway was wayyyy inside my target line causing me to have the shanks. You just need to make sure you're still hinging the wrists correctly on the takeaway

[Grizvok]

I figured it is probably about time I start videoing my putting stroke. I really have no idea what to look for when it comes to putting. The only thing I might see is to try moving my elbows slightly further apart (like 4-5 inches). When it comes to the putting grip, should the putter be running through both lifelines? For quite some time I had the trail hand heel pad as the main point of contact for that hand, but I've recently switched to having the putter run through that hand's lifeline instead. Practice ratios for the near future are going to move towards something like 55/25/20. I really need to work on my putting.

 

 

On some other notes: I've been jealous of @billchao's and other similar outdoor net setups for quite some time. I decided on a few purchases to set myself up with a solid area to practice the full swing at home. This will make getting a lot of video so much easier mainly because the range I've been frequenting just isn't conducive to it. This will be great timing for it as well since I'll be able to get a ton of reps / practice in after the Chautauqua event with @iacas.

Upgrading from my mixed 710 AP1 / 712 AP2 set to some 716 AP2's. I essentially paid nothing for them after getting rid of these two iron sets.

[Grizvok]

Just updating this thread with a few pictures of my progress. I can’t even begin to describe how much better these swings felt. Old P2 vs new P2 and then old P3 vs new P3.

This will likely remain my priority piece until Chautauqua.

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Grizvok

[ShaftFarmer]

That looks a lot better! Keep it up!

[Grizvok]

30 minutes ago, ShaftFarmer said:

That looks a lot better! Keep it up!

Thanks dude. Really solid advice!

[ShaftFarmer]

On 7/16/2020 at 9:41 PM, Grizvok said:

 

The only advice I have here is to maybe try getting your shaft a bit more vertical at this point . At this point (A3 I think) the angle between your lead arm and shaft should be around 90 degrees maybe slightly more. Rickie's for example, is 107 here. So you aren't too far off just maybe something to think about!

[Grizvok]

2 hours ago, ShaftFarmer said:

The only advice I have here is to maybe try getting your shaft a bit more vertical at this point . At this point (A3 I think) the angle between your lead arm and shaft should be around 90 degrees maybe slightly more. Rickie's for example, is 107 here. So you aren't too far off just maybe something to think about!

Yeah, I had been thinking this was something I needed to work on. The realization dawned on me when you mentioned still needing to hinge the wrists properly. Even prior to employing your feel it was an issue.

[Grizvok]

On 7/18/2020 at 5:23 PM, ShaftFarmer said:

The only advice I have here is to maybe try getting your shaft a bit more vertical at this point . At this point (A3 I think) the angle between your lead arm and shaft should be around 90 degrees maybe slightly more. Rickie's for example, is 107 here. So you aren't too far off just maybe something to think about!

Working on this for the first time ever made something major click. I should have some new video up tonight.

[Grizvok]

So, I'm beginning to join the takeaway pieces together into one priority piece. While I may have regressed slightly with creating width, I'm fine with it because of the importance of getting the hinge going earlier. It also makes sense to me to work on these together because of how different the feels are between creating width through more thoracic spine rotation and doing so while hinging the wrists. 

The top of my backswing feels very different now. If I had to put a word to it, I'd say it feels much more stable. I'd hypothesize that this is likely a result of not having to wrist hinge a considerable amount so late in the backswing.

Other than that stuff, I'm definitely not transferring weight to the extent that I could and should be. I don't think it has anything to do with not having enough lateral movement toward the target; I think I have plenty of that and potentially too much with the upper body. The problem as I see it is a lack of rotation that probably stems from my early extension move. At least for me, early extension is a killer of rotation and as a result a killer of weight transfer.

That last bit is theoretical and not really something I've seen talked about. It seems to me that once the appropriate lateral shift towards the target has occurred, you've essentially set up a pivot point through which a ton of rotation occurs. I theorize that proper rotation around a closer-to-the-target laterally shifted pivot point (the middle of the hips) is responsible for a sizeable amount of weight and pressure transfer.

[Grizvok]

Videoing note: shoot from a touch higher when taking DTL video. Maybe a foot or so.

It's definitely been a bit of a struggle coalescing the two takeaway pieces (more thoracic rotation and earlier/more wrist hinge). I do still think it is the correct move to work on both simultaneously. Definitely more work to be done on both aspects, but I'm seeing some improvement.

Sequencing is pretty poor.

Still quite a bit of early extension that kills rotation and as I previously talked about inhibits weight transfer. Still need to "work down to the ball" quite a bit more given that my head at impact is higher than it is at address.

I dislike the "wall drill" that helps with early extension. It just feels really odd to me because there is no give to the wall; however, I've found that by putting an air mattress against the wall I get a drill that feels much more natural. I've been doing this drill along with my takeaway work.

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Grizvok

[boogielicious]

43 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

Videoing note: shoot from a touch higher when taking DTL video. Maybe a foot or so.

It's definitely been a bit of a struggle coalescing the two takeaway pieces (more thoracic rotation and earlier/more wrist hinge). I do still think it is the correct move to work on both simultaneously. Definitely more work to be done on both aspects, but I'm seeing some improvement.

Sequencing is pretty poor.

Still quite a bit of early extension that kills rotation and as I previously talked about inhibits weight transfer. Still need to "work down to the ball" quite a bit more given that my head at impact is higher than it is at address.

I dislike the "wall drill" that helps with early extension. It just feels really odd to me because there is no give to the wall; however, I've found that by putting an air mattress against the wall I get a drill that feels much more natural. I've been doing this drill along with my takeaway work.

 

The first part of the takeaway looks good. From the top, think about swinging out more toward the ball instead of down at it. You are steep at A5. You can almost feel like you are swinging too far out, like over the ball, but you will really be on plane.

[Grizvok]

39 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

The first part of the takeaway looks good. From the top, think about swinging out more toward the ball instead of down at it. You are steep at A5. You can almost feel like you are swinging too far out, like over the ball, but you will really be on plane.

Yeah, I think we both posted in the recent thread regarding the reconnecting of the elbow with the body that should occur pretty soon after the transition. I don’t think I have that move, and it seems like it’s an important part of shallowing out the club by A5. A 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. It actually felt really good and helped me swing from the inside a bit more, but I ultimately started working on the takeaway stuff. Compared to lower handicaps my right arm/elbow is very straight relatively early in the downswing, and pretty far away from my right hip.

Thanks for the input. Definitely something to work on.