Posts

A Few Thoughts

Rain, so ive spent a couple hours the last two days hitting indoors on the RealFeel Mat. Had two very consistent days. Today, with the 7, my impact marks actually formed a little ball pattern on the sweet spot. That’s serious progress. I feel like I’m actually swinging inside, square, inside. Instead of outside-inside. And backed up that feeling with video, so I should trust it. Great balance and smooth shots hitting the net dead center. The swing doesn’t feel like I’m wasting energy anywhere. Is been fun.

Swing thoughts:

Stance a little more narrow, knees in a touch, arms close.
Take the club back with shoulders and feel the loading or torque of inside right leg but DONT actively shift weight, it will just happen.
Slower takeaway on a 1… 2 count. Jason Day has a nice tempo, a good guide.
At top, turn back horizontally with hips, don’t just slide.
Split second after, feel like drop the right elbow a bit to flatten the shaft.
Don’t sway head, just keep it still and focused on the ball thru shot. Important on the course especially.
Keep the wrist hinge and feel like the shaft is parallel and on top of an imaginary line at my feet. Inside, use the platform beam as a guide.
Keep turning and release.

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Weekend of Golf

About to play four straight rounds so I hit up the range tonight. First time I’m getting a chance to see the ball fly with this new shorter swing. Honestly, not sure if it’s sound, but the balls were flying well tonight. Straight or slight fade (or was it the wind).

A couple mishits, but mostly good contact with 6i, 7i, and 9i. 9 especially. Getting a lesson tomorrow afternoon so we’ll see whats up.

When you hit good shots tonight, here’s what it felt like:

– Feel grounded stable
– Shoulders initiate the swing and left leg kicks in about belt level.
– Wrist hinge pushing the butt end down and holding that hinge.
– Feels weird but club should feel more straight up … It’s not.
– Transition starts from ground up with foot & especially the left leg moving out then pulling hips in play
– Resist the arms until hips move and nice free release pulling body and club around to balanced finished
– DONT look at the damn ball

Not taking much of a divot now though, which makes me concerned. But I’m hitting ball first and nice center contact.

Driver was terrible. Not sure what to say there. If irons continue to work I might have to use them a lot.

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Focused Practice

Safe to say I turned the corner into full-on obsession. I have a new golf mat for indoor hitting and the tech is pretty cool, so I’ll write up a post on it. Also, I’ve blocked out time each day for practice. Last night I spent almost an hour on posture and takeaway. I want my backswing to hit the same spot every time. I feel like my swing is inconsistent right now which is making practice difficult because my misses are inconsistent. So for a week, working on backswing 30 mins each day. Will do the same with transition and forward swing. Also, working on strength and conditioning. I’m never going to be on tour, but that doesn’t mean I can’t devote myself to getting really good at this game. Single digit handicap is my goal one day.

Have a golf trip coming up soon where I’m planning to play at least 4 rounds and get a couple hours of practice in every day. Love golf trips like this.

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Put the wheels back on

What a difference one subtle change makes.  I’m reading Golf Anatomy which digs a bit deeper into biomechanics.  One point struck me about the left leg and its role, so I modified the movement slightly to more actively initiate the downswing by positioning the left knee out over the left foot. This puts me on my left side and the hips easily turning back.  I’ve been struggling to initiate with the legs consistently and thinking of it this way has already been beneficial.

I was stunned on the range today just how well it worked.  Flush, connected swings in good balance with a nice high finish.  7-irons were flying straight and 170-175. 9-irons @ 145-150.  5-irons were solid for a change but not the majority.  When flushed they were probably 190.  SW was accurate – within 15 ft radius and 105-115y.

But the key is that I had a smooth swing with all the power generated by the proper hip turn.  When I sped things up, the shots failed.  Only a couple sliced shots and even my drives were pretty decent and straight today.  Same thing with the drive… initiate with the lower body and hold onto the hinge.

Two seasoned golfers (one of the a “player” back in the day) asked what I was hitting, told him 6-iron and he commented “pretty strong.”  Then asked my handicap assuming it was a 5-6.  A 5-6!  He also said I was working on the right things.  For me, that comment was the most important since I’m not using an instructor.

