Good Ash

So I haven't posted in while but thought I should probably check in and post where everything is at. I have been diligently working on my priority pieces which have included having more connected arms, open hips at impact, left elbow more connected to body, and a shallower downswing. In looking at some of my old videos, the swing changes are barely noticeable until I start looking frame by frame. A few things that I am noticing when looking at these frame by frames right now are that; I have much more room to swing around myself and I don't look as scrunched up, my hands are more extended from my body when coming into impact, my swing path is pretty neutral now and much better than what it was, my arms are more connected and I am maintaining a better triangle than previously (I can still get much better at this), my hands do a much better job in moving towards the ball in a straight line instead of the "j" type shape they made before and my elbow seems to move on a much better plane when looking DTL. As far as swing feels go, I feel that my swing is much more arm driven than it was before, in fact, moving my arms towards the ball is my thought for the downswing. On the course, I am finally hitting pretty good consistent shots with my mid-irons and my scoring has caught up to where it was before I started making these changes. I think the reason it hasn't improved beyond that point is that I am using the end of last summer as my guide and during that period I relied on a really good short game to score well for my level (upper 80's). Now, I feel like I am hitting the ball better and to say my short game is rusty would be an understatement. Before, it seemed like I would chip and tap in for bogey quite a bit but now it seems like I chip and two put for bogey. I hope with a little work on this I can drop those couple shots and get more into the mid to low 80's. I still have a long ways to go in getting to where I want to be, but this is definitely a start. As follows are some images of my latest 7 iron and driver swings.

Still working on my arm structure and boy is this a process. I just submitted these for a lesson and thought I would post as it's been a while. In the following videos I've been doing these drills pretty much nightly and this is still all the faster I can swing. I went down a rabbit hole or two for a couple days during the process thinking I had figured out "the secret" but have done pretty well in pulling my self out and just focusing on my priority. Right now, I'm focusing on keeping my elbows closer together and in particular not letting them spread apart on the downswing and into impact. Right now I noticed that I can come into the ball with a really open clubface if I'm not careful. I have been rolling my forearm at the top and during the later part of my backswing, then holding it to try to compensate. It's going to take a while for my "on the course" swing to look like this but I think I am heading in the right direction.

Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin

Well...I got out on the course 2 weeks ago and it wasn't all I had hoped for. Conditions were tough with all the rain we have had but I still botched more than my fair share of iron shots. The good news, if there is any, is that my driving and my short game helped me stay below triple digits (shot 99 with a couple penalties). I am right in the middle of busy season so I haven't been able to work on my swing as much as I would like but pieces are still improving. My arm structure is looking much better coming into impact, which is also why I think I have been hitting a lot of fat shots recently. I think that while we have been working on this, I need to remember to keep my "butt on the wall" and give my self space to extend (I asked my instructor about this so I will see what he says. It also looks like I need to revisit keeping my front knee a little more still on the back swing. Another aspect of my swing that I have been thinking about is my transition. It looks like I have a tendency to get my hips and lower body moving while my upper body stays relatively still. I think that is the cause for my steep move as I have to shorten the distance between the club and the ball to catch up. I asked my instructor about trying to move my upper body more in connection with my lower body. Just doing practice swing and tinkering around with the mirror, if I have the feeling like there is a rod going from my right hip and connecting to my hands my swing seems to be much more shallow in the transition. Everything looks better in slow motion without a ball so I will see what he says about this. I am uploading my last driver swing today as I really like how that is starting to look. Hoping next week my iron swing will be catching up a bit.

Just my $0.02 but majors are really important. Not only are the best golfers of the world in each field but it seems like they typically play in harder conditions than a regular tournament as well. I have only watched golf for a couple years so I have a pretty limited sample size, but it seems like there are some pro's who are great at playing the "easy courses" but very few whom can play well in the majors year in and year out.

Just a quick update. Progress with the new arm structure was going really well up until a couple days ago. When I went to the range (two days in a row just to hit a warm up sized bucket) everything seemed to fall apart. I was hitting weak slices and couldn't even control my 7i. I was so frustrated that all of that progress wasn't showing and somehow just disappeared. After working with some mirror work after these range sessions, I think I was being too aggressive through the ball and really rotating my shoulders. I think this was a result of me taking that lower body feeling a little to far which was causing a lot of total body rotation and jumping into full swings when I wasn't ready for them. It seems I can continue working on this but I need to keep my shoulders more square through impact. I received my last video back and my instructor and got a lot of my questions answered. I can play around with my making my grip a little more neutral and work on getting the backside of my hand to face more towards the target at impact. The result of this is quite good on the swings where I really get the rear elbow tight into my body coming down to my backswing. I am going out to play a round today and am super excited (I feel like a kid at Christmas). I played one round in January but the course was frozen and the temperature was in the mid 20's so it was hard to really gauge any progress. Before that, the last round I played was probably in October. Swing thoughts for today are going to be tight rear elbow and keep my shoulders square. I am going to try to not focus on my score and judge the round just by how solidly I hit the ball.