This is YOUR swing sequence.  When you do this, you hit solid shots.

  • Setup w/ a wider base and DO your normal pre-shot routine
  • Initiate the swing with your shoulders (and arms/hands simultaneously)
  • Full shoulder turn and stay connected
  • Good wrist hinge at the top
  • Initiate the forward swing by feeling like you’re turning the left leg out and to the target and turn the hips
  • Keep the wrist hinge longer than you think
  • Let it go
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The Wheels Have Come Off

I got up early and hit the range before work (and the storms) this morning.  It was the first range trip since playing 3 rounds last week.  Things were off, really off.  No connection, no lower body, the club was twisting in my hands on nearly every shot and things just felt off.  Way off.

I had some solid hits with the 60degree wedge and my 9-iron.  But the 7-iron, which should be a great club was poor all day.  Its possible I’ve just had too much golf lately, but that seems a bit opposite.

What to work on: back to basics.  My grip and grip pressure.  Takeaway and position at the top. Keeping my arms and body connected thru the swing and using my lower body to initiate the downswing.  Pretty much everything.

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Not consistent

Yeah there isn’t any reason to talk about this one.

Update: OK, that’s not going to be helpful to me at all.  I’m not sure what really happened today, it wasn’t good.  I did hit a couple decent shots. Oddly enough, they came when I took my right index finger and thumb off the club during the swing.  Hogan calls these the “pincer fingers” and suggests that they wreck swings.  Clearly thats the case for me.  When I tried what he suggested in his book, I was flushing beautiful 7-irons with a nice controlled draw, something I don’t normally do but want to.

What to work on: Not sure, same stuff as last time. Try taking the pincer fingers off and really figure out what’s happening (or not happening) during the swing when you actually have all fingers on the club.

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Most consistent practice session recently

Most consistent 165 ball practice session in recent memory. Solid shots with 7 iron predominately but also hit solid 60d wedge and 6 irons. Hit some crisp, smooth effortless 145-150 yr 9 irons consistently to within 20 ft radius of the pin. Nice putts, good distance control. Also good chipping, especially from 40-50 feet with a nice wrist hinge and follow thru to pop it in the air and land it softly.

I focused on a stable posture, good flex in the knees and keeping more natural spine angle. The setup was consistent due to a focus on a pre-shot routine. Also made an effort to focus on keeping my elbows pointing to the hipbones and trying to stay connected. Thx to Andrea looking at my setup and explaining what it looked like, I moved my hands away from my body and freed them up, also kept a natural back reducing strain.

Watch that you continue to come into the ball from the inside and not over the top and if you get a good shoulder turn this is almost automatic. Same note, initiate with the lower body and the arms and hands will follow.

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Stay connected, head still, good turn

Heading to the range tomorrow for a couple hours.

Work on:

  • Keep the arms and body connected and get the right arm tucked in on forward swing to bring the club from the inside, not outside
  • Need to keep head still and visualize rotating around an axis, don’t sway as much with hips
  • Good wrist hinge, maybe try setting it a bit earlier
  • Good flex in the legs, go more than you think cause you’re not really flexing. But setup is already better, maybe push the hands out a bit to give you more room
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Make a good turn with lower

Working on: initiating the swing with the lower body

DONT get a second bucket. First half of the session went well. Posture and setup was more athletic and stable, felt better anyway. Got a mini routine going which helped consistency. When I initiated w/ lower and lagged the club, the shots were pure and 7 iron was 165-175ish and straight to fade.

Be sure to hinge with the wrist and not the fingers, which resulted in a few weak hits.

Todo: keep working on nothing but the lower half. And don’t sway, rotate.

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Keeping track of progress

Given how analytical I am, not sure why its taken me so long to actually read about the golf swing. I finally picked up Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf and I’ve already read it 3 times. Like millions of golfers before me, I wish I would have read this book before ever swinging a club.

One of the suggestions in his book is keeping notes on my progress as I practice. What am I working on, what’s working well, what isn’t and a general idea of how I feel about my swing after a practice session. This section of the site will serve as that little notebook. Thanks to the WordPress iOS and Android apps, I’ll be posting brief updates on progress, info on rounds I’m playing, and pics from the course and the range.

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