There is an executive 27 hole course where I live in a retirement community and it is pretty fun (you have to tee off early though or the round takes longer than if you were at a full length course because of the retirement community). Lot's of par 3 and short par 4's. What I like about the par 4's is they really make you weigh the cost benefit of trying for the green and a lot of your tee shots are the same as a 5 to 7 iron approach shots where you are hitting to have an angle at the green. They have narrow fairways, lots of hazards around the green and tree's that block the angles. The par 3's are pretty unique as well. It's not a course that I frequent but I try to play it every so often because it really puts an emphasis on my approach shots and my iron play. In my experience the par three courses that have character are great and seem to do well. I think a lot of par 3 course can seem like your hitting the same shot over and over into the same green complex and most people think of these courses when thinking about the typical par 3.

I have been working on my arm structure and it's really coming along with the pitch shots I have been doing. A couple things that I have noticed that make it easier; focus on rotating my hips a little faster, making sure I release the club. I am using the term "release the club" because that's what I think it is but it's really kind of rotating my lead wrist down or towards the target before impact, which is causing my lead arm go go over my front arm sooner after impact. I have a tendency to hold off my release so this feeling is quite different. I use those foam golf balls so its hard to say, but they come off the face with a lot more compression and a lot more spin. It used to be that when the ball would hit the pillows they would fly towards the left side of the room, but now they seem to shoot right back toward me (might just be that I am squaring the face more or that it is slightly closed at impact). I am nowhere near trying it with a full swing yet but these half swings are going quite well. A couple questions to ask my instructor: 1) Is it normal to need to feel like I really need to turn through the ball while working on this piece (I just don't want this to be some compensation move)? 2) Does it make sense that I should feel like I am beginning to release the club, role my lead wrist down?

As many have said, to me I just enjoy the game more when I walk. I am really conscious of my pace of play and to me it usually seems that walking is faster, maybe it isn't but because I'm always moving it just seems that way. Riding in the cart always stresses me out, your buddy's trying to tell you a story while your getting out, grabbing your club, nodding at him, the whole time thinking your ball is somewhere in the rough, shouldn't you be looking for it??? Also as a lefty when i was starting out I noticed I was for the most part on opposite sides of the fairway. There was also one round a few years ago where I was walking, by myself, and started out 2 over after 8 holes. A single in a cart caught up to me and asked to join up. I jumped in the cart and 10 holes later, carded a 95!! I don't think I actually play better walking but I always remember this round so I have a preconceived notion that I do.

New Priority Piece, Arm Structure My instructor has me moving on to work on my arm structure and maintaining the triangle on my downswing now. I'm excited to work on something different for a change but at the same time a little nervous, if backswing work takes me two months, how long will downswing work take!!! I still think I need to focus on my backswing for part of my practice sessions as there is still some variance in my shaft angles but those are becoming smaller. I ended up purchasing the swing easy arm band swing aid and it really does give me a completely different sensation while swing the club. Almost like I am applying pressure with my rear arm in the downswing and like I am starting the downswing in a really connected fashion with very little arm movement relative to my shoulders. It really does make sense when you hear people equate it to the skipping the rock drill or throwing side arm. For right now I'll continue to work on this but I will be curios to see how things look when I get some video, especially with how far from my body my hands are and what my upper torso positions look like to start the downswing.

His swing speed is definitely impressive for the effort that it looks like he puts into it. Wouldn't the extra speed generated from such a wristy swing cause many more misses though? It seems like the club face would go from open to close really fast and cause your shots to be really sporadic, especially for a high handicapper.

I agree, the one armed swings work well, the only problem is I've put a few holes in the basement ceiling because me rear arm isn't there to hold the club down. Like RandallT, my next piece is working on getting my arms to come out on my downswing instead of down. I feel like I can nail this part until I step up to the ball. I think working on patience and tempo in the downswing will help with this along with my feeling of swinging around and bringing my hands "over the ball" in my downswing. I ended up going to the range during lunch to see how my progress is coming with the "outward" swing. I have to say, I probably hit a couple of the best drives of my life. In the video I was watching the ball flight the entire time in my follow through, probably getting 250 carry but it's hard to say (the small white sign says 255). I do know that I have never hit the ball like that before and I am excited to hit it like that more often in the future, fingers crossed maybe on the course!! It wasn't all great I had a lot of snap hooks and hooks, but only one or two baby fades and no slices so I am taking that to be improvement. Note to self: I noticed is I need to revisit my alignment or at least be a little more cognizant of it. I have been in "change the swing" mode for so long I need to start putting a little more emphasis on what targets I am actually aiming at and how to actually set up for those targets. Should be an easy adjustment but just something to remember.

Since my last video I have been instructed to work on merging this two piece takeaway into one. The positions of this takeaway are pretty much what we are looking for. While I work on this we were also going to look at my driver swing. With the submission of my driver swing my instructor took a minute to point out how good everything is looking and the progress that has been made in my arm and leg structures. Merging the takeaway is going well. My feeling is that I am only using my lead arm to control the back swing, and because I am only using my lead arm, I have to get the club vertical so my arm can support it easier. So far this feeling has been working. The next step is working on getting my hands to move out more on the downswing to get the shaft to come in a little more horizontal. I hope to get to the range either today or tomorrow to see how that is coming.

Finally got to the range to get some new video. For the two and a half months I have been working nightly on trying to get my shaft angle steeper at P3. As you can see with some of my previous posts things were really up and then really down for the last little bit and I was pretty much getting nowhere with this steepness when it came to going to the range. I really needed to change the feeling so that I wouldn't revert back to my old habits which is why I started doing this two piece takeaway. Eventually I will try to merge the backswing to be more of a one piece takeaway, but right now this has really helped ingrain the feeling of my lead arm going up in the backswing and not as much around. To get to this steepness, I feel like my lead arm goes straight up from it's starting location. Eventually I'd like to move on to other things but I know this is my priority piece so I am going to keep on hammering away at it. Sorry for the video quality, it's hard to get the brightness correct with all the snow.

Progress is being made with steepening my backswing but when I went to the range I was shanking and hitting a lot of push slices so I don't think it was the elbow thing like I mentioned before. I asked my instructor about this so I will see what he has to say. I am wondering if my strong grip has something to do with this? While I was tinkering around with different grips and using this new swing I noticed that a neutral grip would get me in a much more comfortable position at the top and that I could start the downswing much more instinctively from here. I also noticed that the shots I hit in the basement were starting off straighter and it all around just felt better. I am not going to change my grip until I am told to as I don't want to get in the way of any progress or where my instructor wants me to go from here but it might be an option. I haven't really been focusing on steadying my head, or remaining taller through out my swing, but it looks like I am doing better on both of these and I think the new positions for this swing have helped with that.

I have noticed the wrist thing myself when working on the steepness of my back swing. Usually I have a pretty flat wrist but occasionally I am finding where it cups a little in the last couple weeks. I think it is because I am applying a stronger base to my backswing with my rear arm (rear arm is controlling the depth and not letting my arms get as deep) I don't know if that is right but just what I have noticed.

I have been working on changing my swing for two months now, the swing feels quite different and I really like the progress I have made. I have a couple days off work coming up next week and was thinking about getting out on the course. Usually I am pretty excited to get out, but this time I am a little more apprehensive because I don't want to take a step backward. There are a couple items at play in my apprehension and indecisiveness. The first is that I was considering going to a course that I have never been to. During the summer months this course is way out of my weekly price range but in the winter, green fees are fairly reasonable. The second is that I haven't hit a driver or wedge in two months, almost everything has been with a 5-7 iron just working on the new swing. Needless to say, I don't know what my ball flights will be with those other clubs or what to expect. I am probably going to go anyways so I guess I have two questions. 1) Should I go to a course I know well so that I can really focus more on my new swing rather than on the course - even though I would love to see this "5 star" course? 2) When you are working on changing your full swing how often do you actually go out and golf?

I think I figured out what I had going wrong in my last posts and I think I was lifting my rear elbow up to feel like I was getting to the proper steepness in my backswing. I am pretty sure I have an elbow that gets a little to far back but I don't think it has ever really lifted this far up, which is why everything felt so different and probably why I couldn't find the ball to save my life. Since focusing on keeping that elbow in and closer to the other elbow while getting to the desired steepness, things feel much better and and I think I am back on track. I just hit what felt like 10 to 15 good shots in the basement (50% speed) so I hope I can make it to the range tomorrow to verify that that was the problem. While reviewing prior posts I have made it looks like I submitted a video to evolvr where I had the desired steepness that we are looking for (maybe even too much). That must have been a fluke swing where I liked the ball flight and sent that one in because I haven't had one swing on video that has come out that steep since then.

I'll give it a shot. If I read everything correctly you have to set your line up before each round correct? If that's the case are you only allowed to use a player for 10 tournaments or for 10 rounds?

Yeah, in my last submission I still wasn't as steep as I needed to be when looking at the sample video so I think I was starting to get some of the benefits of being in a little better position without changing everything drastically. I started off with my club probably pointing 6 feet outside the golf ball at P3, last week I was close to 1 foot outside, and now I am right at it or slightly inside. When I finally got to the desired steepness in the last couple days I think I just found a few more things I need to work on. The first is that I am so used to going flat to steep, that now that I finally got my back-swing to be as steep as it needs to be, I am going from steep to steeper to start the downswing and I don't have time to shallow it out enough. The other item is that my "low and slow" backswing was keeping my from swaying even further forward in my backswing and set the tempo for my pivot. Now that I am setting my wrists a little earlier to get steeper, my back-swing tempo is off. Things were working at slow speed throughout the week, so it's nothing I don't think will improve when I am a little more comfortable with the new backswing. The new backswing feels like I am copying Ryan Moore but it isn't anything close to being like that, that is just what it feels like so it does feel quite different. Last note, it was pretty cold this morning (35 or so) so I wasn't as flexible as I usually am as well.

Looks like that shot would have been a little fat anyways.

I have been working on getting my back swing steeper and think I am finally there, the only problem is everything else seems foreign when I am in this position. It is like I don't know how much to pivot, how to start a downswing, what to do with my arms, or even how to get my weight forward from this position. At the range, things were pretty awful, mostly fat,thins and shanks (if I were actually on a course I don't think I would have broken 120). I know that if things don't feel different then nothing is changing, but this is almost like switching hands. Has anyone else experienced anything like this for something as simple as a different position at the top? It also feels like I am overturning during my downswing and coming across at the ball from out to in. Could this be because my older back swing was more flat and I had more turn with my hips? If so, it might be used to unwinding at a certain rate based on that and that rate is too fast for this back swing? I wonder, with different back-swings does one needs to change the timing of their downswing sequencing a little just to get everything back to a decent impact position? If so, then that is probably what I am experiencing here. On video I look much better at P3, so I will have faith in the process and continue to try to ingrain this back-swing in hopes that that I can get back to hitting a decent golf shot in the near future.

Yes, that is exactly what I was expressing. When I was playing around with this a little more, another thing I noticed with this new downswing is that my thumbs are pointed behind me (in which case maintaining that angle for longer would create lag). Originally, i believe I started my downswing and kind of rolled my wrists (more specifically pulled down with my lead arm and my wrist rolled) so that my thumbs would be pointed up a little more. From this position holding any angle would just put the club that much further outside. I too have spent a lot of time in the stupid monkey thread and the 5S's of practice thread and constantly need to remind my self to step back and work on my priority piece. I do a lot of research around my piece and end up getting caught up in other things if I am not careful. Now if I want to change things up I try to switch over to putting or chipping.

Finally got to go to the range today to get some more footage for another evolvr video, and just as I suspected, this new feeling really resulted in some great shots. I don't think I hit one fade the entire time. I hit a lot of high draws that had quite a bit of movement to them. I thought I had the back-swing nailed but it unfortunately looks exactly the same as it did (green line was shaft angle at P3)so I will keep working away at that. I also noticed a little more toward the ball movement with my head than I would like so I will have to keep an eye on this going forward, it was only an inch or two but I don't want that problem to creep back up. I noticed that my downswing path with that new feeling was flattening out (represented by the purple to rose colored lines represent my shaft angles at P4.5 through P5.5- the ball is on the middle line). I noticed that my distance was quite good, even with the shots I seemed to be going easy on. I think that I have misunderstood lag for quite some time. I always thought it was a vertical hinging but after my range session I would say this was "lag" and I was just trying to keep the club head further behind me "horizontal". If this is the case, then I have to say shame on you to every golf digest illustration showing lag from the Face on View, and if this wasn't lag, I don't care because I liked it!!! One last thing, I have been extremely happy with the progress so far and would highly recommend evolvr to anyone.